Although it may only have 37 employees on staff, MTD Micro Molding, ranked No. 6 for 2019 Best Places to Work, has its own form of currency.
MTD Bucks can be earned at the Charlton, Mass., company that specializes in molding tiny medical components through becoming a new employee (100 MTD Bucks) or the start of a new year (50 MTD Bucks), for example. MTD Bucks can be cashed in through an online store for logo apparel, such as T-shirts, jackets or backpacks.
Employees can submit ideas to improve the company inside the idea box, and those who submitted winning ideas are rewarded with a $100 gift card.
One idea that came from the idea box has been to have "lunch and learn" events on a more regular basis. Now they are done on a monthly basis, whereas they were previously done quarterly. Food is served — such as pizza, seafood or soup and sandwiches — and department leaders provide important updates to employees.
Community service is a large part of MTD, owner and President Dennis Tully said in a Feb. 12 interview. Tully died Feb. 28 of a heart attack.
The injection molder sponsors a highly successful robotics team at Bay Path Regional Vocational Technical High School. MTD works with RFK Children's Action Corps, an organization that services at-risk youth and families, as well as Toys for Tots, Coats for Kids, Overlook at Masonic Lodge, Old Home Day and many more.
"A local church does a summer festival, and we sponsor them for their festival so that they can pay the performers to come in, and then it's a free event for all the parishioners," he said. "They really enjoy putting that together, and [we] really like to help them by funding the cost of their performers."
MTD Micro Molding was named the 2018 Plastics News Processor of the Year as well as No. 12 Best Place to Work in 2018.
Company outings and Employee Appreciation Days are celebrated with profit-sharing announcements, lobster bakes, barbecues, lawn games, escape rooms, baseball games and curling tournaments. A few years ago, Tully said, the company took a bus into Boston for an exhibition, shopping and lunch.
Tully said from the moment employees start at MTD, leadership explains to them the goals and values of the company: "to be the first, to be the best, to ever look forward and to be part of a team and take responsibility for not only the people around you but your own job."
"Those are our really basic building blocks," he said. "I think what is really impressive is how everyone seems to embrace that, and it makes for a great team atmosphere."