PBN Best Places to Work Awards 2021
Large Companies #1. Rite-Solutions Inc.
Employees in R.I. 227
CEO and President Dennis McLaughlin
The motto at Rite-Solutions Inc. is “Friends enjoying work.”
But, for the award-winning Middletown-based software, cybersecurity and information technology solutions provider’s more than 200-strong team, the words and the passion behind them go much deeper than a catchy motto.
“I’ve been in the workforce for 40 years and this is the friendliest place I’ve ever worked,” said Dennis McLaughlin, CEO and president. “Our work is challenging and rewarding, and our workplace is welcoming and supportive. We work hard to ensure that everyone is respected, challenged and successful.”
The bulk of Rite-Solution’s work – supported by satellite offices in Stonington, Conn., Arlington, Va., and Washington, D.C. – involves the federal government and the U.S. Navy, including producing complex software systems for the U.S. submarine fleet.
Over the past year, the company has been developing an innovative cyber dashboard for a complicated command and control system for one of its military customers that lets users know what the status is, where the problems are and what needs to be done to make it right.
'We like to acknowledge good work publicly as soon as possible.'
DENNIS MCLAUGHLIN, Rite-Solutions Inc. CEO and president
In addition to moving several of its customers to the cloud, the company has undertaken extensive development on artificial intelligence/machine learning efforts, creating a low-cost buoy that the U.S. Department of Defense or port security entities can use to visually identify ships passing in and out of a port.
With such high-level and intense work taking place every day, Rite-Solutions still makes it a top priority to praise employees for their efforts, recognizing them through biweekly postings, spot bonuses, dinner-out coupons and team lunches. While the company awards annual bonuses for outstanding work, McLaughlin feels it is these more-immediate acts that make a difference.
“Waiting for the annual bonus to recognize a good deed almost defeats the reward cycle,” McLaughlin said. “We certainly award annual bonuses for outstanding work, but we like to acknowledge good work publicly as soon as possible.”
Although the nature of the work allows for a great deal of flexibility for working remotely, McLaughlin says it was important to take measures to promote group and person-to-person activities such as collaboration, innovation, and on-the-spot training and mentoring during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“One thing we really missed was something we call the ‘serendipity of the water cooler,’ which is the hallway, water cooler or post-meeting discussions where small bits of very useful information are passed from one team member to another,” McLaughlin said.
In her role as vice president of people operations, Susan Borden has the unique opportunity to work with and get to know everyone who joins the company, something she feels makes her very lucky.
“Our people are the foundation of our company,” Borden said. “It’s the people I work with and the ability to make sure that we, as a company, do the best we can for our employees and their families. The atmosphere is very collaborative and supportive. Everyone supports everyone else and pulls together as a team whenever it is needed.”
Borden says the company reviews annual employee surveys and encourages employees to join one of its culture teams, including the Events Team, Wellness Team and Green Team. The survey results and the efforts of these teams have resulted in changes for the company, whether that be a benefits change, or the way communications are handled internally.
One very well-received program is “mutual fun,” a crowdsourcing ideation environment that works like the stock market with employees creating ideas that they feel will help the company, the culture, the employees and the business. Employees are given a virtual amount of money to invest in great ideas that they can also volunteer to support and help grow. The Mutual Fun Board and the company founders review the investments and provide funding and backing for the projects they feel will help the business and community.
“I think we have proven that high performance is possible without the painful dynamics found at many workplaces,” McLaughlin said. “People respond to respect, listening and teamwork.”
