My name is Thomas Nelson and I started at 9Wood in production three years ago. Let me make this clear, I want you to apply to work at 9Wood. I am a proud 9Wood employee and I work with some amazing human beings. Earlier this fall, Ben Pottorf and I had the privilege of interviewing an inclusive group of bright 9Wood employees. Although each is different, all of them started their careers at 9Wood on the production floor.
This is what work looks like today on our production floor.
Drum Zone 
Feeder Zone 
Customs 
Assembly
Components 
Feeder QI 
Drum QI
After the interviews were over, I was lucky enough to watch the entire footage twice as we put together this video feature. These interviews blew me away. It’s important for me to remind you, I am trying to convince you to either apply or find someone to apply to 9Wood.
Now that we have that out of the way. Their interviews are a testament to raw perseverance and shared values. We talk a lot about Learn, Grow, Prosper, and these employees embody that. Each one of them has earned their promotions within our community and we are proud to share their stores. Drawing from these interviews, I wanted to find the three reasons why we continue to come to work every day. What each of us is striving for when we come to work. It’s one thing to start working for a company, it’s another thing to keep working for a company.
Here are the three reasons we work at 9Wood
Respect
Here’s what our employees had to say about respect. Almost everyone mentioned they felt heard by their supervisor and management. It’s worth mentioning that all these employees have been a part of developing their department around them. Their ideas have shaped our company.
Respect is a hard thing to capture in a tagline. But respect is how our employees feel in these interviews. As an employee myself, I am grateful that we have trust, respect, and communication. Just like everyone else, I’m in it for our community.
Community
Community as a theme surprised me. I work remotely which means I don’t see the production community as often as I used to. These interviews gave me great hope. Perhaps my favorite take was Elina when she said there are so many people ready to be good role models.
You may not know this, but Jonathan Warner is also a part-owner of the company. To hear the employees talk about the supportive community that means well for its people and to follow that up with Jonathan literally telling us, “This is what we have been trying to do all along!” brings me joy.
In this interview process, I observed alignment between leadership and our community.
Transparency
9Wood has always been an open book company, holding monthly financials where we share the nuts and bolts of our company with employees. During these interviews, they all shared how much they appreciated that the management team took the time to share important trends with production – even though the pandemic crisis. In fact, one of the interviewees said that once the pandemic hit, and the office staff was forced to move to work remotely, everyone was suddenly much easier to get ahold of. No more looking for people not at their desks.
Another big reason our employees are happier here is pay transparency. Honestly, I wish more companies would be transparent with their wages. Wages transparent across the 9Wood is a huge trust builder among supervisors and teams.
The Take Away
Interviewing these 9 employees has made me ridiculously proud to work at 9Wood. When this video was finally published, I must have shared it with half the company before we showed it at our all-team meeting.
The truth of it all is that we need help to grow. When the pandemic hit, leadership focused on preserving jobs first, then growing sales second. We called it our Survive and Thrive program. And thrive we have. After raising wages across the board twice we now have record-high sales as our sales team continues to break into new markets across the country.
You can expect this company to keep growing. Will you?
