Fourth time’s a charm for large employer winner — Paycom

Dec. 11--After three years as runner-up, Paycom has nabbed top billing among large employers on The Oklahoman's fourth annual Top Workplaces list.

The Oklahoma City-based company -- which has grown to 1,461 employees since its 1998 founding -- offers cloud-based software services to help employers manage payroll, hiring, health insurance, retirement and other human resources tasks.

Employee perks include individual health insurance coverage for only $1 per paycheck, free long-term disability, free $25,000 life insurance policies, free access to an on-site gym and $4 daily lunches catered from area restaurants.

To celebrate employee accomplishments, Paycom hosts a year-end awards banquet -- with giveaways, karaoke and other games -- at an upscale hotel in Dallas, offering chartered bus transportation. In addition, the company sponsors a fall family event with pony rides and a mystery maze and a Winter Wonderland with Santa.

But for all of the above, employees say it's the company culture that keeps them there.

Heidi Lively, a manager in back-end service support, said Paycom, her employer of nearly seven years, gave her the financial and emotional support to start her family 10 months ago.

"A co-worker who's become a good friend and I had our daughters six weeks apart, and today they're both at the same nearby day care," said Lively, 29, of Yukon.

Lively, who took 12 weeks off for maternity leave, admitted she had reservations about going back to work. "But when I pulled in the parking lot, I thought, 'OK, I'm home,' " she said.

The new mom said her employer, which offers monthly support groups for moms and dads, realizes there's no such thing as work-life balance.

"Instead, it's work-life integration," Lively said. "Sometimes, there's way more family priorities than work and vice versa," she said.

Meanwhile, Customer Service Supervisor Hillary Yetter, 26, of Oklahoma City, credits her total compensation package for helping her to soon buy a home.

Within weeks after she joined Paycom three and half years ago, her supervisor asked her about what she wanted to accomplish there, Yetter said. "They create a culture of eager people wanting to push themselves," she said.

For his part, trainer and two-year employee Gerald Goodridge, 30, celebrates Paycom's commitment to community service, including supporting him in his weekly ministry with Fellowship of Christian Athletes at Hefner Middle School, as well as the company's commitment to The Salvation Army. Last year, Paycom donated a record-breaking company-and-employee gift of $65,000, along with 14,638 nonperishable foodstuffs. "A lot of places say they have core values. But at Paycom, they also show they value us and the community," Goodridge said. "Not a week goes by that our COO doesn't sit down in my cubicle and ask, 'How are you guys doing?' "

"I call it M-by-WA: managing by walking around," COO Stacey Pezold said. "It's the easiest thing to do as a leader and the most important thing to do." Pezold recently launched a new LEADer business breakfast program, which gives employees opportunities to work with her and other senior leaders to build business acumen and leadership skills. More than one-third of the staff have applied and been accepted into the program, including Lively, Yetter and Goodridge. "It's become more than I ever imagined it could be," Pezold said. "It's not about position and title, but learning to lead from wherever you are in the organization."

Paycom President and CEO Chad Richison said the company's Top Workplaces' honor is especially meaningful because it's based on employee feedback.

"Like all successful companies, our greatest asset is our people," Richison said. "We try very hard to improve the lives of our staff, and we are delighted that is reflected in these results."

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