When Haskell’s Atlanta office was chosen as one of the city’s Top Workplaces by the Atlanta-Journal-Constitution (AJC) last year, the natural question was what the team there would do for an encore. The natural answer: Repeat.
Mission accomplished. The AJC has announced that it had chosen Haskell Atlanta as one of its 2022 Top Workplaces, an honor bestowed on only 175 of the 4,853 companies nominated or asked to participate.
“We couldn’t really let off the gas there,” said Bela Jacobson, Vice President of Packaging Operations and the Atlanta office leader. “If you're in the river, swimming upstream helps you hold your ground. Swimming upstream really hard helps you gain ground. But if you're not swimming, then you're going to go downstream.”
With the help of the employee research and consulting firm Energage, the Journal-Constitution uses a scientific survey process to determine the premier large, midsize and small companies. Haskell’s Atlanta office, which comprises about 80 team members, ranked No. 81 among small companies, defined as those with a headcount of 149 or fewer. Companies with fewer than 85 employees must have had at least 30 survey respondents. Overall, Haskell has more than 1,850 team members across the United States, Latin America and Asia-Pacific.
The current team in Atlanta not only has grown by 25% from a year earlier, but it also represents more than 10 Haskell different business units. The Atlanta office previously was home almost exclusively to its Packaging Division, but the makeup has become more heterogeneous as the company has accommodated team members’ residency preferences.
“Top Workplaces celebrates the companies that are getting it right,” said Bob Helbig, Media Partnership Director for Energage. “What they have in common is a culture of seeking feedback from employees, listening to that feedback, and taking action. We know culture drives performance.”
Even as it grows rapidly to meet increased customer demands, the company has stayed focused on its vow to “Provide Team Members with the Best Job of Their Lives,” the first of six pillars of Haskell 2025, its strategic plan for purposeful growth.
That just meant that Jacobson and her team needed to swim a little harder.
“Making them all feel part of the team is a new challenge,” she said. “As you grow, it's harder to make individual connections with everybody. When you have 40 people in your office, you know everybody. You know who they are, and you know things about them. As you grow, it's harder to continue to do that. So, everybody has to bring it to the table for it to, to work. It can't just be one person driving culture. Every single person has to drive that culture.”
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