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New Belgium’s Wellness Philosophy

Have you ever heard of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs?

This is a theory of human behavior and psychology that basically tells us if people are taken care of at the basic levels then they can reach a powerful level of self-actualization and great performance. New Belgium understands this. If a person is worried about how they will pay for their child to go to the doctor or how they can take time off with no pay, they will not have their mind focused on problem solving in the workplace. The process of taking care of each other is cyclical - giving and getting for the better. Simple things like 100% payment of health insurance with low out-of-pocket costs and a self-imposed minimum wage that is beyond what our federal and state governments mandate help people fulfill their basic needs, enabling them to be great at what they do. We help people learn how to be successful communicators in tough situations and enable self-esteem, confidence, and respect for others while collaborating on projects. In our planning, we often look to Maslow's theory to help ensure people work in a great, safe, collaborative, healthy environment and help provide each person life tools that will help them move to self-actualization.

Wellness

What does it mean to be well?

Wellness at New Belgium is very important to our culture as it allows us "to operate a profitable company which makes our love and talent manifest.” We know happier people are more productive coworkers. We also know that to be happy, one must feel well physically and emotionally. Therefore, we place great value on wellness.

It is so important, in fact, that we formed a wellness committee comprised of coworkers with varied backgrounds and departments. The wellness committee meets once per month and helps coworkers pay for activities such as use of a gym, community races, wellness seminars, weight management, meditation, yoga, and smoking cessation programs, and even helps supplement the cost of these activities as well. Since this is such a passionate and empowered group, the New Belgium family reaps numerous rewards from their work.

The Almighty Bicycle: It is so prevalent in our culture that it is nearly impossible to avoid. In addition to giving each employee a bicycle on their one-year anniversary, we made sure the Brewery was built close to the town center so that coworkers could ride their bikes to work and enjoy the elation from doing so. In reality, though, some folks live in the foothills or other places too far to bike. For those cases, we have a stash of loaner bicycles that can be taken on a lunch-time ride or used to run errands. The bicycle keeps us healthy, makes our souls happy, and the miles per gallon are 8!

Healthy Eating: Our community kitchen is a great place to cook up a healthy meal from scratch, and you may want to include a few berries you picked just outside the door.

Seven All: When bare feet are in season (and even sometimes when they are not), the sand volleyball court is in full bloom each and every Thursday night!

Fitness: In addition to an on-site fitness area, we have discounted gym memberships and a number of shared passes to a local fitness club which can be used by all coworkers.

Non-Traditional Benefits: NBB provides non-traditional employee benefits such as coverage for 12 acupuncture visits per year which sprung from a meeting open to all employees on their thoughts regarding our healthcare plan.

HIC. Yep, High Involvement Culture. (We <3 acronyms at NBB ;0)

What does HIC mean? It means practicing an open book philosophy and engaging coworkers in the business of doing business. We open all financials to our coworkers and strategic planning is collaborative and company-wide. We value each individual for their creativity and unique view of the brewery and its opportunities.

Part of our collaborative decision making process means leaning on our values *link to CVBs?*. We are a values-driven company. This means looking beyond the ROI and understanding how our decisions, both large and small, impact the health and happiness of our coworkers and the enduring vitality of the natural resources which make brewing possible.

Having these two elements intact is essential to maintaining a prosperous business for, not just the next quarterly report, but for many generations to come.

A big piece of HIC at NBB is our ownership mentality. It’s the right and responsibility of all coworkers to think like an owner of the company. We have an elected group of coworkers called POSSE who represent the employee owners’ voice in management meetings and educate coworkers on their role as an owner. Being employee-owned means we are all in this together. We are a family here at New Belgium, and we take great pride in the atmosphere that comes along with that. We work hard together; we dream together; we celebrate together. We trust in one another and appreciate our differences and rejoice in our commonalities. We recognize there is always work to be done and continually strive to be better… never forgetting how to have fun and laugh at ourselves along the way.

Appreciation, love, and compassion. It’s not a business program, it’s who we are.

POSSE

Since 1996, New Belgium has fueled a strong and active culture at the Brewery by sharing ownership with co-workers (today known as the Employee Stock Ownership Program – ESOP) and operating with an Open Book Management philosophy. By doing so, we maintain a 97% retention rate, and have been recognized as an enjoyable & democratic workplace (The WorldBlu List; Outside Magazine). As the number of co-workers continued to grow over the years, we wanted to do something that would forever protect the employee owner’s voice. So in 2005 “POSSE” was formed. POSSE is a democratically elected group of co-workers who are liaisons between the Board of Directors, Compass, and Co-Workers. The group has seven rotating members who represent diversity in tenure and job responsibility. They meet bi-monthly and work to foster a clear understanding of employee ownership and encourage trust, belief, and participation. POSSE members take time to listen to their co-workers and encourage our unique ownership culture. POSSE is also responsible for organizing our semi-annual ownership induction ceremony, when those who have hit the one-year mark get up in front of 250+ coworkers and describe what ownership means to them. (POSSE is ESOP spelled backwards, kind of.)