2012 Best in Class: Best place to work

Port Harbor Marine
South Portland, Maine

When a company spends a good portion of its Top 100 application talking about employee benefits, recognition programs and training and education, it makes us take a second look.

Port Harbor Marine does plenty of things well, but recently the Maine company put a special emphasis on improving company culture by implementing a “carrot culture.”

“All of our directors and managers were required to read the book ‘The Carrot Principle,’ and we held strategic planning meetings on how we could utilize the concepts discussed in the book at our dealership,” says company president Rob Soucy. “In a business you do this through recognition and it has to be consistent and ongoing.”

The premise of “The Carrot Principle” is that managers can get the most out of employees by using positive reinforcement (the carrot) instead of negative (the stick). Port Harbor focused on four types of recognition as outlined in the book: day-to-day, above-and-beyond, career and celebration.

Department managers were charged with recognizing the day-to-day accomplishments of crewmembers, sometimes with a simple verbal or handwritten thank you or with a $5 Dunkin’ Donuts gift card.

Crewmembers who go “above and beyond” by exceeding expectations in displaying one of the company’s values can earn the monthly “Values Champion” award. The recipients are chosen from nominations made by the managers or other crewmembers. The Values Champion receives a cash bonus as well as other recognition. The greatest Values Champion receives the Crewmember of the Month award, for which they earn a coveted, reserved front-row parking spot.

Port Harbor also has numerous celebration events throughout the year to recognize the entire team for its efforts in making the dealership successful, including lunches, cookouts and more.

“Whatever we can celebrate, every little win or victory, we celebrate. A big month, a big sale, a tech reaching a new certification level or a Top 100 ranking, we share the accomplishment with our entire team,” Soucy says.

But it takes more than employee recognition and celebrations to make a company a good place to work. Port Harbor also offers a wide variety of benefits including medical, dental, disability and life insurance; 401k; profit sharing; year-end bonuses; education reimbursements; and more. The management team is also a big believer in training, spending thousands of dollars a year on ongoing education to improve sales techniques, service skills, customer service and efficiency.

“One of the greatest responsibilities of our ownership team is to create opportunities for our crewmembers to grow within the company,” Soucy says. “The other aspect of our philosophy is to provide the resources needed for our crewmembers so they can grow and develop so they will be prepared to take advantage of any opportunity that develops.”

The sales team has ongoing sales training through online training modules and weekly sales meetings. The director of sales holds an intensive, daylong training conference attended annually by salespeople from all five locations. Salespeople also attend the manufacturer-sponsored sales schools and out-of-state boat shows to gather market intelligence.

“Training salespeople has become one of the greatest challenges we have at our dealership,” Soucy says. “As we begin to diversify our product lines it is becoming harder and harder for our sales team to be experts with all of the lines.”

To combat that, each salesperson is matched with a product line to become the “Brand Pilot” and educate the other salespeople on the line.

Every year, Port Harbor sends its service techs to the service update schools for its boat, engine and electronics manufacturers, along with numerous in-house training sessions. The parts and accessories department crewmembers also attend annual vendor schools and trade shows. Management attends 20 Group meetings, Spader Management workshops, the Marine Dealer Conference & Expo and the Yamaha Management Institute.

Port Harbor has also revamped its employee review process with feedback from crewmembers, giving employees clearer direction on what is expected of them and the critical tasks they need to accomplish. The company was recently named one of the best places to work in Maine.

For all of those accomplishments and more, Port Harbor stands out to us as this year’s Best Place to Work.