At HPM, Inc., culture isn’t a set of words on a wall—it’s a way of working and living together. One of our core values, family, is more than a metaphor. It means we are committed to each other through the good and the bad, to caring for each other in moments of joy and in seasons of hardship. A couple of years ago, an initiative was put forth that demonstrated that this is felt, believed, and lived not only by our leadership, but by our whole team. It is the story of the birth of HPM Heroes.

More than two years ago, largely inspired by conversations with my then-new peers at Tugboat Institute®, I began thinking about new ways to support our employees beyond traditional benefits. We already had programs in place that went beyond the basics, such as matching employee contributions to 529 college savings plans, but I thought we could do even more. A Tugboat Institute Gathering of Teams speaker, Ann Rhoades, gave a great presentation on being People First, and she mentioned a program the employees had set up at Southwest that was funded by donations from their paychecks and existed to support team members experiencing unexpected life crises. I loved that idea and mentioned it to a member of our HR team, Charity Emery. She had seen this model elsewhere, and we decided to see if we couldn’t make it happen at HPM. Almost right out of the gate, as we started to explore, some practical challenges began to present themselves.