Small Company Winners

by

What they do: Private equity and wealth management

EMPLOYEES: 30

The culture: Founded on principles of “Conscious Capitalism,” belief all stakeholders benefit when a company looks after everyone's interests

Cool benefits: Generous well-being initiatives and incentives. Additionally, the firm hosts elaborate annual team “Gratitude” dinners; provides a concierge that employees can use to arrange services such as dry cleaning, childcare and automobile repair; offers tuition reimbursement for advanced degrees; offers flexible hours to employees to provide for family needs; and supports them in volunteer activities. This summer for the first time, Satori also rented a home in Crested Butte, Colorado, and made it available to all employees. “I have a suspicion we’ll be repeating that one,” Eisenman says.

Cover photo: Hope Kahan; kayak courtesy of Backwoods

Satori Capital, a private equity and wealth management firm, started in 2008. But in the runup to creating the company, founders Randy Eisenman and Sunny Vanderbeck started meeting four years earlier ­— they had a standing Friday lunch date — to see if their values aligned. “We started really creating the foundation then,” Eisenman says.

Eisenman and Vanderbeck sought to find a balance and ultimately founded the company on the principles of “Conscious Capitalism,” the belief that all stakeholders benefit when a company looks after everyone's interests and seeks to imbue others with those values. “We believe there's no tradeoff in being a great place to work and being a great business, and, in fact, there's synergy between the two,” Eisenman says.

Today, Satori estimates it has more than $1 billion in assets under management. Its private equity business partners with businesses that have $5 million to $25 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization and that have like-minded management. Satori's investment platform, called Satori Alpha, creates and manages custom portfolios for institutions, family offices and private investors.

Satori's focus runs counter to perceptions of the business as short-term and self-centered in thinking, Eisenman says. If that kind of thinking is “me-centric,” at Satori, “we are long-term focused and we-centric,” he says. “Our [investment] time horizon is very long-term. We really believe the secret sauce to success is the culture.”

 

Calling its talent programs the “Satori Way,” the company has put numerous pieces into place to support its employees, about 30 today. “The caliber of the person who works here is such that they can work anywhere,” Eisenman says. “We want to make them feel as special as they are.”

Through its Satori Sweats program, the company gives all employees a $1,000 annual allowance they can use on their “favorite way to sweat.” One employee used it to buy a kayak (see this month's cover photo). Employees often work out together. “Anytime they work out together, we pay for it,” Eisenman says.

Through Satori's Optimal Living initiative, the firm provides quarterly workshops on mental, physical, emotional and spiritual well-being, including recent topics such as living with aging parents, estate planning, conscious communities and brain health. The firm hosts the personal trainers Larry North and Brenda Stone monthly for health coaching and nutrition planning, guided meditations and other stress relieving techniques. Employees meditate before meetings. The firm provides chef-prepared and catered lunches daily. Dogs are welcome in the office. Satori also pays for biennial executive health screenings at up to $3,000 for every employee.

“Almost six years ago, I was at a point in my career when I was seeking a higher purpose and more meaningful work. I hoped to join a team of kind, intelligent, driven people who would challenge me to be the best version of myself and were building a noble business. Upon meeting the team at Satori Capital, I knew I had found my tribe! My role has evolved in ways we never could have imagined, largely as a result of our entrepreneurial culture and value we place on supporting team members. It is a joy for me to participate in nurturing our conscious culture through the talent programs we call ‘The Satori Way.' While we have many wonderful and unique perks, I believe the transparency of our communications and the insight  we provide team members into our shared vision are primary reasons we are able to attract and retain top talent."

-Hope Kahn, Operations Director

2 Fort Capital

Fort Worth

Chris Powers says he knew nothing of company culture when he founded Fort Capital, the fast-growing real estate developer that's taken the lead in creating Fort Worth's River District, a West Side hangout.

The company was growing fast, and “I didn't even know what culture was,” Powers says. “I thought it would naturally take shape. It kind of happened like that, and then you have to be intentional about some things.” Powers, whose company has 19 employees, likes to empower and let them take off. Qualities he looks for: honest, humble, ambitious high-performers who “love Fort Worth,” hew to the team and are “grateful for the situation.” “What people want is the ability to achieve things and have a sense of purpose,” Powers says. “I'm not looking to hire people who give me more work to do.” He credits Fort Capital's chief operating officer, Jason Baxter, who came to the company from David Weekley Homes, with launching the conversation about culture. “He's the one who taught me it's important and how to execute on it,” says Powers, who tells his employees to view themselves as entrepreneurs and that they're running a piece of the company.

Big Benefit Fort Capital two years ago launched an equity participation program, under which it gives employees who reach certain levels a piece of the company’s projects — specific ones or, in some cases, broader portfolios. Ten of Fort Capital’s employees are in the program today. Fort Capital also offers a 401(k), beefed up its health insurances by adding dental and vision, and recently went to half days on the second and fourth Fridays each month.

“At Fort Capital, you're not just another employee. Every single member of our team is viewed as an ‘entrepreneur' — we are all responsible for bringing new, innovative ideas to the table and helping to grow the business, no matter what role we hold. There is a huge focus on developing employees into leaders within a vulnerable and honest environment, and the opportunity for career growth is as high as you can dream it! It's rare to find a company culture where there aren't any weakest links, and the entire team is truly made up of high-performing individuals.”

