An atmosphere of transparency
The employee satisfaction survey that we send out is pretty revealing of our culture. We are hyper-transparent at Valtech. The anonymous survey is sent out to the entire staff, and all 50 questions/answers are read aloud to everyone during our bi-annual “State of the State” meeting. We get answers about what people love:
“I love the environment, the types of projects that we work on, the freedom we have to push technology ahead with little restriction, and the perks and encouragement of responsibly managed personal flexibility. Remote work has always been important for me, as distractions of ANY kind, regardless of how small & short they may be, can completely throw me off. My work style is very much momentum-based, so I appreciate the moments when I can work remotely with significantly less distractions.”
And we get answers about what they definitely do not like:
“You can hear bathroom ‘activities’. Can we soundproof those rooms?”
Welcome to the world of Valtech transparency!
We are also very open with our finances. Every employee knows our revenue, profit margin, and profit. They know how that will impact profit sharing at year-end. We are sure to let everyone know what is going well, and where we need to work on financial performance. This aligns the whole team. Being equipped with knowledge on how the agency is doing financially gets everyone excited to pitch in to achieve the same goals. On an individual level, we make sure that each staff member knows how much money the company has made as a result of their work every six months. Employees are shown how their billable utilization contributes to the bottom line. This information is directly tied to raises and profit sharing. Through total financial transparency, everyone is motivated to contribute as much as they can.
Business innovation
The third part of creating an award-winning culture is business innovation. We see ourselves as a pretty progressive workplace, but what I am most proud of is our constant search for new ideas on how to make this place even better. We actively research what other companies are doing to build great places to work. No idea is considered too wacky. It’s been found that unlimited vacation, along with maternity and paternity leave is shown to boost productivity? Awesome, let’s do it. Zappos has shown success in throwing out corporate hierarchy in order to create a flat, holacratic workforce? Interesting. Let’s incorporate the best parts of what they do into what we do. Let’s make it better.
Aside from actively innovating our culture, we also stay true to the foundational elements that are built into Valtech’s core. These items are tried and true, and never change. They are covered during your first day as an employee via our Employee Handbook and are constantly reinforced throughout the year. These core components include many things, but to give you an idea, here are a few: