5 Easy Ways to Strengthen Company Culture

Happy Friday!

This Friday we wanted to share a few ideas for strengthening your company culture.  Over this last year CareerPlug has doubled its team, so communicating our values and implementing them into our daily culture has become a top priority for us.

Here are a few tips from us to you:

Communicate Your Core Values:  This starts on an employee’s first day; going over the company values should be an important part in their onboarding process, not just a page in a binder.  The next phase is finding ways to make those values apart of daily work.  Are your core values visible?  Consider printing your values on something your employees will see every day, like a magnet, mug, or mouse pad.  Present projects and ideas with your values in mind, communicating how everyone’s individual work contributes to these values.

A word mash-up of our values ... on a coaster
A word mash-up of our values … on a coaster

Host a Weekly All Company Meeting:  At CareerPlug we have meeting every Friday where we essentially check-in to see how the week went for everyone and share what other people did well that week.  It’s short, positive, and a great way to bring the company together before the weekend.  At a larger company, this may only be possible on a smaller scale within departments, but it’s important to schedule in positive check-ins on all levels.

Have a Venue for Peer Recognition: Managers should make an effort to recognize and reward good work, but encouraging peers to recognize one another is the next step in strengthening a team and ultimately a company.  Here at CareerPlug we recently began compiling shout-outs coworkers give one another throughout the month.  At the end of the month, we send out a newsletter with all these recognitions, along with a few other fun things about employees.  We’ve found this helps different teams, who don’t usually interact, stay connected.

Plan Social Events:  Happy Hours are a staple, but what about Halloween Parties? Company retreats? How do you celebrate employee’s birthdays?  Social events give employees a chance to interact outside of work environment, often presenting the opportunity to form friendships or at least a better sense of comradery that can translate into a healthy work environment.  Volunteer days are another great idea to not only bring your office together, but to give back to the community.

The-Office-Christmas-Party
An Office-style Party Planning Committee might be overkill, though

Office Artwork:  A bulletin board sharing pictures of office of employees, a mural of employee handprints on the break room wall … the possibilities for collaborative office art are endless.  Personalizing the office décor is both a unifying project and an awesome way to create a healthy and inviting work space.

What do you do to maintain a healthy company culture at your office?

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Nicolle Gatlin

Manager of Partner Success

Kacie Sommers

Creative Design Manager

Kacie was born and raised in Houston, Texas, and graduated from The University of Texas at Austin in 2012 with a degree in Anthropology.

Kacie joined CareerPlug as an intern while still in college in 2012. Post-graduation, she joined the CareerPlug team full-time as a Talent Specialist on the Recruitment Services side of the business, eventually working her way up to be the Recruitment Services Manager. From there, she learned her passion for the internal processes of what makes the business tick and explored other roles at the company, including Internal Support, Implementation, and Quality Management, before eventually finding her home in Design. She is now building a Creative Design branch off of the Marketing team.

Outside of work, you can find Kacie walking her dogs Bixby & Bean along Buffalo Bayou, hanging out with friends (and their pets), and tending to her 40+ house plants.

Jenny Leman

President

Native to Texas, Jenny graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2004 and joined CareerPlug in 2017. She retired her first career path as a Registered Dietitian after 10 years, and has found her true belonging in business operations.

As CareerPlug’s President, Jenny leads all teams to an aligned effort toward achieving our vision. She works to build healthy and scalable internal systems to equip and empower the CareerPlug teams to bring their best for our clients. She loves contributing new ideas and rethinking the status quo. Jenny really connects with the company’s core values, but especially with our intent to “Keep Growing.”

In her non-work life, Jenny enjoys time with her family, playing drums and performing with the Austin Samba School, and finding excuses to be on the lake.

Chris Igou

Vice President of Sales

Chris accidentally started a 20-year career in franchising when he was 18 years old and took a job painting houses for College Pro Painters. That job turned into the ownership of his first franchise (a house painting franchise). While at Monmouth College in IL, he operated his business, played on the varsity football team, and studied to become a teacher.

The taste of entrepreneurship and desire to coach others led Chris deeper into franchising, working with a few franchise brands helping them grow their businesses. He lived in the Chicagoland area his entire life until recently moving his family to Austin, TX.

In his free time Chris coaches youth sports, especially youth football, and spends as much time as he can with his wife and 2 children.

Andrew Robinson III

Vice President of Product and Engineering

Natalie Morgan

Senior Director of People

Leslie Chamberlain

Senior Director of Client Experience

Brad Pilot

Director of Sales

Teresa Hall

Director of UX & Product Design

Canaan Davis

Director of Engineering

Ashley Garia

Director of Product Marketing

Desiree Echevarria

Senior Content Marketing Manager

Ashley Johnson

Implementation Manager

Originally from small town in central Texas, Ashley Johnson graduated from Texas State University in 2013 with a degree in Business Administration. She was hired by CareerPlug as a Talent Specialist in 2014, and moved up to ultimately lead the Recruitment Services team. From there, she pivoted to Implementation, and is now the Implementation Manager.

As the Implementation Manager, Ashley and 3 direct reports function as a transition between Sales and Partner Success in helping our clients get set up and established in our software. She spends her free time raising her 2 dogs, playing cornhole, and perfecting the art of charcuterie.

Tulay Solak

HR Manager

Aiden Kinney

Consultant Manager

Zach Garcia

Sales Operations Manager

Kirsten Penaloza

Director of Client Experience

Eric Morales

Manager of Account Executives

Brandy Lee

Operational Manager

1: ATTRACT

Use our templates to create an attractive careers page and job posting. Then promote it through our job board partners, as well as directly with your employees, customers, and social network.

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2: COMMUNICATE

Use our notifications and automations to be the first to respond to qualified applicants. Send texts and emails from directly from CareerPlug to convert applicants to scheduled interviews.

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4: HIRE

Use our prescreen questions and assessments to identify the best applicants. Then use our interview questions and scorecards to evaluate for the right things consistently.

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3: EVALUATE

Once you think you have found the right person, use our reference and background check resources to verify them. Then, send an electronic offer letter from CareerPlug to close the deal!

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5: AUTOMATE

Hiring is hard, but partnering with us makes it easier. From posting jobs to scheduling interviews, CareerPlug allows you to automate certain parts of the process to improve your results and save you time.

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Polly Schandorf

Engineering Manager

Joe Lepis

Engineering Manager

Clint Smith

Founder & CEO

Clint founded CareerPlug in 2007 with the simple idea that there was a better way to help employers connect with quality applicants. Today Clint works every day to fulfill CareerPlug’s mission: Make Hiring Easier. Leading by example, Clint loves spending his time developing new ideas and teaching others.

After graduating from the University of Florida, Clint worked in investment banking and strategic marketing; both experiences influenced the development of CareerPlug. He also spent a year away from the business world teaching 5th grade in Boulder.

Clint is passionate about helping others succeed and is involved in numerous mentoring programs. He and his wife, Sarah, are also foster parents. Clint enjoys family time, beach volleyball, and outdoor adventures.