Employee Benefit News
January 01, 2002
BYLINE: Jill Elswick
LENGTH: 1295 words
Wage earners in the service sector rarely expect anything more than a paycheck and a pat on the back. But in a time of sustained workforce shortages, Merry Maids is using a generous employee benefits package to recruit and retain hard-to-find workers.
The company's 1,000 employees at nationwide branches owned by parent company ServiceMaster enjoy a full array of benefits including paid vacations, health insurance, disability, dental, vision, 401(k), and an employee stock purchase plan.
"Merry Maids strives to attract and retain quality employees with benefits that go beyond the standard," says Joy
Flora, president of Merry Maids. "We want to invite them to stay and grow in a warm, family-like environment that not only provides a great job, but also invaluable life lessons."
Holistic benefits
Merry Maids takes a "holistic approach" to its employees, says Cynthia Williams, director of people services.
Branch managers constantly look for opportunities to show interest in employees' personal and professional development, she says.
As part of the well-rounded approach to employee welfare, Merry Maid's training programs help the company's predominantly female housecleaning staff learn not only how to do their jobs better but to take care of themselves as well.
Required weekly staff meetings focus on a new topic each week, from the playful to the practical. One week may find employees learning makeup techniques from a Mary Kay representative, while the next week may find them in the parking lot for a Pep Boys lesson in how to change a tire.
Law enforcement officials regularly visit Merry Maids offices to reinforce personal safety lessons. The League of
Women voters comes around every now and then to inform employees about the political process and register them to vote.
Each October, Merry Maids observes National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. During this time period, the company emphasizes its free mammogram program. All employees are eligible to receive the benefit, including those who choose not to purchase health insurance.
Lori Dale, an eight-year Merry Maids employee in the Independence, Mo., branch, owes her life to the company's free mammogram program. After Dale's branch manager urged all employees to take advantage of the benefit in
October 1998, Dale discovered a lump in her right breast.
A biopsy proved the lump cancerous. Dale, who was 36 years old at the time, had a mastectomy. The company's short-term disability plan paid 80% of Dale's salary while she endured six months of grueling chemotherapy treatment.

"That was really nice," says Dale. "It helped me out a lot. When I came back to work, I still didn't have hair, eyelashes, nothing. But it made me feel good to be back with people."
Dale's branch allowed her to come back to work part time, and taught her new skills to prepare her for a promotion to her current position of quality assurance manager. Knowing that Dale was wearing hats while her hair grew back,
Williams sent her some baseball caps with the Merry Maids logo on them.
"I love them," Dale says of the company and her co-workers. "That's why I've stayed with them for eight years."
Dale's might be the company's most successful employee benefits story, says Williams, "because had she not gone for the mammogram she would not be here today according to her physician."
Williams also credits Dale's branch manager for driving home the point: "Women, you need to take care of your bodies. We're always concerned about taking care of our families and our customers and everyone else but ourselves, but you've got to do this."
Swept into the 401(k)
Branch managers can indeed be highly influential at Merry Maids. Tina Thomas, who manages the Pensacola, Fla., branch, has achieved a 98% enrollment rate in the company's 401(k) plan, despite her office being one of the lowest paid in the country.
During open enrollment, Thomas takes aside each of her 42 employees for a private discussion of their benefit needs.
She helps employees choose among the company's five, progressively more expensive health plans. (The lowestcost plan is a "bare bones" option from Starbridge, popular in the service industry, that costs just a few dollars a month for single coverage.)
"I sit down with them one on one," says Thomas. "I help them understand the packages."
Thomas also helps employees comprehend the company's two dental plans, vision plan, supplementary life insurance plan, 401(k), and stock purchase plan. And she explains the company's free checking account program for employees, which provides employees with automatic payroll deposits and a debit card.
Merry Maids' 401(k) plan matches 70% of an employee's contribution up to 4% of salary, with a five-year vesting schedule of 20% each year. The stock purchase plan provides an annual company match of 15%. To encourage participation in the 401(k) plan, Thomas, an accountant by trade, explains that participating in the 401(k) lowers an employee's tax burden and very often pushes her into a lower tax bracket altogether.
Thomas says her most convincing pitch is the story of an hourly employee who only saw a $10 difference in her paycheck after participating in the 401(k) plan. Other pitches: the "free money" concept, the "don't count on Social
Security" lecture, the availability of 401(k) hardship loans in times of dire need.
Beyond health and retirement, Thomas tries to make the work environment a pleasant one by cooking omelets for her employees every other month. She even personally catered a holiday breakfast at the office, using a set of china borrowed from a Merry Maids client.
"For Halloween I did orange omelets," says Thomas. "They almost didn't want to eat them, but they know my omelets are good."
Honorable work

Nicole Porter, a branch manager in the Omaha, Neb., office, likes to tell her employees that Merry Maids offers them a career path, not just a temporary job. Porter herself started as a part-time housecleaner to earn some extra money while she was in college.
"I started as a team member a little over five years ago and people ask me now, Would you ever expect to be here today?' Not at all," says Porter. "I would have never thought that Merry Maids would have been a long-term goal for me."
After a series of promotions, Porter was transferred from the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, office to manage the Omaha office. She describes prior management in that office as "pretty lax." So Porter set out to develop a strong management team with a commitment to the company's philosophy of developing people.
"We never have a yelling session in my office," says Porter. "We are here to respect one another. Basically, I feel that it's my job to be available for all of these people, whether it is on a work or personal basis."
Porter meets privately with each of her 18 employees each month to discuss whatever concerns they may have.
At weekly employee meetings, Porter always ends with a game. One game recently involved getting to know coworkers better through a series of questions designed to uncover common experiences among employees, such as
"Who has ever gone sky diving?"
"Yes, we clean houses, but that's just the function of what we do," says Porter. "We're here for a lot more than that."
"One thing about this business is it's very employee-intense," observes Jeff Fendley, director of training and communications. "We would love to have a machine to do it all, but the truth is that cleaning still requires a lot of sweat and physical effort."
"We honor and treat our employees with dignity. Even though it's in our name, they're taught never to use the word maid' when referring to employees. They're team members.'"