Boston Globe - Happy Right Here

Boston Globe

By Diane Lewis, Globe Staff

Kimberley Willard started taping up posters about a company-sponsored "play day" at Fenway Park around 10 a.m., pausing at times to hail co-workers.

"Going to the game?" she asks a cluster of men in the lobby of Cognex Corp., the Natick high technology firm whose computerized devices let machines "see." They were dressed in red and white T-shirts, blue baseball caps, and shorts.

Willard is a self-described "cruise director" and part of the Cognex three-member "Culture Team." Willard, along with Robin Pratt and Julie Collura find odd, unexpected and fun ways to engage the company's 275 Massachusetts employees.

The culture team's major role? Keeping headhunters at bay.

"We want to make this a fun place to work," says Willard, 37. "We have engineers in the building and lots of other people who are here for 12 to 15 hours a day. If they're going to be working that hard, they need to be rewarded. The other thing: We don't want them scooped up and taken away by competitors."

Events and parties alone won't make workers stay, but specialists say companies that make employees feel appreciated have less trouble retaining - and attracting - talent. "If people are challenged by their work and they feel rewarded, they will stay," says Erin Brownfield, spokeswoman for the Families and Work Institute in New York. "Benefits alone are not enough."

Neither is pay, says Dianne Durkin, president of Loyalty Factor, a training and consulting firm in Portsmouth, N.H. "People need to feel that they are in on things," she says. "They need to feel work is challenging, that it has a purpose. Secondly, people need rewards and recognition. The two most important words are thank you. Money? That's number five or six on the list."

Jen Jorgensen, a spokeswoman for the Society for Human Resource Management in Alexandria, Va., said when her organization looked at some of the leading small and medium-sized companies in the United States, it discovered that many were looking for innovative ways to thank or reward employees. She did not know of any other companies that hired a "cruise director" but said she would not be surprised to learn there were others.

"There is always competition for talent, but in some sectors the competition is much more stringent," Jorgensen says. "These companies have different challenges from larger ones. They must be more creative and, for some, that means finding many different ways to take care of or pamper employees."

At Cognex, different members of the culture team plan celebrations, practical jokes, surprises, day trips, or monitor and maintain the Intranet and create internal communications, but with an edge. In 2004, Pratt designed an annual report modeled after the popular "Dummies" books. The bright yellow and black cover and lettering was the same as such hallmark titles as "Cooking for Dummies" or "Science for Dummies." The title of the Cognex annual report last year: "Machine Vision is Not for Dummies."

"The chief executive of the company, Bob Shillman, believes in having us produce a creative and readable annual report," says Pratt. "Usually, when we publish the annual reports, we have a special theme for them and we'll have a little party at our Natick headquarters. Last year, we had a raffle and we raffled off some real "Dummies" books."

At an annual meeting a few years ago, Cognex analysts were picked up in a yellow school bus and driven to a facility decorated with blackboards and lunch boxes. They were given annual reports that looked like coloring books.

Last summer, Willard developed a Cog Olympics for the firm's annual family summer outing at a country club in Millis. Shillman kicked off the event with a mock torch-carrying ceremony and there were relay races and a rock climbing wall for kids.

Patty Bautz, vice president of corporate employee services and director of the culture team, said the team has a budget, but she wouldn't reveal how much the company spends yearly on fun. Willard's budget for the June 13th Red Sox "play day" was $20,000 for tickets, buses, and the $50 in spending money each employee received, she said.

The company spent about $30,000 on last year's Halloween bash, Willard's biggest event of the year. The money was used to buy camcorders, digital cameras, iPods, and TVs that some employees won for their inventive costumes.The company's efforts appear to be paying off: Voluntary turnover was just 2.8 percent last year, Bautz said. By contrast, voluntary turnover for the technology industry stands at 11.5 percent, according to Aon Consulting, a compensation and management consulting firm.

Cognex also gives employees with five, 10, 15, 20 and 25 years' tenure an all-expense paid trip to the destination of their choice. The length of stay depends on tenure. Employees with 25 years or more can take a 10-day trip abroad. The number of people employees are allowed to invite and the amount of cash allotted depends on the destination.

"This is a formal program with a selected number of trips you can choose from," says Pratt. "For example, if you've been at the company 15 years, you could go to China to see the Great Wall and you'd get your hotel, your airfare, and your spending money, and you could take one person. The spending money for the five-year trip is up to $250; the 10-year trip is up to $750; the 15-year trip is up to $1,000; and after you've been here 25 years, you get $1,500 in spending money."a

The cost of the trips are capped. Workers must choose from a menu of cruises and destinations available through a travel agent that provides the packages for the firm. The shortest trip? A long weekend, which is awarded workers in good standing with at least five years on the job.

Employees say the perks and social events aren't the only reason they stay. Don Deily, 65, of Lexington has worked for IBM, Computer Vision, and several startups. "This company has solid business plans, no debt, plenty of cash and it's ethical and creative," says Deily. "It also hires people who are smart and nice to work with. It's clear the trips and special events are a way to reward us."

Then, there's financial analyst Scott Nesbit, 34, of Marlborough. Last year, Nesbit received a 10-year Perseverance Award and took his girlfriend to Maui. He was given a week off, with expenses paid, but he extended it to 10 days and paid the difference. "There's always something going on," Nesbit says of his job. "We went to see the Red Sox, and they do socials where they serve food, beer, wine and you can bring a family member. So, I'm content. It's a good group of people, and I don't dread coming to work."

Nesbit, who joined Cognex after graduating from Northeastern University in 1994, hears from headhunters every other month or so. "They don't beg and they don't pry," he said, "but the first question is: 'Are you happy?"' His answer? An emphatic "yes."