Episode Transcript
Welcome to the Owner to Owner podcast with your host, Jesse Tyler, part of the EO Podcast Network. Welcome back to the Owner to Owner podcast. I'm your host, Jesse Tyler. This podcast is about the voices of ownership. So I'm an employee owner at Hypotherm Associates based in New Hampshire, a global manufacturing technology company with about 2000. Employee owners sprinkled around the world, and I do this podcast for Brett Kiesling and the EO podcast Network to bring the voices you don't usually hear to the national ownership conversation. One of the goals is for somebody thinking about selling their company to their employees. Then maybe Anita, Jody or Christie remind them of one of their workers and think, you know, maybe they could do that. Maybe I could do that. But the another goal is for. Your peer is out there to hear from somebody like them and hear from that. So enjoy hearing the different voices and different perspectives with the conversation. So today's episode is we're welcoming D V L group and what I wanna do is give each of them a chance to introduce themselves, share a little bit about D V L group, and then we're gonna. Jump right into the questions that you've come to expect about ownership and their experience. So, Kristi, could you introduce yourself first and share a little bit about D V L group, please? Sure, Jessie. Happy to be here. Thanks for having us. I'm Kristi McGee, the senior HR director here at D V L Group. I lead a great team and all things people operations, so recruiting and onboarding. Payroll and compensation, safety and wellness compliance, all the fun stuff like that. Employee handbook that you read cover to cover that, you know, performance. Our great recognition system and as I like to say, my co-owner opportunities. Because they're not problems, Jessie. They're opportunities with no solutions. Very nice. So some days I'm mom, some days I'm your best friend. Some days I'm the principal. I've been here for eight years. I am fully vested. We have a very short vesting with our esop. It's only three years, but our 401K is six years. So I'm fully vested on both sides. And I like to say I'm on the downside of the rainbow on the way to retirement. So I'm very excited to have two different retirement plans. That's great. That's great. Yeah, we have a three-year cliff vest as well, so it's fun to hear from another company. You don't hear that very often. You often hear over the five or six years, so good. Good for you. And then D v L group, you're close to it, you're familiar with it. When you're talking, somebody's talking to like a new customer or potential customer. How do you talk about. D V L group and what you do? Well, we're basically five offices in four states, 144 co-owner servicing 10 states. We do critical infrastructure. Think about the building that your company is in, right? There's critical infrastructure. Think about your data center. We're the company that provides that cooling air. You know, the whole year through, even through winter, to make sure that data centers staying cool. We're the company that provides that power, all that power that you need going into that data center. We also provide the monitoring, the backup power. So for example, at an airport, we may be the company that runs the runway, making sure that those lights never go out. Even in that biggest. Darnest electrical storm. We have all that backup generation and power, making sure that power doesn't go out. So it's not pretty, but that's what we do when somebody has to do it, and we do it really well. That's great. Yeah. I like your description of it. I think it brings it to life what you do and that it, you're around, you're, you're, you know, as we travel, you know, Computers, all of that. D V Ls sort of keep keeping it humming through the hot times cold times and the the power disruption. So I think that that's great to share that. So kind of brings it to life for the listeners. Thank you very much, Kristy. Anita, please introduce yourself. So my name's Anita Hansberger. I'm the financial controller here at D V L. I have. Nine people working with me. And we basically do financial reporting, budgeting forecasts. We look at our policies and procedures, we look at, you know, financial operations management. So we do all the fun financial stuff behind the scenes. Nice. Um, another, another behind the scenes role. Another behind the scenes role. Yeah. Yes, I, that's great. I have been here nine years and as Kristy mentioned, we're vested after three, so I am fully vested too. Feels pretty good, doesn't it? It does feel very good, yes. Very, very good. Awesome. Thanks. I'm looking forward to seeing our statement on, we get our statement June 15th, so that should be a fun day, hopefully. Very nice. Very nice. Hopefully, yeah. Yeah. Statement day is exciting. That's great. Yeah. Jody, please share who you are and what you do. Sure. And, and thanks again for having us on here. I appreciate it. So my name's Jody Holland. I'm the marketing manager here at D V L Group. I've been last month in May, I celebrated my seventh anniversary and I clearly, uh, well as vested. Since I've been here more than three years, and so as far as what I do, I do marketing for our external customers as far as designing graphics and materials for products that we have and whether it be marketing emails or. Content on our website or print brochures. That's something that I'm working on to, you know, really get out our message and our reach to let people know how we can help them and their company. So that's a large part of what I do. But also more recently I've taken on more of an internal communications role, which of course, us being employee owned, that goes hand in hand and is driven by employee ownership, employee ownership culture. So that's been something. That I've been enjoying doing the past few years, and I get to work closely with Christie and the ESOP committee on that and just help to do what I can to promote our, our ESOP and employee ownership. That's great. I appreciate it, Jody. Yeah, the internal C Communications and a little bit later in, if you want to add some insights, definitely hearing more companies focusing on, you know, Changing the, the reach, the message, the tone. Mm-hmm. With internal communications, as we come through the, the