Employee Perks Include Pinball At Stafford Corrugated Products Video might have killed the radio star, but it didn’t kill the pinball machine, not at Stafford Corrugated Products anyway. When Tony D’Aprile, the company’s Founder and President, decided to share his passion for pinball by putting in two game rooms at the com- pany’s new headquarters in Indian Trail, North Carolina, his peers thought he was crazy. Productivity would go out the window, they said. D’Aprile, however, has found it to be quite the opposite with employ- ees now motivated to be more efficient in completing each day’s orders. “We’ve actually seen productivity go up,” he said.
Being a supplier to the corrugated industry since 1987 as opposed to a manufacturer also makes it easier to carve out time for in-house rec- reation, D'Aprile said. Stafford, which carries a large inventory, supplies about 60 percent of the US market with RODICUT anvil covers and is also a market leader in its machine part offerings. D’Aprile has found the pinball games to be an employee perk that wins more points in team building than distraction. Once employees have successfully completed all their picking and shipping orders for the day — with the goal to complete all orders every day — there is time left over for recreation as opposed to spreading work tasks out throughout an entire shift. The games are D’Aprile’s way of retaining employees and showing his appreciation. “Without our employees, we can’t do anything. They’re very important to us,” he said. As a pinball collector since the ‘90s, D’Aprile couldn’t fit any more in his game room at home so he started bringing them to work. Having moved into a larger, 50,000-square-foot headquarters within the same business park in 2022, there was plenty of room to turn one of the extra offices into a pinball room. They are now up to 20 different games includ- ing a classic Skee-Ball roller game. The most popular as well as challenging game currently is the Add- ams Family-themed pinball machine. While D’Aprile’s love of pinball is admittedly old school, one of the digital gamers on staff has developed a newfound appreciation for the mechanical and become the main con- tender for the title of pinball wizard at Stafford. “He’s totally blown away because you get the feel and the reaction of the machine — you can’t get that with video,” D’Aprile said.
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March 4, 2024
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