"Star Tribune (Minneapolis-St. Paul)" Sunday April 11, 1999
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Haldeman-Homme a leader in benefits for employees


Scholarship program is latest perk offered by small Minneapolis firm

Dilbert would have a hard time comprehending what management has been up to at a small Minneapolis company called Haldeman-Homme Inc.

The 75-year-old company distributes and installs storage and workstation equipment and furnishings at schools, factories and laboratories around the Upper Midwest. It also has sold and installed the gymnasium floors at most of the metro area's largest high schools, as well as Williams Arena at the University of Minnesota.

Add it all up and it comes to annual revenues of about $30 million -- too small to create a blip on the radar screens scanned by the folks who assemble those annual lists of the nation's best places to work.

But in the hard-nosed arena of modern business management, Haldeman-Homme deserves a vote of recognition.

Employee benefits

Consider some of the benefits that the company provides its salaried employees (its carpenters, who make up a bit more than half of the company's 143 employees, have a separate benefits package through their union):

  • In the mid - 1950's, when Jack Homme became a partner and general manager of the firm, the company began contributing 15 percent of each salaried employee's wages to a profit-sharing program.
  • In the early 70's, it added contributions totaling another 10 percent of wages to create a pension plan
  • In 1977, an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) was formed, the profit-sharing fund began buying shares of the company and by 1987 Haldeman-Homme was entirely employee-owned.
  • The company has continued making the 15 percent profit-sharing contributions since 1987, using the fund to buy back shares of the business when employees resign or retire. Those paybacks have gone as high as $500,000 for a retiring rank-and-file worker and to more than $1 million for a senior executive, said chairman Ernie Stalock.
  • In addition to the profit-sharing and pension contributions, the company has paid its owners/ employees annual dividends totaling $4.3 million in the past 12 years.

New scholarship plan

Now comes the capper: Last year, Jack Homme, who retired as CEO in 1987, and his wife, Dorothy, donated $500,000 to create an endowment fund to provide scholarships for the children and grandchildren of the company's salaried employees, including retired and deceased workers. The plan was to offer scholarships ranging from $500 to $10,000 a year, depending on need.

The first five scholarships, awarded in September, totaled $21,400 and ranged from $2,300 to $8,800.

The logical question, of course is: What in the name of evil human resources director is going on here?

To Stalock and company president Mike Propp, it's a matter of enlightenment self-interest, at least in part, "We want to keep our people, and we think offering something more than just punching a time clock is the way to do it," Stalock said.

It seems to be working: Nearly 30 percent of the 63 salaried workers have been with the company more than 10 years. More to the point, the average tenure for that group is 23 years. Both of the top officers are senior members of that veterans' club: Stalock, 64, has been with the company for 44 years and Propp, 40, has been there 18 years.

Revenue Growth

The ensuing "dedication to efficiency and productivity," as Stalock puts it, has generated some heartening growth: As an employee-owned company, Haldeman-Homme has grown from revenues of $12 million in 1988 to 15 million in 1993 to $30 million in fiscal 1998 ended May 30. Revenues are not expected to exceed that level in fiscal 1999, however in large part because of a slowdown of in school construction, Propp said.

But there's more to the company's generous benefits than a self-interested desire to cement employee relations, Homme, 78, said in a telephone interview from his winter quarters in San Diego.

"I think it's only right that we give back as much as possible to the employees," he said. "They built the company, they deserve it." The scholarship fund, he added, is "my wife's and my way to memorialize their efforts."

While the company's union carpenters are not included in these programs, it is not a morale issue, said Pat Bristol, executive secretary/treasurer of the Lakes and Plains Regional Council of the Carpenters and Joiners Union.

The reason: Under the union contract, the company has agreed to contribute about 18 percent of wages to the union's pension fund. Moreover, the union has its own scholarship fund, Bristol said.

By all accounts, Haldeman-Homme is not simply a sales representative for a gaggle of equipment, furnishings and flooring manufacturers. In addition to selling workstation and lab furnishings, the company offers space planning, layout design and similar consulting services.

Indeed, the company's fastest growing division supplies PC's, workstation furnishings and technical education curriculums for high schools throughout the region, Propp said. However, the company's largest business involve laboratory furnishings and hardwood flooring.


Haldeman-Homme Inc.

  • Business: Distributes and installs storage and workstation equipment and furnishings at schools, factories and laboratories in the Upper Midwest. Also installs gymnasium floors at schools and colleges
  • Founded:1924
  • Headquarters: Minneapolis
  • Executives: Ernie Stalock, chairman, and Mike Propp, president
  • 1998 revenue: $30 million
  • Claim to fame: Contributes 25 percent of employee wages to profit-sharing and pension plans and has established a scholarship fund for children and grandchildren of present, retired and deceased employees.