EXCEL CONSTRUCTORS

You can measure Excel Constructors’ commitment to employees in multiple ways, but to really appreciate it, look at what’s missing from the 49-member staff: 172 pounds of excess weight, shed in the company’s workplace-wellness program. That initiative was spawned by an employee-satisfaction survey, which president Mike Johnson said demonstrated a need for the company to assist employees by taking an active role in their physical and mental health. Of course, there are more traditional ways of expressing concern about employee welfare, and at Excel that means a compensation system that rewards hard work and client satisfaction, a comprehensive health-care benefit package for the employees and their families, 401(k) plans and flexible spending accounts, a summer-hours schedule and education reimbursement. The company addressed higher health-care costs with a smoking-cessation program, including lower insurance rates for non-smokers, and the workspace is assessed to ensure that employees have ergonomic chairs and keyboard evaluations. In the field, superintendents without office trailers have mobile truck desks to help ensure safer work zones.

The company culture was a key tool used to navigate a tough construction economy since 2009. “To maintain high employee morale, we continually emphasize the sense of family among our staff; the sense of taking care of one another,” Johnson said. With unemployment in construction topping 25 percent during parts of that stretch, Excel conscientiously continued full employment, even during the slow periods. “This balance between taking care of our employees and corporate health enabled us to tackle new opportunities immediately when presented,” Johnson said. Training has been increased, he said, so each employee has the tools needed to perform. A big winner with employees is the early-out on Friday afternoons in the summer. Yet even with all of those factors going for it, “my hope and belief is our staff would mention Excel’s sense of family as the most popular benefit we all share,” Johnson said. “It is the feeling that everyone is genuinely concerned about the success of the organization, and that each member’s best interests are central in all decision-making.”

DLR GROUP

There’s no guessing about the financial health of your employer if you work at DLR Group: The open-books policy is standard fare for employee-owned organizations. So every one of its 500 staffers—57 in the Kansas City market—is plugged into both the Big Picture and the Bottom Line in the bi-monthly office meetings.

The architectural-engineering firm with offices in Overland Park lives out its sustainability message for employees, who were literally able to create their own workspace: They designed the offices in the Deer Creek development. Living up to their work-hard-play-hard mentality, they factored in a large outdoor patio, where Friday afternoons mean it’s time to fire up the grills. And while those are warming up, employees can take a crack at their own 86-yard, par-3 golf hole, complete with a tee box. Other stress-killers include Theme Fridays, summer picnics, holiday parties and chili cook-offs.

To encourage longer-term success for the nearly 50-year-old firm, young professionals from the 19 offices around the country are sent to DLRU, a leadership academy that plays out over three days in a retreat on Bainbridge Island, across the sound from Seattle.

Last fall, Architect magazine designated DLR Group as the No. 1 firm in the U.S., based on weighted measures of design excellence, pro bono work, sustainability, and business fundamentals, and the firm has ranked in the Top 10 of Architect’s list of the 50 best firms since the feature debuted in 2009.

“Employee-owners also live by our core commitment to elevate the human experience through design,” said Andy Anderson, a senior principal and southeast regional leader. “They come to work every day knowing they can make a difference.” They do that in ways that go beyond design, with firm-hosted blood drives, participation in United Way’s Day of Caring, the CANstruction fund-raiser for Harvesters, and other food drives throughout the year. Each winter, oversized boxes become drop-off centers for warm clothing, blankets and heavy coats that will be donated to local charities.

McDOWELL, RICE, SMITH & BUCHANAN

“It’s performance that counts.” That kind of cut-to-the-chase incisiveness has defined the legal career of lawyer Pete Smith—and the success of the law firm where he’s chairman, McDowell, Rice, Smith & Buchanan. “The reason we are here is to provide our clients with the best experience possible,” says office administrator Sherry Newsom, in a spot-on channeling of her straight-shooting boss. “We are not as concerned about rules and policies, and restrictions and governance. Hard work and winning results are rewarded.”

To forge an effective, efficient operation, McDowell Rice leaves office matters in the hands of experienced administrative professionals, freeing the partner attorneys to focus on client matters. Workloads, areas of practice, and practice styles of attorneys are matched with legal assistants, creating an efficient, balanced workflow, and delivering higher levels of service at the best possible rates.

All of that pays the bills for the employee benefits essential to attracting and retaining talented attorneys at the Plaza-based firm, which has 80 employees overall. First, it pays the lion’s share of employee health-insurance costs, and in an impressive display of negotiating acumen, has hammered out reductions in health-care costs for this year and next. The firm pays 100 percent of employee life insurance, offers dental and short-term disability insurance, a cafeteria plan and participation in a 401(k) profit-sharing plan in which employees are 100 percent vested after only one year, with discretionary contributions from the firm of up to 3 percent of base compensation.

Discretionary cash gifts are awarded in December based on longevity, and unused vacation/sick/personal time is rolled over—with no cap. Additional benefits include floating holidays, Wednesday breakfasts, in-house training and lunch-and-learn sessions, paid professional membership dues, and, on occasion, spontaneous ice cream socials and pizza lunches, complementing the Starbuck’s Pike Place coffee served all day long.

The work environment, Newsom says, is professional, but flexible and personable. To accommodate personal and family needs, the flexible work schedules range from 7 a.m. starts to 6 p.m. wrap-up, employees are cross-trained for personal and professional growth and to assist with unpredictable work demands, and the internal support includes two IT directors, state-of-the-art equipment and software, an in-house trainer and a dedicated printer at each desk.