November 21, 2009

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Best Places To Work 2007

We tallied the scores for 55 different 417-land companies and found 12 that earned points heads and tails above the rest. They are the Best Places to Work in 417-land, and what they have to offer might surprise you.

(page 7 of 14)

Photo Edward Biamonte Playing tag in the office has never been so... smelly.

IHS

Third place, 26 to 100 employees
276 points

Wheel of Fortune

Watch out. It’s a circus inside IHS. When you step into the office, there’s a chance you can find yourself in the middle of a live auction. You could come upon a spinning prize wheel. You could even get sprayed with TAG body spray, if you aren’t careful. Chances are, if nothing else, you’ll be offered a smile and a can of soda from some very, very fun people who are very, very focused on growing their company together.

Doug Lurvey, president and CEO of IHS (Interactive Hotel Solutions), used to be a part of travelnow.com before it was sold to hotels.com. He started IHS, an online hotel reservation system, in 2001. The company grew, even after 9/11, when travel slowed down, and in 2004 Lurvey and company started an affiliate program with other vacation destination websites. It all sounds pretty darn technical, but there’s a lighthearted energy in the IHS offices that bounces around from employee to employee as they interact with one another.

Although Lurvey is president and CEO, and Krystal Simon is the director of employee relations, neither of them like to talk about titles. “What happens doesn’t happen because of someone’s title,” Lurvey says. “It comes down to leadership. A title is not leadership.” Simon points out that an organizational chart can be limiting and can put people in a box. “It can make them think, ‘That’s not my job,’” she says.

And that focus on leadership over titles as a way to motivate is part of why the company has instilled a tagging system to point out who the whole office is counting on at any given moment to take them to the next level. First the affiliate program was tagged, Lurvey explains. “They were under a lot of pressure,” he says. “They had to make it happen in order for us to grow.” Then, when the time came, they passed the baton to the IT department. It was their turn to “make it happen.” At first, it was a metaphorical tag, not a literal one. Then tiny little cans of TAG body spray entered the picture when Lurvey decided to tag the entire company at once and make a job-ownership initiative the goal for the next six months. Now you can see those cans in everyone’s office spaces as a reminder of their goals.

Both Lurvey and Simon stress the idea that employees need to feel a real sense of ownership of their work and the company in order to be truly invested in their projects. Lurvey says that you have to treat employees like owners in order to get them to act like owners. “We want to get them out of that renter mentality where they might think, ‘I’m not going to pull weeds because this place is not mine,’” Simon says. For that reason, the company is generous with 401(k) matching, an employee stock ownership program and other periodical bonuses that are tabulated based on how well goals were met. “We grow as a company because of the employees,” Lurvey says. “So the employees should get wealthy along the way. We create opportunities for people who work here to make money.”

IHS creates opportunities. Period. It’s not just about money. There are opportunities to party. Opportunities to win prizes. Opportunities to pat one another on the back for jobs well done. Opportunities to get and stay healthy. There’s a lot going on in this little place. When IHS expanded its office space recently, they made sure to have a workout room on-site. “It’s getting good use,” Simon says. “It’s great for employees who are trying to quit smoking. They can work out in 15-minute chunks instead of taking smoke breaks.” The company’s wellness focus also manifests itself in the occasional friendly office fitness competition. Last year the company hired a trainer from the now-defunct Club Nutrition and Fitness to meet with employees throughout a 12-week challenge to give them tips and help them meet self-set goals.

Lurvey and Simon both say that rewarding employees for what they’re doing right is important to the company. So to do that, they offer up green IHS Bucks to employees who go above and beyond the call of duty. Peers give recognition to one another as well, and IHS Bucks are dolled out that way, too. Every quarter, the company spends $1,500 to buy auction items, such as weekend getaways, gift cards, iPods, Silver Dollar City passes and more. Employees use IHS Bucks to bid on the items, and Lurvey acts as the live auctioneer. The auction was so popular that the company eventually added a prize wheel that occasionally shows up at staff meetings. “I had breakfast thanks to the wheel this morning,” says Leanna Ellenburg, an accounting employee who snagged a Kum & Go gift certificate. She’s also previously won an iPod and the three-park season pass to Silver Dollar City and its sister parks. Those iPods are a hot commodity around the IHS offices, too. Chad Boyd won a nano, but one of his IT compadres, Bryce Fosdick, was harboring a bit of bad blood for someone who outbid him in a previous auction. “He got the iPod I wanted,” he joked.

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