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.
Because HB Global is an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) company, we often talk about retirement and long-term benefits. Retirement planning is crucial for the long-term, but what about the short-term?
Although we are an ESOP, HB Global also focuses on making sure you are taken care of during your working years. Planning for the future may seem irrelevant if you’re not feeling financially secure now. We recognize that having purpose and feeling fulfilled now and in the short-term will also lead you down a more secure path for retirement planning.
As an employee owner at HB Global, you benefit financially in the short-term, but you also benefit from the culture, values, and environment we create here. It’s important to have the whole picture in mind when thinking about short-term benefits, and that’s what we’ll talk about here.
Money in Your Pocket Now
While working for a company that has great culture and values is essential, it’s important that you have a base compensation that makes you feel secure and allows you to take care of your family. Otherwise, it will be difficult to focus on anything else.
In addition to the long-term financial benefits provided at HB Global, we also offer short-term financial benefits that empower you to take care of yourself and your family now.
We recognize that while work is important, it’s not the most important thing. We want to make sure you can take care of what’s most important to you.
Market Compensation and Benefits
The most obvious short-term financial priority is your base compensation. We strive to always offer market-level pay and benefits for your area to ensure that you are fairly compensated for your work contributions.
If there is a negative feeling around how much you’re getting paid for your role, you aren’t able to focus on the work in front of you, your own personal growth, or the good of your team.
We want to relieve that burden for you straight away so you can turn your attention to other aspects of your life and work.
Annual Bonuses
We also want to ensure that you are able to reap the rewards for your performance at work. That’s where annual bonuses come into play.
Employee owners get paid discretionary bonuses based on a percentage of their division’s operating profit for the year. The goal of these bonuses is to share the value created at HB Global, in addition to market-level compensation in the short-term.
401(k) Grant Program
While 401(k) accounts are typically associated with long-term benefits because they are a type of retirement account, there are also some short-term benefits.
At HB Global, we make contributions to your 401(k) account each week, which can still be considered a benefit to you in the short-term because of the consistent “no strings attached” allocations.
Furthermore, 401(k) accounts serve as a source of liquidity. Liquidity refers to how easily you can obtain and spend cash. This means that, if you were in need of cash, you can take money out of your 401(k) account before retirement in the form of a loan that you pay back to yourself.
Additionally, 401(k) accounts are portable. This means that if you were to leave HB Global before retirement, you could take your 401(k) with you and continue contributing to it until retirement.
Non-Monetary Benefits
While money is great, it isn’t everything. What gets you out of bed in the morning is oftentimes more than just a paycheck.
Culture is one of the benefits that you feel every day. HB Global places a significant focus on our employee owners as evidenced by the first part of our mission to empower employee owners to make HB Global a great place to work. You can also feel this in how we live out our core values of Trust, Team, Grit, and Growth.
By simply focusing on our mission and values, we already set the stage for a fulfilling work experience that you can be proud of.
Another one of these benefits is our focus on learning and development opportunities. We focus on the growth of all employee owners, personally and professionally. To facilitate this focus, we offer programs such as PAVE and HB University.
HB University, for example, allows you to learn when you want and where you want, providing you increased levels of freedom in your personal development. Speaking of freedom…
Rolling Out Radical Autonomy
Part of our unique culture is our focus on autonomy at all levels of the organization.
In his book, Drive, Daniel Pink discusses the importance of autonomy within organizations. At HB Global, we are big advocates for the benefits of autonomy throughout the organization for both employee owners and HB Global as a whole.
To emphasize the importance of this concept, we have started to use the term “Radical Autonomy” to highlight our dedication to a level of autonomy for all employee owners that sets us apart from the rest.
What’s so special about Radical Autonomy? Not all companies have autonomy woven into the fabric of their organization. From the very top of HB Global, we want autonomy to cascade through the organization because it allows you to:
- demonstrate expertise in your role to best serve your customers and team,
- align with your purpose, and
- learn and grow,
Among many other benefits.
While Radical Autonomy isn’t something you can put in your savings account or frame on your wall, it’s crucial to your day-to-day well-being and fulfillment.
We’ll continue to talk about Radical Autonomy in the months ahead because it is so important to the success and motivation of you as an employee owner as well as the success of our organization.
Have your own thoughts or questions about the short-term benefits of working at HB Global? Send them to [email protected].