Ace Hardware’s concern for employees starts at the top

When Ace Hardware Corp. staffer Dave Zelis' wife was going through a life-threatening health crisis, Ace President and CEO John Venhuizen reached out to him with a personal note.

The note said, “Take the time that you need for your family, and if anyone has a problem with that, tell them to see me,” said Zelis, merchant for decorative plumbing, whose wife made a full recovery.

“How many companies would an employee be at that the president would even know what was going on and then send a really personal touching note?” he said.

“I received so much support internally from my peers and my teammates.”

Ace has a helpful spirit and genuine concern for the well-being of its employees, staffers say, and it’s been especially evident amid challenges the coronavirus pandemic has posed to the workplace environment.

As COVID-19 emerged, nine-year Ace veteran Mike Duxbury’s big concerns were “safety and uncertainty and how could I continue to do my job effectively, what level of flexibility was going to be had or offered. To me, Ace went above and beyond,” said Duxbury, who works with vendors to get Ace retailers products they need to sell to business customers.

Ace encouraged employees who could do so to work from home, and most chose to do so.

To heighten safety for employees working in corporate offices, Ace changed the meeting room capacity to 25% of the norm, more stringent than the state’s 50% requirement.

“Early on, we created a safety committee," said Kane Calamari, senior vice president and chief human resources officer. "That group was in charge of looking at all of the things that we could do to make sure that the team not just feels safe but that they are safe. That committee has done a great job of making great recommendations to the leadership team.”

Ace also provided safety recommendations to Ace store owners, Calamari said.

Ace Hardware Corp. is ranked No. 4 among large employers in the Tribune’s list of Top Workplaces, as measured by the consultancy Energage in Exton, Pennsylvania.

The Oak Brook-based company is the largest retailer-owned hardware cooperative in the world with more than 5,300 locally owned and operated hardware stores in approximately 70 countries. Globally, the company has more than 6,000 employees, including 1,011 in the Chicago area.

Hardware stores were deemed essential businesses, and Ace stores have continued to operate throughout the pandemic. Ace’s headquarters and distribution centers have remained open. Unlike many companies whose bottom lines have been battered due to the health crisis, Ace’s profits and revenues have surged to record levels as sheltering-in-place consumers decided to get to work on do-it-yourself projects.

Employees give Ace high marks for keeping workers safe and informed during the health crisis.

To assure continued effective communication, Ace’s leadership team began regularly scheduled Zoom meetings with store owners and corporate employees to provide updates.

Leaders were frank about when they didn’t have all the answers or know what the future would bring, Duxbury said. But there was that “willingness to be able to listen, to understand and truly keep people safe at the end of the day. That was very comforting for me,” he said.

In describing Ace’s workplace culture, Calamari explained it is rooted in its values of "winning, excellence, love, integrity, gratitude, humility and teamwork.

“We want to have high-performing, highly engaged people and teams at Ace,” Calamari said. “What you do matters, but how you do it matters just as much.”

A guiding principle at Ace is for staff to act “with a servant’s heart,” said Michelle Laxton, a senior accountant who has worked for Ace for more than four years. That helps set Ace Hardware’s workplace culture apart, she said.

“What I find in my day-to-day interactions with my co-workers is that’s really how everyone feels,” she said. “We go out of our way, even if it’s not in our job description to do a certain task. I feel that helpfulness and that servant heart mentality in all of my co-workers.”

That mentality also extends into the realm of giving back to the community. Ace provides 16 hours of paid time off for volunteer work and celebrates Ace Cares Week annually, when employees at its Oak Brook campus can volunteer an additional four hours at designated local charities.

The company’s charitable giving arm, the Ace Hardware Foundation, has raised more than $130 million for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals in the past 30 years, and employees take pride in that, Calamari said.

Laxton and other staffers also appreciate the company’s focus on employee development and its robust employee benefits, some of which include comprehensive health insurance, 12 weeks fully paid parental leave for new moms, four weeks fully paid parental leave for new dads, up to $10,000 in adoption assistance, tuition reimbursement, a generous match in its 401(k) retirement plan, on-site dry cleaning and oil changes, merchandise discounts and multiple online retailer discounts.

Duxbury and Laxton have taken advantage of the parental leave benefits. Laxton was on parental leave when the COVID-19 stay-at-home work orders went into effect. She is now working remotely from home and is grateful that she can do so. She noted Ace has surveyed employees about their interest in continuing to work from home longer term.

“I thought that was great,” she said. “They are taking time to evaluate how we are feeling.”

She added “managers are taking that and building a new normal.”

Laxton said when she first started working for Ace, she was a little concerned that at the now 96-year-old company some people would be “set in their ways and not keeping current with the changing workforce.”

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She learned that isn’t the case.

“I’ve found that they are extremely adaptable,” said Laxton. “It seems like every few years there’s new benefits coming out that they’re ahead of the game on. They’re definitely doing their research, staying on top of what is competitive in the market and doing what they can to attract new employees and keep their current employees engaged. That’s something that I just really love about working for them.”

Francine Knowles is a freelance writer.

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