Investing in People
An Olympic Steel Success Story

Many organizations argue that the best way to attract, retain and motivate top performing employees is to keep their wallets full and provide them great benefits. Olympic Steel’s approach to building and maintaining a successful organization goes beyond these traditional expectations. What appears to really attract and retain top employees at Olympic Steel is a company that is invested in their employees' personal goals and success.

It Starts at the Top
The camaraderie and friendship promoted by Olympic Steel in the workplace is unique because it starts from the very top. Maureen Mason, Vice President – Human Resources, in sharing her opinion about what makes the organization successful at attracting and retaining Top Performers, immediately emphasizes the organizational leaders, “Unlike other big companies, Olympic Steel has smart leaders, who are not only capable and enlightened people, but are also wide open to reasonable suggestions [the employees] bring to the table”.

Caring for their employees is not a new concept for Olympic Steel; it has been their mantra from the very beginning. In fact, the company started in 1954 when it was founded by three brothers, Sol and Morris Siegal, and Sam Sigel. The first facility, built in Bedford Heights, OH, primarily focused on hot and cold rolled steel sheets.

Today, the now more than 800 employees located in several different locations around the country tend to feel that Olympic Steel is no less a family business than it was more than 50 years ago. The key appears to be the level of attention that the company pays its employees: when an organization invests time and attention in its employees, the employees are more inclined to return the favor by investing their efforts and skills in making that organization a success.

Working Backwards: Is the Company a Success?
Olympic Steel has been able to stay competitive and grow in an industry that has faced significant challenges in recent years. In the last two decades, the company grew into a billion dollar business, went public, became the region's largest steel service center, expanded into several different regions, and won the NorthCoast 99 Award 3-times!

Organizational success for Olympic, however, doesn’t just lie in sales volume and revenue, it also means satisfaction among customers and employees, alike. Recently, Olympic Steel added a survey of their customers focusing primarily on timely delivery and quality. As Maureen Mason explains, “The results were good, but there’s always room for improvement.” Additionally, Maureen states that their employee opinion survey's results have never dipped below 90 percent satisfaction.

How Did They Become a Success?
So how did Olympic Steel pull it off? How did they stay competitive in the tough years and become recognized as one of the top 99 places to work for Top Performers in Northeast Ohio three different times? If you ask Michael Siegal, Chairman & CEO he will first and foremost mention the core values of the organization.

“It’s easy to sell people on our core values,” says Siegal. The values are indeed appealing, they emphasize Respect, Teamwork, Accountability, Quality, Safety, Integrity, Employee Development and other important values. Many of the values align well with the workplace characteristics that Top Performers rated as being very important in a job on the Job Attribute Importance Survey.

Olympic Steels supports each one of these core values with concrete programs that allow individuals to enjoy and grow in their positions. The following pages discuss just a few of the core values and the programs implemented at Olympic Steel for the purpose of attracting, retaining and motivating Top Performers.

Safety
The need for a safe work environment is important, especially when you are working with several tons of rolled sheet metal and steel. The management team at Olympic strives to protect all employees and moreover has developed a safety incentive reward for teams that successfully complete a month of work without injury. Employees are rewarded with a percentage of their monthly salary/wages for maintaining high safety standards.

This initiative is an important one for Olympic Steel because its successful implementation benefits Olympic Steel as well as the well-being of the employees. Employees expressed the desire to work together to not only receive the incentives, but to also to meet the company's safety goals.

Olympic Steel also makes investments into industrial technology to ease the physical burden of warehouse work. The organization is committed to assisting employees in developing a safety conscious and healthy workplace.

Wilson Rogers Jr., Laser Operator for the Cleveland plant, explains the difference between Olympic Steel and other employers, “When I worked an 8-hour shift at other employers, it left me physically exhausted, but working a 12-hour day at Olympic, I still have the energy to enjoy the evening with my family because of the company’s investment in new technology and state-of-the-art equipment.”

Accountability
Accountability is an ever-present theme when talking with employees and management about what makes Olympic Steel successful. CEO, Michael Siegal, takes his position to heart and accepts the responsibility of providing employees what other companies simply will not.

Frequent communication of both good news and bad is a vital component of his relationship with Olympic's employees – and the employees appreciate it. As he states, “If I clarify my expectations with the employees, they are more likely to take responsibility for exceeding our company goals.”

Examples of these communications include internet postings, monthly newsletters, monthly staff meetings and monthly voicemail messages from Michael Siegal, CEO to all employees. Employees are encouraged to respond to Michael’s message with comments regarding the information relayed and some employees stated Michael is actually disappointed when he does not receive feedback.

All employees are held accountable for their jobs and the satisfaction of their customers. Through conversations with employees it was evident they believe that through hard work and goal attainment, they will have the opportunity to advance within the corporation. The number of internal promotions is high on the corporate list of ways to retain employees. Employee development is available to all employees through tuition reimbursement, job related seminars, company supported memberships, etc.

The management team is committed to hearing the good and the bad - and it surveys employees annually. From this information, a summary report is provided to all employees. From the report, managers and supervisors are charged with making the necessary improvements and, for instance, in the Cleveland division, quarterly meetings are scheduled to discuss progress. Progress is communicated to employees via the company website. Employees state that when they address even the smallest issues in the survey, the issues get resolved quickly and thusfar only one issue has gone unsettled and is recurring in the surveys - the ability to wear jeans in the workplace. When this is the biggest reocurring issue in an annual employee survey, the organization is probably doing a fairly good job of addressing other major concerns!

