How Cascade Engineering's vision helps create a more resilient workforce, stronger community and healthy bottom line

What began three decades ago at Cascade Engineering as a question of how to find and keep talented workers has evolved and expanded into corporate and community programs that support employees and encourage inclusion . During this time, Founder and Chairman Fred Keller has also become an advocate for business as a crucial creator of positive social and environmental impact, an educator of future business leaders, and a changemaker in his community and its industry.

For Keller, it's all part of building a strong bottom line as a manufacturing company and a healthy local economy as a community member. "The challenge as a business is that people want to consider the problem and then they want it gone. They think if I get the numbers right or add a diversity department, I can just do it. set aside. I was convinced that was not an appropriate approach," he says. "We really wanted to do something different. We adopted the phrase that we want to be a place where everyone knows that he's valued as a human being and for the work he does. That's a pretty high bar. It really boosted our thinking."

His initial question eventually led to Cascade Engineering's Welfare to Career program, designed to boost employee retention, empower workers, and improve their well-being, which can be challenging in manufacturing. By providing on-site support and connections to workers who benefited from social services, the Grand Rapids, Michigan-based company saw its monthly employee retention rate soar to more than 90% – a valuable return on investment. , says Keller, who also creates a collaborative working atmosphere. This supercharged thinking also propelled him into leadership and education roles, where he spread the word about business as a force for good. Keller recently completed 17 years as a visiting lecturer at Cornell University's Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management and served on the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Board of Trustees for 14 years.

Keller says valuing workers as human beings reflects the values ​​he learned as a child: the importance of nurturing and supporting others, which, in turn, nurtures and sustains the community local. It has also influenced her efforts to shape a workplace that incorporates employee feedback to build inclusion and equity. Like Cascade's innovative zero-waste initiative I spoke about earlier, the company's inclusion and equity work is informed and shaped by the people it affects most: employees. . And being a Certified B Corporation is another way the company lives its stakeholder-focused values.

"It's good for your business, it's good for your employees, it's good for the community, and you know what? It doesn't cost much," he says. Keller's belief that companies should take responsibility for employee support initiatives that also strengthen financial results as part of my research on goal-oriented companies, I recently spoke with Keller and her daughter, Christina Keller , who serves as the CEO of the Cascade Engineering family of companies.

Chris Marquis: Talk a bit about starting the company and your desire to create a workplace where employees feel valued and empowered, and provide equal opportunity for all.