Steve Baue’s entrepreneurial journey began in the corporate world, spending years climbing the ranks. “Like many kids growing up in the ‘80s, I was guided by a conventional plan: get a business degree, join a company and work tirelessly until I reached the top,” said Baue. “For a while, this plan served me well, but in a moment of clarity, I understood I had been living according to someone else’s plan for two decades.”
Returning home, Baue shared this revelation with his wife, and they spent countless hours discussing their future, ultimately deciding to invest every dollar they had into purchasing Employee Resource Center (ERC), a mental health benefits company.
“Though I am not a counselor, I believed in our ability to make a meaningful difference,” said Baue. “In the 10 years since, ERC has transformed well over 200,000 lives, providing crucial support and care.”
The Employee Resource Center (ERC) is a leading provider of mental health benefits, traditionally known as an Employee Assistance Program, dedicated to enhancing the well-being of individuals and communities. The firm’s mission is to partner with employers to offer employees and their families free and confidential access to high-quality counseling services.
Under Baue’s leadership, the team has built systems to empower staff, cut wait times and improve resolution rates. This not only streamlined operations and quadrupled the company’s profit margins, but it improved its customer retention to 95%. In the past three years, ERC has experienced remarkable growth, with revenues, profit margins and the number of employees covered all increasing by 50%.
Baue has also invested in a best-in-class virtual counseling platform. After acquiring the platform, he and his team enhanced it with multiple power and encryption back-ups, ensuring that counseling sessions achieve the highest level of reliability and security.
“These actions are crucial in building trust with our clients and customers, especially as demand for virtual services grows,” he said. “Our ability to get clients seen quickly, coupled with a 90% issue resolution rate, means our clients can move forward in their lives.”
As a result, ERC was honored with the ethics in business award in 2017 and was named runner-up for the best place to work in Northeast Wisconsin. “Fostering a culture of well-being and growth has always been a priority for me, and it directly reflects our purpose of ‘We care, We help,’” said Baue. “I am committed to inspiring positive change, making a lasting difference in mental health and beyond, and finding my purpose and meaning along the way.”