Vocon Wins NorthCoast 99 Award for 20th Year, Earning Platinum Status

This article is originally from Cleveland Magazine published August 23, 2024.

Vocon has been named a 2024 NorthCoast 99 award winner by ERC, the Employers Resource Council. The NorthCoast 99 award honors 99 great Northeast Ohio workplaces for top talent. This is the 20th time that Vocon has received the prestigious NorthCoast 99 award, earning Platinum award winner status.

“Twenty-six years ago, ERC launched the NorthCoast 99 awards program and event to help our region become a prime destination for companies and high-performing individuals,” said Samantha Marx, ERC’s Director of Strategic Projects, who oversees the NorthCoast 99 program. “Beyond being a sought-after accolade, this yearlong research initiative offers employers valuable insights and data into policies and practices that successfully attract and retain top talent.”

NorthCoast 99 winners participated in a rigorous application process that asked for detailed information on how their organization addresses top-performer attraction, development, and retention in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion; employee engagement and talent development; employee well-being; organizational strategy, policies, and benefits; talent attraction, acquisition, and onboarding; and total rewards.

Deb Donley, Vocon’s Chief Experience Officer spoke on behalf of their win: “If we can make our people’s experience amazing, our clients will be treated properly,” says Donley. “When I started this business 38 years ago, I wanted to be an amazing mom in addition to being a great professional, so we wanted to give that opportunity to our people. It’s about how you can conduct yourself in a way that provides a balance of professional achievement with personal satisfaction.”

Paul Voinovich, Vocon’s Chief Executive Officer spoke of the importance of relationships in their people-centric business: “When I go to work each day, I’m going to work first for my internal customers, my team members, and then it’s my outside customers, because we’re in the service business. At the end of the day, we understand that the core of our business is relationships.”

Building on that, the company discourages solo acts, pressing its employees to collaborate. Uniting its people, Vocon features a studio structure design in which any employee is encouraged to approach senior leadership.

Vocon implements numerous initiatives for its employees, including flexible work hours, monthly wellness talks, four weeks of paid care and bonding leave for all new parents, the week off between Christmas and New Year’s, 100% paid short-term disability and continuing education lunch-and-learns in which managers mentor young team members through the lens of problem-solving.

There are also values committees for the company’s values of relationship, passion, teams, excellence and leadership. The values committees meet at least quarterly to ensure the company is moving in the right direction in terms of its values.

Additionally, during the pandemic, the company decided to up the stakes on its values by hosting a monthly event called, “What’s Hot at Vocon.”

The events have included a Pride Month speaker and a Juneteenth celebration that featured an African American owner of a brewery that Vocon is designing at the Midtown Collaboration Center.

“I got more notes after that event than on bonus day,” Donley says. “We want to talk about bringing your authentic self to work, and you can do that here, whereas a lot of places you can’t. We’re really proud of that.”

Moving ahead, Vocon is focused on letting its young talent flourish.

“I’m most excited to watch people blossom and give them the reins,” says Voinovich “We want to say to our people, ‘Hey, are you ready for more responsibility? Because we’re ready to give it to you.'”

“Winning NorthCoast 99 is not easy. This group of 99 employers is constantly evolving, listening, and responding to the needs and desires of today’s talent. We commend the 2024 winners for setting a benchmark for excellence,” said ERC President Kelly Keefe.