1. Rise Private Wealth Management • 262 South River Road, Suite 201, Bedford • riseprivatewealthmanagement.com
Top Employee Engagement Survey Measures: My manager respects my work life balance: 98% agree. I have the freedom to make the necessary decisions to do my work properly: 98% agree
CEO and Co-Founder: Brent Kiley
Years in Business: 16
Full-Time Employees: 89 (42 in NH)
Years on List: 4
“What do you want for yourself?” It is a simple but powerful question and the cornerstone of this year’s best company to work for in NH, Rise Private Wealth Management.
That question is closely examined quarterly with every employee in the company, with professional, personal and financial goals set around it. “It is our job as a leadership team to help our team get to where they want to go. We treat our team like they are our top client,” says CEO and Co-founder Brent Kiley.
COO Christopher Guzikowski says Rise follows a servant leadership model. “Each of our people is a free agent. Every morning they get up and choose to come to work. We have a team of talented people who are employable somewhere else. It is incumbent on us to earn their loyalty and engagement every day,” he says.
One way the firm does so is by investing in the future of its employees, and in turn, the future of the firm though the Path to Partnership program. This program provides a clear roadmap guiding team members from being an intern to a partner. Rise also invests between $50,000 and $100,000 annually to have more than a dozen team members participate in one-on-one professional coaching. The firm hosts monthly leadership development sessions as well as peer-led Leadership Lunch and Learns, and offers a formal mentorship program.
Rise makes sure there are clear guardrails between work and personal lives. “We empower people to build a model calendar or week and have guard rails on them,” says Kiley. In fact, Guzikowski says, team members are encouraged to take a long weekend each month. He says managers regularly ask team members, “Have you booked your next vacation yet?”
Rise offers new team members 20 days of paid time off, adding on five days every five years until maxing out at 30 days at 10 years. That is in addition to nine paid holidays and two floating holidays.
Rise offers work from home options and an Alternative Work Arrangement Policy allows team members to temporarily adjust schedules for up to 90 days for personal, family, or medical needs. Rise offers 10 weeks of paid maternity leave and two weeks of paid parental leave.
That’s on top of several other perks team members enjoy, including 90% of health insurance premiums covered by the firm, pet insurance and access to legal services.
For its annual firmwide offsite meeting, Rise Rendezvous, the firm flies all employees in from across the country for strategy sessions and professional development as well as an opportunity to have fun together through scavenger hunts and karaoke. Rise also covers all travel and hotel expenses for everyone attending the event.
It’s all aimed at building a culture that engages people in their future and that of the firm. “You can pay someone really well for their role but if they are not happy and do not like the culture, they won’t stay. The bigger we get, the smaller we need to feel for our team,” Kiley says. “As executive leaders it is our job to protect and safeguard the culture but they [team members] own it.”
