It is early Tuesday morning at AutomationDirect.com, the industrial automation product distributor in Cumming, which means most of the 207 people on its payroll have packed the auditorium for a weekly one-hour meeting that bursts with the energy of a pep rally.
The National Anthem is sung. “Love letters” (as the blue-jeaned emcee and company owner/founder Tim Hohmann calls them) from satisfied customers are read to laughter and applause.
Two recent hires are introduced. One presents a slide show about a fortune-cookie-making machine he designed, cracking wise throughout. Another acts out a comedy sketch about a fictional crazed caller to tech support. This time, unlike at previous sessions, the audience refrains from hazing the newcomers.
After some routine yet meaningful business, Hohmann clicks through enlarged photos while lightheartedly chronicling the breaking and mending of a 100-foot flagpole on the grounds. There are frequent references to the middle finger injured by one repairman.
Hohmann pokes fun at himself for the sketchy beard he has sprouted, then absorbs a few gibes from the guffawing crowd. Adjournment follows, Hohmann signing off with: “Thank you all for making this a great place.”
With its unorthodox terminology and upside-down organizational flow chart, along with an environment shaped by Hohmann’s goal to make work as enjoyable as possible, AutomationDirect might be considered an atypical business. But it is embraced enough by employees who participated in surveys to have been singled out as the top workplace in metro Atlanta for medium-sized companies.
Except, according to ADC lingo, there are no “employees,” but “team members.” Managers are “team leaders” or “team captains.” Fanciful job titles are verboten, reflecting the lack of hierarchy. Even Hohmann eschews the label of president or CEO, preferring “company captain.”
“I hate the word ‘boss’ or ‘supervisor,’” he said. “I’ve tried to get rid of ‘corporate values.’”
Various departments, identified as teams, carry creative names. The group that selects products for sale is dubbed “Fuel” because its efforts are perceived to fuel the company.
Teams wield a loud voice in who gets hired for their areas. They evaluate each other regularly with an anonymous grading process based on whether self-identified goals are met.
Further contributing to the sense of empowerment is a profit-sharing plan, with 20 percent going to workers, that they can track daily with the posting of sales and revenue figures.
Budgets? At AutomationDirect, the term has little meaning. When a team agrees on a necessary expenditure, it proceeds without having to concern itself on staying within a limit, according to Hohmann.
Mark Hermann, team captain in logistics (i.e., the warehouse), expressed appreciation for being kept apprised of the company’s direction.
Recalling past employers, he said, “I wouldn’t know what was going to happen there tomorrow.”
At AutomationDirect, tomorrow might bring a new job or responsibility. Mobility is allowed, even encouraged. Some workers must count fingers to calculate the number of times they have taken on fresh roles. A few have defined a non-existing gig and submitted it for a likely stamp of approval.
“You speak up at a meeting [with an idea] and you might be assigned to do it,” said Joan Welty, team captain for Fit (Focused Image Team), the firm’s version of a marketing department.
Hohmann’s vision of the company came into focus after his onetime employer was bought out. What was a fulfilling job in an inviting atmosphere morphed into a grind. After 11 months of answering to a new boss, he departed and soon launched PLCDirect, a precursor to AutomationDirect.
In crafting his philosophy, Hohmann was guided by Customer Driven Leadership, a model that maintains workers can best serve customers and each other by being granted responsibility for their duties and the authority to execute them.
The grading system produces periodic report cards for teams that can generate quarterly bonuses to high scorers.
“I wanted to be better than the companies I left,” Hohmann said.
As evidence, he points to the private offices — no cubicles in sight — for anyone who requires a phone or a computer.
“That gives you dignity and some personal space,” said Hohmann, whose own oddly decorated and appointed office seems more fitting for an aquarium director.
The offices also would have spared co-workers from having to share space with those who rush back unbathed from onsite physical fitness options, including sessions with a personal trainer in the gym. Except Hohmann had showers installed on the premises, with the exercise-minded afforded sufficient time to use them. They are allowed to extend lunch breaks beyond an hour to allow for both sweating and dining.
The Tuesday gathering begins with a projector screen displaying a wheel carved into six equal parts: spiritual, career, family, social, financial, physical. It is a reminder to employees that work should not crowd out other aspects of their lives. Some are permitted to telecommute or rearrange their hours into four-day weeks. Toiling past the normal close of one’s shift is discouraged.
“I’ve never seen a company bend over backwards more” for workers, Welty said.
As the meeting lets out, team members walk across a rug in the lobby adorned by an image of the company mascot Smiley, which resembles a green M&M in sunglasses. Awaiting them is a table filled with fresh fruit and snack bars, fuel for the Fuel team, and others, at the start of another workday.
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