Extraordinary Growth Doesn’t Just Happen: A Giant Pumpkin Farmer’s Perspective on Executive Benefits
Guest post written by Tyler Quigley, National Director of Marketing, Burns-Fazzi, Brock (BFB). Tyler and his family tend their field of dreams in Mountain Green, Utah.
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BFB is the NAFCU Services Preferred Partner for Executive Compensation and Benefit Consulting.
My name is Tyler, and I grow giant pumpkins. Not just big pumpkins. Giant pumpkins. The kind of pumpkins that could someday rise out of the murky depths of the Pacific Ocean and terrorize Tokyo. My personal best came from one of the pumpkins I grew last season. It weighed in at 1,454.5 pounds and was the second largest ever recorded in Utah.
Growing a pumpkin that large is an enormous (pardon the obligatory pun) undertaking, and as Iâve learned more about the planning, hard work, and dedication necessary to cultivating these behemoths, Iâve realized there are a lot of parallels to be drawn between cultivating pumpkins and the principles of my day job.
When it comes to growing a world-class giant pumpkin, the season starts well before a seed is actually planted in the soil. Prior to anything else, you have to research which seed youâll use. Great pumpkins have pedigrees, and seeds from proven winners can come at a premium. A large part of the pre-planting preparation is networking with other growers around the country and trying to acquire one of these blue-blooded seeds.
All of these are also true about the care in which you craft a world-class executive benefit plans. Getting them right requires lots of groundwork, both in terms of vendor due diligence (that networking process) and in determining what products and services you are going to use to fund the plan.
After you get your hands on the seed, you have to prepare the soil and set up your irrigation system. The most outstanding seed in the world wonât grow without access to essential nutrients.
In other words, now that youâve selected your vendor, itâs time to dig and work with them to design a plan that will blossom and help you attract, retain, and reward key executives who can help your Credit Union flourish.
Once youâve planted the seed, itâs going to need a lot of TLC. As your little plant grows, you have to spend time every day making sure it has enough food and water and that it is healthy and ready to be pollinated.
With a new executive benefit plan in place, the executive benefit professional can work with your CEO and board to make sure everything runs smoothly. The process doesnât stop with selection, you need to know how the plan will be administered after itâs set up.
When you finally have a baby pumpkin on your vine, you canât neglect it. Along with continuing to make sure it is adequately nourished, you have to record the pumpkinâs growth each day, entering the data on spreadsheets that show estimated weight and growth curves and help you track whether your pumpkin is growing according to plan. Even out of the office it seems I canât get away from spreadsheets, but that constant measuring and assessing is vital to giant-sizing your pumpkin.
And itâs vital to measure and track the performance of your plan, and to make sure it remains compliant. A great benefits partner will have a designated specialist to help make sure your plan stays on its projected path.
After days spent in the sun and nights spent singing your blanket-covered pumpkin to sleep, all of your hard work pays off. The forklifts and flatbeds show up to help you harvest your pumpkin and take it to the weigh-off. The most gargantuan pumpkins earn you prizes, but even more importantly, they earn you bragging rights and something monumental to hold over your friendsâ heads all year long.
I wouldnât suggest bragging about your compensation plan, but you do want to go to sleep at night knowing that yours and those of your key executives are world-class.
1,000-pound pumpkins donât grow by chance, nor do great executive benefit plans accidentally happen. Both require work, care, and commitment from everyone involved if youâre hoping for results that will set records or exceed expectations.
What became of my 1,454 pounder, you ask? It was transformed into a real piece of art. Check it out »
BFB is the NAFCU Services Preferred Partner for Executive Compensation and Benefit Consulting. More information at www.nafcu.org/BFB or at www.bfbbenefit.com.