Capstone Brokerage

By Brian Sodoma

Friday, Oct. 30, 2009 | 6 a.m.

As a leading insurance, risk management and employee benefits brokerage, Capstone Brokerage Inc. has specialized in making a positive impact on companies’ bottom lines for more than a decade. And while its clients may think Capstone is great, its employees know it is.

Capstone’s chief executive officer, Jade Anderson, still has the first employee he hired 11 years ago and some 27 more today. Anderson, and vice presidents Mary Thompson and Chris Robison, attribute low turnover and a motivated staff to an employee culture that empowers workers to make their best decisions without fear of making mistakes.

Through the years, employees have asked for more training in order to do their jobs better; the three company leaders also go through executive coaching sessions each month. Capstone uses a personality-profiling program that allows it to assemble successful teams and slot employees into roles in which they can grow professionally and work well within the organization. It’s all part of Anderson’s idea of a “vision-oriented” organization.

“We’re all working on becoming better people,” Anderson said. “We firmly believe in hiring for culture, then training for skill. … We want this to be the last place that they work.”

Capstone offers a bonus pool for noncommissioned employees. Employees are required, at some point in the year, to take at least five successive days off of personal time to “really get away and detach from work,” added Thompson. Capstone also recently earned a best workplace distinction from the industry trade publication Business Insurance magazine.