Welcome to On Time In Full, a podcast from Designed Conveyor Systems. Welcome to another episode of On Time In Full. I'm your host, Yasmeen Hassan. Today, we're diving into what truly drives business success, building a strong and intentional company culture. Joining us is Megan Schrader, People and Culture Manager at IMI. Megan will share her expertise on fostering a positive workplace environment, the impact of initiatives like Installing Hope, and how a thriving culture empowers teams, drives success, and strengthens community connections. Let's get started.Megan, thank you so much for joining us today.Absolutely. Thank you for having me. And of course, on my favorite topic, company culture. Love it. Love it. So many people are talking about culture. I just mentioned DCS and IMI being part of the same company. And let's start there. How do you really see that partnership really benefiting IMI employees?Absolutely. So I kind of look at it into two parts. And one part being just that cross collaboration. We have so many of our employees here at IMI that are working hand in hand with employees at DCS on projects, using each other for resources. So it's like having a whole nother group of employees that you can turn to, to say, how have you handled this situation? Or we're thinking of handling a policy this way or a process this way. What are your thoughts? And so it's sharing ideas. It's again, sharing resources. Probably one of my favorite stories is the engineering department at DCS invited the engineers here at IMI and they get together, so they work hand in hand, of course, and they get together every Friday afternoon for those that have time and want to participate. And they do, again, resource sharing, idea sharing, book of the month club. They do different trainings together. Then they talk about the training. So again, you're talking about taking expertise from two different companies who are working together and just really maximizing that, which gives that opportunity.So that really, to me, always comes first in mind for me. The second one, I guess, kind of more tangible is our benefits and what's done is that does impact our culture. So with that, it has added an opportunity for us to have a much more generous 401k match, a flexible PTO plan. So not a lot of companies have flexible PTO. And, you know, we offer that and we really encourage employees, goes with our culture, to utilize time outside of work for them, for them, for their family, whatever they need to re-energize themselves. It also brought about multiple insurance opportunities with a very generous contribution from the company. Competitive salaries. We are now using, I think, three different salary software partnerships that we have in order to make sure that what we are offering, so not only for hiring, but for retention as well, that we're staying very competitive for our market. So it's great that we have that. Various stipends that we offer our employees as well has been great. We increased our engagement activities, spot bonuses, recognition rewards. So just all the way around and kind of that benefits package as I look at it for that, to create that great employee experience, it's been a great partnership with DCS and what it has brought to IMI. So we've been very thankful for that.I mean, I love all of that. And we're seeing so many more companies really focusing on that culture, which I feel like was not always the case, right? How does a company really create a positive environment and how have you seen it really contribute to an entire team's success?Absolutely. So I will say that in all my years, the over 25 years of HR, this really is the first time where I have seen that culture. It's not just talk the talk. I mean, we have laid out things and we continue to lay out things just as DCS as well, to really put it out there for our employees. First and foremost, though, it has to start with a strong leadership. If you don't have leadership, not only backing up the culture of what you want that to be, but also participating is just as important. They can't sit there and just send out the email about how things are important or, you know, stand up at a team meeting and talk about it. You need to see them just out there, just as engaged with everyone else and participating and just be part of that culture. So it starts with leadership. And from there, a company that is really just, as you said, with culture being so important now, it's employee focused. So we look at that in all different ways. As I shared earlier, benefits. We look at it as a, what do our employees want? I've been in HR, like I said, for some time now, HR can sit back and leadership can certainly sit back and think, we know what our employees want. But a lot of times, unless you are asking and doing surveys and not just doing the surveys, but actually listening to the feedback and putting together strategies around it and sharing that, you're, you're not taking the employee input further, which is really important.So to me, that's a big part of it as well. And then having an environment where you really foster open communication. You can't have an environment where everyone has their door shut all the time, you're not welcoming your employees to come in on the flip side though. I've had to say, and it's one of the things that I love about our culture here is I think almost everyone on the leadership team is out on the floor and our manufacturing shop walking almost daily. And so if sometimes multiple times a day, but it's out talking with those frontline employees and getting to know them and offering that opportunity for them to get to know us as well. And that's where the good conversations, as far as the productive ones really take place and you get to know them and you are, you're opening yourself up and you're showing how authentic you are because you care and they start to do the same and it just builds that trust. So that open communication is certainly key. Rewards and recognition. And so for us, that comes in a variety of ways and that is done through, and I love it. We call them family meetings. We don't call them kind of staff meetings or all company meetings. We call them family meetings. And I certainly understood after my first family meeting, why we call it that. We look at our employees, although a business, but this is our family, right? This is where we spend the majority of our time. And even if you're a remote employee, you are still working with coworkers majority of your day. And so it's important to still build those relationships. And during those family meetings, like I stated that we call them, it is making sure that we are being transparent, we're sharing information, and you're also opening it up for people to be able to ask questions back, being transparent on financials, what's new in the company. I mean, it's all the way around. So that is really important. And then we turn around and we reward our employees. We do that at the family meetings. We do spot bonuses. Probably one of my, my favorite things is just going around as you hear about employees that are doing great things and taking that gift card to them. You know, I, the other night we had somebody that stayed up pretty late on their own, not cause it was required to finish a project. And so that information came to me. And so I sent them a DoorDash gift card and I said, Hey, tonight, how about don't cook dinner, like order you and your wife dinner and go to bed early. Like, thank you so much for what you've done for our company and for the project work. Um, it's going out, like I said, on the floor and it's getting to know your employees. It's learning simple thing, but what little snacks do they like? And it's taking that out there to them and thanking them for the job that they do. Those little things go a long way. And then you, all of these things that I talked about, you have to weave them into your daily processes, your daily decisions, your daily interactions. It can't be a check the box one-time deal. It has to be woven in. And when you have a culture where not just for HR, but when your leadership team and managers are really weaving that into their daily work, and that's when it becomes really a company culture where employees go, they care about me, they care about the work that I do, and they actually appreciate all of the hard work that we're doing.Megan, it's so funny that you mentioned that. The other day, I was just reading a survey by employees who said that they would appreciate the company buying them lunch once a week or a $10 gift card more than, I mean, a small raise, but it means so much to not only have a monetary way of appreciation, but just noticing them out of the ordinary everyday grind. And I think that that's such an important thing to weave into the culture.Absolutely. You know, it is. I mean, just the other day I was talking with one of the ladies that works out in our manufacturing shop and she was sharing with me her favorite energy drink. And I said, actually, I've been wanting to try those too. Um, happened to be over at the grocery store the next day, saw a couple, picked them up, went and took one out, one to her yesterday and said, I don't know if you like this flavor, give this a try. And we sat there and we shared an energy drink and we had a conversation and we just, again, we're building that connection together and she's sharing information about her and it is those little things though, and talking to the employees that matter, like you said, more sometimes than even that, a bonus or, you know, even being recognized during the family meeting and, you know, your name being recognized. Sometimes those one-offs that you do just matter the most. Yeah. It's really about building all of those kinds of connections.And I know you also just recently launched Installing Hope. Can you tell us a little bit about that initiative and the i