Covid experience, there's a return to work, there's more remote, the, the variety. So if you do have some insights on, or advice for other ESOPs around internal communications, I'll ask you about that a little bit later and, and see if you wanna share that. Yeah. Very interesting. The, the work that you do, all of you do to move your. Employee-owned company forward. So I'm gonna come back to Christie. What I'd like to do is I ask the questions in an intentional sequence where, how you talk to about ownership when you're out in the world, not around owners. How do you talk about it with friends and family, and how do you talk about it with new coworkers? And it's okay if it's very similar. It's okay if it is very different, but it, it's that nuance that can really help our listeners as they're kind of thinking about how they want to talk about it. Or somebody new to ownership wants to have some maybe more tenured insight and guidance. So that's why I do it that way. So for you, Christie, the first question, how do you talk about employee ownership when you're out in the world, not around other employee owners? You know, I do this every day, Jessie, in recruiting. I'm constantly talking to strangers who, when we get to the, I saw on your website that your employee owned, what does that mean? I guess the best way is to relate it back to them. Well, who owns your company? It's probably a family, a private owner or shareholder. We did once have a private owner. He sold it to a trust. The trust owns the company, and once we've been here for three years, we're a shared owner, so, I own my company. My 143 coworkers own the company. It's very entrepreneur. We care a lot about our customers because we own the company and we're getting the fruits of our efforts. Our, or in some years, when you're having a bad year, you're not getting the fruit of your effort. But who do you have to look to? You have to look in the mirror to make it, make it work. So it's just, it's a different aspect because all that money, you do all that hard work every day, right? It goes into somebody else's pocket. Well, here at DBL L Group, it goes into our pocket. That's great. So just a follow on question is how much does ownership impact how you recruit or, or how successful you are with recruiting? Can you give a little bit of insight for the listeners? Yeah, I think Jody has done an amazing job of making sure that a hundred percent employee owned is on everything. So if you're on LinkedIn, indeed, Career builder, no matter what you're on, you see that we're a hundred percent employee owned. So I gotta tell you, probably about 70% of the time the applicant brings it up to me first. Awesome. Because they're already seeing it. They see it in the application, they see it in on the careers page, they see it everywhere. And they're like, Tommy, more about that. So they're asking about it. That's great. So that's great. Right. And I think that's a great, it's something great that Jody did when she came along is it's just, it's everywhere. That's great, and that way's it becomes a topic before I can even get to it. Yeah. And just we're, we're on the first answer on the first question. You're already some really great advice and High Five to Jodi for, for that messaging and that consistency where, you know, for other ESOPs, if you're not leading with ownership and making it very consistent and very clear, then you, you, you've already heard. You know, the, the benefit up to 70% of the time them bringing it up, that is absolutely amazing. Yeah. Huge advantage for, for you, Christie, with the recruiting and, and the talent acquisition. That's awesome. All right. And well, sometimes I've come across some employee-owned companies that don't even have it mentioned, or their website or, you know, if it is, it's like buried in there and it's just, it's just such a disservice to themselves. Because it's, I mean, for one, it's something that they should be bragging about and show how proud they are of it, but also, you know, as we've been saying, it's a recruiting tool as well. That's great. That's great. What do you, what would you say, like if you're just for fun, you're, you're standing in the front of a conference, you're at a workshop and you'd say, do this couple things to really elevate it. So you're, you hammer on the a hundred percent correct. Is that, is that some of your advice? Okay. Is there anything else about your message that you try to make sure that you're weaving in? Is there some, any, any just sort of general advice for people who wanna raise their game to your level? Is this for me specifically? I would say just consistency with it. Yeah. I mean, I guess that's what we've been trying to do and just make it known so that people will associate you with being employee owned and so that. You know, so that even if it isn't there, they will associate it with Yeah, I mean, just as far as sort of what branding is for marketing. If people hear enough about us being an employee on company, then they're gonna think about that when they just think about us without seeing our logo or anything like that. And they're gonna just keep that in mind and understand that it's a part of our culture. And as Kristy was saying, it's part of our entrepreneurial spirit and the way we do business, and how we care about our customers and and each other. As well. That's great. That's great. Yeah. I, I, I'll think of you the next time I see it. There's a employee-owned company that actually they were guests on a prior episode Alliance group, and they keep the air flowing, kind of H V A C and those, you know, plumbing. And they actually helped keep our, our campus going at, at Hypotherm and I pulled up to the stop stoplight the other day and their truck was in front of me and they'd clearly. Made sure that the a hundred percent employee owned was bigger than I usually see it. And it was high enough that it, it cleared my, the hood of my Subaru and I just laughed. I took a picture, I'm like, boom. How many people are seeing that, you know, around where we are with their trucks and just that little thing. I just was laughing. I was like that. Just great. So it sounds like, you know, you're far down the road of that kind of consistent marketing, consistent messaging. Yeah. Yeah. That's super. Thankfully. Yeah. That's super. All