What It Means to be a Team Member Focused Company

Ruvos
Ruvos
Jul 20, 2017 · 4 min read

The annual Best Companies list, featured in the August issue of Florida Trend magazine, features one-hundred companies ranked in small, medium and large employer categories. UberOps is honored to be one of the 37 small businesses in Florida who made this esteemed list.

About the List

Best Companies Group works with partners worldwide to establish and manage “Best Places to Work,” “Best Companies” and “Best Employers” programs. Through its thorough workplace assessment, utilizing employer questionnaires and employee-satisfaction surveys, BCG identifies and recognizes companies that have been successful in creating and maintaining workplace excellence.

http://www.floridatrend.com/best-companies

All companies or government entities who employ at least 15 workers in Florida and have been in operation for at least one year are eligible, and the companies that choose to participate undergo an evaluation of their workplace policies, practices, philosophy, systems and demographics. The process also includes a survey to measure employee satisfaction. Then, the combined scores determine the top companies and the final ranking.

What it Means to Us

Being included in a list like this forces management to be introspective. Working at an innovative company in the fast-paced healthcare technology industry is high-pressure at times. Our team members are no strangers to putting their heads down and doing whatever needs to be done to guarantee client success (think: late nights, missed vacations, gray hairs). Frequently facing project deadlines where the work has national impact will lead to burnout unless consciously coupled with fun, lighthearted experiences and compassionate leadership.

Friends and colleagues around town always want to know how we manage to have so much fun and still take care of business. The ironic thing is: It’s hard work making it look easy. Having an enhanced benefits package is difficult for a small business, and scaling culture as we grow has posed other unique challenges like finding time in everyone’s schedules to plan outings and catering to diverse interests so that no one feels excluded. Beyond this, scaling culture can get expensive. We dedicate significant resources to arranging these events and researching new ways we can pass value onto our team, be it reduced-cost professional development, strategic community partnerships, or lunch catered to the office.

Culture and Value

Speaking of this, we lean on our community partners for support when it comes to culture and value. Serving as a sponsor for Domi Station means that we offer the option to our employees to work in an offsite coworking space and attend their networking events. Team members appreciate this flexibility and change of pace, and they gain an advantage by being able to network at Domi events. Creating a true culture of passion and workplace satisfaction through multi-pronged organizational enhancement is the crucial and often overlooked aspect of company culture, less often highlighted — and less often implemented — because it takes more thought and effort than putting a ping pong table in the break room.

Mark Howard, Executive Director for Florida Trend Magazine explains this well-rounded approach best,

“What’s clear from our list is that amenities like free lunch or a game room at the workplace are not the things that make a great workplace. Those amenities are just part of the way companies reflect their cultures — it’s the culture of the company and the company’s ability to hire people who understand and embody the culture that create a great workplace.”

Our Advice

So what lesson did we learn through all of this? Our advice to small businesses experiencing a high turnover rate and think employee satisfaction may be a factor is that this process is effortful, but absolutely worth it. Due to increased connectivity and sharing of ideas, the workforce today is more aware of their employment options than previous generations, and talented people will leave for greener pastures if their well-being and happiness are not tended to. We are known for comparing our company to a family, but besides it being the ‘right thing to do’, business would suffer if we lost anyone, so it is worth our time and resources to make sure everyone is happy.

In the End

At the end of the day being included in this list is exciting, but the feedback we got through the process was invaluable. A company can have a general idea of how well they think they are doing in their efforts to create an enjoyable place to work and foster healthy, happy work habits, but an exercise like this can help you gain honest, anonymous insight from your team. We are grateful for the chance to discover what we are doing well as well as what we can improve upon.

The Best Companies To Work For In Florida program was created by Florida Trend and Best Companies Group and is endorsed by the HR Florida State Council. Best Companies Group managed the registration, survey and analysis and determined the final rankings.

For a list of the 100 Best Companies To Work For In Florida, go to www.FloridaTrend.com/BestCompanies.

http://www.pageturnpro.com/Florida-Trend/79713-Florida-Trends-Best-Companies-Aug_17/default.html#page/1

Uber Operations, LLC | www.UberOps.com | Tallahassee, FL.

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Ruvos

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Ruvos

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