Hard work should be rewarded. That was the thought behind the Hurco Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Core Team's first order of business. Less than three months after the formation of the ESG Core Team — following the promotion of Hurco mainstay Maggie Smith to Senior Director of Marketing, Communications and ESG Initiatives — employees at the Indianapolis headquarters enjoyed a party in their own honor.
As the end of October marked the close of Hurco's fiscal year, the November 2 party was held to thank employees for their efforts following the fourth-quarter sales push. Drinks flowed, hors d'oeuvres were devoured, games were played, and prizes were won. But more importantly, connections were made. Individuals who typically wouldn't interact were suddenly on the same cornhole team, competing against each other in Giant Jenga, or reminiscing together about the year that song from music bingo was released. While it's hard to quantify, Hurco's investment in the happiness of its employees strengthens its internal social network and improves overall morale.
In addition to fostering connections and allowing personal to blow off steam, the ESG Team wove causes into the event that support the local Indianapolis community and environmental efforts.
SOCIAL IMPACT
As stated above, the motivation for the party was to bring everyone together for some fun after a year of hard work. The last company-wide party was held in 2018 to celebrate Hurco's 50th anniversary. The ESG Team felt a party would lift spirits and give folks something to look forward to as they pushed through the busy month of October.
So, the team decided to host the event November 2 to mark the end of Hurco's 2023 fiscal year. The group figured they'd get the best turnout during work hours — 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. — and avoided Friday in hopes of preventing conflicts with weekend plans. While the weather turned out great, the team ordered a large tent to prevent rain from ruining the day.
Of course, any good party has three key ingredients: drinks, food and games! Some team members explored catering options, while others scoured the internet for fun games people could play as a group. For beverages, ESG turned to a local business partner — Bottoms Up Beer — who uses Hurco machines during their manufacturing process.
In the end, the team chose options that offered the best bang for their buck. Sahm's Catering provided a wide array of food options at a fair price, and Bottoms Up was extremely helpful with setting up the beverage stand. The team also purchased several items that not only entertained this year's partygoers, but will be enjoyed for years to come:
- A popcorn maker
- Two putt-putt golf games
- Giant Jenga set
- And sets of two Cornhole boards and bags
In addition, ESG organized music bingo, which was run by Maria Knight and offered gift card prizes to its four winners: Bennett Vaught, Robbie Springate, Kate Onishchenko and Nicholas Heffelmire.
CORNHOLE TOURNAMENT
Hurco is full of competitors. It's a big part of what makes the company so great and helps reinforce its winning culture. So when cornhole was proposed, the ESG Team knew they had to do a tournament.
With the expertise of ESG member David Skrzypczak, who runs cornhole tournaments on the weekends at his campgrounds in southern Indiana, the team recruited 32 people to enter the tournament and built a bracket that would make March Madness organizers jealous. To help the tournament run smoothly, David and company utilized the P.A. system and created a Microsoft Teams group to announce when it was each team's turn to play.
Although wind was a major factor, the cornhole tournament was a tremendous success thanks to the participation and enthusiasm of the players. Competition was fierce, and several games went down to the wire. When the dust settled, Addison and Amy Roberson — who just tied the knot a couple weeks prior — came out victorious thanks to their pinpoint accuracy and unmatched chemistry. They each were awarded $100 restaurant gift cards.
Comfort Drive 
While it was important that their fellow employees had fun, the ESG Team also made it a priority to give back to the community. The team used the party to help launch and promote a comfort drive for Wheeler Mission, a social services organization that provides critically needed goods and services to individuals experiencing homelessness, poverty and need in central Indiana.
The team sent emails and made signs informing employees of the drive and set out bins to collect donations. The drive lasted over a week (through November 14) and collected gently used or new coats, hats, gloves, hoodies, etc. for those in need.
Food drive
To help fight hunger in the community, the ESG Team also used the party to help launch and promote a food drive for Pike Township — the township Hurco's headquarters resides within. Like the comfort drive, the team sent emails and made signs informing employees of the food drive and set out bins to collect donations. The drive lasted a week (through November 9) and collected non-perishable food items for the Pike Red Zone Food Pantry.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
Hurco values environmental health. The ESG Team considers it their responsibility to be good stewards of the earth in an effort to leave the planet in proper condition for future generations to thrive. That's why the team came up with a gameplan to not just minimize waste at the party, but to launch a campaign to reduce day-to-day waste within the building. Starting with an audit of current recycling throughout the building, the ESG team contacted all recycling partners to better understand the proper process to eliminate contamination for each recycling stream. For example, aluminum soda cans must be placed in a separate recycling bin from the metal chips. The ESG Team is working with marketing to create appropriate signage for each type of recycling bin to maximize the efforts of the company to increase efficiency in recycling.
eco-friendly dishes
Stressing the "E" in ESG, the team opted not to use the plates, napkins and silverware offered by the caterer and instead purchased compostable versions of those items for the event. Those items were placed in a clearly marked bin and picked up after the party. Soda cans went into their own marked bin to be recycled, while the Bottoms Up cups required a more challenging solution.
Because the cups were specially made by Bottoms Up to be filled from the bottom, the ESG Team was limited to what Bottoms Up offered: glass or plastic. Out of concern that the glass might break and cut someone, the team chose plastic. ESG collected the cups in their own clearly marked bin so that they could be cleaned. The team could then remove the metal ring that holds a magnet over the hole in the bottom of each cup to be recycled. Now, ESG plans to work with Bottoms Up Beer to find an eco-friendlier cup option to offer their customers, such as biodegradable cups made of corn starch.
LESSONS LEARNED
All in all, the employee appreciation party ran smoothy, and co-workers expressed positive feedback about the event. That, of course, doesn't mean there aren't things that could be improved upon for the next party. Here are lessons the team learned in the process of planning and hosting the event, as well as suggestions provided by attendees:
- Have nametags for everyone to encourage mingling between individuals who haven't interacted before
- Get department calendars during early the planning phase to make sure timing works for all departments
- Plan the location of everything before the event and send out a map illustrating where to find things
- Have different speakers for music bingo and general background music
- More Giant Jenga sets
- Organize a Giant Jenga tournament
- Display a poster of the cornhole rules
- Announce the prizes for cornhole winners before the tournament
What's next?
The employee appreciation party was just the start for the Hurco ESG Team! The group hopes to hold at least one event per quarter. ESG has discussed organizing a viewing of the April 8 total solar eclipse*, as well as environmental events such as community cleanups.
Other initiatives on the horizon include establishing an Indianapolis employee social media network and bringing battery recycling to Hurco.
Stay tuned!
*Note: April 4, 2024, by Maggie Smith, ESG Core Team Chair: Instead of a Total Solar Eclipse event, the ESG Core Team decided that our city being in the Zone of Totality for the first time in 831 years elevated this astronomical event beyond a simple viewing party. The ESG Core Team worked with leadership to secure time off for employees the afternoon of April 8th event in addition to supplying employees and their families (as well as many of our partners) with Hurco Solar Eclipse Glasses approved by the American Astronomical Society that adhere to ISO 12312-2 filters standard for direct observation of the sun.
NOTE: This blog is a draft and will be updated with more details and photos.