right, so the next question would be, how do you describe the experience of ownership to your friends and family? Kristy gave us the, the insight for being out in the world around non-owners. What's the D V L opinion from how you describe it to your friends and your family? So for me, first of all, what I would do is just explain in one liner what an ESOP is. Right. I know we're talking about ownership, but just that we are an esop. Sure. And I would just say something along the lines of, for me as an owner now, it's similar to a 401k, but without having to contribute anything. That's my one sentence, my friends and family As regards my experience with D V L and being an owner, I can definitely say that. There's dedication from all owners. People will go above and beyond their responsibilities. People will, you know, do things that they're not required to do that's not in their responsibilities. Because we all know and we all know we're an owner. We all know it will benefit. S D V L in the long run, it'll benefit our business. Mm. As you know, when, whenever we own any, any kind of material item, like let's say your house, your car, you feel a sense of responsibility. Similarly, you feel a sense of, I feel, I'm sure everybody does a sense of responsibility to maintaining and, you know, just ensuring the wellbeing of D V L and taking care of it. Taking care of D V L and ensuring proper functionality and then, you know, seeing the investment and seeing the growth of D V L overall and how it, how it's growing rights and privileges, you know, the rights that come with owning a, a business or being a part owner. You know, that sense of security, stability and just a feeling that you actually do belong here and wanting to belong here. That's great. That's the way I feel about ownership here. That's fantastic. Yeah, that's great. A sense of belonging. Yeah. I think is getting used more in, in the employee ownership world is there's the long term financial. Potential benefit. I like that you mentioned that the ESOP is like a 401k. I think it actually helps demystify a little bit when, when you, when you say that. Right, right. But then what does it feel like going to work? Do I feel like I belonged? Do I feel like I cared about? Do I have some security, some structure, and then, The day to day work, work experience can be very, very different, so. Right, right. Awesome. Yeah, appreci, appreciate your insights. Well said. How do you help new coworkers understand ownership? Jody? Okay, so as Christie was saying, that's a large part of the interview process. So naturally, once people, new employees come on board, that's something that we continue the conversation about. I mean, it's something that they're, hopefully, if they're already. Made it in the door. After speaking with Christie and their, their new manager before their first day, they've actually have a good, solid foundation of the fact that we're esop and, you know, we don't expect them to really understand what that means. We don't expect them to understand that for a while. I mean, just cuz we, we understand that it's a concept that takes people a few. A few rounds to really understand. So, and also people's first or second day or, you know, even the first month, it can be quite overwhelming. So we try to ease into things and mention it as much as we can with, again, without being overwhelming. So on onboarding orientation, when Kristy speaks with. New employees on their first day, she'll mention some concepts. I, as in this new, more of an internal communications role. I make it a point to have a one-on-one conversation with all new employees, even the ones at the different offices. I do that within the first two or three days or, or. The first week and I still, uh, go over some of the concepts. Nothing too in depth, cuz again, we don't wanna overwhelm them and I don't wanna bore them to death. Yeah. But I basically go over some of the, some of the concepts and of course, I, I have some handouts that I give them. We give them a lot of information. I guess the information we give them is overwhelming, but I let people know that they can just read it at their leisure and, you know, we want them to feel comfortable and, and do it at their own pace. And so we broached the subject numerous times and we leave that when. Info with them so they can read more on their own. And then every quarter, the ESOP committee, actually I think it's Christie and Anita, host the ESOP 1 0 1 course. So that's for all. Nice. It's held quarterly and it is for all new employees that have started within that quarter. So again, we're all going over the same concepts and information, but you know, maybe. Hearing it for a third time, maybe that's when something's gonna click. And obviously we let them know along the way that if they have any questions at all about any of that stuff or even stuff that we haven't brought up that they can reach out to any of us and anyone on their ESOP committee as well. And you know, sometimes people do have like, A lot of questions and are very interested and you know, I have to then follow up with Anita and see, you know, find out, you know, what the answers are to these questions, which of course makes it a learning experience for me. And you know, other times people. I mean, understandably so. They're just not, not ready just yet to really think about that again. It's their first or second day at a new job, and they're overwhelmed. Yeah. So we make sure that we give them opportunities through different channels and in different comfort levels for them to hopefully speak up and ask the questions that maybe are on their mind. And then of course it's, it's a never ending process. I mean, every ESOP month and around statement day, we always take that opportunity to, to reeducate and remind people of the different concepts and the different, whether it's reminding them of the vesting schedule or how shares get allocated. Each year, we're reminding them. And then of course, most importantly, reminding them what. Goes into what can affect the share price. So that's something that is on their mind as they're working their day-to-day job and hopefully really start to adopt that ownership mentality. That's great. And so this is, there's no wrong answers here. How long. I ask, I always ask guests. I ask people at