George Morton

Numerous recent upgrades and service enhancements show why the Washington Department of Printing is one of the top 10 in-plants in the country. by Bob Neubauer When you sit down at the table in George Morton's office at the Washington State Department of Printing, you get the feeling there's nobody else he'd rather be talking to. His welcoming smile and direct eye contact make it clear that he really cares about the people he's with. Perhaps that's why Morton, director of the Department of Printing for the past four years, is so popular among his 160 employees—he's concerned about them. In fact, he visits

Despite directing one of the country's largest in-plants, George Morton tries to maintain a personal relationship with each employee. by Bob Neubauer To say George Morton is concerned about his employees is simply not saying enough. "Every day I go out into the plant. I talk to my employees. I find out how they're doing, what their ideas are, what do they think we can do better, and we listen to those things," says the 55-year-old director of the Washington State Department of Printing. And with 157 employees—110 or so of them in the main plant—that is no easy task. "It's a commitment,"

State of Washington Olympia, Wash. Despite being one of the country's largest in-plants, the State of Washington's Department of Printing behaves much more like a small company in the way it treats its employees. "We're very pro-people," remarks Dan Swisher, assistant director of the Olympia, Wash.-based operation. "We like to grow from within. We like to involve everybody in our operation. And we like everybody to have fun doing it." To show employees how important they are, Swisher says the department's director, George Morton, visits each employee every single day. With 105 employees, that's a tough task, but the payoff is great. Trying