room at Fidelity.
Parking garages — with complimentary spaces for all 2,300 workers — a health
club facility with state-of-the-art equipment and modern cafeterias featuring
freshly prepared hot meals. All are obvious examples of the steps taken to make
the employees at the sprawling Fidelity Investments campus in Smithfield feel
good about going to work.
But there are subtle, yet equally impressive examples, as well.
Rhode Island's Market Has Changed. Developers, Builders, Investors and Sellers Must Change With It.
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Works of local artists are displayed in lobbies and throughout the buildings. They change every three months, creating a revolving exhibit, of sorts.
Inside stairwells provide a home for plants and even trees. There are ATMs. There are stamp machines. There is a copy center that can collate the speech you are delivering in the morning in record time. The common areas are well lit, but small in size. The carpets have been painstakingly chosen.
“We try to be functional and classy – and we try not to go over the top,” said John D. Muggeridge, a general manager and vice president of communications.
In the company’s retail phone center, where hundreds of workers field inquiries from clients across the country, the cubicles are kept to a limited height. Windows dominate the floor space. Offices line only the inside space.
“The natural light goes to the largest group of people,” he said.
Much has been written about Fidelity Investments, the 35,000-employee mutual fund giant that actively manages $900 billion in assets. The company has delivered on its promises to Rhode Island — building two huge facilities and now employing some 1,600 workers across from Bryant College. The term “win-win,” may have become a cliché, it accurately describes Rhode Island’s recruitment of Fidelity Investments.
The recent completion of Fidelity’s second Smithfield building — all 275,000 square feet of it — was seen as tangible evidence that the company is happy with life in Rhode Island. It followed the 1998 completion of Fidelity’s first building, which occupies 250,000 square feet.
In fact, Muggeridge said company officials are deeply pleased with their operations in the Ocean State. They would like to see Gov. Lincoln Almond’s proposal to slash the capital gains tax gain favor at the General Assembly. As Muggeridge suggests, such a move “would certainly help.” And further expansions, he said, will be predicated on the economy and the company’s growth plans throughout the country.
Now, said Muggeridge, the focus remains on building a community where people want
to work. Yes, it’s the right thing to do. But it also makes sense, he said. In
a tight labor market where employees are seeking — no, make that demanding —
more from employers, Fidelity seems to have delivered a pre-emptive strike. The
design of the building, the layout, the amenities — were not included by chance.
“We want an atmosphere where people connect with the company,” said Muggeridge. This site is very comfortable.”
Muggeridge said the company promotes the idea of continued improvement. So Fidelity’s second Smithfield building has slightly more amenities than its first. Improvements — even in the newest of buildings — are constantly explored.
Muggeridge doesn’t have concrete numbers as to how such amenities translate into employee retention and recruitment efforts. But he knows that the vast majority of Fidelity employees arrive after first being referred there by workers already employed at Fidelity.
“We get a lot of employee referrals,” he said.
Melissa Ridolfi, director of finance for the company’s Retail Core Customer Group, spent three years in Boston before returning to her native Rhode Island. She remembers visiting the Smithfield site while the Gilbane Building Company was busy building it and “feeling the excitement.”
The Boston digs were classy, she said, but don’t compare to the campus atmosphere she now enjoys.
There is no train to catch — no congestion to slow an evening commute. The lighted walking trails, the on-site health club, said Ridolfi, translate to workers with positive attitudes.
“More and more companies are going to have to go to this kind of campus environment,” she said.
Outside, the Fidelity property resembles that of its neighbor, Bryant College, on the other side of Route 7. The parking garages, said Muggeridge, represent much more than an employee benefit. Their design, their very appearance go to the core of what makes the campus so different, said Muggeridge.
“If we hadn’t done that — every inch of grass here would be concrete,” he said.
Instead, there is room for walking trails.