conferences, rent and ownership. How long does it take a new employee to kind of get it using kind of awkward air quotes? They, they kind of get it, the ownership thing. What would you say is, you know, your rough guess, rough estimate for how long that takes a new employee? I think it really is about when they care. Right. If you really talk about the ownership side of it, I think that concept comes a lot sooner than the retirement side of it. I think it was pretty crystal clear to me coming in right off the bat that I was empowered to make decisions. So I think it's a two-part question. I think the ownership side of it happens fairly quickly. Understanding allocations. Distributions. I think that's more honestly. Along that, oh, wait a minute. I got my first statement in. In our company, the 401k match goes into the esop, so in that first 12 months, if you contributed to your 401k, you're getting an ESOP statement. So people that do that, I think it hits them first cuz you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What's all these numbers? What does this mean? Yeah. Is this money for me? Whereas somebody else who may not be doing the 401k, I think that's more along the lines of three years when they're getting that statement and they see those numbers and you're like, wait, wait, wait. Is this money for me? Well how, why isn't it more, why isn't it less? And I think when they're interested, Is when it clicks. And I think people like me who come right in and I'm like, wait, I don't get it. What is, what is this? It clicks with me a lot quicker. I'm also the one that has to explain it though. So maybe I'm the oddball there. But I think, I think it really depends. I think the ownership side, especially here, it's evidently clear that you're empowered to make decisions here pretty early on. That's fantastic. Yeah, that's a great, but I do, sorry, go ahead. Yeah, good. Go ahead Anita. That's just a great, I was just gonna say, I just, you know, in fairness to Christie and Jody putting together this ESOP 1 0 1, Has really helped people. I mean, I know they're only just starting, but compared. I started a few months before Christie and we didn't have anything like that, but, and maybe it's cuz I'm on the other side of the fence now and I'm like going, okay, now, now you all get it. And they don't. But I just, I do really feel like that has helped a lot. Just understanding a lot more than what, and they, and they come, they come back with good questions that I didn't have at the beginning because I didn't know what to ask. That's great. Yeah. And on that, I mean, I feel like even for me now still a lot of it is you don't really know what you don't know. Yeah. And so you don't know what questions there are to ask, and so that's why we really leave it up to them to, I guess, You know, be the ones to start asking the questions. And I guess we put those seeds in there for them to do that. And, you know, every so often I start to get confused and then I, I need a refresher. And, you know, it, it's, thank, thankfully there's a lot of people around who can help us understand that. So I'll, I'll go and bug Anita and then I'll also bug her out. Her outgoing boss. Shout out to Jim Boyle, who's retiring at the end of this year. Many times I've been, I've needed to like get a sit down conversation with him to really understand it more because it's, even though I'm very entrenched in this ESOP world, it's all still very overwhelming at times. And yeah. So, so thanks, Jim. Anything that's cool and Christie? Yeah. Well, it's, that's great, and I appreciate, you know, how all three of you have talked about it. The, the short version I'll give on the first day with, we hire about 200 people a year. I do the onboarding and I'll say, okay, so if you go home tonight and you're, you're curious, something felt good, something felt different, even if you can't really explain it, then that's. Hopefully the beginning of feeling like, you know what it's like to be in an ownership culture, making sense of the wealth building potential if you stay long term, that takes a few years. That's sort of, so I heard a much more eloquent version from Christie that I might use next on our next hiring day, so I appreciate that. So next question is, what does ownership mean to you? This is a big, broad question and I wanna see what Christie has to say. So, you know what, initially when I first got here, it was kind of a poo show from an HR payroll perspective. We didn't have the right people in place. We didn't have the experts in place. And you know, I shared this with my brand new boss and he was just like, well, go do what you have to do. And I was like, Okay, well I think we need a new H R I S system. Get a new H R I S system. And that was so empowering, right? And I'm like, wow, I really am an owner here. And I went out, I found this Paylocity and saved us $80,000 a year. Yes. And that is, Just one example of, I think what we all do now, Jodi was just talking about having to go back to Jim and Anita to explain how does allocation work. But when I think of ownership, I also think of Jodi Holland because one of the things that she has been able to do is she's very much younger than I am. Right. So while I may be thinking more of the retirement side, she's getting into the nooks and cranny about how it works. She's been able to take something like allocation and put it in a graphic on a piece of paper and people are like, oh, I get it. That makes sense. And I think of ownership. So Jodi took ownership of her own knowledge, turned it into a graphic, and I saw that graphic. We had this nice five paragraph, here's what our allocation is. But Jody comes in, makes this one page graphic, and it's like, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, so I think of ownership. Jodi took ownership of a complicated word and and made it easy for everybody to understand. That's great. That's great. And I, yeah, and I couldn't have done that without people like Christie and Anita explaining to me what that was. Oh, but it's so much easier now, like doing that 1 0 1 with that, just that one graph. Oh, it's just, yeah. That's, that's fantastic. Yeah. With, with ownership, just talking to people, you know, a few thousand people over the years. My fascination with the culture element, it's, it's like you're, you're