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January 23, 2006
Keeping things in the families
I started my business with an unrelated partner; my father, mother, and brother joined early on. And over the years that has been a pattern: we don't just hire people, we hire families. More than a quarter of our employees have a family member working here, too.
We have two quartets of mom-dad-sons. A dad-daughter pair. Three sisters. A dad-son-cousin triplet. And husband-wife pairs? Lots, both hired and "grown on-site".
People from the same family often share the same values and work ethic. Chances are, a great employee comes from a family of great employees. (And if not, the family knows it. I have been encouraged not to hire someone's relative, too.) Having so many family connections throughout the company also improves inter-department communications. We have a killer grapevine.
We try to avoid having family members in positions where they supervise each other, and there are some downsides: We have lost employees in pairs because of a family relocation. It can be awkward when we choose not to hire an employee-recommended relative.
Overall, though, the experience has been great. "Our corporate family" it is more than an empty phrase, and I like it that way.
Posted by Bob Pritchett at January 23, 2006 4:00 AM
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