BizVoice May / June 2017

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May/June 2017 – BizVoice/Indiana Chamber 91
communicate, but we have to watch out for
HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act) issues.”
Lower scores involving safety led VNA
to establish an internal committee.
“It’s taken a look at the different safety
issues not only in the office – that’s easy to
control – but we have to pay attention in
environments we have no control over, such
as patient homes,” Streeter asserts.
Indianapolis-based Jackson Systems, a
leading direct-to-contractor HVAC (heating,
ventilation and air conditioning) controls
manufacturer and distributor with
approximately 50 employees, also takes Best
Places findings seriously.
Tom Jackson, owner and CEO, emphasizes
why empowering employees is vital.
“I own 50% of the company and my
parents own 50%. We’re very technical
people. We’re not HR-type people. We’re
much more about, ‘How do we design
something?’ he affirms. “Most of these things
we’ve come up with to make it a great place
to work have come from the employees.”
As Jackson begins to cite an example, he
chuckles. “The first thing that comes to mind
is that we give people their birthday off. That’s
not an uncommon thing, but it was uncommon
when it was brought to me. The other thing
is we really have no dress code. You can wear
shorts or jeans whenever you want. We give
everybody lots of Jackson Systems shirts they
can wear.”
Diversions and excursions
Gestures of appreciation, grand and
small, boost morale.
“Employee acknowledgement – that’s
key around here,” stresses Melanie Wilson,
senior human resources representative for
American Structurepoint. The full-service
engineering and architecture consulting firm
employs 400 nationally and about 300 people
in Indianapolis.
“The feedback portion of the survey was
definitely important, particularly last year
when we didn’t make the list,” Wilson
reflects. “A lot of the feedback was that we’re
expecting a lot of hours out of people, but
they didn’t really feel rewarded. We’ve tried
to take that as a learning opportunity to do
more team building: bringing in bagels for
Tom, Bette and Ron Jackson – owners of Jackson Systems – celebrate 20 years of service.
Blast from the past! Elements Financial whisks workers back to the 1980s.