telling and retelling the same story and then finding a way to translate it and tell it slightly differently. Mm-hmm. Hit the key points with the main characters and the timeline, but you tell it a little bit differently. I. Check for understanding, maybe tell it a little bit differently next time. So if you, if you have demystified allocation, Jodi mm-hmm. Then that is a fantastic thing. Maybe it's something you could share at a future employee ownership conference, cuz I'm sure many other ESOPs would be relieved to have that simplified, cuz that can be such a, a tripping, befuddling mystifying topic for people on the front end of that learning. So if you've been able to pierce that, that's, that's fantastic. Yeah. Well, I'm just, I'm just a visual learner, so a lot of these concepts I. When I was learning it on my own to understand it bef way before I was trying to teach other people, I was trying to picture it visually and I pretty much needed to write it down and create a visual guide to how it works. And you know, then that's where certain graphics and stuff came from. So, yeah, so I'm glad that. It helps. Yeah, it's great. Fresh, fresh eyes, fresh perspectives, fresh skills, fresh storytelling always can make a difference. That's great. Mm-hmm. Next question is, if you had to describe ownership in three words, what three words would you share? Anita. Just three, right? I'm an accountant. Yes. Okay. I don't hold you to it. Sometimes we get three words. A couple times we've had 'em as sort of a, a saying and often people have many more than three words to explain them. I don't restrain you. Go for it. So similar to to, you know, how I describe ownership to my friends, the dedication, the collaboration among our team members, and once again, that responsibility. That we, that we have, I think they would be the three words that I would use. That's great. Dedication, collaboration, and responsibility. Yeah. Yeah. I think a lot of listeners are nodding and saying, yep. I think, I think that's it. That's it for sure. Yeah. Very well done. I appreciate it. What is. Different about working at an esop, I believe, and this is why sort of statement. Jody, what? What's different about working at D V L or working at an employee-owned company? Well, for me, so all of my previous professional jobs were at nonprofits. Mm-hmm. And I think this was helpful for me coming into an employee-owned company because there's sort of that. A similar sense of responsibility that you need to, you know, do Right? So I did marketing and fundraising at previous positions, and so naturally I was conscious of costs and being resourceful. I just wanted to maximize how much of a positive effect that I was able to have on the organization. So I think that, like I said, very easily translates to an ESOP as well. So I mean, it's pretty much the same. Here as it was at nonprofits when you look at it that way. And yeah, I mean I just basically feel just such a sense of a certain responsibility to do what's best for the company. And that was the same with nonprofits as well. And I, I definitely feel like there's more of a, a shared bond here with coworkers than any other place I've worked with. Just because you really do sense. And feel every day that you're in something together and you have that shared responsibility. And it's not just your mission, but it's everyone's shared mission. But yeah, I mean, just as far as everyone working towards the same goal and moving in the same direction in order to get stuff done. And I sense that every day. Yeah. That's great. Yeah, that's eloquent. Have talked to a few people that have joined us and joined other ESOPs from nonprofits. Mm-hmm. And it seems like it's, they have the easiest transition. So it's interesting to hear your, your perspective on that as well. So wanna share out what you're proud of, what you're good at when it comes to what's something that D V L group does well with ownership, culture and communication that you'd like to share, Jody? Well, I think one of the, Things that really defines our ownership culture is how we reward excellence, and that's just a huge part of recognizing our fellow employee owners and giving them the credit that they deserve. And so we like many other. ESOPs. I almost said like many other nonprofits, like many other ESOPs, we have an owner of the quarter. We also have a quarterly safety award as well. Safety is one of our core values, and so that's something that it's probably our most important core value. And so we've started a few years back, we started having a quarterly safety award. Also. That could be anyone from any department who. Recognizes a safety issue and you know, speaks up to make sure that that safety issue is, you know, righted or wrong is righted, I guess you can say. And we have annual awards, stuff like that. And as far as our communication goes, we have our quarterly print newsletter called ESOP Connect. That's, you know, of course, just an internal newsletter, but we mail that home so that. Nice. Um, people's, spouses and families, they can see everything that we're up to. And of course, any educational pieces that we put in there about ESOP concepts as well, that's something that they themselves as family members of the employee can learn as well. And we also have a digital version of that that we email. Out occasionally just to make sure that we're keeping up on stuff more frequently. And you know, as we said, we have a lot of those graphics and illustrations that we've put together over the past few years that really effectively explain concepts and dumb it down. And pretty much, like I said just before, I mean, I think the phrase is necessity is the mother of invention For me, I needed to understand those concepts and mm-hmm. That's why I created. I put those in pretty much visual terms so I can understand it. And you know, thankfully I did that because now hopefully other people are able to look at those and use them as well. And of course we're always updating them and I think that's a big part of. The, the communications we do is always looking at what we're doing and seeing how we could do it better. So as far as updating our ESOP brochures, which we're currently doing so that we can have a nice, fresh, new version to give out to people ahead of our upcoming statement day and around