Company Culture: Started in 1964, Children’s World Uniform Supply (asi/161711) has a long history of awards recognition: local Best Places to Work and Small Businessperson of the Year honors, sustainable business certifications and more. Tim and Cynthia Holliday, who purchased the company in 2001, see many qualities that resonate with their staff and make them feel part of a team rather than just a number.

“I don’t know that I can pin down a single reason that people love working for our company, as I think it’s a combination of things,” Tim Holliday says. “Knowing your voice will be heard and what you think matters. Having managers and owners who look out for you. Having a fun place to work with surprise trips and other things. Being a green and sustainable business.”

Tim Holliday sums it up succinctly: “Work hard, take care of the customer, do right, have fun.” The fun includes special events that staffers continually rave about: escape rooms, cooking classes, kayaking trips, a cruise, bowling and more. At Christmas last year, the Hollidays rented a party bus and took the team to a high-end steakhouse in Tampa. The wealth was shared monetarily as well: after a record-setting year in 2021, Children’s World employees were paid extra bonuses on top of their regular performance incentives.

COVID Changes: Children’s World is an interesting model. On top of its promo business, it runs a retail school-uniform store, offers in-house decoration, and operates a U.S. Post Office – all of which requires employees to work in person. “From the beginning with COVID, we engaged our employees to find out what would make them comfortable,” says Holliday. That included appointing one person as a COVID liaison who would keep up with CDC and local recommendations, and implementing numerous safety measures to make employees more comfortable: limiting customers in the store, requiring face masks, and installing upgrades such as an air purification system. On the business side, meetings and remote work took place virtually, but currently the company is almost fully in office.

Parting Tip: “Make your workplace a place that people want to work at,” Holliday says. “While that sounds simple, it’s not, and it takes a lot of work.”