Employees at Lake Oswego-based Logical Position reach out to each other and to neighbors

Tony Palazzo believes there are a bunch of aces working for Logical Position, the Lake Oswego-based digital marketing firm where he serves as vice president of operations. So it probably makes sense that when the company decided to form an employee-led council to organize and promote community events and outreach programs, it settled on the name ACES.

The acronym stands for Activities, Community, Education and Social, and Palazzo says that just about covers the group’s dual goals of boosting morale and benefitting the places where LP employees live and work.

“With our growing impact, we can really make a difference in this community,” Palazzo says. “It’s also important that our employees are happy. ACES started in December, and we’re already seeing a lot of good things happen.”

Among those good things: a holiday food drive for the Oregon Food Bank, and a clothing drive that filled two barrels for the Portland Rescue Mission in just eight days. Other holiday events were held at local businesses, including Uptown Market, Northwest Growlers and Tavern on Kruse.

Last month, when an LP employee suffered a seizure, Palazzo says he realized that others in the company “needed lifesaving savvy.” So he called the American Red Cross and arranged for a speaker on CPR. More presentations are planned on wellness and other topics.

“My goal is for something to literally be going on every day in this program,” Palazzo says. “This is something that will benefit our employees’ lives.”

ACES started last year when an LP employee approached Palazzo and told him about a dream she had in which all of the company’s employees were helping to feed people at Thanksgiving. Palazzo says he saw no reason why that couldn’t actually happen, and ACES was born.

“We do not know of any other digital marketing firms on the West Coast that are organizing such a morale-boosting and community-enhancing initiative as ACES,” Palazzo says. “A commitment like this is entirely consistent with LP’s corporate culture and core values.”

Indeed, the company — which offers pay-per-click marketing, search engine optimization and website design to more than 1,800 clients — has often been praised for its efforts to build on employee satisfaction. For two years in a row, Oregon Business magazine named it one of the “100 Best Companies to Work for in Oregon.”

“We don’t want it to be just work, work, work,” says LP General Manager Lindsey Stier, who serves as ACES president. “We want to add to the community spirit.”

Today, 30 employees — approximately one-third of the company’s Oregon workforce — participate on a regular basis. An activities committee implements sports, health and wellness initiatives. An education committee provides personal growth workshops such as financial planning, leadership training and time management skills. And a social events committee creates regular events to maximize LP’s team-building and social-butterfly tendencies.

“It’s all geared toward making Logical Position more of a home to employees and families,” Stier says. “We’ve got some great minds here. They can come up with very creative events.”

Fun seems to be at the heart of many of those events. LP employees have competed in the Shamrock Run, and the office has two kickball teams.

“We made the championship game,” Stier proudly notes.

Logical Position is currently in expansion mode, with a building project that will add 14,000 square feet of office space. Palazzo says the key to the company’s growth is a philosophy of valuing each employee “as a whole person.”

“Happy and healthy employees translate into great results for our clients,” he says, “and our employees are into (ACES). It’s going to be a huge part of our culture.”

For more information, visit logicalposition.com and facebook.com/LogicalPosition.