How Ben Wright personally invests in employees

There’s one thing Ben Wright tries to do every day at his job as operations manager of North Carolina-based Canopy Lawn Care – put the people first.

“We have employees who are people and people have a lot of things that go on personally,” Wright says. “Marriages, kids, illness. I really try to be a part of that.”

And he does. Wright’s co-workers say he takes time to invest in employees at Canopy. They say he has helped employees find counselors for marriage issues. He visits co-workers when they are sick in the hospital and brings meals to their families. If a co-worker has a substance abuse issue, Wright personally helps them by finding them outside support and providing them with accountability to stay clean on the job.

Wright even took personal time and resources to house a Canopy employee who needed a place to stay for a season.

“I learned that (a Canopy employee) was sleeping on different peoples’ couches and oftentimes sleeping in homeless shelters,” Wright says. “I started thinking about what it would look like if he came and lived with (my family) for a season.”

After his wife and kids agreed, Wright invited his co-worker to live with them.

“It was a sacrifice,” he says. “But to me, it was really neat for my wife and kids to get to know him and to show my kids what’s important in life – someone is in need, you provide them with resources you have.”

Read the full story from the June issue here.