The leadership team at Plastic Components Inc. is deliberate and consistent in recognizing and appreciating its employees — and it shows, having made the Best Places to Work list every year since 2014.
"At Plastic Components, we are always looking for fun and refreshing ways to add joy, express appreciation and make a difference in the lives of their employees," the Germantown, Wis.-based injection molder said. "It might be warm chocolate cookies or a grilled cheese sandwich; a spot bonus for going above and beyond. It could be a feature in the newsletter highlighting [an employee's] tenure, accomplishments or family. It might be a pint of beer at the local biergarten or a volunteer day cleaning the river."
Fun activities include celebrating National Ice Cream Day, National Grilled Cheese Day with sandwiches for everyone and Employee Appreciation Day with a barbecue food truck. There's also Halloween costume contests, mask decoration contests, baby showers, handwritten notes from the leadership team and free tickets to events. Perfect attendance is awarded with paid vacation days.
But there's hard work to be done, too. High-potential employees can take advantage of growth plans, apprentice programs, mentoring, job shadowing/cross-training and tuition reimbursement.
When the coronavirus pandemic struck, employees were encouraged to work from home and conduct meetings via Zoom. Employees were given flexibility to leave work to get vaccines. PCI supplied other companies in the industry with masks and hand sanitizer when they were hard to find.
PCI employees said they enjoy the hand-assembled lunch goody bags with a handwritten note for having to work weekends as well as free coffee, snacks and catered lunches.
Founded in 1989, PCI was purchased by Rosti Group AB of Malmö, Sweden, in early 2022. PCI makes engineered parts for the medical, plumbing, pool and aquatics, small engine and automotive markets.
