Celebrating 120 Member Stories!

MRA has been helpful in my career as a young professional, tackling topics like FMLA and all of the nitty gritty details can be very overwhelming. I am always so grateful for the folks on the MRA Hotline and their grace in offering feedback and answers! It cuts my research time in half and is always partnered with a pleasant conversation.

Josie Schieffert

I had a great time at the HR Roundtable and I gained so much helpful information. What a great group we had there - I already enrolled in the next group, you'll be seeing me again. Honestly, with all the different HR events and groups that I've attended, this one was the most helpful and enjoyable!

A Story of Recovery: Fire and Aftermath

Farmers and Merchant’s Union Bank of Columbus president commented that in his career he had seen 17 businesses suffer various disasters. CCI was the 18th, and the only one to successfully resume business.

The Pewaukee School District made a decision to advance its improvement through a structured process of strategic planning, using data-driven decision making, and identifying key work processes. When all was said and done, they applied for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and they won it!

ProMed received the HR Excellence Award at a special luncheon, which was part of the September HR Conference held in St. Paul. ProMed’s winning entry addressed the ever-present business challenge of increasing employee engagement.

Hatco Corporation recently reached out to MRA to help coach a current employee who was moving into her first leadership role. The new leader had identified many areas of strength and targeted a few areas for improvement and growth. We helped her create a thorough development plan based on business goals and personal development targets.

CPI realized that employee development was essential to its success and began to invest resources and staff to help its 200 employees learn, grow, and succeed. The organization has experienced sustained growth over its 35-year history, but during its strategic planning process last year, CPI leadership set a goal to grow revenue at a rate double that of previous years.

Aspen Equipment Company received MRA’s top honor, the HR Excellence Award, for its integrated wellbeing and safety program. Today, Aspen Equipment continues to build upon the success of this award-winning program while improving employee’s lives both inside and outside of the workplace.

On occasion, employers have instituted a "take your dog to work day" as a charitable event or for a company celebration. BuySeasons implemented a Bring Your Dog to Work Policy that permits employees to bring their furry friends to work on a regular basis.

LindenGrove regularly gathers employee engagement and exit interview data and constructed a plan to leverage its value. They decided on a two-fold focus-improving the new-hire experience with an enhanced onboarding program and making a positive impact by developing a stronger corporate culture.

Lion Precision's "Show Lion Pride" initiative heightens employees’ quality awareness and improved employee engagement. Lion Pride is a display of personal integrity that values the positive effect we can have on others through the quality of our work and choices we make.

Creation Tech has a high number of employees who identify themselves as Individuals with Disabilities (IWDs), which is an achievement for any business, but especially for a federal contractor with IWD affirmative action obligations. Creation Tech credits the company’s "people-focused, comfortable, safe, and honest culture" with its success in this area.

HydraForce is acclaimed not only for its manufacturing prowess and speed to market, but also for superior customer response and positive culture. Awarded 15 patents for innovative designs over its 30-year operation, HydraForce manufactures cartridge valves, the vital component of hydraulic systems that controls the speed, direction, and force with which machines do their work. HydraForce has experienced 300 percent growth, manufacturing more than ten million cartridge valves.

The Alliance and its member network strive for reducing the number of people living in poverty, increasing the number of people living safe and healthy lives, and putting more people on pathways for educational and employment success.

Chances are high that you know the name Red Wing Shoes even if you’ve never visited Red Wing, Minnesota. "We want to make a difference in people’s lives. And it’s all about our people and culture at Red Wing that makes that happen."

CEO Mark Urdahl

Foremost Farms’ employees challenge themselves to think differently, act differently, and work differently than in the past in order to compete and thrive in a global marketplace. From corporate culture to products, from plant floors to the C-suite, Be Foremost resonates in every area of this progressive organization.

What makes a mission statement worthwhile? What inspires an organization to identify its values and put them in writing? At BWBR, the mission and values statement are front and center when new programs and policies are developed.

The organization lives out its motto, Baking a Better World, with both passion for its products and commitment to fully engaging its workforce. We partner with MRA to bring a variety of programs on-site and we’ve added the Principles of Leadership Excellence training series for supervisors and candidates for potential future leadership.

EAA, a nonprofit organization, provides a full range of membership services to 200,000 aviation enthusiasts in more than 100 countries. They operate and maintain a 200-aircraft museum that attracts 130,000 visitors each year, an aviation maintenance facility, and a research library.

Windings has organically tapped into the pool of female workers who might otherwise have opted out of manufacturing. In fact, 50 percent of Windings’ entire workforce is female and nearly 70 percent of their production workers are female.

BGS continues to have a strong desire to grow its people. BGS happily invests in training employees who are willing to do the work. They regularly hold MRA’s Principles of Leadership Excellence Certificate Series for current and even potential leaders and offer real-world job experience to high school students to keep their supply of top employees coming.

Everything that RER does focuses on their 65-plus employees. All their successes (there are many) and their challenges revolve around the people working there who consider themselves a family. Our most important goal as a business is to get our people home safe at night. The thought of someone getting hurt at work is something none of us can fathom. So we decided to do all that we can to see that it doesn’t.

Many companies claim that their culture is respectful and caring. J&B Group, not only claims it, but has gone to great lengths to carry out the vision of founder Bob Hageman, who believes that every workplace should be a space of mutual care and respect.

Spend ten minutes with the people at HRG and you can’t help but feel the genuine kindness they have for one another, for their community, and for the world around them. "Never have I worked at a company that has gone to such lengths to support their employees and serve their community. We are a work family who takes care of each other. From new hires to leadership, we are all in this together and it’s an amazing thing to behold."

Pieper hosts open houses for high schools to rotate through different tech stations at their facility to be safely hands-on so they could get a real feel for what the jobs entail. "We realized that creating partnerships with the area high schools who have tech programs could be mutually beneficial. The kids in the tech programs really want to be here and learn about it, making them a great fit for the kind of student we want to connect with."

The credit union has a unique culture and likes to emphasize the fact that it takes fun seriously. "We understand the importance of cultivating happy, healthy employees who in turn concentrate on delivering positive, memorable interactions for our members. We want to be the best credit union to work for out there."

"There are many reasons we decided to implement unlimited PTO. A big one is that we really respect and trust our employees, and this is a great way to show them that. We are a very family-focused agency. If an employee’s child has a game or event during the day we encourage them to be there if they can. This benefit allows people great flexibility."