Atrium Management Co. is involved in a very customer service-heavy business — so it has created a family-like atmosphere with team members from all different backgrounds and places in life.
The Lake Mary-based firm — one of Central Florida's largest property management companies — develops and manages single-family homes, condominiums, duplexes and multifamily properties for investors. It may not always be fun work, but its employees love working together because they believe they are building something great, said partner Michael Krause.
"If you came to our team's Thanksgiving dinner, for example, you likely would laugh until your stomach hurt," Krause said. "You would definitely have a good time and you'd leave with future stories to tell."
Last year was a big one for Atrium Management, as owner/partner Adam Wonus was chosen as one of Orlando Business Journal's 2017 40 Under 40 honorees, and the firm won a 2017 Residential Real Estate Award for its work in downtown Orlando's Milk District.
Atrium Management earned a spot among OBJ’s 2018 Best Places to Work honorees in the micro category, which includes companies with 10-24 employees.
OBJ reveals the 2018 Best Places to Work micro category honorees
Here’s more from the firm:
What specific programs has your company implemented to benefit employees? We recently started the Traction/EOS (entrepreneurial operating system). While our organization has always been fun, this has given us more structure and a system to work within so that our employees know where they stand at all times.
Most interesting piece of office décor: Our Marine air horn
Your office’s top hangout spot: Chipotle and Appleton's Hometown Cafe in Lake Mary
Your company’s top perk: We buy investment properties together as a staff, and we have more than doubled our staff's year-end bonuses if they chose to use it in one of our investments. We currently own 39 rental units that two or more of our staff members have invested in together.
How do you measure ROI on rewards, recognition and other perks? Employee retention. We have a 90 percent employee retention rate and we believe that is due to our employees' level of happiness.
How do you boost employee retention at your company? We genuinely care about our employees, and we believe they can tell that we do. We constantly are pushing and helping our employees to improve in all areas of their lives, and when they do better, they don’t want to leave.
Are you hiring now? We currently are looking for a business development officer, however, we're always looking to add new talent to our team in other positions, as well.
Your most anticipated team-building activity: Our team spa day. We also had a great time helping Habitat for Humanity build a house a few weeks ago. I would say our most anticipated team building activity is always going to be our next one.
Advice for a company looking to create a better workplace: The leaders all need to be open and must be themselves. Authenticity leads to trust, and trust leads to real relationships. When you know and like the person you are working alongside, you will work harder to not let them down. The same goes for our clients and customers. Let them get to know the real you; if they like you they will choose to do business with you.
Atrium Management Co.
- Top local executive: Adam Wonus, partner
- Rank: No. 4, micro companies (10-24 employees)
- Best Places to Work score: 97.2 percent
- 2017 assets under management: $175 million
- Website: atriummanagement.com