-Abby Osvog, Director of Marketing

3 Sutton Frost Cary

Arlington

Sutton Frost Cary, a public accounting, auditing and business services firm founded a quarter-century ago in Arlington, prides itself on a laid-back family culture.

“We really try to keep our staffing levels where, as much as you can in public accounting, you can have balance,” Kim Crawford, a partner and member of the firm for 22 years, says. The firm encourages employees' participation in nonprofits, providing time to participate on boards and committees, making donations, covering fees, and closing the office one day a year and sending employees out to volunteer at organizations like Habitat for Humanity. “We have a lot of nonprofit clients, so we encourage our staff to be involved,” Crawford says. “Working with other people in the community, you learn a lot.”

 

Besides serving the community, the volunteer work also builds esprit de corps among the staff, which numbers 40 at SFC's Arlington and Fort Worth offices. In November, SFC staff is working for Habitat for Humanity in Granbury, participating in a chili cook-off at the University of Texas at Arlington, and playing in a softball tournament sponsored by the Fort Worth CPAs. The firm agreed to a proposal by two auditors to turn unused space in SFC's Arlington offices into a “collaboration room,” with windows, white board, chairs, dart board, and sectional tables. One of the auditors is also organizing an office bake-off in December.

SFC picks up its employees' health insurance premiums and matches employees' contributions to their 401(k)s up to 3 percent. The firm also gives its employees access to development opportunities. Courtney Jones, an audit administrator and employee whom SFC sponsored through Leadership Arlington, is now its director of adult training.

“Sutton Frost Cary took a chance on me. I was fresh out of college, had only two months of experience, and did not have a CPA license. I also lived in Alabama at the time and had no friends or family in Texas, so there was a chance I would want to move back home. SFC saw something in me. I have worked for SFC for over three years now, earned my CPA license, progressed within the firm, been more involved in my community, and grown more confident. SFC has encouraged me to be innovative by permitting me to turn one of our empty rooms into a collaboration room and also come up with events such as softball practices, a fantasy football league and dessert bake-off. SFC understands that for it to be successful, its employees have to be successful, and it gives its employees the tools.”

-Ellen Barker, CPA

4 FortÉ Benefits

Fort Worth

FortÉ Benefits has a strong family culture that's come about naturally, without a lot of thinking by partners, Logan Dickinson, the employee benefits firm's founder, says. All of the firm's employees have families and fit well with the close-knit, four-partner ownership group, Dickinson says. “We have a very common vision,” Dickinson says of the partners. “We never get upset with each other. We have fun together. I think the employees pick up on that.” Dickinson started the firm in 1983. It experienced a big jump in growth with a merger in 2013. The firm lets its employees know they have the flexibility to take time off for children's events at school and the like, Dickinson says.

Of Course, Great Benefits “That’s the business we’re in,” Dickinson says. The company has an array of medical and dental plans. Two of its medical plans are high-deductible with health savings accounts, attractive to younger employees. The company pays 100 percent of employees’ health insurance premiums. It also offers short- and long-term disability, rare for small firms, and long-term care coverage for employees, even more unusual. It gives a generous 5 percent of pay to employees’ retirement plans. The company also has regular employee outings, such as cooking classes, bowling and Christmas treks to downtown Fort Worth.

“Every member of the team recognizes that the experiences of our client family create the momentum for our future. The Forté culture is one of teamwork, loyalty and — most importantly — family. There is a heavy focus on enhancing the balance between work, life and health. Leadership has invested in providing a real paid time off program. The company doesn't shy from demonstrating what a quality employee benefits program should consist of, by providing employee health insurance at no cost to the employee, long-term care insurance, and 401(k) benefits. Lastly, Forté doesn't leave out the fun. There is always a laugh to be had or memory to be shared.”

- Jan Cunningham, Senior Benefits Consultant

5 Qualbe Marketing Group

Haltom City

Randy Meinen got a fair sense of the kind of workplace he wanted to create in his first job out of college.

“I worked for an insurance company that had been through mergers,” he says. “It was the most toxic environment I'd ever been around. You work very hard. You don't want to add the burden of making the workplace not a fun environment.” To his thinking, employers have to work hard to get the highest levels from employees. “The part that's beyond normal is always going to be voluntary.”

Qualbe, a 21-year-old digital marketing firm Meinen founded that, among other businesses, markets dental plans to consumers under the 1Dental.com banner, made the 2018 Inc. 5000 ranking of fastest-growing U.S. companies with 2017 revenue of $14.1 million in revenue and three-year growth of 63 percent.

Qualbe, which has 63 employees today, looks for various character traits in recruiting. “Probably, themost important one is humility,” Meinen says. “They'll be teachable.” Its core values are built around respecting people's value, forming honest relationships and functional teams, encouraging risks, accomplishing “more with less,” doing the right thing, being humble and teachable, and having fun. “If you have trust in your organization, things go real fast,” Meinen says. “A lot of companies leave a trail of bodies behind.”

Employees hand out “Rock Star” cards to other employees they see living out the core values; Rock Stars are announced weekly and get a printed version of their card. Through Qualbe's “Idea Monkey” program, employees submit ideas to be voted on, and winners are recognized weekly with a stuffed monkey. Three-time winners earn the “Ideator” title. In the firm's call center, the top salespeople daily get a stuffed buffalo and cash prize. Each month's top salesperson receives a fuzzy hat called the “Buffcrown.”

