Sammons Financial aims at making sure workers stay

October 4, 2016 by Matthew Patane

Sammons Financial Group wants it employees around for a long time.

“We know that people don’t stay in jobs like they once did for 20, 30 years at a time, but we’d like to change that,” said Cindy Reed, president of Sammons’ annuities group.

To help keep them around, Sammons aims to provide a workplace that is both stable and has a long-term view.

For example, the company is private; it doesn’t have to answer to quarterly market demands. It also has an employee stock ownership plan, which means employees do better when the company does better.

In return, Sammons expects high performance from its employees. To help with work-life balance, the company offers casual days and half-day Fridays every week.

“It’s important to do well economically, but not at the expense of our constituents which would be our employers, our policyholders and our distributors,” Reed said.

Employees go through multi-day training on the company’s core values — integrity, respect, accountability and openness. And, there are courses on how to give and receive feedback to encourage employees to talk constructively with each other about how to improve.

To embrace community service, the company matches charitable donations and sponsors volunteer days where employees can take time off work for big volunteer events, such as Special Olympics.

Sammons Financial Group

Originally Posted at Des Moines Register on September 17, 2016 by Matthew Patane.