Sheldon Yellen has enough on his plate — after all, he's the CEO of Birmingham, Mich.-based Belfor, a $1.5 billion disaster recovery and property restoration company. Nevertheless, he still finds the time to write individual birthday notes to his employees — all 7,000 of them.
When Mr. Yellen began working at Belfor 30 years ago, he wanted a way to be seen by the company's employees, according to CNBC.
"To break through that, I figured I would start writing personal birthday cards," he said, according to the report. "They would at least have to stop by and say thanks for the card. And they did. We started communicating with each other."
Since then, he's kept up the tedious and time-consuming process, which he says is completely worth it. He keeps blank birthday cards nearby — on his desk and on his private plane — and handwrites personal messages and stories to each employee for their birthday.
"People tell me all the time that the customer comes first. But I'll say, 'I'm sorry, but my people come first.' And I truly believe that," he said, according to the report. "By putting my people first, they then in turn take care of — in an amazing way — our clients and customers."
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