At Aliso Viejo’s OluKai Inc., family, or Ohana, is king.
The maker of shoes inspired by surfing and the beach draws on Polynesian culture and its values: a balance of work and life, and, most importantly, giving back.
Everyone is like one big family at OluKai. Dogs roam the office. Flexible hours allow people to take care of what they need to. Ev-eryone is encouraged to put their families first.
OluKai ranked No. 2 in the small company category in the Business Journal’s second annual Best Places to Work list.
The list was compiled for the Business Journal by Harrisburg, Pa.-based Best Companies Group, an independent workplace researcher that managed the registration process, conducted surveys, evaluated data and selected companies for the list based on overall scores from queries of management and employees.
Surf Wednesdays’
Perks at OluKai include “surf Wednes-days,” beach days, barbecues and team building through bowling and scavenger hunts, said Kerry Konrady, who runs the company’s marketing department.
“One of things we do is establish a work environment that is encouraging and inspiring,” he said. “It’s one of those environments where people want to come to work.”
OluKai has 32 workers and sees little turnover. Since 2005, only four people have left, said Cheryl Proodian, who heads operations at OluKai.
Founded by Matt Till and Bill Worthington, OluKai is big on giving to charities that preserve Polynesian culture and traditions.
This year, the company supported a junior lifeguard program in Hawaii as part of its work with the Hawaiian Lifeguard Associa-tion, of which it is the official shoe sponsor. Each year OluKai outfits all 450 Hawaiian lifeguards in its Kia’i sandal.
For the second time in company history, it also held the OluKai Ho’olaule’a Ocean Festival in Maui, which celebrates the ocean lifestyle, island culture, tradition, giving back and family.
The event, a two-day festival, was run by OluKai employees who learned about Poly-nesian culture.
OluKai also held its first “give-back” day, encouraging employees to give back to various groups for an entire day. Employees did beach cleanups or took kids surfing. Retail-ers, such as San Juan Capistrano’s Hobie De-signs Inc., got involved.
For the five-year-old company, it’s not about profit but rather quality of life, quality of time and quality of product and giving back, according to Konrady.
Adds Proodian: “After my maternity leave, the first four to six months my son was here,” she said. “That’s priceless. There’s no compensation that could have made up for that for me.”
The goal is to make lifers out of employees, Proodian said.
“We promote from within,” she said. “Our managers like to sit down with their staff regularly and determine where they’d like to be in the future here, so we can grow people in different positions.”
Don’t go sending your application in just yet. Getting into OluKai isn’t easy.
About a third of the staff has come from referrals, which employees are encouraged to do with referral bonuses. Job interviews can be like a boardroom, with several people grilling you.
“It really comes down to how the person fits within our culture,” Proodian said. “The interview process is a group interview. All the directors have a say in who we hire.”
Proodian has been with the company since 2006, shortly after it was founded. Konrady has been with OluKai since 2008.
The company’s upscale shoes and sandals are sold in boutiques and department stores, such as Nordstrom, across the U.S. and abroad. They sell for $70 to $175.
All of the shoes have Hawaiian names. There’s the Ohana for women and Kia ’i Trainer for men.
Signature Necklace
At events, the company gives out the brand’s signature necklace with its shoes. The necklace is a bone hook, called the Makau, which is a traditional Polynesian symbol worn around the neck as a sign of strength, good luck and safe passage over the water.
The shoes—made for kids, men and women—use water-resistant leather that comes from environmentally friendly tanneries, Konrady said.
“It’s a responsible product giving back,” he said.
Adds Proodian: “When I started, there were three people with the company. I remember looking at the website and it reached out and touched me. I got such a feeling about the company, the founders, their vision for OluKai and the future. And low and behold, everything they talked about is coming true. It’s amazing to be part of that.”
Gomez is a former Business Journal editor and freelance writer based in Long Beach.