Qualbe hosts various tournaments in its big Haltom City building, including pickleball, pool, pingpong, basketball, and cornhole in the game room and gym. Departments design games that allow them to have fun while improving key metrics and win prizes. Qualbe caters lunches on Fridays and brings in free healthy snacks.

The company sponsors build days for the nonprofit Sleep in Heavenly Peace, in which volunteers build bunk beds for needy children.

Qualbe also encourages reading by employees, averaging more than 15 books read last year per employee. Top readers win prizes. “Leaders are readers,” Meinen says. “If you know anyone who's successful, they probably read a lot. Whether someone works here for one year, or 30, we want them to create that habit.”

“Culture is not something that is decided on by a manager. It's not something you can outline on a piece of paper or send out via email blast. Culture is something that's built from the ground up by each and every employee. Qualbe's culture is so much more than the pingpong table and pickleball courts. It's the flood of emails and congratulatory GIFs you get after making your first sale. It's the homemade music videos jam-packed with catchy lyrics and sub-par dance moves. It's the feeling of knowing that not a single person in the building ever roots against you. It's the ability to truly be yourself. Qualbe invests in its people. Our personal and professional growth is important to the success and culture of the company. Not only do we have access to a list of learning resources, we're encouraged through friendly competition to read, learn and do more. Ideas are welcome and considered by leadership, and recently we've made huge strides in taking a leaner approach to how we work.”

- Jaimie Carney, Digital Designer

6 Worthington National Bank

Fort Worth

Greg Morse, CEO of Worthington National Bank, likes to talk about the company's workplace culture in terms of an inverted pyramid, with the shareholders at bottom and employees on top.

“If you treat your employees well, they will treat the customers well, and the stockholders should benefit,” says Morse, whose bank has four locations and 50 employees. “If you call here during working hours, you get a human, hopefully by the third ring.” Worthington, a small business bank, has put in a few small details over the years that are part of its service culture. The coffee's in the back of each location, for example, so customers on the way to get a cup are greeted by employees.

Family Culture The bank nurtures a family culture. “My assistant has a child with special needs; she’s out at least once a week,” Morse says. “But she gives 110 percent. We just work around stuff like that.” Employees who are sick are encouraged to stay home and recover, he says. “We don’t dock their pay.” The bank has personality assessments it gives prospective employees and looks for qualities such as team play, compassion and openness to selling. Ninety percent of the bank’s customers are mom-and-pop business owners, Morse estimates. “We don’t really look at it as selling,” Morse says. “We look at it as helping you with a need. I don’t like pushing things on people. I don’t like things pushed on me. We want it to be a mutually beneficial relationship.”

Backing the Blue The bank administers the Tarrant County Blue nonprofit, which collects and distributes donations for the families of police officers who die in duty. The nonprofit, founded by Morse’s daughter, collected more than $70,000 as of early October for the family of Fort Worth  officer Garrett Hull, shot and killed in September.

“There are many reasons why Worthington National Bank is the ‘BEST' company to work for. We think culture eats strategy for breakfast. All employees take great pride in coming to work, pleasing our customers and helping each other. We are a small company, but large in abilities. We are high-tech, but also high-touch. Most employees have been promoted from within. All have a voice and know they give value. The customer is king. They come before the balance sheet. There are no 800 numbers, just 817. We are very community-oriented, and all employees are expected to sit on two nonprofit boards. The bank provides benefits such as gym reimbursement, medical benefits, free snacks and drinks, and awesome facilities to work in. We also have a Hoopla Team who meets monthly to plan fun activities to reward our associates.”

-Marianne Pinnick, Lobby Services Manager, Assistant Vice President

7 Koddi

Fort Worth

Koddi, a fast-growing, cloud-based marketing technology company for travel brands, has been on a growth binge since it was founded in 2013. Through an acquisition earlier this year, the company grew to 60 employees from 30. By year's end, it should top 100 in Fort Worth, New York, Austin, Michigan and Germany, Nicholas Ward, the agency's president, says. That's challenged the company to refine its culture. Its “culture deck,” a slide show with values that the company added onto as it grew and absorbed ideas from new hires, took Koddi to 30 employees, Ward says. This year, with a consultant's help, it honed its values to a simple five: integrity first, embrace challenges, empowering people, inclusivity and go beyond. “This is day-one stuff,” Ward says. He subscribes to the business rule of “3 and 10,” in which things break in multiples of 3 and at powers of 10. “When it was 15 people in an office, we could do culture by accident.”

The company hands all new employees a full toolkit including a computer on their first day. It's the only employer among this year's 25 Best that offers unlimited paid time off. It grants equity options to high-performing employees, and Ward estimates about 75 percent of employees participate in the program today. The company picks up a substantial piece of medical insurance premiums, employees are fully vested in their 401(k) on their day of hire, and Koddi this year began offering a $1,000 annual travel stipend to all employees to use how they wish. “Because travel is so important to the company, we really want our people to experience it,” Ward says. The company's work tends to run in spurts, which allows for unlimited PTO, Ward says. Once the work for a particular client becomes “more maintenance-oriented,” the maintenance can be more easily handled among the team, Ward says. “It's a great opportunity for those involved to step back for a little bit and celebrate.” Still, he suspects employees often take less vacation than they could, because the bank is unlimited. Bottom line of Koddi's approach: “If we take care of our employees, then they take care of our customers.”

