Paula Marshall Recognizes People-Centered Organizations With New Award

Paula Marshall, CEO of The Bama Company Inc., will honor a business that values its workers.

On a recent visit to our hometown, we found ourselves talking about the recession with a family friend who happens to be 103. She recalled that when her husband worked at a men’s clothier during the Depression, the employees were given the option of shorter shifts to avoid layoffs. Though it was still a difficult time to make ends meet, employees were relieved their jobs weren’t on the line.

In a time when we’ve heard so many downsizing horror stories, we wondered if a more compassionate business approach was completely lost. So we found it heartening to hear about the Paula Marshall People-Centered Organization Award, which will recognize a company that values its workers. An employee can nominate a small to medium company of 5,000 people or less by July 15, 2010. The winner will be announced in August on the blog and website of Paula Marshall, CEO of The Bama Companies, Inc., and will receive an engraved award and a copy of Marshall’s book, Finding the Soul of Big Business (Yorkshire Publishing Group, 2009). The individual who nominates the winning company will receive an Apple iPad.

According to Marshall, who shares the lessons she’s learned and applied as a CEO in her book, a people-centered organization structures its policies and culture around its employees, prioritizes fairness and balance, avoids layoffs by making cuts elsewhere, understands the value of working together and values its customers and employees. Those who send in a company nomination form must describe the business of the organization, discuss how the company has dealt with the economic downturn and give a detailed account of a policy or an anecdote that illustrates why the company is people-centered.

In 1985, Marshall took over the family business that began in 1927 with homemade pies made by her grandmother, Cornelia Alabama “Bama” Marshall. Now, the Oklahoma-based company specializes in pies and bakery products for restaurant chains and has the mission of “People helping people be successful.” Says Marshall, “At Bama, we don’t say we’re in the pie business, we say we’re in the people business. In reality, every business is a people business because if your people aren’t happy and fulfilled, then everything else will suffer.”

Do you believe workers who feel valued make for more productive employees?

Tags: bakery products, Business/Finance, CEO, Cornelia Alabama, Geography of the United States, Labor, Layoffs, Lyon County Minnesota, Marshall Minnesota, Oklahoma, Paula Marshall, Paula Marshall People-Centered Organization, Reorganization, restaurant chains, The Bama Companies Inc., The Bama Company Inc., Yorkshire Publishing Group