So, Fort Worth, Texas magazine put us on its Best Places to Work list. But what does that mean other than Bret got to dress up and act all dorky at a photo shoot?
So what? So we have yet another self-aggrandizing claim that we can blast out through social channels to show how awesome we are. Woo. Look at us. Another company that can say “people are our greatest asset.” Who cares?
Yeah, we know. Some companies do this for the PR. Others do it because they understand that happy, engaged employees are more productive and generate more revenue per employee. But at a certain point you have to do it just because you believe it’s the right thing to do.
I’ve had this conversation a lot with Greg Harris, the president of Quantum Workplace, a company that measures employee engagement. He’s not a client, just a rocking, cool, smart dude who has a great company that helps other places become great companies. At some point, a company has to decide to put the effort into it simply because they believe in it. As Don Draper might put it, either you have Jesus in your heart or you don’t.
Being a Best Place to Work is about a lot more than Ping-Pong tables and happy hours. It’s about building great careers, strong teams and a successful company. It’s about people who love their work, love the people they work with and love what they do. It’s about saying “good job” and “thank you.” It’s about giving someone a chance to be awesome. It’s about feedback and mentoring and listening. As a result, we’re all a little better than we were the day before. Does that matter? You tell me.
Can you have a great company without being a Best Place to Work? Absolutely. But this has worked for us. Most important, we’re having fun doing it. You may not care about that, but I sure do.