“Upon joining Koddi, I felt I was immediately able to make an impact in the areas of the business that I found most interesting, thanks to extremely talented and motivated coworkers and a culture of inclusivity that allowed me to feel comfortable bringing ideas to the table. With the exponential growth that Koddi has experienced over the last year, we have been very mindful of keeping our unique culture intact, allowing us to continue empowering our employees to solve problems and grow.” 

-Blaine Hoyt, Junior Developer

8 Patterson Law Group

Fort Worth

It was an odd requirement: When the Patterson Law Group decided to move its offices to Fort Worth from Arlington a few years ago, it took a while to find a suitable location. “We needed to have a fenced-in backyard for the dogs,” Travis Patterson, one of the firm's principals, says. Patterson's new Southside offices, which it moved into two years ago, have the fenced yard for the office dogs and room inside for other essential elements: game room with pool and pingpong tables, bar with Arlington's Legal Draft Beer on tap (Greg McCarthy, of counsel to Patterson, is a co-founder of Legal), and playroom for lawyers and staff members who have kids. “It's rare for there to not be at least one kid in the building every day,” Patterson says. The de-stressors are essential for the firm, which specializes in personal injury law and interacts with clients at low points, says Patterson, who heads the firm with his wife and fellow lawyer Anna Patterson. “What we do here is hard work. We love the people we're working with. It makes it very rewarding.”

A Better Way Patterson began noodling on the idea for a familial culture while working for another firm early in his career. “One of the attorneys there said, ‘You'll spend more time here than with your family,'” says Patterson, who joined his father in the family practice in 1995. “I just had a big problem with that.”

One Big Party Patterson has invested in a family and well workplace culture for the firm’s 17 full-time and eight part-time employees. That includes a Halloween party with office-to-office décor and trick-or-treating, Mother’s Day brunch (including moms of dogs), regular happy hours, (including one for Father’s Day), retreats at Legal Beer, off-campus lunches, subsidized employee gym memberships, and standing desks. The company pays 50 percent of employees’ health insurance premiums and picks up $1,500 of the $6,000 deductible.

“I know a lot of people can say they found a home within their companies, but I feel that everyone here truly exemplifies what it means to have a ‘work family.' It's a great feeling knowing you have a tightknit group of people looking out for you and your family's well-being. We check in on each other, celebrate victories together, grieve together. This compassion translates into something everyone here strives to provide for our clients. We're not just here to provide a service to our clients; we get to know our clients, and they often think of us as family.”

-Sara Andress, Office Manager

9 Con-Real

Arlington

Con-Real, an Arlington general contracting company coming up on its 40th year, is busy looking ahead to the next 40. The tenets: safe and efficient workplaces, innovation, leaving a legacy, being open to new ideas and people, letting employees have time to build lives outside work, and retaining trust. Con-Real, whose most recent projects include teaming up to build Texas Live! in Arlington and a new STEM and visual and performing arts academy in Fort Worth, will turn 40 in 2020. “Now we need to roll out what happens in the next 40,” Gerald Alley, founder, CEO and majority owner, says.

Con-Real, which has 50 employees, wants to be a technology innovator. “In the earlier days, you look for people who have the experience and training,” Alley says. “Now we're looking for people who have ideas and a technical grasp, who think differently.” The company sets out to nurture growth in employees through cross-training and discover their passions. “If they can integrate that into what they're doing here, that's great,” Alley says. “If not, we still want to know what it is.”

Con-Real likes to be involved in the community and nonprofits. When the new STEM and arts academy was finished, for one, Con-Real brought in 30 schoolchildren for a career fair and tour. Its internship program is in high schools now, as well as college. “I'm a big fan of higher education,” Alley, who holds an MBA from SMU, says.

CASH BONUSES The company has a workout room on-site, it runs yoga classes three times a week in its conference room, and it puts on frequent social outings for employees. Con-Real pays $100 bonuses each month to all employees. Employees have to show on social media what they did with the money. “One hundred dollars is not going to make a person, but it sets an attitude,” Alley says.

“Con-Real is a family of diverse people from all over the world. To me, Con-Real offers a vast ocean of knowledge and experience with a skyful of opportunities for every individual in construction management, project management, real estate, administrative and IT. The leaders are passionate about developing the individuals of today to better serve the community. My CEO always says, 'Take a shot at it.'”

-Palash Shah, Project Engineer, Arlington Baseball Park Site

10 MineralWare

Fort Worth

A year and a half ago, MineralWare, a fast-growing startup software platform that allows users to manage mineral rights and royalties, had four employees and wasn't talking so much about workplace culture. A lot's changed since then. MineralWare, headed by CEO Ryan Vinson, has surpassed 40 million acres represented in its software. Last year, Frost Bank chose MineralWare to track minerals held by wealth management clients. MineralWare now has 18 employees, and the company is preparing in December to relocate within the Fort Worth Club Tower to an 11,000-square-foot space, quadrupling its footprint and becoming the building's largest tenant. The new open space will feature a high-tech kitchen and highlight employees' views of downtown, and de-emphasize executives' offices, Vinson says. Vinson continues to run the company on capital put in by partners John Baum and Larry Brogdon, and the company hasn't sought additional capital.

