No. 1, five–24 employees: Sapp Design Associates

The option of flex-time is one of the benefits that pushed the company to the No. 1 slot in the five-to-24-employees category – and earned it an overall tie for Best Corporate Culture among all firms in Best Places to Work.

“It’s an understanding that we all have … how we’re all here to work together as a team, but we also understand that there’s day-to-day life challenges that we need to respect,” said Michael Sapp, who founded the company in 1981. “It’s all about taking care of our clients, and as long as we’ve achieved that … we have that level of flexibility.”

Sapp Design also uses varying levels of responsibility to foster entrepreneurial drive among its employees and prides itself on having in place an atmosphere of mutual respect, Sapp said.

“We all know that our success is not individual efforts. It’s team effort,” Sapp said.

Other corporate culture benefits the company offers are job sharing and telecommuting. Sapp Design provides management training to make sure that other employees know how to use those benefits; conducts internal employee satisfaction surveys and reviews; and regularly shares financial details and strategic plans with employees.

The company also operates with an open-door policy to ensure that when there are issues that need to be addressed, employees feel free to discuss them.

Managers meet every Monday morning, after which minutes are sent to all employees.

“By Monday afternoon, everybody in the office has a new, updated publication that they can put their hands on and be fully informed what’s going on for the week,” Sapp said.

All-staff meetings are held monthly to discuss issues in areas such as marketing, business administration and client issues, but the agenda is open.

“Anybody can bring any subject to the table that we all probably need to talk about,” Sapp said. “We’re a hands-on, open door type of corporation. Everybody knows what’s going on and why it’s going on. We try to minimize all the behind-the-scenes questions so that the background gossip doesn’t occur.”

There are other employee incentives as well, including a 401(k) plan for which there is no waiting period for full-time employees to participate, and in which they will be fully vested after six months.

And for every insurance benefit the company offers – health, dental and vision for all employees, and long-term disability coverage for management – the company pays all premiums.

“We’ve probably made some sacrifices in the last 20 years, but it’s always been our belief that it’s a two-way street,” Sapp said. “We need to do the best we can to take care of our people who are here because they’re taking care of the company.”