The Lake Forest office of insurance brokerage CBC Benefit & Insurance Services has no problem mixing business with pleasure.
“We try to make a point of having a pretty familiar atmosphere, so we do have a lot of fun,” said Robin Sylvia, CBC’s chief executive and cofounder.
CBC, which has its main office in Las Vegas, has 30 workers, about half of them in Lake Forest.
It ranked No. 1 in the small company category in the Business Journal’s inaugural 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.
One of CBC’s major clients is Costco Wholesale Corp.
It handles benefits for Costco’s California operations and opened its OC office in 2004 after it won the right to be Costco’s broker in California, said Sylvia, who splits her time between Las Vegas and Lake Forest.
In terms of more traditional benefits, CBC offers its own employees health insurance, long-term disability, a 401(k) retirement savings program and tuition reimbursement.
These are the benefits that employees asked for, according to Sylvia.
“Those have kind of been an outgrowth of needs from our current employees rather than an attraction point,” Sylvia said.
CBC has several bonus programs. It’s on track to pay out more than $100,000 in bonuses and incentives, including cash, spa trips, gift certificates and vacations in the U.S. and abroad, Sylvia said.
The company put in a formal succession program five years ago and said that it “reaped the rewards” through the promotion of President Ken Bahl.
Bahl replaced Candace Maddin three years ago.
CBC is big on promoting within. It said it has multiple managers who started their careers with the brokerage as entry-level staffers.
About 20% of CBC’s workforce tele-commutes on a full- or a part-time basis.
It also allows some workers to do “compressed workweeks,” where they work longer days in exchange for shorter work weeks.
To encourage “fun,” CBC hosts annual camping trips, a golf tournament, shopping outings, going to Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim baseball games and other things between its two offices.
“Everybody knows each other and their families pretty well,” Sylvia said.
Employees praise Sylvia’s style.
“Honest to goodness, I really love (working) here because the atmosphere
is so friendly,” said Sherry Meradji, a CBC broker. “I look at my boss Robin
like my friend. So, every time I walk into the office, (it’s like) they are part of my family.”
Meradji, who has spent nearly three years at CBC, said Sylvia has been a generous boss: Meradji was given a month of vacation to go visit her mother in her native Iran.
She also said the company hosted an Ensenada cruise for workers where she took some family members.
To make sure workers are on the same page, CBC shuts down its office for one day in December for planning, Sylvia said.
During that planning day, CBC employees discuss their goals, including whether they want to acquire a particular skill or make more money. They then come together and build CBC’s corporate goals for the following year around individual desires, Sylvia said.
“You work for yourself,” Meradji said. “The harder you work, the more money you make, so it’s all up to you.”
This year employees were broken out into teams with a cross-section of the workers. Each team periodically reviews its goals and receives scores based on accomplishing what they set at the beginning of the year.
“From a manager perspective, if you’re not managing all the departments, then you kind of get an idea of some of the other kinds of struggles,” Sylvia said. “It’s been a good collaborative effort for all of us.”
