All workplaces face turmoil and uncertainty as part of COVID-19’s long economic tail. The best employers, measured by surveys of their own people, find ways to cope and shine.
A day will come when the aftershocks of the pandemic stop reverberating through workplaces. That time won’t arrive anytime soon, but the best employers find ways to keep their workers happy and thriving amid the chaos of uncertain times.
Fifty-five of those employers make up the Hearst Connecticut Media Top Workplaces award winners for 2024. Like everyone in this economy, the winners most of them privately owned, for-profit enterprises, several nonprofits, a few publicly traded and two government agencies must deal with a world without clear trends up or down. They do it with decent pay and benefits of course, but that’s just a small part of the Top Workplaces awards. Mostly they listen to employees and create a culture that’s flexible, collaborative and open to new ideas. Yeah, OK, they still might hold meetings, but the message I’ve heard in 14 years of reporting on Top Workplaces is that folks look forward to coming to work, whether in the office, out in the field or online at the dining room table.
The No. 1 winners in each of three size categories (we’re not Starbucks, we call it small, midsize and large) hail from differ-
ent sectors. Splash Car Wash, the top large employer (500+ local employees) has finished at or near the top in all three categories over 10 years. The Milford-based chain was founded in Greenwich by Mark Curtis in 1981, and Curtis has won our top leadership award more than once.
This year’s No. 1 midsize winner, the law firm Carmody Torrance Sandak & Hennessey LLP, with offices in New Haven and five other Connecticut cities and towns, returns to the list after a two-year hiatus.
And the No. 1 winner among small employers, Young’s Fencing & Landscaping, the fence-maker and landscaper, repeats its top finish from 2023, its first year on the list. Criterion, a Norwalk software firm, came in at No. 2 this year and last year after two No. 1 wins and a third place.
Winners in the Hearst Connecticut Media contest must
have at least 35 employees in Fairfield, New Haven and Litchfield counties. It’s not a vote or a popularity contest, and it’s not based on the whims of an expert panel. Top Workplaces is based on scientific surveys of employees responding to 24 statements such as “I believe this company is going in the right direction,” produced and analyzed by our partner, Philadelphia-based Energage, which manages Top Workplaces in more than 50 U.S. metro areas.
So, as these employers see it, how’s the economy doing? The
hiring market? The mood of workers? These aren’t simple questions. Generally, the Top Workplaces companies succeed financially as you’d expect, but some do not. The nonprofits are seeing record needs among their clients since the pandemic And almost all employers struggle with the right balance of flex-time and workfrom-home, another post-pandemic feature.
Overall in Connecticut, economic numbers look strong but not in every industry. And, you know, that pandemic-sparked inflation with its high borrow-
ing costs and fears of a recession keeps everyone guessing “Connecticut’s a complex place,” says David Lewis, CEO of OperationsInc, a Norwalkbased human resources consulting firm he founded in 2001 and a stalwart on the Top Workplaces list for 12 of the 14 years since the awards launched. The shortage of available housing priced for typical workers, especially in Fairfield County, adds to the complexity as companies try to hire. An ominous oddity this year: Scores in the Top Workplaces
DAN HAAR COMMENTARY
MannKind/Contributed photo
The Winners
LARGEEMPLOYERS
WINNERS
From page S2
are down nationally, especially in the Hearst Connnecticut Media territory, where the number of winners dropped by six from 61in 2023. “Workers are grumpier now than they were a year ago,” says Bob Helbig, the Energage media partnerships director.
Why is that? It could be the tense times in American politics and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. It could be from low scores at large companies that failed to make the list. It could be lingering fatigue from the post-pandemic stresses or, of course, prices of food, housing and energy.
Lewis, at OperationsInc, has a special vantage point as not only a Top Workplaces winner but head of a business dedicated to workplaces. His view: Hiring was so tough after the
pandemic that employees could demand pretty much whatever conditions they wanted. “More recently there’s been evidence that the market is starting to shift back in the other direction,” Lewis says, meaning employers are seeing more applicants. For employees, “There’s not much more to ask for at this stage...euphoria is starting to wear off.”
OperationsInc merged on June 21 into Arthur J. Gallagher &Co., the global, publicly traded insurance and consulting giant based in a Chicago suburb. Lewis is staying on with company-wide responsibilities, looking at sharp growth over the next five years. “We have a pipeline of people regularly who are interested in working for us,” Lewis says.
At least for the time being, the economy is cooperating, with a “soft landing” that rarely happens, though not without anxiety. “It’s still pretty difficult
(to) find good quality people,” says Greg Cohen, CEO at The Star Supply Co. in New Haven and a top-performing chief in the Top Workplaces contest. Star distributes climate-control systems so the hot summer has been good for business.
At Connecticut Foodshare, the statewide nonprofit based in Wallingford, CEO Jason Jakubowski knows many of his employees could make more money elsewhere. The organization, which serves 600 food pantries, has maintained significant annual raises and an average of 90 percent of health insurance premiums covered, among other benefits.
In response to employee feedback, Foodshare now has a professional development plan for everyone on the staff and a commitment to work-life balance with some innovative approaches. “We really have a family-first culture,” Jakubowski says.
The result: Foodshare bucked the trend and showed by far the strongest improvement in its scores of any company on the list, moving up 18 places among small employers.
Acouple of things you should know about Top Workplaces:
It’s overseen by our news department. Our advertising and marketing teams sell ads alongside the coverage only after the winners list is prepared. Those ads have nothing to do with picking the winners or determining the news coverage.
We make sure employees taking the surveys aren’t encouraged to give the “right” answers, so these winners are the real deal, with responses required from at least 35 percent of their local workforce to participate, more for small companies. Energage doesn’t pay Hearst and Hearst doesn’t pay Energage for preparing the winners list. The cost for com-
panies to participate in the contest is zero.
Ultimately, the winners are companies whose employees feel good about what they’re doing. That’s built into the job at service outfits such as Connecticut Foodshare, the mental health and addiction centers on the winners list and a new winner this year, the quasi-public Connecticut Paid Leave Authority. It launched in 2020, making it the newest employer on the list, with 40 people, all working remotely.
