Hyland Software, Greater Cleveland's largest software company, was named one of the top workplaces in America by Fortune magazine.
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Employees compete for fun but work together at Hyland Software, according to a Fortune magazine survey that resulted in Hyland being named one of the nation's best places to work.
WESTLAKE, Ohio--Northeast Ohio's largest software company typically shines in the annual Top Workplaces in Northeast Ohio survey commissioned by The Plain Dealer. Recently, Hyland Software gained some national recognition to go along with the local acclaim.
Fortune Magazine has named it one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2014, just in time for a hiring effort.
The selection, a first for Hyland, is based primarily on a survey of the company's 1,700 employees, including the nearly 1,200 working at its growing headquarters in Westlake.
"That's obviously what we're most proud of," said Kathleen Vegh, the company's employee engagement manager. "Our employees landed us on that list."
And how. Hyland is known for staging an animated workplace with giant slides, pep rally-like staff meetings and free Starbucks. But Hylanders expressed a greater appreciation for the sense of collaboration and teamwork.
Better than 90 percent of Hyland employees surveyed said they felt they "personally make a difference" at their job and are proud of what they accomplish; that they enjoy coming to work and that they feel part of a team, even a family.
The pay's not bad, either. Software developers earn a median $69,000 a year, which may not impress Silicon Valley but is competitive in Northeast Ohio.
The national attention comes at a good time for the maker of enterprise management software. Hyland is embarked upon an extended hiring spree.
The 22-year-old company about doubled in size in the last five years and plans to add another 170 or so people this year. It counts upon its employees to help sell the company to new talent, said spokeswoman Megan Klingshirn.
Many of the new hires will report to Hyland's newest addition to the corporate campus, a 165,000 square foot technology center. It was fashioned from the former Five Seasons recreation center, which Hyland bought last year.
Employees recently began moving into the facility, which takes Hyland's blend of work and recreation to a new level. There's a volleyball court in the atrium and a health coach and dietitian on staff in the new wellness center.
It's easier to focus on work if you don't have to ignore life, Vegh said. Hyland employees seem to happily agree.
Ford forecasts long future in Avon Lake
Ford finally offered an opinion of the Ohio Assembly plant in Avon Lake, where about 1,800 workers have cause for anxiety, and it's an encouraging one.
In a brief statement released Tuesday night, the company said it envisions a long future in Avon Lake and that it is in earnest discussions with the United Auto Workers to make sure that happens.
"Ford remains committed to Ohio Assembly as a key component of our global manufacturing strategy," the statement said.
Reached Wednesday in Dearborn, Ford spokeswoman Kristina Adamski said the company would not have much more to say until it completes talks with its union workers. But she said the company remains committed to securing a $15 million tax credit that it agreed to with the state two years ago.
To achieve that credit, the Avon Lake plant must be employing 1,400 workers three years from now, according to JobsOhio. That would represent about a 400-job drop but would leave a factory with a future. The agreement says those 1,400 jobs must last at least 18 years.
With its manufacturing facilities near capacity nationally, Ford plans to invest more than $100 million to prepare the Ohio Assembly plant for new production lines.
Talks with the UAW are aimed at minimizing the impact of layoffs during the retooling, which is scheduled to begin this summer. Strategies being discussed include temporary layoffs, transfers and retirement packages, and rotating shifts or crews, according to the Ford statement.
Adamski said she expects the talks to span a couple of weeks, after which both Ford and the UAW should have a clearer idea of the future workforce.
Businesses get ready to welcome Year of the Horse
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As is the custom, Victoria Meal of Brunswick feeds money to a roaring lion as the Kwan Family Lion Dance Team entertains at the Cleveland Asian Festival in May 2013.Asian Americans will soon be celebrating Lunar New Year, which heralds the Chinese Year of the Horse, and Cleveland-area businesses are galloping to meet them at the cusp.
Asia's biggest holiday commences with the new moon on or about Jan. 31. Celebrations in Northeast Ohio's growing Asian American community will range from 10-course feasts at Chinese restaurants to new year's sales in Asian grocery stores to raucous lion dances with firecrackers and booming drums.
One of the biggest public celebrations will unfold this weekend at Asian Town Center, the eclectic mini mall at 3820 Superior Avenue in Cleveland's Asia Town. A Lunar New Year Celebration January 25 and 26 will feature Asian foods, crafts and two performances -- at 3 p.m. Saturday and noon Sunday -- by the Kwan Family Lion Dance Team.
The Kwan family is Cleveland's premiere Lion Dance team. It's led by brothers who are Cleveland fire and police officers and who were trained in the martial art of lion dancing by their father, a lion dancer from Canton, China.
The Asian Town Center celebration also includes performances by the Yin Tang Dance Company, Blooming Flower- Paj Tawg Tshiab Hmong Dance Group, Rising Star Acrobatics, Great Wall Enrichment Center, the Westlake Chinese School and the Sho-lo-Ji Japanese Dancers. Learn more at http://www.asiantowncenter.com/
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Hui Wang of Westlake, right, and Horace Simmons of Warrensville Heights opened the first multi-lingual pharmacy in the Asian immigrant community.Hui Wang's uncommon venture sprang from an ordeal she experienced soon after arriving from China in 2000.
Her 14-month-old boy was sick and the doctor prescribed an antibiotic. Wang's English was poor. The doctor's Chinese was worse. She spent hours researching the drug on the Internet, building up the confidence to give her baby a medicine she did not understand.
Soon after, Wang, an accountant in China, enrolled in pharmacy classes at Cuyahoga Community College with an eye toward bridging a cultural gap. Two weeks ago, she opened Asia Plaza Pharmacy in the heart of the region's largest identifiable Asian immigrant community.
It's believed to be the first pharmacy in Northeast Ohio that serves customers in both English and Asian languages, including Mandarin, Cantonese and Vietnamese.
"A lot of residents in this area don't speak English," said Wang, who is known to her American friends as Mandy. "They need more than just restaurants here. They need health information."
Wang's studies at Tri C took her as far as a pharmacy technician license. She needed the help of a professional pharmacist to open her own, independent drug store in an age of chains.
Horace Simmons, a pharmacist of 43 years, fills that role with a smile. He worked with Wang at the pharmacy at Dave's supermarket just up Payne Avenue. He was nearing retirement, he said, and decided to help an earnest colleague realize her dream.
"She hatched the idea. Then she brought me in," Simmons said with a chuckle.
The pharmacy, which commands a storefront inside Asia Plaza at Payne Avenue and East 30th Street, also includes a multilingual U.S. Post Office -- another first for the neighborhood.