Company: Applied Industrial Technologies
Location: Cleveland
Number of Employees: 4,500
What They Do: Value-added
distributor of industrial products to businesses relying on heavy
equipment with moving parts, such as the automotive, food, wood, paper,
metals and mining industries
Why it’s a great place to work: It
is a successful company with a culture of integrity, a concept of
servant leadership, and a supportive, family-friendly environment
David Pugh, chairman and CEO, 11 years of service.
It starts with a good culture match. When we invite people to come to Applied Industrial Technologies, we try to make sure they understand that we highly promote the core values of honesty, integrity, caring, fairness, openness and dedication to quality. We stress excellence, promise-keeping and continuing development of one’s capabilities. In fact, people come here for that very reason, more so than the benefits package or pay.
We also live the true concept of servant leadership. Basically, it’s an understanding that the higher you go in management, the more of a servant you become. That is, you have a tremendous obligation to be making the right decisions and communicating them properly to protect the personal security of a lot of families.
We do that by making ourselves very available and very visible during the tough times. Whenever there is a tough message to convey, we don’t use e-mail or letters. We do a video for the entire company so employees can read our body language, hear the sincerity in our voices regarding the key points we are trying to make.
We then go out and have town hall meetings, field questions. We have 455 facilities. So we will go to one location and maybe bring employees from 10 others into that location.
We also back up charitable organizations here in our community. It’s not stipulated, but every single elected officer in this company is on at least one volunteer board. I’m on the board of United Way, and I serve as a National Trustee, Midwest Region for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
Employees see the heart of the company, starting at the top.
—
As told to Lynne Thompson
Jane Graham, executive assistant, supply chain management department, 13 years of service.
The one reason I’m not going to retire right away is my boss. I just like working for him. He’s very open, very respectful. He listens. That ends up making the whole day easy. Once, we were going over some information he wanted — information that I wasn’t getting for him soon enough. Right away, he said, “Jane, if there’s a problem, I want to know. I’ll take care of it for you.”
Carolyn Srp, government contracts administrator, government sales department, 17 years of service.
In 1999, I had my daughter. I quit with every intention of being a stay-at-home mom. But because the people here are so wonderful, I kept in contact with a lot of them. Within six months, I was approached about filling a newly created part-time position. Everyone was very welcoming, very understanding. Some days, I worked from home. Some days, I came into the office. I got to set my own hours until I came back to work full time in March 2008. The point I’m trying to make is that this company wants you to have a good home life.
Dave Habian, financial analyst, treasury department, 3 1/2 years of service.
Applied does a very good background search prior to even interviewing you. I know they did some networking around the company, asking certain people if they knew me and what their impressions were. … The interview process isn’t just your basic one-meeting-you’re-hired type thing. I actually met with my direct supervisor and then somebody even higher up so they could make the decision based on those two interviews. I thought, Wow! They’re not just taking anybody. It was nice to know that I was chosen.