“Because we are small, there’s often a lot of collaboration between our departments,” Jessica Vargas, the chief marketing and communications officer, says. That means even bad ideas get an airing. “It’s definitely an environment where there is no fear of sharing what you’re thinking.”
dhaar@hearstmediact.com
TOP LEADERS AWARD: Q&A WITH MARK CURTIS, MARIA COUTANT SKINNER, GREG COHEN
Service to employees is the common thread
By Liese Klein STAFF WRITER
Finding and keeping quality employees in a time of stress and economic uncertainty is a concern for all three of the Top Leadership Award winners in the Hearst Connecticut Media 2024 Top Workplaces contest.
Although COVID-19 has faded from the headlines, the pandemic has shadowed the tenures of these company leaders and brought home the importance of communication, compassion and flexibility in their management styles. These traits, the ability of these CEOs to listen and reach their people on a personal level, emerged as the keys to success in a wide-ranging conversation about leadership and the challenges of 2024.
All three bring decades of experience in their businesses.
The third-generation head of his family business, Greg Cohen, president of The Star Supply Co. in New Haven, started working in the warehouse of the HVAC distribution business at 13 and has served as president of the firm since 2015 Cohen, 38, took top leadership honors in the category of small employers.
Maria Coutant Skinner, 55, alicensed clinical social worker and president and CEO of McCall Behavioral Health Network, based in Torrington, has helped direct and expand her northwestern Connecticut nonprofit organization through the pandemic and ongoing addiction crisis. She wins the leadership award for midsize em-
ployers, repeating from 2021. Splash Car Wash CEO Mark Curtis, 65, has led the
company he helped found for 43 years, growing it from a single Greenwich “auto spa” to an in-
dustry leader with 60 locations in three states. He’s the leader-
Leaderscontinues on S10
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Dan Haar/Hearst Connecticut Media
From left, Maria Coutant Skinner, Greg Cohen and Mark Curtis are the Top Leadership Award winners in the Hearst Connecticut Media 2024 Top Workplaces contest.
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LEADERS
From page S7
ship winner among large employers in this year’s Top Workplaces. He also has won the award previously.
Business writer Lise Klein and Dan Haar, a columnist and editor, convened a conversation with the three top leaders in the Milford offices of Splash in late August. The comments have been edited for length.
Q: What does it mean to you to be a leader in 2024?
Greg Cohen: We’re in the HVAC industry, we really thrive on customer service and the customer experience and the people element of business. I see myself being a servant leader, where it’s really about the people. You hire good people, and you hire people to complement the managers’ weaknesses. You give them guidelines and let them do their job, you service them so that they’re at their happiest
and highest-performing levels. How do we provide them the resources that they need to grow? That’s what I always try to do on adaily basis.
Mark Curtis: I will echo Greg’s comments, because our focus at Splash is on the people that actually do the work and are customer-facing. So we have an inverse pyramid where we think we’re at the bottom and they’re at the top. It’s our mission in life to make them successful. If they’re successful, if they’re happy, if they’re respected, they’re going to do the same thing for our customers, as we would hope they would. So it’s pretty simple, if we treat them and train them well, it’s going to be a successful outcome.
Maria Coutant Skinner: Health care obviously has changed tremendously. We’re still in an addiction epidemic, we’re in amental health crisis. I run a nonprofit and the people who I employ are in such demand that they
could walk out the door and get another job for more money anytime they wanted, and the jobs are intensely difficult. I love what I do I think that this is what I’m put here to do. But I think we have to be honest about just how intensely hard it is to work in healthcare.
As for leadership. I loved what you said, Mark. If we’re going to be any good at running any kind of organization that is employing humans, we have to put them first, and there are layers of complexities and challenges depending on what industry we’re in. What do you need? What can we do? What does self-care look like to you? And what can we do working within a nonprofit budget? That can sometimes be tricky, but it’s not always about money. It is about culture and about connection and communication. That’s what we’ve invested in tremendously, to try to have the culture that we have.
Curtis: It’s scary out there. I mean, for some-
body that’s living hand to mouth, it’s a scary time, and so I think they need leadership that’s very clear… saying, “Hey, we’re OK, we’re going to make it through. We’re going to take care of you… We’re going to pay you benefits and we’re going to take care of you.”
Q: Have you made any lasting changes in your leadership philosophy or your practices due to the COVID-19 pandemic?
Cohen: We’re in a family-owned, third-generation company. It’s kind of cliché to say we’re one giant family, but we truly believe that; and nobody’s anumber COVID has been good in some ways it drives innovation and we’re making sure we incorporate technology into our business. It was not all bad, but it’s really driven home that human element, really making sure that you treat people the way they should be treated.
Curtis: There are some economic challenges that
these people have faced, with inflation doing what it’s been doing over the past two years. That dollar that they were making before is not going to buy the same thing that it used to.
In the COVID period, we were closed for a while. We were able to maintain agood portion of our workforce through that, which was important. Because the next thing we were faced with was a worker shortage, and so it was challenging.
Coutant Skinner: This summer we’ve had probably more COVID cases, especially in our in-patient and group homes, than we had in 2020. So I think the world has moved on, but in any congregate-care setting, if you’ve got an outbreak, you still have to ask staff to go in-person, you have to think about that. We still have hazard pay in place so that we can run those programs, but there’s no more money from government to help pay for that. What lessons that were learned from COVID that we carried
forward, was that we can’t wait for people to come to us who are in crisis. So more and more we’re able to get programs and service lines that go out and meet people where they are. I think there’s incredible innovations that have happened across healthcare that reduce those barriers.
Cohen: Technology’s a double-edged sword, right? Everything is now super quick and super fast. Customers’ expectations have changed. How do we become the easiest company to do business with? We want to be that one-stop shop. Customers can text us, they can reach us on the website, whatever their form of communication. It’s also improving communications with our staff members, making sure that everybody’s rowing in the same direction.
