I wrote about Micrel Inc (MCRL) two weeks ago and received a response from management. The president and CEO sent me another email with further details about how he thinks about management, and how the company treats its employees. For those interested in MCRL, I reproduce it in full here:
Author Disclosure: None
Better People Make Better EmployeesWhat do you think of this?
It is my belief that if you help employees become better people, they will, ultimately, be better employees. So at Micrel, we focus on having the right culture that will enable employees to become better people. We respect and promote good values. Our objective is to help our employees become better family members, parents and spouses; better community members, citizens and overall, better individuals. As an employee is brought into the Company, our human resources department spends time orienting employees as to the culture of the Company. We have four distinct cultural objectives that each employee has to be willing to agree to.We believe that the cultures of honesty, integrity, dignity of every individual, and “doing whatever it takes” all combine together to help the employees become better parents, spouses, citizens and individuals, overall.
- Honesty
- Integrity
- Dignity of every individual in the Company
- Doing whatever it takes; no excuses. (In other words, doing your best at all times.)
Respect for every individual, I think, sets Micrel apart from most companies, in that we do not allow the use of vulgar or condescending language at the Company. In fact, we promote the idea of being helpful in that we foster the attitude of “How may I help you?” as a way of minimizing contention and confrontational attitudes. We promote the feeling that the Company is an extension of your home, and we promote good family values with our employees. We emphasize the importance of being sensitive to the needs of the family by allowing the employee to have two days off per year that can be counted toward personal leave to handle difficult family situations. We hold weekly staff meetings where we have representatives from the various departments within the Company going over various business issues. At the end of these meetings, we set aside time for management to present principals and practices meant to improve our individual and organizational culture, and we encourage proliferation of these principals throughout the organization.
Being kind to one another is a priority for the Company. The Company holds activities for the employees to give them a chance to get together and enjoy camaraderie. At the end of each quarter, I prepare a video explaining the business conditions and other goals and objectives of the Company that will be played at a communications meeting, with all employees. We answer questions as well as hear their suggestions for improving the Company and its environment.
We, also, have an open door policy at the Company, as well as a hotline that the employees can use if they want to remain anonymous.
The Company also has a pension and profit sharing program that is fully funded by the Company, and every employee receives a contribution from the program irrespective of whether or not they contribute to their own 401k. The purpose of doing it this way is to help every employee set up a retirement fund even if they can’t afford to do it themselves.
We hold regular charity fundraising events at the Company and encourage employees to get involved in the community. It is from these activities and this environment that we believe promotes the employees to be better people and thus become better employees.
Author Disclosure: None
