Sitting through a long staff meeting on a Monday morning is hard for any employee to stomach. That’s why Bridgeworth Wealth Management instituted “Manageable Mondays” — complete with a catered lunch.

“We realized our weekly 8:30 a.m. Monday morning meetings were draining our advisors and staff. They were hard for everybody. So we decided to bring in lunch for everybody in our community room every Monday and encourage our employees to eat together as opposed to running back to their desks,” said Bridgeworth founder and CEO DeLynn Zell.

That’s not the only perk Zell’s Birmingham, Alabama-based firm provides employees. Birthdays, anniversaries and graduations are all celebrated at Bridgeworth, and Zell says the generous vibes tend to spill over.

Of course, there’s more to work life than birthday gifts and free lunches. There’s also the idea that a job well done will lead to greater responsibility and pay.

Zell checks both those boxes by making sure all the firm’s employees have clearly spelled out career paths and compensation — salary plus incentives — that reflect both their current corporate status and where they need to go.

Every member of the firm is also required to regularly meet with a mentor or coach, no matter their level of experience or tenure at Bridgeworth.

“When I sketched out my ideal firm before starting Bridgeworth, I wanted to get away from the old school ‘eat-what-you-kill’ mentality,” Zell said. Eating together instead has proven not just more manageable, but profitable.

— Gregg Greenberg