The DBusiness Breakfast Series hosted its second Top Corporate Culture Awards ceremony on Wednesday, March 1, at the Daxton Hotel in downtown Birmingham. The sold-out event featured a strolling breakfast and networking before a keynote speech by innovation expert Josh Linker. Following his presentation, awards were presented to the winners of the 10 Top Corporate Culture Award categories — recognizing businesses for excellence in diversity and inclusion, compensation and benefits, and more.

Diversity and Inclusion

Leading the way in the Diversity and Inclusion category are SGH Wealth Management in Lathrup Village (small) and MacKellar Associates in Rochester Hills (medium-large).

Of SGH’s staff of 10 people, 40 percent are women, and there is Hispanic and African-American representation, as well.

“I’ve watched the banks all address this because diversity in this industry is just bad,” says Sam Huszczo, founder and CEO of SGH. “In my opinion, the (diversity) policies are just boxes to check. I don’t feel like they’ve made the strides that need to be made, so I don’t have a formal policy.”

“We’re a very differently structured firm than most Financial Services Firms. That gives me a huge advantage to attract more diversity. Most other firms focus on hiring experienced, older advisers. We’re going in a totally different direction, where the majority of our hires are straight out of college. In a college setting, I can get in front of more female candidates, more Hispanic, and more African-American candidates.”

“And, when given a choice between candidates, we’re going to prioritize our desire to be a diverse workplace.”

Career Advancement

SGH Wealth Management also scored well in the Career Advancement category, as did The Perna Team – Keller Williams in Novi (medium-large).

“Ninety percent of the work structure at Financial Services Firms are silos under an umbrella,” Huszczo says. “Their advisers are almost like independent contractors in competition with each other. There’s little or no teamwork.”

“We’re structured more like a large law firm; they hire people right out of law school and develop them. We’re trying to replicate that in Financial Services. We don’t require these college graduates to do any sales for the first three to five years of their career. It allows us to train them. People get really excited about our job opportunity within this space.”

“Overall, I want (them) to have a job they can be proud to tell their parents about.”