Disclaimer: These communications are intended for the employees of HB Global. We recognize that the general public will have access. The views expressed in these communications represent Bob Whalen in the context of HB Global and may not apply to broader audiences.
March is an exciting month at HB Global. It’s the start of our annual meetings with each division, and it’s when our employee owners receive their ESOP statement showing how much value has been shared with them over the prior fiscal year.
Events like these are demonstrations that our employees are truly owners in the company. They’re sharing in the value that is being created by the success of the company, and they get to hear firsthand, onsite from CEO Bob Whalen the state of the company while also having the opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback.
We recognize that each employee owner is incredibly valuable to the success of our organization, and it’s important to us to acknowledge this. It’s fitting for us to dive into the HB Global principle of Partnership this month, which demonstrates that our employee owners are truly viewed as partners.
Our Partnership Principle
“Our mindset is partnership. As an ESOP, our employee owners share the value that is created, and the financial impact to our employee owners moves in lockstep with the performance of the company. Employee ownership is not unilateral authority and decision making but is a partnership mentality that encourages input, feedback, and collaboration on those decisions. While we have an employee first mindset, we also recognize that leadership plays an important role in guiding the success of an organization of our size and scale.”
What Partnership Means
Because we are an ESOP, each employee is an owner in the company. Employee owner isn’t just a fancy, feel-good name that we call our employees. Our employee owners get to reap the benefits of the financial results created by the business. The balance of their retirement accounts truly moves the same way that the success of the company does. This means each employee owner really does have a stake in the outcomes of our business, making all of us partners. This forms the basis of the partnership.
But this partnership goes beyond the financial incentives. We want to foster a culture where each employee owner is viewed as a partner, not just an employee impacted by the results of our company.
This is why we strive for Radical Autonomy within our organization. Rather than having one-sided authority, encouraging autonomy throughout the organization helps us to increase feedback, input, and collaboration. These are the marks of partnership.
We also recognize that while autonomy is important, it doesn’t mean that our organization is a free-for-all. Experiences and knowledge are important throughout the organization, including on our leadership team. The leadership of our company plays an important role in guiding an organization of our size and scale to success by ensuring there is alignment throughout the business.
Partnership means recognizing and respecting that we all have something to bring to the table.
Why Partnership Is Important
The feeling of partnership throughout an organization doesn’t happen automatically when a company is an ESOP. Yes, all employees are technically owners and share in the value, but partnership goes beyond that. We want it to be present daily throughout our organization. We want everyone to provide their input, be accountable for outcomes, and be truly invested in creating value and making HB Global a great place to work. Without partnership, our culture falls short of our ideals, and we’re just another company, which happens to share financial value with its employees.
This principle also reminds us that it takes each one of us for our organization to be successful. We each have different backgrounds and expertise that allow us to uniquely contribute to our teams. And when we succeed as a whole, we succeed individually.
Furthermore, the concept of partnership helps us bring Radical Autonomy to life. While partnership and autonomy may sound in opposition to each other, they’re not. They really work together to make our organization successful. Radical Autonomy creates an environment for employees to act as true partners by creating space for feedback, creativity, and accountability. The Partnership principle helps remind us that this autonomy is meant for us to contribute positively to the organization, not to serve our own self-interests.
When we leverage the power of partnership and autonomy, we are able to feel personally fulfilled through the impact we make, create value for the company and ourselves, and set ourselves and the organization up for future success.
How We Live Partnership
Employee owners are strong partners when acting in alignment with our four core values.
Trust
Being a strong partner means exhibiting the behaviors we associate with trust. We honor our commitments to support our team, customers, and organization. We do the right thing because our actions impact others, and we assume positive intent because we’re all working towards the same goals of creating value and making HB Global a great place to work.
Team
Partnership starts with treating people with respect and checking our ego at the door. We are all important contributors to our teams and organization. When we practice autonomy in a way that is beneficial to our team, recognize our unique strengths, and step up for the good of the team, we strengthen our partnership.
Grit
We’re all owners in the organization. Being a good partner means getting the job done when it needs to get done without making excuses. Perseverance in the face of challenge helps us to be good partners, and because we’re all partners, that benefit will come back to us in terms of increased value.
Growth
Being a good partner means providing thoughtful feedback and ideas for our teams to get a little bit better each day. It also means investing in our own growth to be the best partner we can be.
Partnership is a foundational element of a culture that creates value and makes us a great place to work.
Have your own thoughts or questions about the HB Global Partnership principle? Send them to [email protected].