Need, Desire, Skill set MineralWare has developed the acronym NDS — Need, Desire and Skill Set — it uses to recruit and manage employees, making sure they’re in the right jobs. “It’s worked very well for us,” Vinson, a trust manager before he co-founded MineralWare, says. “I’ve been at companies where there’s people who don’t enjoy what they’re doing, and they don’t have the skill set.” Vinson and GM Spencer Albright like to grant employees a lot of autonomy, publishing an organizational chart that has the CEO and GM at the bottom. “All we do is pull alongside them and help them be who they can be,” Albright says.

Employee Toolbag MineralWare’s offering starts with what’s in the toolbag. New employees receive a laptop of their choosing, Apple AirPods wireless headset, and MineralWare logo polo shirt. “If you’re giving team members the right tools, you’re creating an environment where they want to come to work every day,” Vinson says. The company pays for an employee’s initiation fee and athletic club membership at the Fort Worth Club; about 10 employees have become members of the Fort Worth Club, Vinson estimates. MineralWare holds happy hours for employees and socials such as outings at Top Golf. MineralWare pays 100 percent of employees’ health insurance premiums, and it’s launching a 401(k) in January. And a year and a half ago, it put a bonus plan into place that gives employees a bonus of up to 50 percent of salary based on service time if the company hits $250,000 in monthly revenue by the end of 2020. “We’ll probably hit that early next year,” Vinson says.

“Throughout my experience at MineralWare, the two things that stand out have been the culture and intellectual stimulation. Pretty much, no other job that I know of or have worked at do you get to come into work and actually genuinely like everybody. The leadership does a great job making sure everyone is the right fit. We are encouraged to ask what can we do better, how can we innovate and improve. We all are encouraged to think about how we can transform.”

- Sam L. Katigan, Land Analyst

11 Baker Firm PLLC-Fidelity National Title

Fort Worth

Troy Moncrief likes to say the Baker Firm, a regional franchise of Fidelity National Title he started in 2012 with partners Chris Baker and Nikki Jackson, has “the backing of a billion-dollar company, but the feel of a mom and pop shop.” Moncrief and Jackson came up with their notion of a strong workplace while working for other title companies. “We had an idea of a culture where it was fun and people were rewarded, and everybody had everybody's back,” Moncrief says. “This is a stressful business. You're working on everybody else's deadlines. You've got be able to cut up and have fun.”

The Baker Firm today has about 50 employees and five offices, including ones in Southlake, Aledo, Burleson and Waxahachie. In starting the firm, Moncrief says the partners first ensured they had the  benefits of significantly larger competitors. “We have a pretty young workforce, which means children,” he says. “Families need to be taken care of. It was incredibly expensive.”

The company has profit-sharing, distributing a share of profits twice a year to employees. And if the company meets its goals, it takes its employees on an annual trip to locations such as Cancun, Nashville, Biloxi and Las Vegas. “When we're doing well, we want to share that,” Moncrief says.

The company schedules services such as mobile car washes and often brings in lunch. “There are many times when people can't leave their desks,” Moncrief says. And one small detail the firm added: a beer refrigerator. “Sometimes, at the end of the day, someone wants a glass of wine or a beer,” Moncrief says. “That's OK. That's why they make it.”

“My experience with this company has been nothing short of  life-changing. Not only does the Baker Firm employ management and staff that are inclusive and understanding, they promote an open-door policy and family-oriented environment. Everyone in the company is willing to help in any way they can to further the team reach and effort. People are given a chance to shine in whatever capacity suits them. We have expanded rapidly and created a great reputation for ourselves. From the motivational team meetings, roundtable discussions, happy hours, office trips, great benefits and unrivaled sense of togetherness, I feel so blessed to be a part of this group.”

-Andrea Sincleair, Fee Attorney

12 Steele & Freeman

Fort Worth

Steele & Freeman was founded in 1979 based on a primary core value – Can-Do Spirit. Nearly 40 years later, the general contractor, which surpassed more than $100 million in revenue in 2016, operates on 23 “fundamentals.” At its heart: relationships, inside the 60-employee company and out. Steele & Freeman's client base is full of return clients and architects. In Roanoke, for one, it's building the new city hall. In the last 13 years, it's built a recreation center, fire station and library for Roanoke, and the firm is lining up for a shot at a planned new public safety center.

Staffing Up Some general contractors don’t have dedicated superintendents for each project. Steele & Freeman staffs up on each project. “Our most important employee is the superintendent,” Michael Freeman, Steele & Freeman’s second-generation president, says. The company works to make sure its employees, clients and subs know about its fundamentals. The company begins each staff meeting with a fundamental of the week; a selected employee reads a response. One of Freeman’s favorites: blameless problem-solving. “We want to be the contractor of choice for our clients and our subs,” he says.

Selling the Future Freeman, who bought out his father in 2005 and is the majority owner today, has sold stakes to five other key employees. Freeman presents $100 gift cards to employees who receive praise from clients, and he heads the company’s annual Christmas party by recognizing each employee’s accomplishments, handing them bonuses, and giving $100 to their spouses and significant others. The firm gives annual credits for employees to spend in the company store on logo merchandise. The company’s recently built conference center has an on-site gym with free weights, treadmills, exercise bikes and showers, and employees can bring their families on weekends. The company has mentoring programs, and it recently started a Toastmasters club to help develop leaders and improve employees’ ability to tell the story. Steele & Freeman holds an annual fish fry for employees and their families at Lake Texoma, where Freeman recognizes employees’ spouses and gives them gift cards.

