Tied for No. 5, 100–300 employees: Penmac

The employment company earned the highest score for people development among businesses with 101 to 300 employees in Springfield Business Journal’s 2006 Best Places to Work competition.

Though incentives and benefits are key offerings at Penmac, those often aren’t what attract most potential employees – it’s the firm’s basic purpose that makes it an ideal workplace, President Paula Adams said.

“They have to be interested in people and (want) to help and serve, because that’s really what we do,” she said. “They love what they’re doing due to the fact that they love people.”

Penmac also is dedicated to helping employees enhance their skills.

The company spends more than $3,000 on each employee annually for training. Earlier this year, a corporate trainer was hired with the sole responsibility of helping employees become better at their jobs. Training also includes seminars and workshops throughout the year.

Additionally, when workers are hired at the management level, they spend up to five days at the corporate office, learning the company’s ropes.

Penmac offers a tuition reimbursement program, providing up to $2,000 per year to each employee for continuing education – and the coursework doesn’t have to be job-related.

The company also has a strong interest in developing its people through health initiatives such as an additional vacation day for nonsmoking employees, according to Human Resources Manager Hayley Hutchins.

Penmac’s Springfield offices also have paid for workers to participate in a smoking-cessation program that offered a number of quitting techniques that fit each employee’s lifestyle.

Adams says there’s a sense of ownership among the staff members, because they’re included in company decisions, are made aware of company financials and, at the branch level, are given an opportunity to run what essentially is their own small businesses. Penmac operates more than 40 offices across the country.

“They’re still accountable for things at the corporate level, but they hire their own people, each branch has a different look, and they really have a lot of freedom to make a lot of the day-to-day decisions on their own,” she said.

Incentives include dental, vision, long-term disability, life and employee-plus-dependent insurance. Average annual salary increases for full-time employees can be as high as 9 percent, and bonuses are available to all employees. Maternity leave is offered for 60 days at 60 percent of the employee’s income. Penmac offers a 401(k) plan that matches 50 cents on the dollar up to 6 percent of an employee’s income. Staff members are eligible the day they start and are fully vested after five years.[[In-content Ad]]