11. Soake Pools • 789 Silver Hills Drive, Pembroke • soakepools.com
Top Employee Engagement Survey Measures: Management is trusted: 100% agree. The mission and purpose of my organization makes me feel that my job is important: 100% agree
Co-founder: Karen Larson
Years in Business: 12
Full-time employees: 24 (19 in NH)
Years on List: 1
Soake Pools may manufacture luxury plunge pools, but co-founder Karen Larson says the company sees itself as something more. “We are much more than just a manufacturer,” she says. “We are really a health and wellness company.”
Soake Pools’ core values of honesty and integrity, having one another’s backs, delivering an outstanding customer experience, having fun and recognizing that everyone pitches in has spurred its success. As Larson explains, “We live and breathe by these values and they guide every decision we make from hiring to customer satisfaction.”
With a team of just over 20 employees, collaboration is essential. Weekly company meetings include employee shout-outs, brainstorming sessions and open discussions where everyone is encouraged to contribute ideas. Employees have helped redesign customer communication processes and even inspired the company’s now-signature customer care packages, complete with handwritten poems and branded gifts that keep customers engaged during the months between purchase and delivery.
The company also invests in its employees. Full-time workers receive company-paid health insurance premiums and retirement contributions totaling roughly 9% of salary through a combination of a 401(k), profit-sharing and a cash balance plan.
Monthly company lunches, happy hours, annual retreats that include spouses, holiday bonuses and a paid day of community service annually foster strong relationships across
the organization.
As Soake Pools continues to grow, it is expanding its focus on work-life integration with greater scheduling flexibility and new wellness offerings, including yoga, meditation and fitness classes. Larson sums up the culture this way: “Open, honest communication and heartfelt gratitude for each other are really at the root of our culture.”
