Announcing Mary Shasky’s Retirement, Blog Post
Last year, WCCO Belting employees helped us create our Employee Value Proposition (EVP) which reads:
“While we're proud of what we’ve built here, we're even more proud we created a company around people who love to work, collaborate, and grow together. You sense it on day one. This is a place that celebrates family values, a healthy work-life balance, and being an active neighbor in the community. This is where your work ethic and creativity are rewarded — all powered by unmatched WCCO Belting teamwork that pushes you to perfect your skills and grow your career. Each day, we prove that loving where you work begins with the people you work with.”
It is with mixed emotions that we announce the retirement of Mary Shasky, Training and Standards Manager, at WCCO Belting. We are grateful for her servant leadership to the company over the last 12 years. She was our EVP personified – people loved working with her.
Mary was hired as a technical document writer in 2009 after having worked for a neighboring manufacturer. She had numerous accomplishments during her tenure that contributed to the improvement and success of our business including:
- Creator of many of our original training courses, a program that holds 90+ courses today
- Integral supporter of maintaining our ISO 9001 certification
- Key developer of our process improvement program origination, which has received more than 3,000 submissions today
- Foremother of the primary groundwork of our SOPs, AIDs, forms, and work instructions
- 2011 Employee of the Year
In addition, an impressive stat calculated by Mary’s team, during the past 18 months she alone has developed and published approximately 100 new documents and has made 350 document revision updates.
On Mary’s last day, WCCO Belting’s shareholders elected her into the Employee Hall of Fame. The WCCO Hall of Fame award is open to a very select group of people who have committed a large part of their careers – sometimes their entire careers – to the success of WCCO Belting. It is the single highest form of recognition the business offers to any team member.
The aim of the Hall of Fame award is to recognize those who have made significant contributions to the long-term success of the company including but not limited to: leadership, process improvement, customer satisfaction, quality improvement, product development, cost reduction, community support, new employee mentoring, and their general representation of WCCO Belting’s Core Values. Recognition is to acknowledge those contributions that are beyond the normal day-to-day job expectations.
In her final email to the team, Mary wrote, “WCCO gave me the opportunity to do what I love to do, and I can’t find the words to say how much I appreciate it.” As the caretaker of her elderly mother during the pandemic, Mary also shared, “It meant the world to me that WCCO let me work remotely these last few months so I could take care of my mother and keep my job; I’m not sure too many companies would have done that. I will miss my WCCO family more than any of you will ever know.”
In a small program with limited numbers on her last day, CEO/President Tom Shorma commented, “Mary made such a difference with her constant optimism, enthusiasm, and willingness to answer questions. She could turn something that seemed complicated into something we could all be excited about and get behind. I know we’ll all miss that.” WCCO’s leadership joined both in-person and virtually to allow for more space for Mary’s team to attend the program onsite. They all offered similar accreditations, including how Mary will be remembered for her great hugs.
Mary’s passion, leadership, and professionalism will be missed. Her dedication to our employees and our customers can’t be quantified in how much it positively impacted our business. Looking forward as a company, we’ll strive for “Continuous improvement!” just like Mary would always do.
Congratulations on your retirement, Mary!