Chuck Dahlgren, president of Crystal D, St. Paul, Minn., and the entire company were recognized in a feature article by Minnesota Business Magazine for an outstanding corporate culture.
The July issue of Minnesota Business Magazine honored Dahlgren for establishing a values-based corporate culture and using employee recognition as a cornerstone to the strategy.
Dahlgren described the way the business operated before establishing this successful culture. “For my first 12 years in business, I had no formal methodology,” he said. “I just expected employees to work hard and be loyal. Absenteeism, quality and turnover were an ongoing struggle.”
In 2006 Dahlgren and a dedicated leadership team formalized the company culture and began building a recognition program to support it. Dahlgren describes the transformation when he says, “We decided to be more of a servant-leader-based culture. We knew there had to be an emotional attachment to our purpose. Today our growth is huge because of it – nearly 100 percent of the investment has paid off. We have high energy and positive morale. Our customers and employees feel it.”
The culture at Crystal D uses employee recognition as a cornerstone. Throughout the year employees compete for excellence and nominate one another for various awards. Then at the annual recognition ceremony the winners are announced. Typically more than half of the employees are personally recognized.
The Minnesota Business Magazine article can be found in the Money section of the magazine’s website and in the link above.