Curtis: We use technology to make sure our locations are fully staffed, because when our customers do come, they want the service, they want it done Leaderscontinues on S12
Dan Haar/Hearst Connecticut Media
Mark Curtis is the CEO of Splash Car Wash.
Dan Haar/Hearst Connecticut Media Greg Cohen is the head of his family business, New Haven’s Star Supply Co.
Dan Haar/Hearst Connecticut Media Maria Coutant Skinner is a licensed clinical social worker and president and CEO of McCall Behavioral Health Network.
LEADERS
From page S10
quickly, they want it done thoroughly They want it done right the first time, so making sure that all of our equipment is working properly and our staff is appropriate for the amount of volume that we’re going to have at any given point is a tricky thing The weather dramatically impacts us: We can go from literally being closed to needing 50 guys on a site in 24 hours, for example, after a snowfall.
Q: Is technology such as artificial intelligence becoming a stress point with you and your employees? Are they worried about losing their jobs?
Cohen: Recently a 20-something employee in our service department, someone looking to grow within the business, came to me and asked, “Is AI gonna replace me one day?” Ordering on our website has replaced some calls to our customer service department, so I can see it maybe being a factor down the road. But it’s interesting to see some of the younger generation having a real fear of being replaced. I’m still all about the human-to-human interaction. We have a live receptionist at our desk, and we have in-person customer service. I think that’s all part of the experience I keep talking about.
Coutant Skinner: Technology can be a benefit: Right now, we’re partnering with Yale for a pilot program with an app that uses AI to help people get access to care for addiction and mental health. AI is also good for finding where overdose hot spots are and looking at substance use trends… that points us towards the work that we need to do More therapists are also working virtually in addition to inperson, and new graduates have a lot of options. Technology and COVID changed the expectations for what work looks like, but we are limited by requirements around our programs; we need our staff here. There are also mental health implications of
the distance between humans. Greg, that’s probably why you have a live receptionist. There’s so much lost when a screen is our portal to human connection. There’s this direct correlation between screens and mental health issues like loneliness and isolation.
Curtis: Most of our workers are assisting customers or doing physical work, so we’re not worried about screens. But one of the interesting dynamics is customer interaction. Customers seem to have really polarized to what we call the “express model,” where you just drive up, put your card in, and roll your windows up and go through the car wash, with little interaction with the employees. Customers love it. But when you read the reviews and you poll people, the first thing they say about Splash is, “Your people are the nicest people.”
Q: How do you manage through a crisis?
Curtis: I think a large part of any sort of management through any sort of ordeal, whether it’s small or it’s or it’s companywide, is communication. The quicker you get in front of it and communicate and engage them into the solution or at least make them feel that they’re not part of the problem is really important as to leading them through a crisis or tough times.
Coutant Skinner: If people feel like they have their say and they have autonomy, then that matters more than salary. It matters more than anything. When the pandemic first hit, I would make a video every day and send it out to our different locations. The first 90 days, I did a video every day. Managers and supervisors being strong in their role and being a real conduit for information and leadership is so critical, but employees do need to hear from the CEO.
Curtis: By engaging them, you change their focus from focusing on the problem to focusing on the solution: “We’re gonna get through this.”
Coutant Skinner: And they’re a wealth of information
because they’re on the front line, so the solution often is with them. And so if we’re listening and we’re in communication, then we’re going to get there together In the absence of real information, people create a narrative and then, and that’s almost always scarier than what’s really happening.
Cohen: People love being listened to and being part of the solution. They want their voice to be heard. ...We don’t know everything by not being out there, so I think it’s doubly beneficial by them being engaged and then also getting to the real source of the issue and hopefully working towards the solution.
Q: How are you faring in finding the workers you need?
Coutant Skinner: Compared to comparable organizations, we’ve really invested a whole lot to make sure that we keep pace. Especially in the far northwest corner, where the population density is not as great, it is hard to find and keep people. We’ve been really fortunate to be able to have our positions filled and stay filled. But we’re always talking about recruitment and retention. We’ve put a lot of things in place that really help, so we’re fully staffed Curtis: It’s not an accident because of what you’re doing, you’re retaining people. That’s the magic sauce, if you will. If you look at any survey that’s ever done in employee satisfaction, it is the respect factor, it’s the training factor, it’s the support factor, it’s the communication factor that ranks well above compensation. We’ve got two employees in Greenwich who hand-wash each car that goes through. They started there the day we opened that tunnel, 30 years ago. I think it’s because of the way you treat people.
Cohen: We’re very fortunate to have a long tenure with a lot of people. We’re right in this transition where we have a lot of people who are getting close to retirement. It’s also exciting now that we’re getting some youth into it. And it’s a good balance between the excitement
and energy that the youth brings and the knowledge and stability of the more experienced staff. We’re in growth mode so we’re trying to add, finding the right culture fit. So we’re in a good spot. We’re looking to add to fuel our growth.
Curtis: After the pandemic, we had some serious wage inflation because there were too few people to fill jobs at our locations. I think the influx of immigrants that we’ve had over the last two years in the region has helped assuage that.
Q: Is there a special challenge in managing younger people?
Cohen: I’m a millennial, and people say about millennials and now about Gen Z “All they want is more money.” I think they’re just human, and it’s the communication that we talked about. It’s understanding what they want. And sometimes you can provide it to them, sometimes you can’t Everybody wants growth, everybody wants to have a voice and be heard. I think they bring a lot of value, energy and they want to work hard. It’s up to us to have those communications, those coaching sessions, to make sure that we’re aligned with them. I can say the same thing with some of the older population, too. They have their challenges.
Curtis: I agree with that. Caring for that individual, making sure their needs are being met and they’re being trained and made successful I think is the basis that’s universal across age groups. Would I say that the younger group is a little bit more challenging? Maybe... but I think they still want that basic respect, to be a part of the success of the organization, to have their ideas respected.
Cohen: I think they’ve grown up in a world where everything is super, super quick. So I think sometimes the challenges we run into is the expectation of time that it takes to get there They want to come in and be a manager right out of college. I think it’s the expectation of how quick things will happen.
