Strong workplace cultures don’t happen by accident. They’re built through trust, good leadership, clear communication and a genuine investment in people.
Every year, PPAI’s Greatest Companies to Work For program recognizes organizations that have built cultures where people feel supported, valued and empowered to do their best work. Those organizations deserve to be celebrated.
As I reflected on this year’s list, I kept coming back to one thought: Many of the same qualities that make an organization a great place to work are also the qualities that make it a responsible business. Respect. Transparency. Accountability. Curiosity. A willingness to listen and improve.
Those values don’t have to stop with our own employees. In fact, I’d argue they shouldn’t.
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It’s easy for responsibility conversations to gravitate toward environmental topics, from carbon accounting to packaging, waste and circularity. These are all important conversations, and our industry has made meaningful progress in each of those areas. But behind every sustainability initiative is something much more fundamental: people.
The people designing products. The people manufacturing them. The people packing, decorating, shipping and delivering them. The people building relationships with clients. The people solving problems when things don’t go according to plan – which, if you’ve worked in branded merch for more than about five minutes, you know happens from time to time.
Responsibility has always been about people.
That starts inside our own organizations. Creating workplaces where employees feel safe, respected, heard and able to grow isn’t simply good leadership, it’s good business. People who understand their organization’s values and feel connected to its purpose are more engaged, more innovative and more likely to stay through the inevitable challenges that every business faces. Increasingly, that’s becoming an important competitive advantage.
As the branded merch industry works to attract the next generation of talent, company values are no longer just words on a careers page. They’re becoming part of the employee value proposition. Deloitte’s 2025 Gen Z and Millennial Survey found that 89% of Gen Z respondents consider having a sense of purpose important to their job satisfaction, while nearly half have left a role they felt lacked purpose. Around 4 in 10 have even turned down an employer, assignment or project because it conflicted with their personal ethics or beliefs.
Elizabeth Wimbush, CAS
Director of Sustainability & Responsibility, PPAI
For younger professionals, work increasingly reflects what they stand for. And organizations that can authentically demonstrate those values are likely to have an advantage in attracting and retaining great people.
But responsibility doesn’t end with our own teams.
Every company in our industry relies on a much broader network of people. Suppliers, manufacturers, decorators, logistics providers and service partners all contribute to the products we create and the experiences we deliver. While every organization has a different level of influence within the supply chain, every organization has opportunities to build stronger relationships, ask thoughtful questions and encourage responsible business practices.
That doesn’t mean expecting perfection – far from it.
One of the biggest misconceptions about responsible sourcing is that it’s about finding flawless suppliers or eliminating every possible risk. In reality, it’s about understanding where risks exist, building trust, creating transparency and supporting continuous improvement over time. The strongest supplier relationships aren’t built through “gotcha” moments, they’re built through collaboration and true partnership. If that sounds familiar, it should.
The same philosophy applies to building a great workplace. No company becomes one of the best places to work overnight. Culture is the result of thousands of small decisions to listen to feedback, invest in development, admit when something isn’t working and choosing to make it better. Responsible supply chains evolve in much the same way. Progress comes through collaboration, consistency and a shared commitment to improving – not because anyone expects perfection, but because everyone believes improvement is possible.
That’s one of the many reasons I’m optimistic about where our industry is heading.
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Across it, we’re seeing organizations strengthen supplier expectations, refresh codes of conduct, invest in education, improve visibility into their supply chains and have more meaningful conversations about worker well-being and ethical business practices. None of those actions, on its own, is a finish line. Together, however, they represent an industry that continues to raise the bar.
Perhaps that’s the real connection between a great place to work and a responsible business: Both begin with people. Both require leadership that is willing to listen, learn and evolve. And both recognize that the values we cultivate internally shouldn’t disappear once work moves beyond our own four walls.
Responsibility has never been about getting everything right the first time. It’s about asking better questions, making better decisions and continually expanding our understanding of who is affected by those decisions. That’s true for our employees, it’s true for the people throughout our supply chains and, ultimately, it’s true for the long-term health of our industry.
As you read this issue and celebrate the organizations recognized as PPAI’s Greatest Companies to Work For, I hope it also serves as an invitation to think a little bigger. The organizations that will stand out tomorrow won’t simply be those that invest in their own people. They’ll be the ones whose values are visible throughout their businesses, from the culture they build internally to the partnerships they develop across their supply chains.
In an industry built on relationships, that feels like a pretty good definition of responsibility.
Wimbush is the director of sustainability and responsibility at PPAI.
