Retaining staff by paying attention to details Home improvement manufacturer addresses staff concerns with innovative corporate care
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photo by Michael Chansley
were leaving. apid growth Hearing the comcan take a toll plaints, the elder Mulon a compalet knew changes were ny’s staff. needed. Craig Mullet, vice“Our goal became, president of corporate we want to be the care at ProVia, knows employer of choice in that well. whatever area we are ProVia manuin,” Craig recalled. “We factures building want to be the place products, steel and that people want to fibreglass entry doors, come to work for.” aluminum storm doors They took a numand vinyl windows, viber of steps to make nyl siding and manuthat shift. factured stone. The first was learnBased in Sugaring from Character creek, a small village First. Character First in eastern Ohio, the delivers professional firm employs 980 at development and five plants in Ohio character education and Mississippi. programs that focus on ProVia acquired real-life issues, at work a number of compaand elsewhere. nies over the years. One early acquisition The program ProVia doubled their busiadopted required superness, but left the firm visors to recognize their understaffed and lackemployees publicly for ing adequate manageone good character trait ment depth. shown in the previous Craig Mullet oversees ProVia’s holistic employee care program. Company founder year. Then, they had to Bill Mullet and his wife were serving convention in Tucson, Arizona. tell the company how the employee as overseas missionaries in Romania. Employees were unhappy, with exhibited that trait. Their son Craig, only 22 at the turnover above 50 percent. One evePeople are often better at sintime, carried responsibilities beyond ning, after Bill Mullet had returned gling out errors than recognizing what his age and experience warhome to the firm, he gave a young people for what they do well, he ranted. “I was in way over my head, Amish employee a ride home late said. “It (Character First) became a didn’t know what I was doing,” he one evening. The worker unloaded very powerful tool.” said in a seminar at MEDA’s annual and told him why so many people The company also developed The Marketplace January February 2020
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