Written by Jeff Gau
on Jul 31, 2015 8:38:36 AM
in the Leadership Blog

I was recently asked to submit a family photo by a publication that is featuring families working together in our industry. This got me thinking about working with family and why it works for us. While Marco is not family-owned, we do have about 100 employees that have relatives that work here. My family represents five of them – two brothers, my son and a sister-in-law.

Although we have not made it a practice to recruit family members, we don’t discourage it either. We’ve found that if you build a culture that people want to be a part of, they will naturally recruit their friends (and family).

I’m all for it. That’s of course if the family member has the skills for the position and team fit. Here’s why I think it works:

1. Receive unfiltered feedback.
   Family members naturally talk about work and can provide unfiltered feedback that often times is a real asset to our corporate culture. It has helped many of us make more informed decisions and initiate changes that benefit all of our employees.
2. Be transparent about the relationship.
   When my son joined the company as a sales rep shortly after college, I obviously wanted him to be successful. I openly communicated that I would be actively involved in helping him and wanted others to do the same. Pretending that the relationship doesn’t exist or affect work isn’t realistic. It gave me a different perspective on the onboarding of our young sales professionals. This led us to restructure how we train and mentor our newest team members.
3. Follow protocol.
   Family members need to be allowed to fit in on their own – you can’t do it for them. That means staying out of the way, especially when an issue arises (this can be kind of hard to do). When family members have an issue – or become an issue, it can easily get sensitive and even uncomfortable. That’s when it’s best to follow normal protocol (just ask our sales director, Jim Maleska, who reports to my brother and has my son and other brother reporting to him).
4. Drives performance.
   Working with family can be motivating. When we hire a family member recommended by an employee, they both feel the responsibility to perform. With five of my family members working here, we have plenty of reasons to be motivated to perform. And if we don’t, it can make for a bad Thanksgiving.
5. Lay off the “shop talk.”
   When family members work together, it’s natural they talk more about work. It used to drive my mom crazy at family functions. It’s important that family members who work together don’t make their personal time all about work. I should probably take my own advice – we still do it all the time.

I feel fortunate that I get to work with my family almost every day. It’s fun to work on strategic projects with my brother, Steve, or participate in client presentations with my brother, Greg or son, Ryan. Business can become personal when it involves family. To me, the benefits outweigh the risks. It seems to work well for our company, and it’s something we will continue to support.