Family First The company’s leaders are also known to coach employees on making sure they take time out for family. “If your daughter has a dance recital, that’s the most important thing out there,” Freeman says.

“Many say that salary and benefit packages are the most important factors in choosing a work place, and in 2002, I walked into Steele & Freeman, Inc. with that mindset. My father had recently retired from SFI after 16 years and still attended company activities and constantly spoke of camaraderie. With a new family and a desire to provide for them, I needed stability and found it here. Over the last 16 years, I have risen from a ‘green' assistant superintendent to lead superintendent. I have been encouraged to hone my skills through education and training and am now one of our company's mentors. The honor and respect that circulates with all our management, including Mike Freeman, our president, is overwhelming. Never have I worked for such an appreciative group of people who maintain a ‘family is everything' fundamental by attending employee weddings, our children's events, donating to charities, and being ready to step into each role to assure personal time off for each member of our SFI family. I often reflect on my early ideas of success and smile. Our projects, salaries and benefits are fantastic, but the level of personal care for every employee is unmatched.”

-Sam Wethington, Superintendent

13 Pacheco Koch Consulting Engineers

Fort Worth Office

Pacheco Koch, a fast-growing civil engineering, landscape architecture and surveying firm nearing 60 employees in its west Fort Worth office, has long cultivated a family atmosphere with group activities, intramural sports leagues, regular happy hours, volunteer outings and a compressed workweek with half-day Fridays that begin with breakfast. “Half-day Fridays is obviously intriguing to someone new to the workforce,” says Preston Bartley, a senior project engineer who joined the firm out of college at Oklahoma State. On a recent Friday, the company was donating money to a breast cancer charity for every employee who wore pink.

Brian O'Neill, the Pacheco Koch principal who started the Fort Worth office in 2009, says he doesn't ask a lot of technical questions when he's interviewing recruits. “It really is a read on where they fit in the company,” he says.

New Offices Early next year, Pacheco Koch will move into a larger space under construction in Fort Worth’s Whole Foods-anchored Waterside development. The building, on the Trinity Trail and large enough to accommodate 110 workers, will include a training room, better kitchen, bike storage and locker rooms, outdoor decks, and shade from the mature trees. Another amenity: Membership to the CERA rec center on the property.

“The principals of the company make sure all employees are provided with the best working conditions and a relaxed environment. They make sure all new hires are a good fit and will continue to keep the office fun and motivated. At times, the work can get stressful, so the company helps offset this with company-sponsored happy hours and team-building activities like go-karting, lake trips and volunteer opportunities. Recently, the company rolled out a self-assessment training that has allowed teams to know the full potential of each member and find out what motivates them. It is this initiative from upper management that makes PK stand out  to our clients and keeps their employees on track to bettering themselves.”

-Preston Bartley, Project Engineer

14 DFW Center for Spinal Disorders

Several locations

Dr. Jason Tinley started the DFW Center for Spinal Disorders with three clinics in 2009. Today, it's grown to 10 clinics and 32 employees. Tinley has worked to build an office culture of encouragement and support, both from management and among employees. “Because our patients require quite a bit of attention, it can be trying if employees don't have encouragement from each other,” says Tinley, one of five physicians in the practice. Tinley hired a chief operating officer, Nichole Kyser Crites, into the practice in 2016 to layer in organization that was being handled by office managers and clinic managers.

Flex Time The practice tries to hire employees who live close to their clinics to minimize commutes. It turned its holiday scheduling upside down, giving clinic employees vacation priority during holiday periods; managers fill in. The practice also works its clinic schedules to build in administrative days so employees can catch up and take time off for family. “It allows us to take care of patients; it also lets the staff [have flex time],” Crites says. “We’re able to structure the schedules so we can do both.” The practice gives out bonuses twice a year and throws a big Christmas party with raffles; the physicians pitch in to give away gifts like Apple watches.

“DFW Center for Spinal Disorders is a great place to work for several reasons, but I think the one attribute that stands out most would be our employees. We are a team of individuals who share the same goal: to help ailing people get back to a pain-free way of life. We serve a purpose larger than ourselves, and that atmosphere is what makes coming to work most enjoyable. There is comfort that comes when you know that the person standing next to you — whether that's a surgeon, medical assistant, or the office manager — is willing to roll up their sleeves and help get the job done.”

-Nichole Kyser Crites, Chief Operating Officer

15 Forrest Performance Group

Fort Worth

Led by founder Jason Forrest, the Fort Worth firm has placed three times on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing U.S. companies by sales measures. It leads and designs sales, management, customer service and executive training programs, and management coaching programs. The company expects to finish 2018 at $7 million to $8 million in sales, and Forrest wants to double that in 2019.

Esprit de Corps FPG, which has appeared on our Best Companies to Work For all three years of the contest, builds esprit de corps among its 24 employees modelled after church, military and university Greek life. Why those three? Church brings “people together who believe in the same thing,” Forrest says. Military? “It's to serve something bigger than myself.” The bigger at FPG: “Our vision is to convince everyone that they're enough.” And the Greek model — FPG has a lot of millennials (65 percent of its workforce) who aren't too far out of college — brings the bonds of “brotherhood, sisterhood, rituals, secrecy, unity,” Forrest says. “But they also have a lot of fun.”