Michael feels strongly about employing individuals who are able to attain target goals and objectives, “You have to do what you say you’re going to do. We will give you the tools to be successful, but we do have to hold people accountable for their work.”

In addition, employees have come to expect the same level of accountability and commitment from their leaders. As many will confidently tell you, “Michael’s word is his bond.”

Teamwork & Respect - A Lot Like Family
Olympic Steel began with a family environment, which is still present today. Many long-term as well as short-term employees state that Olympic Steel IS a family, and people from other locations will always stop by and say hello as they are passing through – even on their vacations.

Ron Gore, Corporate Credit Manager, emphasizes the great investment the company makes in its employees. "Even when Olympic was faced with a tough economic environment, the employees were committed to staying at their jobs during the rough times and seeing the company through the recession. Michael was very troubled when he had to take unique benefits away from employees during the tough years. However, the employees who stuck it out through the tough times, later reaped financial rewards from a grateful and appreciative senior management team.”

Olympic Steel has created an environment where employees feel welcomed and part of a team. In conversations with employees, the “family atmosphere” at Olympic Steel, where respect and fair treatment are the standards, comes up as one of the most appreciated organizational benefits. Many who have worked for Olympic for several years remember when it was only fifty employees – but added that even though the company has grown considerably over the last twenty-five years or so, that the family atmosphere still remains. One employee recounted how one of the founding brothers (Sol) still comes in to the office on a regular basis, and when he walks through the halls he shakes employees’ hands and greet them.

The teamwork mentality begins day-one for new hires at the corporate office. With a 2-3 week orientation process, new employees are literally introduced to all employees (including the CEO and other top management officials) at the corporate office and many resounded the feeling that “all other employees want you to succeed.” They describe a positive atmosphere with an incredibly strong support system. They feel other employees are always willing to help.

The production workforce also agrees that the team mentality has broken down barriers that they have experienced at other employers, between workers and management. Programs to establish friendship, camaraderie, and respect are in abundance. Acoording to Dawn Barker, HR/Safety Manager for the Cleveland plant, "Frequent cookouts, volleyball games, and Whirly Ball outings are just a few initiatives in place to accomplish those objectives."

Alfred Gamble, Laser Operator for the Cleveland plant, is amazed. “I can’t believe they actually pay us to have fun.”

Many hourly employees describe a feeling of equality, and appreciate performance evaluations of the team as a whole. They believe if the team succeeds, the team is rewarded. If the team falls short of their goals, then the team does not receive incentives with regards to productivity, safety and quality.  

Hourly employees also mention that the management respects their ideas and is commited to an open door policy. In fact, although Olympic does have a formal suggestion system, many employees would be more comfortable just going to John Mooney, the Cleveland plant General Manager, and discussing their ideas, and as John stated, “I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

Employee Development
Olympic Steel provides challenging projects, opportunities for innovation, learning at a higher level and tuition reimbursement, all factors that aid in advancing employees in the organization.

Internal promotion is the norm at Olympic Steel, especially as it relates to recognizing top performers. One such example is Jeremy Thiessen, who started with Olympic as a Safety Intern at the Cleveland plant. He was then hired and promoted to Inventory Control Manager and has now been promoted to and has served in the role of Operations Manager for the Cleveland plant for the last year.

Michelle Sebastiani, Corporate Training Manager, had a similar experience. She worked for Olympic Steel for two-and-half years and left Olympic to pursue what she thought were “greener pastures”. Michelle returned to Olympic approximately one year later to a more appropriate position, after having worked for a software development company. Her reasons for returning to Olympic included the people, the commitment to quality, and the integrity of the organization.

Lindsay Wozniak, Corporate HR Specialist, who has been employed with Olympic for approximately 7 months sums up the employee development piece nicely by saying, "I am now doing tasks and taking on responsibility for items that I never would have thought I would be doing as a recent graduate.” In addition, Olympic Steel sponsored Lindsay in her attainment of a PHR certification.

Olympic employees have a strong sense of loyalty to their company and they feel the sentiment is returned. One employee summed it up perfectly – “the company never assumes you CAN’T do something. They give you the opportunity."  

Is Continued Success in Their Future?
Continuing their success is, not surprisingly, a major goal for Olympic Steel. They are hoping to introduce new practices from the HR and Training perspective over the coming years and, as is their custom, to keep the “family friendly” atmosphere abound.

While formalized programs may not be as important to the Chairman & CEO as much as making sure the employees have an environment where they feel financially secure, safe, nurtured and challenged, Michael is happy to answer any request and make any necessary investment in the organization’s employees to help employees, and in turn, the organization be successful. It is this willingness to invest time and resources into other areas that touch employees' lives beyond compensation and benefits that has helped build an environment where employees feel appreciated and feel more committed to making the company even more successful.

This story was compiled by ERC and is the property of ERC and the NorthCoast 99 program. Any reproduction or distribution of the information included in this report is prohibited without express written consent of ERC.