Coutant Skinner: I don’t
want to paint them as a monolith. But I think the one key difference that I’ve seen is that more than money, they care a lot about work-life balance. Paid time off is going to be one place where we can maybe flex a little bit, and that is attractive That’s not to say that they’re not hard workers, but they have boundaries that are different than when I was their age.
Q: How does the economy look from your perspective?
Cohen: We’ve been very fortunate in the last four years. The pandemic kept a lot of people home, and home comfort and indoor air quality have been more on people’s minds than it maybe has in the past. We’ve seen pretty good growth for the last several years. People are still willing to spend on air conditioning. In today’s day and age, it’s more of a necessity.
Coutant Skinner: Market forces impact us as well: There’s a real housing crisis in Connecticut right now and then that impacts the ability for my folks to be able to do their jobs and connect to continuums of care and keep people healthy and safe and working on all their goals. When stressers are amplified, people’s mental health is impacted. At the same time, we have had a lot of growth. We’ve added service lines, we’ve expanded because we’re able to have programs that meet the unmet needs of our society
Curtis: Our industry has gone through a major transformation over the last six or seven years with the advent of subscriptions. It has brought so many people out of the driveway and into professional car washing that it has literally quadrupled or quintupled our industry. I think the quality of the car washes have gotten better, which has coincided with that. But certainly the past year, inflation has really brought that into a question. So we see softness in our a la carte washes, but we see real strength in our subscriptions. So I think unless and until we see higher prices start to subside, we’ll continue to see softness in that end of our business.
Fighting loneliness when workplace friends hard to find
Twice each month, executives at the dating app company Hinge gather for a team meeting. But rather than dive into discussions about metrics or revenue, they begin by simply talking.
For the first 30 minutes of the two-hour meeting, these coworkers reveal hopes and anxieties what they worry about, what they’re grateful for, what they’re feeling Even at a company focused on connecting people, forging real relationships in the workplace takes effort, Hinge CEO Justin McLeod
told an audience at the South by Southwest conference earlier this year. He was co-presenting at the event with Ann Shoket, whose initiative to combat workplace loneliness is called “10 Minutes to Togetherness.”
As America navigates what Surgeon General Vivek Murthy described last year as a loneliness epidemic, employers and employees across the country are trying to address what for many people is a lack of real friendships at work
The problem of loneliness has been bubbling for decades; Robert D. Putnam documented it in his groundbreaking book
“Bowling Alone” nearly a quarter-century ago. Remote work has only intensified the problem, for extroverts and introverts alike, says leadership expert Michael Bungay Stanier, author of “How to Work with (Almost) Anyone.”
“People have this desire to be seen and be heard,” Bungay Stanier says, but on video calls, the group gets right to the business at hand rather than having the natural, informal interactions of a real room. It reduces people to “little heads in squares.”
This article is part of AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on
wellness, fitness, diet and mental health.
It’s not easy to talk about this lack of friendship at work “because it feels like a shameful confession,” Bungay Stanier says. But his clients are beginning to bring up the subject. Awkward as it may be, these are conversations worth having, according to psychology professor Laurie Santos, creator of Yale University’s wellknown class “The Science of Well Being.”
At-work friendships are good for employers, too
In her own presentation at South by Southwest earlier this
year, Santos cited research that showed workplace friendships and a sense of belonging are vital to employees’ happiness and companies’ success. We assume that friendships at work are “a nice-to-have, not aneed-to-have,” she said.
But “maybe one of the reasons we’re all so disengaged at work, maybe one of the reasons ‘quiet quitting’ seems so appealing, is that we’re actively not investing in the thing that might matter the most for our happiness at work, which is our connection with other people,” Santos said.
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TOP SMALL EMPLOYERS
Putting people first while using AI
By Alexander Soule STAFF WRITER
As much as anyone in Connecticut, Sunil Reddy knows the age of artificial intelligence is already at hand in at least one corner of the business world: human resources. His company, Criterion, is adding AI engines to expand the capabilities of HR platforms it offers to employers Will the human touch survive the advent of AI? In his role as CEO, Reddy is quick to say that has to be job one. He believes it’s possible amid the rapid tempo of technological change.
And the technology Criterion builds reflects social and workplace values, which, naturally, Reddy works hard to make sure are in place for Criterion’s own workforce of 60 people. Criterion values open communication and independent decision-making over rules, the company says “I have the flexibility to make choices I need to make, to better our team,” one employee said on the surveys that determined the Top Workplaces awards.
For a second consecutive year, Criterion ranked No. 2 this year in the Hearst Connecticut Media Top Workplaces contest among small employers, based on employee surveys and analysis prepared by Philadelphia-based Energage.
And for the second consecutive year, Ridgefield-based Young’s Fencing & Landscaping emerged as No. 1 in the category, in its second year on the list. Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp. placed third among 32 winners.
Searchable database: The Top Workplaces of 2024
From its headquarters office in Norwalk, Criterion has rolled out what it calls an “artificial intelligence assistant” called ch.ai pronounced like the beverage, chai to add personalized features to its existing software
platforms, and greater efficiency for tasks such as highlighting professional backgrounds in resumes so they’re not missed.
AI is enhancing ties between Criterion’s own employees as well, Reddy said, many of whom work remotely.
“Building social connections between people that you should be connected to, maybe due to your personal interests, professional interests that’s one thing that we’ve been doing with AI,” Reddy said. “It’s about how you make them more productive.”
said he does not anticipate needing AI for human resources functions for the time being. But the company is using software with AI features in planning its fencing installations.
Not everyone in the HR industry is as enthusiastic about AI pervading work life, or about advanced software algorithms meant to improve efficiency. In a study earlier this year published by Stamford-based Gartner, nearly half of HR staff indicated that AI algorithms have taken over some aspects of the job they enjoy.
