No. 3 25–100 employees: Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Group

The company, ranked No. 3 in Springfield Business Journal Inc.’s list of the Best Places to Work for companies with 25 to 100 employees, was also tied for best corporate culture.

The group, started in 1954 by Dr. Charles Witherspoon, now comprises six oral surgeons – including Witherspoon, who still practices with the group – and more than 80 support staff members.

“We have very little turnover – when people leave here it’s because they’re retiring or going home to have their babies,” said Susan Rust, the group’s administrator. “And usually after they have the baby they come back part time, because we allow flexibility with their schedules. That’s how we retain such good employees.”

She points to one employee who recently announced that she was leaving in the spring because she’s getting married and moving out of town.

“That’s what happens,” Rust said. “We have such longevity here; once they come here, they stay unless they’re moving out of town or retiring.”

One of those employees is Dr. Steven Quinn. Quinn is a relative newcomer to the medical staff – he’s only been with the company for 17 years.

He said keeping the employees happy is crucial to the success of the group, especially because of the technical nature of what they do.

“It takes three to five years to really train an assistant to the highest level, and if you have a lot of turnover and are constantly retraining, it’s very inefficient,” Quinn said. “We like to keep employees as long as we can – it gives us better-trained employees that way.”

The company offers its employees a wide range of benefits in an effort to keep them – bonuses available to all employees, profit sharing, 401(k) and pension plans, flex-time and job-sharing opportunities, telecommuting and monthly financial information meetings.

The flexible scheduling in particular is attractive for employees, more than 90 percent of whom are female.

“Flex time is so important because they can work around family and (baby) sitting issues,” Rust said. “I think part-time employees, on the whole, are happier, because they’re working the hours they want to work, so there’s less absenteeism, less calling in. They’re working the days they want to work.”

And with the medical nature of the business, keeping patients happy and at ease is of the utmost importance. That’s why, Quinn said, happy employees are crucial.

“They’re really the lifeblood of the company – they’re the ones that interact with our clients,” Quinn said of the employees. “We’re a referral business, so it’s extremely important that they’re happy, and their happiness tends to show it the way that they interact with patients.”