At Phillips Edison & Company, company culture is the driver of success

While Cincinnati-based Phillips Edison & Company (PECO) deals in commercial real estate — a term that likely conjures mental images of blue-suited men and briefcases — its focus is more neighborhood than skyscraper. The company owns and operates more than 340 grocery-anchored shopping centers (i.e. the convenient strip that houses your go-to Kroger’s — and every other shop you visit on a weekly basis) around the U.S.

This niche automatically infuses Phillips Edison’s company culture with more of an employee focus than its larger competitors, and an emphasis on work life balance. Emily Kendall, the director of marketing and communications at Phillips Edison, said that as a working parent (she’s a first-time new mom), the workplace support makes a world of difference.

“We all think of one another like family, and that translates into care and respect for our families outside of work. The company does a great job of respecting our time with our kids,” she said. “It’s great that they’re recognizing that working parents are a valuable asset. You learn a whole new set of skills as a parent — like how to use your non-dominant hand when you’re holding a child,” she jokes.

Over the course of its 26-year history, the company has managed to blend two seemingly incongruous constructs: Established industry and entrepreneurial pizzazz. Kendall explained that PECO’s culture is heavily invested in its startup-y vibe — ping pong tables, group workout classes and clever acronyms to boot. There are even Microsoft Surface hub stations in every conference room; on a recent company-wide meeting, each office and all remote employees dialed in from afar without so much as a hiccup.

The seamlessness of the company’s tech-driven workplace is in part the work of Chief Information Officer Shaun Smith, who was brought on to bring the company’s technology up to top-notch standards, said Bob Myers, Chief Operating Officer.

“He helped bring our IT to the next level,” he explained, adding that the commercial real estate industry as a whole is increasingly reliant on big data. “PECO has invested heavily in technology and in giving us the tools we need to do our jobs effectively and efficiently. Data’s great, but you have to be able to put it in a format for the end user. Most of us here aren’t coders or statisticians…so it’s crucial to present the data in a way that’s easily understandable and can be processed.”

One example of this ingenuity in action is PECO’s backend accounting and property management system, a huge repository of information about its clients. The interface is well-designed and easy for employees to use; for example, if Kendall needs to look up a particular leasing agent or the latest rent roll, she’s able to do so in just a couple clicks.

The company, which was founded by Mike Phillips and Jeff Edison (CEO) in 1991, has always had an established culture. But until recent years, said Kendall, it hadn’t nailed down these cultural pillars in concrete terms. As part of a joint effort between the marketing and HR teams, Kendall and her colleagues landed on the following set of core values: Do the right thing; have fun and get it done; think big, act small; and always keep learning.

“The ‘think big, act small’ value,” said Kendall, “is really about how we are a big and growing company, but the idea is that small is nimble, and small is good — and we want to keep that small-company feel. It helps keep us connected.”

Connectivity and collaborative powwows among employees are nothing new at PECO: The company’s Innovation Lab is an internal initiative that unites associates from all departments and levels of tenure to propose solutions to company pain points; and the company’s lauded Annual Meeting is a three-day offsite gathering of all employees that focuses on networking, celebrating successes and outlining upcoming goals.

Emily LeFevre, the company’s senior director of human resources, explained that annual engagement surveys and targeted focus groups create regular feedback loops to help managers keep a pulse on employee morale and satisfaction. (In one of these recent focus groups, new hires called the company a “hidden gem” and “Cincinnati’s best kept secret.”) The company’s leadership team spends a lot of time listening to their employees as evidenced by last month’s new associate orientation session where Edison and Myers spent over an hour answering questions with recent hires.

PECO NOW (Networking Opportunity for Women) is another program unique to Phillips Edison, explained LeFevre. From 5K races in partnership with the Girls on the Run of Cincinnati to fun networking events, the program provides a chance for PECO’s women to support one another (though men are also welcome to join in). Both LeFevre and Kendall cite the program as near and dear to their hearts.

The PECO Community Partnership group is yet another chance for the company to showcase its commitment to local communities. The program is a voluntary, associate-led team that helps execute events such as service days, diaper drives and other charitably driven initiatives.

LeFevre explained that these types of programs exemplify PECO’s spirit of community — both within its own family of employees and the communities it serves — as well as its emphasis on “everyday innovation.” These assets, she said, are the company’s most notable strengths that set it apart from the commercial real estate stereotype.

“People here have a lot of ability to suggest changes,” she said. “Nobody is just a cog in a wheel. People can make the job their own, help the company grow and see their contribution in action.”

This story is provided and presented by our sponsor: Phillips Edison & Company