At Young’s Fencing & Landscaping, co-owner Chris Couri
As for employee interactions, Couri said Young’s Fencing deploys the age-old method many people might remember from grade-school: sitting everyone down in a circle to encourage free exchanges of whatever is on their mind, whether on the work front or of general interest
H John Voorhees III/Hearst Connecticut Media Young’s Fencing & Landscaping co-owners Dan Rella, left, and Chris Couri in Ridgefield.
Hearst Connecticut Media file photo
Criterion CEO Sunil Reddy at the company’s offices at 301 Merritt 7 in Norwalk.
Dan Haar/Hearst Connecticut Media The warehouse at Connecticut Foodshare in Wallingford showing signs for inspiration.
Hearst Connecticut Media file photo Ridgefield-based Young’s Fencing & Landscaping
TOP MIDSIZE EMPLOYERS
Working in a place together matters
By Luther Turmelle STAFF WRITER
One trait shared by the leading companies on the Hearst Connecticut Media list of Top Workplaces among midsize employers is the ability to make employees feel like what they do matters. And that extends to customers.
When it comes to developing and retaining workers, the management team at the law firm Carmody Torrance Sandak & Hennessey finds that is best achieved by everyone working physically in the firm’s offices across the state. The firm has offices in New Haven, Waterbury, Guilford, Stamford, Southbury and Litchfield.
“We are committed to an in-office culture,” said Rick Street, managing partner at the firm. “We find we work better when we are all together.”
The firm employs 170 people, including 82 attorneys. Carmody was ranked No. 1 among midsize employers, followed by Total Mortgage Services, Barnum Financial Group and Cingari Family Markets.
Searchable database: Top Workplaces 2024 Street, celebrating his 32nd anniversary at the firm in September, got his start with Carmody’s summer intern program.
“When you’re starting out, you learn about a person when you’re working in the same office with them,” he said. “One of the ways I learned about practicing the law was observing how senior members of the firm went about their work on a daily basis.”
Amanda Nugent, the firm’s director of talent and diversity, said every new hire at Carmody is mentored by a senior member of the firm.
“It’s really all about and how to best support them,” Nugent said. “Itiswhatallowsustoachieveexcellent outcomes for our clients.”
John Walsh started Total Mortgage Services in 1997. Today the company has 15 offices across
TOP WINNERS
1. Carmody Torrance Sandak & Hennessey
Headquarters: New Haven; Employees in region: 165
2. Total Mortgage Services LLC
Headquarters: Milford; Employees in region: 450
3. Barnum Financial Group
Headquarters: Shelton; Employees in region: 223
HAI Group seeks to stress inclusion in all phases of its workplace, Malaspina said.
“We’re much stronger when we function together,” he said. “Engagement is the best way to get a highly productive environment.”
Connecticut and employs 450 people.
The company took a major step to boost its profile in 2023 by securing naming rights to the former Webster Bank Arena in downtown Bridgeport, joining Dunkin’ Donuts and Hartford Healthcare among corporate sponsors with names attached to Connecticut stadiums and arenas.
Barnum Financial has more than 30 offices in Connecticut and four other states. The firm as it now exists started with a spinoff from MetLife in 2016 The comnpany has 450 employees with over 220 in southern and
western Connecticut.
Paul Blanco, Barnum Financial’s chief executive officer, said the firm still has a strategic relationship with MetLife Barnum Financial serves as a financial literacy arm for some of MetLife’s customers.
HAI Group, a specialty insurer in Cheshire that serves housing authorities and related organizations, uses its headquarters for employee engagement activities.
Those activities include food truck Fridays, yoga classes and a community garden that grows right outside the window of chief executive officer Ed Malaspina.
The company has about 180 employees, he said. And Malaspina said he take his responsibility to his employees and their families seriously
“When I’m negotiating a new healthcare contract, I’m not just thinkingaboutourmostvaluable asset, the people who walk in the front door every morning to work for us,” he said. “I’m also thinking about the people who mean something to our people, their families.”
Malaspina said he utilized a unique worker development technique with his employees.
Cingari Family Markets Chief Executive Officer Tom Cingari
said it has become easier to find employees than it was in the immediate post-pandemic years. But he said it’s still a challenge, especially for students and other younger people working parttime, who demand flexibility.
“We have to be sensitive to it,” he said. “We can’t be as demanding as we used to be 25 years ago.”
Cingari said his company employs more long-term employees than most supermarkets and has been less aggressive at moving toward self-checkout to eliminate jobs, “because we’re more customer service oriented culturally.”
The 65-year-old chief executive officer has his youngest child in management at the company after studying food marketing in collegeandhavingworkedatother companies for five years as well as for five years in the Cingari meat department.
Christian Abraham/Hearst Connecticut Media
An interior view of ShopRite on West Main Street in Stamford.
Arnold Gold/Hearst Connecticut Media Carmody Torrance Sandak & Hennessey Managing Partner Richard L. Street in the company’s New Haven office.
Contributed photo
The HAI Group in Cheshire. Above is the company’s food truck for Food Truck Friday.
TOP LARGE EMPLOYERS
Splash back at No. 1; it’s a ‘family affair’ at Mozaic
TOP WINNERS
1. Splash Car Wash
Headquarters: Milford; Employees in region: 500
2. Mozaic Senior Life
Headquarters: Bridgeport; Employees in region (full time): 550
3. Post University
Headquarters: Waterbury; Employees in region (including remote): 2,100
By Paul Schott STAFF WRITER
The staff at Mozaic Senior Life’s campus on Park Avenue in Bridgeport work with approximately 320 residents. But they often use another word to refer to the people who live there: family.
Close relationships with the
people they take care of reflect the dedication of the approximately 900 employees, including about 550 full-timers, who work at Mozaic, which provides skilled nurs-
ing, assisted living, rehabilitation services and in-home care This commitment was also expressed in Mozaic staff’s recent survey responses about their work envi-
ronment, helping the organization to rank this year, for the first time, as one of the leading large employers (500 or more local employees) in the Hearst Connecti-
cut Media Top Workplaces awards for 2024.
