Workplace Culture has a direct correlation to Employee happiness, engagement, and productivity.  Companies that consistently appear on a “Best Places to Work” list tend to be some of the most profitable and fastest-growing companies in the world. But, how do they ultimately create cultures that maximize employee happiness and productivity?

Samanage has been named one of the “Best Places to Work” by the Triangle Business Journal four consecutive years. Employees periodically find themselves on work trips to the beach or at a weekday afternoon barbecue in the parking lot.

Just Go Fun Yourself!

Many of these events are planned, or at least pitched to upper management by the “Go Fun Yourself” committee. This committee is made up of a few rotating employees who try to come up with fun events for the entire Samanage team.

“Obviously, numbers and results are important to a company,” says Joey Brown, Implementation Manager and chairman of the current Go Fun Yourself committee. “But if you have good people and they are excited to come to work, I find that the results will come easily.”

These fun events have an exceptionally high participation rate.  That passion for team-building is one of the personality traits Samanage targets in recruiting.  

It’s All In The Team

“We look for emotional intelligence,” says Brandon Miller, Career Opportunities Manager. “We can teach the hard skills. We want candidates who are excited to be a part of a company that’s disrupting an industry and growing quickly.”

Miller spends hours on the phone each week building a pipeline of these types of candidates.  The initial experience through the interview process was one of the reasons Karen Clark signed on to lead the Samanage People Team.

“My first visit to the Samanage office, I waited in the lobby for maybe ninety seconds and multiple people stopped to ask if I needed any help,” Clark says.  “That shows you the type of people that work for an organization.”

It’s one thing to build a team of enthusiastic, motivated, and friendly employees, but Clark knows the company needs leadership in order to maintain that type of work environment. Throughout her extensive background in human resources, she has seen almost every reason an employee could leave.

“Department managers have a huge impact on the work that their people do. I feel very strongly that when people choose to leave a company, it’s often because of their manager.”

Samanage encourages managers to schedule regular one-on-one meetings with employees.  Clark works with the management team on communication skills in evaluating employee performance, and she promotes programs for career growth and development.

Although Samanage CEO Doron Gordon is quick to point out that a company’s culture is a result of the people who work there, the employees at Samanage know that their leader prioritizes the workplace environment.

“Your culture starts at the top. If the leader has a positive attitude about the people that work there, that will permeate throughout the organization,” Clark says.

Brown agrees, noting that the fun committee is only possible because of the CEO’s commitment to an employee-friendly culture.  

“Just like (expletive) rolls downhill, so does fun, and Doron believes in keeping people happy,” he says, while shooting his nerf gun across the office at an unsuspecting victim.