A Stellar Environment
Celeste Ford knows the limits of corporate life; she spent 21 years learning them. But when she struck out on her own in 1995 to launch an aerospace engineering firm called Stellar Solutions, Inc., she opted for a different kind of culture.
Ford combined the two elements most likely to be forgotten in the corporate world: flexibility and empowerment. Seven years later, those core values have catapulted Ford's $10 million California-based company and its team of 50 aerospace engineers into relationships with big-name clients like NASA and Lockheed Martin.
It didn't take rocket science for Stellar Solutions to succeed. Ford attributes her company's success to showing each employee just how much they are valued and needed in the big picture. "It is important that you can see yourself fit in to the overall goals of the company and can contribute to them," Ford says. "It's a fatal flaw to not do that."
By including all employees in strategic planning meetings, they see themselves as an integral part of the company's future. Annual goals are designed to penetrate each department, and every individual and customer makes up part of the equation. Corporate goals are then filtered into regional or team goals, and meeting those objectives translates into a bonus, Ford says.
But monetary compensation isn't the only empowering element at Stellar Solutions. In an enterprising attempt to achieve a healthy balance between work and personal life, the company allows employees to tailor money and time to their priorities.
"You can pick how much medical or life insurance fits your needs, and you can also earmark money for child care, elder care or tuition plans," says Ford, noting that totals for an Individual Benefit Account (IBA) can reach up to 25 percent of an employee's base salary. "By doing that people have that flexibility for putting money right into something that supports their lifestyle."
For the company, the details aren't difficult. Stellar Solutions simply combines several benefit plans until they total the maximum pre-tax amounts permitted by law. Any amounts above the legal limits are subject to state and federal taxes. Ford considers this policy of maximizing compensation and minimizing taxes a smart business decision for the company and employees. "We have this structure in place so that they don't have to figure it out on their own," she says. "We just have to keep up with it on the legal end."
Having such a flexible IBA allows Anne Pert, director of administration, to stay covered under her husband's insurance policy but use the IBA funds for out-of-pocket costs. "I pay all of the co-pays and deductibles through the IBA," Pert says. "That's a big savings for us."
The company also avoids any sort of use-it-or-lose-it benefits, according to Ford. "Someone who likes to take a lot of vacation can do that," she says. "But if you have a satellite launch coming up that would preclude vacation, you can take the cash."
Stellar Solutions also came up with a tailored response to the dot-com boom, when many employees received lucrative offers to join teams in Silicon Valley. Instead of IPO stocks, the company launched Stellar Ventures, a capital investment spin-off that pays bonuses based on how each venture performs. "This turned out to be great because we let employees live vicariously as though they're working for a dot com but without the instability," Ford says. "That helped us to retain the ones on the fence."
As the company grew, it was able to offer a salary continuance plan for maternity or paternity leave and bereavement. Last year it added education reimbursement to the mix. Stellar Solutions also established a foundation that makes up to $1,000 per year available to each employee to put toward his or her favorite charity. This is yet another way Ford continues to empower her employees.
"In a services company, your people are your product," Ford says. "You have to give them that kind of authority."
Company: Stellar Solutions, Inc.
Web site: www.stellarsolutions.com
Industry: Aerospace engineering services
Location: Palo Alto, Calif.
Number of employees: 50
Sales: $10 million