Splash Car Wash rose to the No.1position in the large category
Largecontinues on S26
Brian A. Pounds/Hearst Connecticut Media
From left, Daniel Barranco, Sean Truncone, Tylor Foreman and co-founder and CEO Mark Curtis gather at the Splash Car Wash location at 1553 Boston Post Road in Milford.
Ned Gerard/Hearst Connecticut Media Licensed practical nurse Latresha Hamilton makes a point during an interview at Mozaic’s campus at 4200 Park Ave., in Bridgeport.
SMALL
From page S16
otherwise
“That’s opened up another level for our meetings. They become more meaningful and impactful and effective,” Couri said. “The idea of a circle, it’s talking about whatever’s on your mind. It’s not just about work. ... We are as involved in our people’s lives as they want us to be, and they share with us
MIDSIZE
From page S18
Cingari, whose grandfather founded the business in1929, rattles off the long list of competitors. Most are familiar names to shoppers and all of them are fighting for market share.
While the giant Stop & Shop recently announced five store
what they want.”
In addition to fence installations in Fairfield County and northern Westchester County over the state line, Young’s offers landscaping services in Ridgefield. The company lists nearly 40 employees.
“I probably hear it a lot from people, and it’s not a cliche, saying we have a great culture, we have a great team,” Couri said “You’ve probably heard of the expression ‘management by walking around’ MBWA
closures in Connecticut, Cingari said his chain has no plans to close any stores and could actually expand. “We’re doing well, but we’ve invested heavily into our stores, very heavily,” Cingari said.
That includes six expansions or remodelings in six of the stores over the last two-and-half years. Three more are underway and upgrades of remaining three
and [with] my partner Dan Rella, we’re there, we’re present. We’re out with the guys, we’re getting lunches catered.”
Rising a rung to No 3 on Hearst Connecticut Media’s Top Workplaces list was Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp., which won the No. 1 award in 2022 Fairway has its headquarters in Madison, Wis.
With more than 5,500 employees nationally, Fairway Independent Mortgage ranked No. 1 on the Energage Top Work-
stores are due to start over the next six months.
Carmody will celebrate its 125th anniversary in 2025. One of the firm’s early clients was J. Henry Roraback. The Litchfield County businessman and Republican party leader had acquired several small power companies in northwest Connecticut in the early 1900s and by 1917 was responsible for the creation of
places USA list the past four years for the largest employers. The company qualified as a small employers in the Hearst market based on its number of employees in Brookfield, Newtown and Shelton.
Five employers in the small category are making their Top Workplaces debuts, including Cedar Gate Technologies in Greenwich which separately in August made the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest growing companies in the United States based
on revenue growth. Cedar Gate offers data and analytics platforms for health providers, which have included AI functionality in some instances.
Other first-time Top Workplaces winners in the category are the Connecticut Paid Leave Authority, a quasi-public agency that formed in 2020 after state legislation establishing paid leave; Senior Living Residences; accounting firm PKF O’Connor Davies; and law firm Pullman & Comley.
the Connecticut Light & Power Co., where he became the utility’s president.
Roraback was a power broker in more ways than one, as the state Republican chairman for 25 years and vice chairman of the national GOP. Carmody was in the same Waterbury office building as Roraback when CL&P started out and ended up getting alarge share of the utility’s legal work.
CL&P later became part of Northeast Utilities, which in 2015 was rebranded as Eversource Energy after a merger. And the company still works with Carmody
In addition to its work in the energy field, the firm also specializes in intellectual property, climate technology and health care.
How the Top Workplaces list is put together
By Bob Helbig ENERGAGE
How do you judge the quality of a workplace? Ask the experts: The employees.
For the 14th year, employee survey firm Energage has partnered with Hearst Connecticut Media to determine the best places to work in Fairfield, Litchfield and New Haven counties. It’s not a popularity contest, and not everyone gets a blue ribbon. A select few are honored based on a scientific survey process.
Energage administers an employee survey that covers 24 factors and takes just a few minutes to complete. The survey asks employees to offer feedback about such things as pay and benefits, direction, leadership, meaningfulness and whether they feel appreciated. Energage crunches the feedback data and scores companies based on the responses.
There is no cost to participate in Top Workplaces and no obligation to purchase any product or service. For 2024, 2,485 organizations were invited to survey their employees. Based on the survey feedback by a smaller number of companies that participated, 55 employers have earned recognition as Top Workplaces in the region.
“Being honored with a Top Workplaces award is a distinctive mark of excellence, setting companies apart in a recognizable way,” said Eric Rubino, Energage CEO. “Top Workplaces embody the highest standards, and this award, rooted in authentic employee feedback, is a point of immense pride for company leaders.”
The award is open to any employer with 35 or more employees in Fairfield, Litchfield and New Haven counties. Survey results are valid only if 35 percent or more of an organization’s local em-
The HAI Group in Cheshire is a winner in the Hearst Connecticut Media Top Workplaces contest for
the company’s pavilion for meals and other events.
AtaGlance
➪ The list includes companies in Fairfield, LitchfieldandNewHavenCounties.
➪ 2,485organizations were invited to survey their employees, and only those who chose to participate are included in the list.
➪ The award is open to any employer in Fairfield, Litchfield and New Haven Counties with 35ormoreemployees
➪ Hearst CT Media and Connecticut Magazine do not receivepayments from Energage and donotpay Energage for preparing the list.
➪ Results are based on an employee survey that asks about pay, benefits and leadership among other things
ployees respond; employers with fewer than 85 employees have a higher response threshold, requiring re-
sponses from at least 30 employees.
Hearst Connecticut Media and Connecticut Magazine do
not receive payments from Energage and do not pay Energage for preparing the list. Energage earns money by selling consulting services.
Employers earn Top Workplaces recognition if their aggregated employees feedback score exceeds national benchmarks Employers are grouped into similar sizes to best compare similar employee experiences. Energage has established those benchmarks based on feedback from about 30 million employees over 18 years. They are ranked within those groups based on the strength of the survey feedback.
There are a few reasons why you might not find a particular company on the list. Perhaps the organization chose not to
participate. Or, the company did participate and did not score high enough on its employee surveys.. It also might not have been large enough to meet participation standards, or not enough employees responded.
