Being a multi-time winner of the Business Journal’s Top 100 places to work can be attributed to the culture of the work environment created by CEO Lauren Witkin, of Citadel EHS.
Citadel EHS provides environmental health, safety and sustainability consulting services. They support large institutional public and private clients to comply with a myriad of health safety and sustainability regulations. In the early 90s amidst an extremely horrible economy Lauren and some partners decided they could provide this service in a better manner than what was out there. Despite overcoming many obstacles Citadel EHS has won the Business Journal’s Top 100 places to work multiple times and has thrived over the past 25+ years.What differentiates them from the others is their culture. Whereas a smart company knows all the technical aspects of a business, many companies lack the healthy side to a company. Caring for the stakeholders, the employees, the clients, and the environment have allowed them to keep many clients and employees they started the business with from the very beginning.
Citadel EHS is multi-generational, multi-educational, and multi-cultural. By creating a warm environment that employees want to come to keeps the staff happy. Citadel uses ESOP, or employee stock ownership programs as a way to retain employees because they feel it is right to share what you make with the people who make it and not just the people at the top. This has been a game changer and makes people proud to be there, because they are also a partial owner. By hiring people who do what they do best, but also have the soft skills that will fit into your company, you allow your company to grow to its potential where employees can share their strengths.
interview with
Lauren Witkin
CEO
Citadel EHS