Great Places to Work: Wiss & Company, LLP

More than one business, legitimately or not, has branded itself “the company with a heart,” but Wiss—if it were inclined to self-congratulation—could confidently bill itself as the company with a funny bone.

Posted August 11, 2009 by Leslie Garisto Pfaff

Wiss & Company, LLP
Location: Livingston
NJ employees: 160
Chief executive: Jeffrey Campo
Who they are: An accounting and consulting firm
What we love: Policies designed to alleviate stress, and a corporate culture that fosters camaraderie

The firm’s dedication to lightening the atmosphere resulted in the creation, three years ago, of the Phun Committee:  Meeting quarterly, volunteer members plan employee events ranging from a night at the Meadowlands Racetrack to extreme dress-down days (think Hawaiian shirts instead of polos). 

And during tax season, when employees log long and stressful hours, the company offers extra decompression in the form of free back massages, trivia contests, and firm-sponsored dinners and lunches.  For audit manager Matt Barbieri, the long-term benefit of events like these is a better—and more efficient—workplace. “It becomes a lot easier to work with people,” he says, “after I’ve seen them in a social light.”

 According to Lisa Calick, Wiss’s human resources director, the upbeat corporate culture derives directly from the firm’s partners.  “Managing partner Jeff Campo is very passionate about the firm and knows the name and backstory of every employee at all three offices,” she says. 

Campo has instituted family- and employee-friendly policies such as monetary awards for workers who “think outside the box” and flextime; when Calick herself signed on four years ago, Wiss granted her request for a flexible schedule.   All of this seems to translate into a loyal workforce. “It definitely improves retention,” says Calick, who says she sees a lot of  “boomerangs” —people who have left to work at other companies and come back to Wiss.

Wiss continues to recruit from New Jersey colleges for entry-level accounting staff and expects to be hiring in the future for its newly formed consulting practice, Wiss Business Solutions, LLC.

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