Energage runs tests on survey feedback and in some cases may choose to disqualify organizations, for example, if a high number of employees said they felt pressured into answering positively
To participate in the 2025 Top Workplaces awards, or for more information, go to the nomination page at topworkplaces.com/nominate/ hearstct.
Bob Helbig is the Media Partnerships Director at Energage
HAI Group/Contributed photo
2024. Above is
the QR code for acompletelistofcurrent career opportunities orvisit mozaicsl.org/careers
Weare Fairfield County’s premierlong-term care provider,offeringrehabilitation, assistedlivingand memory care,and community servicesincluding adult dayprogram,memoryworkshop, outpatient rehab, home care andcompanions& homemakers,hospice.
AREA TOPWORKPLACE OF 2024. 4200 Park Avenue,Bridgeport, CT 06604203-365-6400
We area dedicatedteamofnurses, CNAs,therapists, socialworkers,homemakers, chefs, dining services assistants, facilitiesand enviromentialservices workers, fundraisers,employeerelations,ITsupport staff,a developmentstaff,and administrators.
By Dan Haar
Who’s on the Winner’s List
CTINSIDER COLUMNIST
At first glance, it appears the 55 winners in this year’s 14th edition of the Hearst Connecticut Media Top Workplaces awards reflect the mix of companies in Connecticut. And in some ways, they do.
In a region known for its long traditions, the Top Workplaces list includes a whopping 15 companies that are more than 100 years old. That includes four founded before the Civil War, all at least 170 years old: Liberty Bank, which is 199 years old, and First County Bank (both mutuals, by no coincidence); and among industrials, Ashcroft Inc., a maker of pressure and temperature gauges in Stratford, and Hubbard-Hall, a Waterbury chemicals and paints business.
On the other end of the age spectrum, the Hearst CT Top Workplaces list is a bit lean on startups, with just two winners under a decade old. The youngest is the quasi-public CT Paid Leave Authority, formed in 2020 by a state law.
The list includes 10 companies in the insurance and financial services sector, eight in health care, seven in business services (when we include two law firms) and five in housing and real estate Those all represent large chunks of the state’s economy. And we see six in construction and engineering, a hefty number that just might show the strong demand for those industries since the pandemic as anyone trying to hire a contractor can tell you.
Two biotech/pharma firms and two software/IT firms give the list a bit of a technology flavor although we wish we had more of the giant tech firms that dominate some metro areas for the growth and excitement they bring MannKind, a publicly traded, Danburybased maker of drug therapies for people living with endocrine and rare lung diseases, is among eight first-time winners on the Hearst CT list, which covers Fairfield, New Haven and Litchfield counties.
MannKind brings 260 local “mannitarians” dedicated to their goal, as they call their team a moniker that no doubt helped the company’s metrics in the 24-question employee surveys done by our partner, Energage, which formed the basis of the awards.
The other pharmaceutical firm, Cara Therapeutics, in Stamford, joined the winners list in 2023 and is also publicly traded (among only three stock-traded companies on the list). Cara, focused on treatment of pruritus, or severe skin itching, saw a collapse of its stock price on the NASDAQ exchange over the last 17 months. On July 11 it announced it hired a firm to explore “strategic alternatives,” which could mean a sale. The fact that the firm remained on the Top
Workplaces list despite that turmoil is a testament to its strong employee culture.
Looking closely at the largest sectors, we see some oddities. For the first time in its 14-year history, the list does not include any real estate brokerages, which in years past had several winners.
Gone is Berkshire Hathaway Home Services/New England Properties, a 12time winner in the large-company category that finished No. 1 among large employers most of its years on the list. That
could reflect the tough selling environment, with houses for sale scarce and interest rates high. To avoid conflicts, we at Hearst CT are not allowed to know whether a company that’s not on the list tried but failed to make the cut, or simply didn’t participate.
On the other hand, the winners list includes three mortgage lenders: Total Mortgage Services LLC; Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp.; and Planet Home Lending.
Another quirk: All eight of the health care winners are in home heath care (3); behavioral and mental health (3) or physical therapy (2). That clearly reflects demand in those industries along with a sense of mission.
Less common on the list are retailers and manufacturers, which could be because it’s tough for companies in those sectors to score high in employee surveys. Food service is rare in Top Workplaces but this year we see Cingari Family Markets, the local ShopRite owner, joining the list for the first time. The Norwalk-based business has 10 ShopRite stores in the state, nine in the three counties; and two other grocery stores.
Also off the list this year is ICON International Inc., of Greenwich, the corporate barter firm that was the only winner present in every year of the contest, through 2023. That leaves Physical Therapy & Sports Medicine Centers as the longest winner, with 13 years on the list most of them in the top five in its size category.
LONELY
From page S14
Some large companies began paying more attention to employee health long before the pandemic, often focusing on the physical: adding a gym to the office building or serving healthier food in the cafeteria.
Today, more employers “are not just checking boxes, but actually looking at ways to really enhance people’s health and well-being,” says Suzanne Heidelberger, who has led teams managing real-estate properties for global companies including American Express and Fidelity Investments. She focuses on bringing a hospitality mindset to corporate spaces.
For example, employers might:
• Rethink physical spaces with relationships in mind, she says Some companies are adding staircases, both to help people get more steps and to encourage the “casual collisions”
Remote work has intensified loneliness in the workplace. Experts say friendships and a sense of belonging are vital to employees’ happiness. And also to companies’ success.
that can lead to good relationships. Some are trying to transform green rooftops created to be environmentally friendly —into gathering spaces.
• Create groups and events to help employees find friends who share their interests. “It
could even be something goofy, like an ice cream social for dog lovers, where we’re going to teach you how to make healthy ice cream for your dog,” Heidelberger says.
• Offer online gatherings as well. During the pandemic,
American Express offered online cooking classes that helped employees feel connected and introduced them to coworkers.
What employees can do
Employees are also seeking answers on their own, notes executive coach Daniel Boscaljon, founder of the Healthy Relationship Academy, which helps organizations build better workplaces.
