At a meeting of agencies a few years back, a consultant asked audience members for one example of what made their firms unique. Some said Interactive expertise, others claimed strategic brilliance, creativity made the list. I said, “dog day” and was met with a gentle but unmistakable scoff. After all, this was supposed to be a business discussion.

Fast forward several years to last Friday morning and a gathering of Wisconsin business leaders. Charleston|Orwig’s dog day was once again mentioned as a desirable benefit when our firm was named as one of the top 100 workplaces in Wisconsin. It’s not so much dog day that resulted in employees voting us into that position as it is what such a weekly event represents.

We are a hard-working business with a keen focus on providing exceptional service to clients. With that comes demands on our employees. Dog day is one of the things we do to help keep our workplace fun and desirable. It was also gratifying to learn that staff voting had placed us ahead of the 99 other winners for operating with ethical standards. That’s one of those things you try to do with hopes that someone will notice.

When we were talking about the award before it was announced, my wife said, “That must make you guys (the management team) pretty happy.”

After thinking a moment, I replied, “It does, but I also feel some amount of pressure. We want to make sure employees feel the same way when they next have an opportunity to vote.”