Ten years ago, we sent our employees their first Best Places to Work in Maine questionnaire. Spanning all aspects of our business—from emotional support to physical workspace to compensation and benefits—and all departments of our company, the questionnaire gave us an accurate picture of how employees felt about working at Allagash.
Since that first questionnaire, we’ve participated 9 times and made the list of Best Places to Work in Maine 9 times. (The only year that we didn’t participate was 2020, because, well, there were more pressing priorities in 2020.) And we’re happy to say that we came back in 2021 and scored our highest position ever: number 4 in our business size category.
One of our brewers hard at work, monitoring a batch of beer in our 35-barrel brewing system.
But our primary reason for entering the competition isn’t to win awards or make lists; the goal is for us to hear directly, and anonymously, from our employees—so we can make necessary changes to how we function based on their feedback.
These questionnaires have been excellent resources when we’ve looked to implement new programs at Allagash. They help us pinpoint the areas most in need of addressing, and they help us track how those policies are holding up over time. They also give us a view of whether our employees understand, and believe we’re following through on, our goals and values as a company.
That openness to suggestions from employees at all levels is essential to how our business works. Our beer portfolio relies on this, actually. Any employee at Allagash, no matter how long they’ve worked for us, or what department they work in, can suggest a new beer idea. You can read all about how that “Pilot Beer” process works in this page right here.
We’ve also put a premium on employee safety in all forms. That means the safety of our production team in an industrial setting with heavy kegs and forklift traffic, but it also means the safety of our work environment to make employees feel confident that their opinion, even if it’s contrary to what we’re currently doing, is welcome. In line with this, we also have a mental health benefit that we established during the pandemic, that gives all of our employees free access to mental health professionals by partnering with Wellspace.
In short, we’re proud to once again be on this list of stellar employers here in Maine, and plan to keep working hard to be the best employer that we can be.