Think Like Owners Forrest wants his employees thinking like owners, and he’s installed regimented training. First 90 days, new employees learn their jobs and the material the company produces, make presentations and are quizzed. At the second level, employees are invited to present what value they think they can add. Employees who think like owners are promoted to the third level. “The reason companies have such bad profit margins is they have to hire managers to oversee the work of a person,” Forrest says. “I need people who are self-sufficient.” Employees are rewarded at each level with a “pinning” ceremony; at the third level, they enjoy dinner with Forrest. Goal is to have employees reach owner level within a year. FPG offers weekly 8 a.m. “ownership opt-in” training sessions on Thursdays. About 50 percent of employees are at ownership level at any point, Forrest says. The company’s top two levels are mentor and legacy.

I'm Freaking Awesome FPG ends its week with Friday’s “I’m Freaking Awesome” happy hours, where each employee praises another’s accomplishments. The company pays 100 percent of an employee’s premium for health insurance; plans are high-deductible with a tax-favored Health Savings Account. FPG guarantees 3 percent annual company contribution to employees’ 401(k)s. It gives $50 monthly payments toward health club memberships.

“I love FPG because this company is truly invested in my personal and professional growth. I've been allowed to seek out where I excel and then given the space and resources to run with it. The company culture is amazing; one of our big hiring pillars is culture fit, so we have such a tightknit, hard-working and dedicated team of warriors. I don't just have coworkers I see every day. I also have friends I get to hang out with outside of work. The fact that we take time to acknowledge each other's accomplishments and validate them means the world to me. It allows us all to see the unique strengths we bring to the table, and that has the effect of building everyone up.”

-Taylor Harvey, Travel Coordinator

16 Muckleroy & Falls

Fort Worth

It's easy to spot the core values of Muckleroy & Falls. They — leadership, loyalty, honesty and work ethic — adorn the walls of the commercial construction company's Fort Worth offices. Principals Harold Muckleroy and Max Falls put the company's values down on paper five years ago when they hired a business coach to help determine whether to wind the business down as Muckleroy and Falls neared retirement or set it up for a new ownership group, including Muckleroy's son Zach, who's come on board along with two other principals. The company had been living those values but had not written them down, Muckleroy and Falls say. “We really wanted to show everybody who we were,” Falls says.

Loyalty extends not only to the firm's 50-plus employees, but to clients, architects and engineers, and subcontractors. It also means not throwing around blame for mistakes, Muckleroy and Falls say. Falls: “We're really big on the team approach. If you have team chemistry, there's loyalty. We don't throw our teammates under the bus.”

Gong Show Inside the workplace, a culture committee sets up family outings such as bowling, crawfish boils, burger cookouts and chili cook-offs. When employees return after time away on projects, the company sends them and their significant others to dinner. A new office feature is a gong. To facilitate communication and rally employees, when the company lands a new job, employees gather for a celebratory gong. The company conducts an annual fitness challenge; winner gets a gym membership. The firm also gives 75 percent discounts on Apple watches in partnership with its insurer, a way to encourage fitness.

“Take the capabilities of a Fortune 500 company and mix it with ‘the atmosphere of a small family business.' That's what Muckleroy & Falls is like to work for. You have decades of industry knowledge and presence co-mingled with the grit of a family business dedicated to quality growth in its business plan and a desire to leave a lasting mark on its community.”

-Clint Moyes, Director of Operations

17 Schaefer Advertising Co.

Fort Worth

Schaefer Advertising has spent a fair amount of time thinking about its culture. “You can either define a culture, or your culture will define itself,” Ken Schaefer, CEO of the Fort Worth advertising firm, says. Schaefer bought his partners out and moved to Fort Worth from Arlington eight years ago, taking up quarters in a historic West Magnolia Avenue building and designing spaces that foster collaboration, like a spacious kitchen with island where employees naturally gather and exchange ideas. “This building is literally built to create collaboration,” says Schaefer, whose company's core values include collaboration, tenaciousness and exploration. Schaefer bought out his partners and moved the Arlington company to a historic building on Fort Worth's West Magnolia Avenue eight years ago, looking to have an impact on the city and Near Southside. Schaefer, a community benefactor whose interests include public education, urges employees to give of themselves and work as a team to get the firm's business done, allowing everyone time for family and volunteer pursuits. Charlie Howlett, the firm's creative director, has three young children and a working wife. “Ken says if you want to coach their baseball team, coach their baseball team,” Howlett says. “He says that with complete sincerity.” Schaefer: “We believe a culture based on trust and respect is a culture that creates growth. In a tight labor market, we want to make sure we have an environment where people feel valued and see opportunity for growth."

The agency is growing fast. At 24 employees now, Schaefer expects to have 30 by year's end. He's also working on plans to put up a second building next door and plans to expand the agency's kitchen to allow more collaboration. Schaefer is wary of the risks of growth on culture. “In periods of high growth, you'd better be sensitive to your culture,” he says. Where can problems show up? For one, “if we hire someone who isn't committed to the values we have, you begin to impact the culture."

Profit-Sharing The agency works to keep things light. Its BooneDoggle, named after the company’s first office dog Boone, is a two-day, all-expenses-paid annual retreat to New Braunfels, where the company hands out profit-sharing checks of 10 percent. The firm hands out awards like the “Kick Ass Award” and the more dubious “Squirrely,” for screw-ups. Employees get Christmas week off with pay. Schaefer also picks up almost all of the tab for employees' medical premiums.

