AT ELM EMPLOYEES ARE OUR GREATEST ASSET

At ELM Electrical, the CEO calls them — collectively and warmly — a “culture.” One manager describes them as a “great team,” while another says with finality that they are merely “the life and blood.”

The word “employees” would be the conventional designation, and at ELM, on any day, they can be found venturing into the far corners of electrical service to produce, with exhaustive precision, the devices for harnessing and delivering this awesome force of nature to the essential needs of everyday life. Installing programmable logic controls and operator interfaces, for example, and assembling control panels and mounting components. It’s the work of those of summit skills and insatiable curiosity.

“You hear these terms – our employees are our biggest asset,” said Bob Bacon, ELM President and CEO. “So having high-quality, high-value people who care about our customers and their co-workers is critical. It’s our most important thing. It’s the reason we’re successful.”

And noting a phenomenon in relationships, Bacon added: “What’s really interesting about it is — high-value people attract other high-value people.”

Case in point in the matter of quality attracting quality: Scot St. Laurent, ELM’s Panel Shop Manager, who came from a different company. “Worked with ELM in the past, used them as a sub-contractor,” St. Laurent said. “So, when I had the opportunity to come and work for ELM – that’s a company I’d like to come and work for. Because of the experience and the knowledge base that they had, and the diversity – made me feel [like] one spoke of a big wheel. They made me feel like… I want to be a part of that.”

A day in the life of ELM: “Every day, it’s coming in and getting to play with the big kids’ toys – that’s the best way to put it,” said Applications Engineer Tim Doyle. “And,” he added, “to solve real world problems. You have a great team of people who are dedicated, hard-working, really smart, and everybody collaborates. Which makes it a great place to work.”

Said Mike Holmberg, Senior Vice President: “Our employees provide everything we do electrical for our customers, so they are our greatest asset. They are the life and blood of ELM Electrical. Without our employees, we don’t exist.”

For Tim Rzeszutek, Senior Project Manager, there’s a kind of harmony throughout the staff. “It all starts with everybody here’s pretty much passionate about what they do,” he said. “We all come in, we’re focused on what we’re doing. Everybody’s relying on everybody else to do their part.”

Even when there’s a sour note.

“If we get somebody who’s not working out, or they’re coming in late,” said Bob Bacon, the CEO, “they don’t hear about it from me, they hear about it from his peers, … ‘Dude – you’re coming in late. You’ve got to be here. We’ve got to get this job done.’ I’m just so impressed with the culture and the way it self-enhances itself.  It continues, and it wants to be the best, and they strive to be the best. And it’s just a great scene and a great culture.

“I’d love to take credit, but I can’t. It’s the people in the organization that created the culture. It’s really powerful, and I,” he said, “don’t want to mess it up.”