Company Culture Today

What is “Company Culture” to you?   We define Company Culture as the combination of four different categories: employee appreciation, company outings, office hour events, and communication.  These items are crucial to hiring and retaining members of your team. Finding the right job is similar to going out to a restaurant and ordering a meal.  A person picks the things that satisfy their taste and enjoy the food, making it worthwhile.  This idea remains the same when looking for employment.  A person picks out worthwhile employers that offer benefits and advantages that meet their needs and interest them.

Employee appreciation may be the most important piece to retaining employees, when it comes to company culture. Individuals want to feel that their opinion and contributions matter to the company as a whole.  The impact of saying “Thank you” should not be underestimated.  We have a “Thank you” program setup so our managers have every opportunity to thank their employees with a handwritten card, allowing them to redeem it for a gift card of their choice. We also dedicate a section of our weekly internal newsletter to kudos. Any employee can send in kudos to any fellow team member, highlighting how they went above and beyond to help them. Both of these are great ways to thank your team for all of the hard work that goes into each and every day.

Company outings are another good way to encourage your team to bond outside of the office. Every year, we treat our employees to community excursions, such as: a baseball game to support the local Salt Dogs, an annual golf outing, a holiday party, and a company sponsored recreational sports teams. The Salt Dogs are a local, minor league baseball team so and every year, the ASI/IDS team is invited to attend and bring a guest.  We rent a suite, cater food, and have a great time cheering on our Salt Dogs.  One of the newer perks offered are company sports teams.  This year, staff signed up to play for the city recreational kickball and softball leagues.  Our team had a great time playing with the added bonus of enhancing the way we work together.  A win, win situation!

Who doesn’t love a good meal? We are fortunate that Brad Perry, our President/CEO, is an excellent cook. He and our senior leadership generously take a day every month to cook lunch for our entire team.  There are also other office hour events hosted, including: a salsa competition, an Easter egg scavenger hunt, a Fourth of July BBQ, a minute-to-win-it competition, and a pumpkin carving contest.  To sweeten the pot, we make sure to award the winner(s) with a rotating trophy filled with candy to share with their department.  In addition, we randomly include other prizes that could include cash or a free day of PTO.

We made it a priority to set up a “Fun Committee,” or as we like to call it, the iTeam. This team is comprised of members from different departments and is dedicated to organizing our fun events and outings. They act as a liaison between our employees and our senior leadership team, encouraging input from each department to mold our culture. This goes hand-in-hand with our efforts to encourage better communication.

Each week, we gather information from department heads to create the “Monday Update”. This eNewsletter is sent out to all employees and contains information from new policies to congratulating a team member on the adoption of their new puppy. In addition, we implemented quarterly communications meetings. These into more details about projects we are working on, plans for the next quarter, and celebrate and welcome our newest team members.

Each of these pieces make up the core of our “Company Culture”.  They are an investment, not only in our company, but also in our team. We want our employees to be happy, healthy, and excited to work with us. Maintaining that approach is a tough task and we are excited that including some employee appreciation, company outings, office hour events, and communication have made a difference.