“At Schaefer Ad Co., our goal as an agency is to make life better for our clients, our team, our community and ourselves. Our culture impacts every area of the agency and is rooted within every employee from the top down. Across each discipline, every person at the agency is encouraged to be their best selves, even the agency dog. That is why Schaefer Ad Co. is more than just one person, or a name on a building, or even just a place where people come to work. It is a place that fosters community, where differences are admired, and out-of-the-box ideas are encouraged.”

-Morgan Staral, Account Manager; and Stephen Rivera, Senior Accountant Manager

18 Fort Worth Country Day School

Fort Worth

Fort Worth Country Day School spends a lot of time building its community: 1,100 students, including 200 annually who can't afford the tuition and are on scholarship; 230 teachers and staff; a few thousand parents each year; and 4,000 alumni from 55 years in operation. The school's leafy, quiet campus and unimposing buildings help tie everything together, says Eric Lombardi, head of school. “There's a common pride,” Lombardi says. The community and learning environment are the biggest piece of what Country Day, one of Fort Worth's most prestigious private schools, offers its faculty. “No question about it, the strength of the school is in the faculty,” he says. The school's mantra is great teachers engage, challenge and connect. “It's a joyous place to arrive at every day,” Lombardi says. He estimates 80 percent of the school's operating budget goes to faculty salaries. “That's the right thing to do,” Lombardi says. “I love to be able to tell parents that their tuition goes right back to faculty salaries.” Country Day wants its teachers to be in the 75th percentile nationally among similar schools, a level given more power by Fort Worth's low cost of living, Lombardi says. The school offers extensive recognition programs and events for employees. Additionally, each year, the school funds faculty and staff dinners of 10 to promote what Lombardi calls “cross-pollination.” This year, three teachers and two division heads are hosting dinners at their homes or restaurants.

Beefed-Up Benefits Country Day, at the suggestion of employees, has beefed up its benefit programs, including better health and vision insurance, Lombardi says. It’s added, for one, a high-deductible health insurance plan with health savings account, potentially more attractive to younger, healthy employees. The school also offers a generous 401(k) match. For employees under 40 who contribute at least 4 percent of pay, the school offers matches of 6 to 7.2 percent. For employees age 55 and older who contribute at least 5 percent of pay, matches go as high as 10 percent, depending on the employee’s contribution. Country Day offers tuition reimbursement of up to $26,000 for a graduate degree.

“Who wouldn't want to work at Fort Worth Country Day? Every day is different and exciting and provides the opportunity to see the world through the eyes of a child. It is a happy place, a place I look forward to going to every day. The facilities are amazing, but it is the people that make this place unique and special. The students are sponges, and we, as teachers, are blessed to help them grow and learn. The parents appreciate what the school offers and are supportive of all we do. Our administration takes care of us. Our staff works tirelessly to keep the place running. And the cherry on top is the faculty. Every teacher makes this place over-the-top special.”

-Paige Chisholm, Lower School PE teacher, Field Hockey Director, Tennis Coach, Sports Information

19 University Building Specialties

Haltom City

Willie Dubuis was virtually a career-long employee for University Building Specialties, a Haltom City distributor of commercial doors, when he bought the company out in 2016. Dubuis had a vision for the culture he wanted to develop at the company, where morale was low. “All the pressure was off me,” Dubuis, who was vice president of sales, says. “My job is to give you the tools to succeed.” The company hit its first million-dollar revenue month that year, and Dubuis handed out $50 bonuses to every employee. “Next month, we did it again.” So, he handed out $100 checks. And then $150. “We do three or four of those a year,” says Dubuis, who estimates the company has contributed a total $250,000 in each of the last two years to bonuses and 401(k) profit-sharing for its now-36 employees.

Getting in Position to Grow Dubuis is working to put regular reviews into place. He added disability subsidies to the benefit plans, which have for years paid 100 percent of premium for employees’ health insurance. “I just try to remember when I was living paycheck to paycheck.” The company, whose clients include TCU (new dorms) and Fort Worth’s Dickies Arena that’s under construction, is doing about $10 million a year in revenue, slightly more than what it was doing when Dubuis bought it. Dubuis is positioning the company to grow. “It takes so much cash to grow, I try to be conservative,” Dubuis says.

“Feb. 22, 1999, I made a decision that would change the course of my life. I started my career at University Building Specialties as a 19-year-old, not sure of what I wanted out of life. I was hired on at the lowest pay position, grinder. After a few months, I was promoted to delivery driver. On my first delivery run, I left the shop at 7 a.m. and came back at 7 p.m. with everything I left with that morning still on the truck. They still saw something in me. I delivered for about eight months; then I was promoted to a welding table. They offered to pay for my school; I took advantage of the offer. A few years passed, and the metal door tech position was open. A few years passed, and I was offered another promotion, project manager. I really didn't put forth the effort necessary to become a project manager, because my heart wasn't in it. Six months later, I asked to be put back on the door table. Still seeing my potential and believing in me, I was promoted to shop/warehouse manager. I will forever be grateful to University Building Specialties for taking a chance on a lost young 19-year-old kid.”

-Robert Palacios, Project Manager

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