ownership month and statement day. We also sometimes do videos, whether they're ESOP news updates that are maybe like five or six minutes long or so, and then also educational videos as well, and. Right now I'm actually editing interview I did with Jim Boyle, who I had mentioned. He sure is getting a lot of shout outs on. He is. I'd like to meet him. Yeah. Yeah. No, he's, he's, yeah, he wears about 10 different hats at D V L and everyone knows that, and so I interviewed him the other day about his. Personal ownership story and his retirement story, looking ahead to what being a part of the ESOP has meant to him and what, why it's allowing him to retire early. And so that's a very interesting video that I'm gonna be able to let everyone see on statement day or ahead of statement day. That's great. So that hopefully, you know, maybe that's the one push that someone needs to really understand it and really realize, hey, this is. This is awesome and this is something that is so unique that none of my friends or family are a part of. And so, yeah, and also most importantly I think is with statement day coming up, Christie always plans question and answer sessions so that immediately following our, the meeting where we have the announcement of our share price and everyone gets their statement, the ESOP committee is available in person and on a. On a call on teams for, of course, the people that aren't in our headquarters office that can ask any questions they have, whether it's personally, personal, or specific to their own statement, or you know, just in general, the committee makes themself available to anyone and everyone who has those questions. And basically, like I said earlier, it's. We do a lot to make information available to people in hopes that they'll take it when it's best for them and in the forum that is best for them. Yeah, it sounds like you're doing an incredible, really thoughtful job with that. And I do for the listeners, wanna kinda amplify or restate what Jodi had said about sending things home and reaching the family. It's really interesting where some I. My, you know, I don't have data for you, but just in conversationally it sounds like very few ESOPs are really actively engaging families. It's just an enormous opportunity for everybody cuz you can have somebody come home and say, you know, you still have a bad day at an esop. You can still have humans at work you don't like. I'm not. I'm trying to give buckets of sunshine and bunny rabbits here. You can still have a hard day, but folks that are really bought in and really feeling empowered and valued probably seem a little different at home than they may have seemed at another company. And so to, to loop the family in knowing that your statement day is coming in hot. This may be for next year. If you want an idea from another great ESOP with culture is the web industries. At the last NCO conference, one of their. Vice Presidents, Michael Corey shared that they're, they're also family reaching when with their messaging and they, and he said they had a production worker come in and say, listen, the, the, this, my statement is too much for my family to understand. Can you on the back print out how much I have? I forgot exactly. It was very simple. I'd have to look at my notes and send it to you, but it was like how much I have and when I'm vested or if I'm vested and how much I have, and just giant print so I can stick it on the fridge. And they scrambled and they did that and it was, I just thought it was great because I now getting to know you better and, and. Jody, some of your superpowers with communication. I'd be curious just to talk in a year or two and see what you do with that idea. Or sometime have you and web talk together, cuz I hears some incredible culture similarities. But if you can reach the families that, that's great. And then with your video and, and that's Reinstiling foundational values. You're taking storytelling, you're taking a sentimental, timely retirement. Letting, letting him give a gift of, of influence and new, you know, it could be something that Kristy could use in onboarding or what else? So I think, I think it's really neat to, to hear what you're doing. Mm-hmm. All right. I wanna move to the EEO aha moment. It's not the first time you heard about employee ownership, or even when you started to like it. It's that moment when you went, aha. Boy, ownership's gonna be a game changer. Have you had that moment? And if you have, I'm seeing Kristy smiling. Could you share that moment, Anita? Okay. So when I started, as I mentioned, Kristy and Jody were not here. I knew we were an esop, didn't really understand it. Lovely. C F O here at the time used to come to me and say, you know, do you have any questions about the esop? And as Jody mentioned earlier, when you don't know anything, you don't know what to ask. Right. So I didn't, I, I'll be honest and say I didn't get it, didn't really get it at all. And one Friday evening, as you do on a Friday evening, you go for happy hour and like we're all doing later, by the way. Yeah. Nice, nice. I'm kidding. We're not. But I would like, oh, you weren't invited, Judy. Sorry. So again, once again, I'm gonna mention Jim Boyle. He is now our senior Director of finance. And myself and another colleague, we went for happy hour and I just said, I don't get it. I don't get any of it. I don't even know where to start. And he got, got out an napkin. And he loves to teach. He's a fantastic, like, he loves his whiteboard. He loves, you know, he just, he's a fantastic teacher. Anyway, so he took out a napkin, got a pen, showed to me when you would be vested, indicated like how old you had to be to diversify and how many years you had to be here and just, I mean, he didn't, he didn't go into detail on how the share price was calculated or, you know, that whole trust thing, but just overall concept. Was fantastic. I got it. And. And then I just, I knew the questions to ask from there on in, like about allocation and, and that kind of thing. But up until then I had, I had no idea what was going on with what an ESOP was. Exactly. I'll be honest, I'm an accountant. I should know. I was in public accounting. We never dealt with ESOPs before. Sure. So it, it was all new to me and I just, that happy hour was the most education on happy hour Great. I've