I'm one of those people who sleeps with my smartphone inches away from my head. I have a good excuse: we did away with our standard shouty alarm clock years ago in favor of waking to a chirping crickets ringtone—a lovely, graceful way to greet the day.

At Baudville, we're passionate about supporting causes that are close to the hearts of our team members. It's why we got involved in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, and why every person who achieves a year of perfect attendance gets to match their monetary award with a charity of their choice. There are also our relationships with D.A. Blodgett - St. John's Home, Equest Center for Therapeutic Riding, and Gilda's Club Grand Rapids that help support our charitable mission to improve the lives of children. And, every other year, we also raise funds for either breast cancer or prostate cancer awareness.

I have a couple of co-workers who rarely check their email. For those of us who rely on email to convey information to the rest of our team, this is really annoying. This forces us to get out of our chairs, walk 12 steps over to their cube (they share a workspace—hmmm, maybe there is something in the air over there…?), and have a conversation with them.

In the last couple of months, we've talked a lot about retirement. It was a topic of conversation in our booth at this year's SHRM Annual Conference and Exposition and it has also come up as a workplace event our customers want to hear more about. Enter the concept of a Lifetime Achievement Award!

Public figures and private-sector individuals receive Lifetime Achievement Awards to honor their contributions to their fields or to society/humanity at large. Their work spans a great number of years and an abundance of different endeavors. Sounds kind of like the lifetime of experience your retiree has (and has shared eagerly), doesn't it?

Earlier this year, when we learned we made the West Michigan's 101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For™ list (yet again!) we had a big hurrah—and there were promises of an ever bigger one (cookout style) once summer rolled around. Well, if you live in Michigan, you know that this summer was not exactly the best example of what summer is supposed to be like. Meaning: boo, no cookout! Good thing we got some more good news and another reason to celebrate—during a full week of "abundant sunshine" in the forecast!

If you are regular followers of our blog, then you know we have been working on our workplace wellness program for the past several years. This year, we felt we had enough initiatives and results under our belts to apply for the Best and Brightest in Wellness™ designation—and we were right!