It’s not always easy: As much as people crave relationships, he says, many lack strong interpersonal skills.
“When you meet somebody with good relationship skills, a lot of times it’s like magic,” Boscaljon says. “People open up, they’ll start to talk, they’ll feel comfortable. Then, sometimes, they’ll have kind of a ‘vulnerability hangover,’ where they’re like, ‘I was too open there. What just happened?’ People are so unused to it.”
One key, he says, is to work on one’s own well-being. “You can’t have a work personality and a home personality,” he
says. “Who you are as a whole person shows up in every place that you’re in.”
Another strategy, according to Bungay Stanier, is to communicate with coworkers about how you can best work together before you dive into a project.
“We’ve all got our small little habits and preferences,” he says “And we assume what’s normal for us is normal for everyone.”
Raising issues beforehand helps you “avoid making small rips in the fabric of a relationship” that keep people from becoming friends, Bungay Stanier says.
Those inevitable rips are also worth discussing. “The relationships that thrive are ones that get repaired,” he says.
More than anything, remember the importance of everyday greetings at work even if they make you a bit uncomfortable Asimple hello, Bungay Stanier says, could be the beginning of the end of loneliness.
Jeff Chiu/Associated Press
LARGE
From page S20
after finishing at No 2 last year Splash was No. 1 among midsize employers for two consecutive years before that. Mozaic, on the winners list for the first time, is in the No. 2 spot. Post University is the No. 3 large workplace in this year’s contest.
Searchable database: The Top Workplaces of 2024
At Mozaic, certified nursing assistant Loylin Lavine, a 20-year employee,echoedothersinsaying she’s very close to Mozaic’s residents. “Taking care of them is like taking care of my mom.”
Lavine is one of many longserving team members at Mozaic, which was formerly known as Jewish Senior Services. About 175 employees have worked at the organizationfor15yearsormore,according to Mozaic officials.
“You meet all these wonderful people, and you look forward to coming to work. Every day is a new day for us and the residents,” said licensed practical nurse Latresha Hamilton, who has worked at Mozaic since 2002. “I can’t see going anywhere else because I would really miss them. I love my residents.”
Employee loyalty was critical during the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic, as staff workedrelentlesslytoprotectresidents, Mozaic executives say.
“We were certainly impacted by COVID, like everybody was. Obviously, it was a very difficult six months in 2020 that none of us will ever forget,” said Mozaic CEO and President Andrew Banoff, who has served in the positionsince2003andisonlythesecond chief executive in the organization’s51-yearhistory.“Butwealso bounced back very quickly, and the reason that we did is because we have an incredibly dedicated staff COVID is a challenging disease. But so is Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, dementia, cardiac and respiratory issues, and all the things we’re constantly working with.”
Mozaic provides long-term, skilled nursing; memory care; assisted living; rehabilitation services; and in-home care through
an affiliate
In the next few years, Mozaic’s head count is set to grow significantly because it is planning to build its second campus, on Long Ridge Road, in Stamford. Construction of the 210-unit complex is expected to begin next year, with an anticipated opening in 2027.
“We have built a reputation on being a mission-driven organization. We do that to take care of seniors in different settings, different environments, but always to the best of our ability,” Banoff said. “Stamford is an extension of that because we’re adding independent living to the scope of what we do now.”
For Milford-headquartered Splash Car Wash, which has ranked in Top Workplaces for 10 years including seven in a row, a clear understanding of the traits that employees need to succeed has limited turnover amid significantgrowthinthepastfewyears. The company now has more than 1,000 employees across 64 locations in Connecticut, Massachu-
setts, New York and Vermont a network that cleans more than 6 million vehicles each year.
Within Connecticut, Splash has 19 establishments and about 520 employees. In addition, construction is underway at five locations in New York and another in Massachusetts.
“The attitude of the leader is generally what the rest of the team mirrors,” said Splash cofounder and CEO Mark Curtis, who is also this year’s No. 1 CEO among large employers, a distinction he has won before. “We hire the attitude and train the skill. So the goal is always to get somebody who’s going to be upbeat, smiling and happy.”
Employees, Curtis added, “need somebody who is going to make them feel good and brush off customer interactions that are negative or change the customer from a negative to a positive.”
While Splash faces pressures suchasinflation,ithasseenanenduring demand for its services.
“The only way that I can interpret that is that people have be-
come accustomed to caring for their cars better than they had historically,” Curtis said. “Rather thanaluxury,Ithinkthey’relooking at it more as, ‘this is a necessity.’ We’ve continued to grow the number of subscribers that we have at our locations.”
At Post University, which has ranked in Top Workplaces for two consecutive years, efforts in the past few years to improve compensation, benefits and workplace flexibility should continue to attract strong candidates from across the country, officials said.
Post, which is a for-profit university with a campus in Waterbury, has about 2,100 employees has about 100 faculty members based on campus, along with approximately 250 non-faculty staff known as associates. The others workinhybridorfullyremotepositions.
The university serves approximately15,000 online students and about 800 who take classes on campus.
“We now are more thoughtful
and intentional in evaluating pay… and making sure that we’re evaluating considerations that impact things like cost of living,” said Wesley Debnam, Post’s senior vice president of culture, diversity and associate experience. “We do market research and benchmarking comparisons to ensure that our benefit plan stays ahead of competition, in terms of its richness, the quality of it, the coverages.”
At the same time, the university has stayed true to its principles, according to Debnam.
“It’s a brand tenet that we use: Make it personal,” Debnam said. “Make it personal for the student, make it personal for your colleague. That ‘make it personal’ is all about whatever you’re doing, you’re doing… No one’s a number. The student is not a number, the associate is not a number. They’re individuals with individual differences, individual needs, individual circumstances. We try to ensure that what we do responds to and reflects a sensitivity to that.”
Ned Gerard/Hearst Connecticut Media
Residents play poker in a common area of the campus of Mozaic Senior Life at 4200 Park Ave. in Bridgeport on Aug. 19.