ever been to, so yeah. Yep. The great aha. Happy hour. It was, aha was yes. That's, that's super. If, if it helps at all for just a way to talk about sort of the value and those other things, what I found helps, and I'm using for listeners, I'm just using an up and down hand gesture, is that, and in a healthy ESOP where everyone's working together. To be successful and and behaving as owners when the market goes down. And the ESOPs don't always go up. If the ESOP goes down a healthy esop, if you watch the trends, it doesn't go down nearly as much as the market. Okay. Yeah. But on the fun side, when it goes up and zooms, it tends to go off and higher then. The rest of the market. And so that's sort of that bandwidth. So if that helps at all. Having Christie, what are your thoughts on, on Anita's comments with the aha moment? You know, it's so funny because I've heard her tell that story a hundred times and my aha moment is just completely different. I was at an ESOP association conference and one of the things I love about being a member of the ESOP association is they have these chapters. So I'm in the Pennsylvania, Delaware chapter and I happen to be having, sharing a meal with people from the Pennsylvania. Delaware chapter and that camaraderie of, oh, my company's not strange with this whole. Retirement thing. Other people were doing it. Yeah. And then I sat in an ESOP 1 0 1 and it was just like my brain was exploded. I'm like, oh, you have vesting too. Uh oh. You have to wait 12 months. Oh, you enter in on January 1st. And just that. Hearing other ESOPs talk about how their ESOPs work. That was the time I was like, ah, I get this. It's not fake, it's not a scheme. The company's not playing with numbers. You know, I had all these conspiracy theories about, you know, does our CFO make the share price or does the trust and I'm winking here, make. The share price and I, it just felt more real. I like from an HR policy perspective that there's rules. It's followed by Risa and that's when it all just dawned on me in the middle of a conference of all places. She's at happy hour. I'm in the middle of a, an ESOP one oh class. I'm from Ireland. I'm allowed to have happy. That's great. That's great. Well, it's, it's hearing from peers that that makes it come to life, which is. Kind of the point of this podcast, and I think you've already, in our conversation today, left some real gems for other ESOPs to learn from or be reminded of and to go back and start doing again. And I think that's fantastic, but if you can hear it from maybe a teaching leader, so we'll have to give a, we'll have to call this the shout out to Jim Boyle. D v l group episode, which is awesome. May all the other Jim Boyles at other ESOPs smile and, and know the impact they have as well. But it's hearing the ESOPs don't have Jim Boyles. So, but it's hearing, it's, this is the whole point of these conversations and that's really with the, you know, with, with the conferences when you can go, I, I don't know that I've had a happy hour reference yet, but I love that. But with going back to Christie with the conferences, is hearing somebody else sound. You know, similar questions, similar kind of curiosity. It's almost like when you go back to the new employees, it's almost like you have to, the ideal thing I think would be to have somebody who's not too excited because they're really excited can be a little frightening. It can be kind of a lot. So you almost have like to have a medium. A medium, not, not a well done. So it's fun. All right. So I just have a couple, a couple more questions. So we are in an interesting time of in history, and this was a question recommended to me when I did the women and manufacturing series last year. My good friend and teammate, Gabe Luke, I said, what questions should I ask? And it's become one of my favorite questions. What keeps you coming back? Christie, what keeps you coming back in these unusual times? First and foremost, my relationship with my boss, Gary Hill. I report to the ceo. He's amazing, and he lets me be the subject matter expert. His trust in me, his faith in me, his relying in me, the responsibility that he gives me, that is. By far the biggest thing my team is, but a really close second. I have this team of experts that are so incredibly patient with both our internal customer questions, our external questions, customer questions as it relates to safety, their knowledge, their experience, their expertise, how we support each other is just always so inspiring for me. And then I think third is the relationships I've made here. Jim Boyle, Anita, Jody, the managers. You know, I, you know, I like to say I'm young in tenure here, only being here eight years. You know, we have people who celebrating today. Jodi does a great job every day. She sends out a personal email if you're celebrating your anniversary, and I love that. And just today we had somebody two days in a row, actually over 25 years, and it's like, wow, I can't even imagine being a technician for 25 years. But this person keeps coming back and just listening to their stories about the things that they do to go above and beyond. For all of our customers. It's, it's just really inspiring. I, I honestly wake up every day. I'm like, all right, let's go. Great. And they'll tell you, that's great. I'm very, very high energy, so that's great. Uh, I'm always just ready to get in there and see what kind of solutions we can have to opportunities. That's awesome. Yeah. And there's, there's a lot there. I think I, I really wanna emphasize or echo one of the things you said. So your relationship, um, Gary Hill, your leader relationship is, is meaningful. So se up to 70% depending on what you read on LinkedIn, Up to 70% of folks leave organizations they like or love because of ineffective or negative relationships with their leader. So I think there's room. When we look out to season three of the podcast, I'm gonna be asking more about leadership because it's a lot more interesting to have watched you light up talking about your leader. Talking, mentioning Gary and, and your sense of empowerment and your ability to grow. So I think there's, I think all of us should talk more about, I stay because my leader lets me be me and encourages and teaches, you know, the, you know, Jim and the other names that you've