Going green boosts employee morale

An Illinois payroll firm formed an employee advisory board to cut its impact on the environment—and boosted morale in the process

Sometimes, employees get sick of being communicated at.

After all, they often are more in touch with the day-to-day goings-on at a company than executives at the highest levels—and usually have a lot to say about it.

That’s why Steve Sarowitz, CEO of Paylocity—a fast-growing provider of payroll and HR solutions in Arlington Heights, Ill.—recently established an employee advisory board to help him in his mission to “go green.”

“As we grow, I want to make sure we’re positioned to do so in an environmentally friendly way—sure, we recycle paper and ink cartridges, but it’s time to take things to the next level,” says Sarowitz, who in less than a decade helped his company grow from a tiny, three-person start-up to a $17.5 million corporation with 180 employees. “At the same time, our first responsibility is profitability. So our mission is to find out all the ways we can be green without making a big investment. It’s a learning process.”