2021 marks two decades of building a company that regularly confronts challenges on behalf of our clients. Day after day, for 20 years, we’ve done the heavy lifting for companies so that they can focus on running their businesses…not chasing down orders, dealing with help tickets, or trying to translate an invoice. We do that. It’s what we’re good at. And we love what we do.
But building a customer-centric company requires confronting a completely different set of challenges. Keeping our focus on the needs of client means eliminating internal points of friction…those pesky interoffice politics/fears/roadblocks that can sneak their way into even the most benign situations and wreak havoc. We’ve learned that building a strong company means eliminating those situations before they can arise. Facing facts; being transparent, authentic, and vulnerable; putting the truth as we see it out there so issues can be addressed, not danced around, excused, or misjudged.
We think that’s one of the reasons why, for 14 years in a row, we’ve been named one of the Best Places to Work in the Bay Area. This year, we are #8 on the list. That’s no easy feat, but only possible because of our culture and values and every single employee embracing them.
How do you motivate a team—one that is distributed across the country—to embrace a corporate culture and adopt core values? You choose values that matter. From senior leadership to middle management to staff, each of us believe that living our values of authenticity, transparency, and vulnerability helps us make better decisions for our lives and our customers.
- Authenticity is all about being your true self; not hiding behind a “work” persona that you think is required or that someone wants to see. You put yourself our there, let your ideas breathe, and have the courage of your convictions.
- Transparency means telling it like it is. Providing insight and visibility into every aspect of your role; sharing the truth (even when it hurts) if things get challenging. If there are no secrets, there can be no surprises.
- Vulnerability is opening yourself up to your community of coworkers. It’s removing the fear too often attached to honesty. “If I tell the truth I’m going to get fired,” is the worst thing any employee can ever think. Being willing to admit to knowledge gaps, owning your mistakes, and asking for help means being vulnerable.
Our efforts in creating an open and safe environment for our employees to live these values gives everyone an opportunity to learn and grow and be fully engaged in their roles. Removing any impediments (politics, fear, anxiety, etc.) allows each team member to focus on the job at hand, and in the case of vCom, that translates as great customer service.
Being named one of the Best Places to Work by our employees for 14 years running affirms that we’re onto something. Everyone at vCom works tirelessly every day on delivering not just the best possible outcomes for our clients, but on how we behave, how we embody our culture and values, and how we continue to become better people.
Our leadership team fundamentally believes in creating clarity and communicating consistently with the team. It’s been a tremendous part of our ability to achieve organizational health. The way our employees embrace our culture has been key to our success, and so we continue to thrive. We walk the walk…and while it may not be easy in every situation, it IS very fulfilling.
At the end of the day when vCom comes out as a winner it’s because our employees believed in us and provided positive and impactful feedback. That’s invaluable as we strive to make vCom a better place every single day