mentioned. I think that's really important. It's something we should just get. Back on the table and talk about not the leaving and the why, but it's, I, I'm becoming convinced in these conversations that it's the single best retention tool, profit sharing, all those other things, financial are fine. But if you're happy every day at work because your leader cares about you and is pushing you to grow and, and letting you experiment, people keep coming back. So I think that's awesome. You brought it up. So with the last thing before we close is this is your opportunity. You have the mic to promote D V L group. Why it's great to work there. And why? Somebody looking around for a job, maybe listening. We're gonna get a hire out of this podcast, Jodi. Go for it. Well, I'm gonna continue on the whole Gary Hill praise train and say that how much of a fabulous leader he is, and it all starts with him and how much the company really invests in the people themselves, them as workers and as people, and not just. You know, looking at them as a number. So something that Gary says all the time, and I know how much it really is true, is that people have jobs here, not careers and, no, no, no. I switched around. Sorry. Sorry. He switched around once also when I was doing a video with him. No, no, no. People have careers here. Not jobs. Sorry. Please let that be known that at D V L there are careers. Not jobs. And so with a career here at D V L, you could work at a company that's been rated a great place to work for six years in a row. Awesome. In April, we just received word that for the sixth year in a row we were rated. We've been certified. A great place to work and our ratings every year, even though obviously they're high because we got the certification, we're always still trying to improve that because of course we're not perfect. No company is perfect, but we're always trying to improve upon. Areas to make sure that everyone finds it to be a great place to work. And there's a lot of different things that make it a great place to work. And one of our, for example, we have the, everyone, we did a poll a few years ago, what everyone. As a DV employee, what is your favorite day of the year? It was pretty much a close between statement day and our Turkey fry, Turkey fry one our, the day before Thanksgiving, I think for over 22 years now or so. We have a Turkey fry where families are invited to come in and it's just an amazing day and obviously since it was. Rated the number one day by employees, but we, yeah, we take any opportunity we can to really celebrate our employees and, and everything. And you know, clearly I'm a, I'm a huge advocate for how great of a place. STE is to work. And you know, on my personal social media, whenever we have these accolades and stuff, I share about them and I, you know, I post, and last summer I was at my high school reunion, my 20th year, 20th high school reunion. And people that you know, that I've only interacted with through Facebook, they would come up to me be like, you know, we would talk, be talking about our jobs and. They would be like, yeah, you love your job, you work at such a great place. And you know, they would just remember how much I love my job. And, you know, clearly me promoting that and us everyone putting the word out is, I mean, hopefully other people are putting it out there as much as me, but any, anyway, so I digress and I've said enough. So I do have some quotes that we do have on a handout about why D V L is a great place to work. So if you don't mind, I have three. Different quotes from Sure. Employees, that'd be great. Uh, fellow employee owners. As far as when asked why D V L is a great place to work for them, what they said. So this is Chris from our Denver office. He had said the idea of create creativity or resonates with me. I feel like a valued member of the team when asked to come up with solutions. Then Carrie from our Philadelphia office says that from engineers designing creative solutions to our administrative professionals, coming up with new efficient procedures without the freedom to be creative and explore new paths and solutions, where would we be as a company? And lastly, we have a quote from a gym in the Philadelphia office. I wonder what gym that was. We don't have to, we be here through the walls. We don't have to remind people of our values because they already have those values. Nice. So we, we talk about our core values quite a lot and that's something that Christie talks about a lot in the interview process. And you know, clearly, as Jim was saying in this alluding to, in this quote, people, we hire people who have. Those values to begin with and understand that it takes collaboration, professionalism, and integrity to get the job done and to, I guess, go beyond the product and satisfy the customer. That's fantastic. I hope somebody considering D V L hears this podcast and, and reaches out to you, that's fantastic. I think a lot of listeners are gonna wanna work with all of you as employee owners, so I really appreciate the time. Very busy company. Three very busy people with different reach into the, into your running, your organization and supporting the customers and, and, and your co-owners. Really appreciate the time. It's been fun to learn more about D V L group and going beyond the product. So I'd like to close with kinda my, my amplification of ownership, but I'm gonna put a twist on it for the D V L group, or I like to finish with, you know, thank you for the. Listeners and supporting the YO Podcast Network and the Owner to Owner podcast buy, employee owned, eat. Employee owned work, employee owned, and get in touch with D V L Group to Power Cool. Monitor and manage your data centers. Is that a good pitch for you? All right. Excellent. Really appreciate the time so much, Jesse. Yeah, it's been a lot of fun. Thank you. A lot of great wisdom and humor and insights to share with the ESOP community, so I really appreciate it. Very well done today. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We'd love to hear from you. You can find us on Facebook at EO Podcast Network and on Twitter at ESOP podcast. This podcast has been produced by Brett Keasling for the EO Podcast Network. Original music composed by Max Keasling, branding and Marketing by Bitsy Plus Design. And I'm Bitsy McCann.
