COAST #7 IN TOP 100 COMPANIES TO WORK FOR
Langley, British Columbia
BC Business Magazine Article - December 2004 #7 Coast Spas Manufacturing
Coast Spas just may be the youngest and fastest growing business in this year’s Top Ten. Founded in 1997, the manufacturer of portable acrylic spas has experienced 330 per cent growth for the past six years. Most of this can be credited to the work and effort of a very young workforce. While the 300 Langley-based employees (with their world network of almost 200 dealers) continue to enjoy phenomenal opportunities for growth, Coast Spas is busy tweaking its formula for boosting employee retention.
The youth factor is certainly reflected in several of its approaches, including holding general assemblies once a month and issuing rewards (including sunglasses and coolers) for perfect attendance. At the assemblies, management discusses how the firm is doing and where it’s going. Like the dot-coms of old, Coast Spas also boasts a relaxation area complete with air hockey and foosball tables, satellite television and a nonprofit cafeteria.
When Coast Spas established the firm’s key success factors back in 1999 – quality, partnering, innovation, prices, employee appreciation/satisfaction – it had them printed on 30x50-foot banner that now hangs prominently in its headquarters with small posters hung throughout the complex.
These factors drive home the fact that “unlike other companies, sales are not No.1 here,” says CEO Don Elkington. “What we want to accomplish in our company is quality, on-time delivery and innovation before price.”
Any new employees who fail to memorize the firm’s success factors immediately run into them again when their probation period is up. That’s when they’re issued a T-shirt listing them, during a company-wide celebration. They also get a new hat, a gift certificate to the company’s café and the opportunity to sign their name on the giant banner.
It’s all part of building a community with a cohesive vision. Management’s relationship with the staff is special and includes being on a first-name basis bottom to top.
While many companies claim employees have a chance to contribute, Coast Spas has no fewer than five suggestion boxes around its building. Hundreds of suggestion forms are stuffed into these stations annually; the committee that reviews them monthly not only implements 95 per cent of them but also awards cash prizes to the best. Hundreds of changes implemented each year might sound a bit crazed but it works out to be around two a week; some of them are really small and it’s all “easily” handled.
“I’ve learned an awful lot of better ways to do things from these,” Elkington enthuses. “Employees come up with the ideas. We assist and coach and guide, but they have the ownership.”
Coast Spas aspires to hire well, offer super training programs, cross-train and promote from within wherever possible. Every department has one to two crew leaders-expert workers bale to train as well as inspect. These experts find defects on the spot, simultaneously coaching staff on how to minimize chances of the defect occurring again. Policies for handling diversity are also big on the firm’s agenda.
Named one of the 50 Best Managed Companies in Canada in 2000, 2001 and 2002 by The National Post (under the guidance of CIBC, Deloitte & Touche and Queens School of Business), the $55-million firm shows no sign of slowing down. Seven years ago, Elkington supervised fewer than 38 employees. Back then he could hardly dare imagine that as of this year, he’d need a microphone for the general assemblies. But his message hasn’t changed. Judging from the firm’s success, the employees get it.
