Top Corporate Culture Award Goes to Farbman Group

The Large Company Overall Champion is the Farbman Group in Southfield, which has 115 full-time employees and more than 85 independent contractors. The Small-Business Champion, with eight employees, is Assembly Ventures, a specialized venture capital firm in Detroit.

Farbman Group President Andy Gutman says the key to having satisfied employees is to treat them like family rather than workers. “Woven into the fabric of Farbman is a kindness culture,” Gutman says. “It starts by listening to people.”

There are several ways the Farbman Group goes about listening to its people. There’s an anonymous message board where employees can air grievances. There are monthly think tank forums, and there’s a committee called Farbman 3,000 dedicated to technology and the future of the organization.

“If there are barriers to the success of our employees, it’s our job to remove them,” Gutman says.

Other ways Farbman treats its employees like family include loans for employees who are facing financial difficulties, catered lunches two or three days each week, and a fully stocked kitchen.

“We have a mixture of healthy and unhealthy snacks,” Gutman says. “We tried all healthy for a while, and that wasn’t very popular.”

Active in the community, Farbman supports several charitable organizations. What’s more, employees volunteer to represent the company at events, and they can participate in activities like whirly ball games.

The firm also excels in the workplace flexibility category, a longtime staple.

“We were doing workplace flexibility before it was COVID-19 cool,” Gutman says. “And we foster a culture where you’re allowed to make mistakes, as long as it’s not intentional, repetitive, or from a lack of work ethic. We can learn from mistakes.”

Perhaps most important is the company’s overall dedication to its workforce.

“When the Great Recession hit, we didn’t lay a single person off,” Gutman says. “We decided to carry a little bit more overhead during that time. We figured the loyalty would pay off because people will remember that.”

The strategy paid off.

“We have very little turnover here,” Gutman says. “The people who do leave are retiring. We have longevity here and I think that’s a statement about how we treat our people.”

To read more you can visit Culture of Winning – DBusiness Magazine