Glad we are considered a Great Place to Work

From the beginning, the single most important element of our strategy as a professional services firm was that we should hire great people and do everything possible to create an environment in which they can thrive.

We further based our cultural perspective on a major principle: We tried to do things differently from the previous firms where we had worked. Most other consulting firms have high turnover and dangerously stressed employees – not environments conducive to doing optimal work. So we set out to create a wholly different atmosphere, at times literally doing the opposite of what most other consulting firms did. We believed that if other firms’ policies and practices were creating suboptimal work environments, maybe doing the opposite would create a more productive, healthy environment. So far, this strategy appears to be working!

In addition, we’ve continuously managed the firm based on several other key principles that we like to believe contributed to our Great Place to Work results:

Treat everyone as a Partner

We aim to be fully transparent and overly communicative – including sharing our financials with the entire firm
We listen to all of our people, regularly seeking feedback from across the firm and reacting accordingly
Everyone is literally a “Partner” – we only have one title for everyone in the firm, regardless of experience or role

Trust the people we hire

We’ve always allowed our Partners to work remotely, beginning long before it was fashionable
We don’t use time sheets or other “management tools” – we trust our Partners to do what they need to do to fulfill their responsibilities

Demand a “team-first” mentality

We do not maintain individual sales or management quotas – instead focusing on team-oriented selling, account management, and project management
Bonuses are based on the firm’s overall performance each year, rather than individual performance (each Partner knows in advance what their bonus will be based on firmwide performance against annual financial goals)

The results from the Great Place to Work study were gratifying, especially given how much time and energy we devote to ensuring we have a workplace that fosters productivity, creativity, and longevity. That said, we hold ourselves to extremely high standards, and we never want to rest on our laurels. The survey results pointed to a few areas where we can still improve further, so we recognize there is still more we can do. For example, “only” 90% of our Partners feel we have “special and unique benefits” (we scored 100% in most areas) so that is an area we’ll be focused on improving this year.