Van Meter Inc. Named a 2020 Top Iowa Workplace
Electrical Distributor honored for ninth consecutive year
NEWS RELEASE - CEDAR RAPIDS, IA — Van Meter Inc. announced today it has been selected as one of Iowa’s 2020 Top Workplaces. The Top Workplace process is based on a scientific feedback survey of employees who rate their workplace culture. Van Meter ranked 16th among Iowa’s top mid-size companies. This is the ninth consecutive year on the Top Workplaces list for the electrical distributor.
The employee feedback survey is conducted by Energage, a leading research firm on organizational health and employee engagement. Energage conducts regional Top Workplaces programs with major publishing partners across the United States. In Iowa, Energage partners with The Des Moines Register.
Energage solicits employee responses to 24 questions in the key areas of alignment, coaching, connection, engagement, leadership, performance, and basic workplace benefits and expectations. Employers that score high enough are recognized as Top Workplaces. Employers are categorized by size, and they are ranked within those size groups, to accurately compare results.
What makes Van Meter a winning workplace year after year? According to Van Meter President and CEO, Lura McBride, it’s the people. "When you hire the right people and create a culture where they can be their best and understand how they make a difference, everything else takes care of itself,” states McBride. “Delivering an engaging employee-owner experience is the best way to ensure we deliver an exceptional customer experience.”
In 2020, 90 percent of Van Meter’s employee-owners participated in the company’s engagement survey via Energage. Over the past nine years, the company has seen engagement scores well above the national average of 31 percent – consistently averaging 70 percent or better. “We strive to build our very best teams—people who are all in, all the time,” explains McBride. “Our success hinges on having every employee-owner focused on creating lasting value for the people we serve – our customers, our suppliers, our community partners and one another.”
According to McBride, Van Meter focuses on the total wellbeing of its people. This encompasses traditional things like heath, wellness, and safety, but also includes financial stability, personal growth and development, flexible programs to allow for better integration of work and home life, and very progressive parental leave and time-off programs.
Van Meter is a 100 percent employee-owned company founded in 1928. “Owning your future is a powerful thing,” concludes McBride. “Engaged employees are passionate about their work and their mindset positively impacts our company value. This has proven itself again and again at Van Meter; the strength of our engagement score over the time mirrors that of our stock value. Valuing employee-owners increases the value of our company.”
The Des Moines Register published the complete list of 2020 Top Workplaces in a special section on Sunday, Sept. 13.