Did I get your attention? Now that I have, I'll tell what I mean by being a sprinter at CSS Corp.
To be a sprinter at CSS Corp you need to have high energy, focus, agility, adaptability and the ability to deliver.
The culture at my company requires all of us to have the above mentioned qualities as well as a few more. That's what I call sprint-capable.
CSS Corp has a culture of embracing change rapidly. After all, we are in the business of technology. The needs of our clients, and the technologies they use to support their clients, changes at a rapid pace. This calls for having people that have that agility and ability to perform at the same speed.
So then how do we create an environment that fosters such energy?
Care
People care about each other here. I'm not saying this for the sake of saying it. From the CEO down to a team leader – everyone cares about people.
Considering our business has been around for the last 15 years, you'll find employees that have been with us through the entire journey. They have qualities of agility and adaptability, which has resonated with the culture of our business. And, that's also a testament that they've stayed because the organization cares about them.
There's care when we go through calamities and there's care taken to ensure people feel involved and engaged. A few examples are providing subsidized food for our employees, medical benefits, pension options, employee assistance programs, parenting programs and the list goes on and on.
Career
To help us sprint, CSS has a created an in-house university-like learning platform. It goes all the way from freshman training to experiential learning. We have specialist in-house trainers that deliver a variety of learning programs such as technical training, behavioral and soft skills training, management development and leadership programs and on-line training portals. In addition to this, we also encourage external certifications for our engineers so that they always stay abreast with the latest technologies.
Aside from value-added learning, we give our employees the opportunity to develop their careers by giving them the opportunity to move to different business verticals. So an example of that would be an employee moves from development and testing to work in the integrated management systems business vertical. Whatever happens, people get to grow.
Communicate
As any mid-size company would, we too have faced our fair share of candid feedback on how much we communicate; the content, its usefulness and how often. We take feedback from our people regularly on how to improve our communication. To this end, we have created several channels for communication within the organization. Several means are used to communicate internally through forums such as leader connect programs, SKIP-level meetings, HR connect programs, town halls, and CEO connect sessions. Now, we also use technology driven social platforms to connect with our teams globally through Yammer, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. In all this, we still continue to assess how we can do it better.
Culture of recognition
Recognition at CSS Corp is big. We do it in BIG and small ways – but we do it!
An example of a big way is at our annual reward and recognition day. To CSSians, it's called CPL (CSS Performers League). Employees wait for this annual event because not only do they get to connect with their global colleagues, but also get recognized globally through the niche awards handed out to the best of the best.
Aside from CPL, we also have internal recognition on a daily, monthly, and quarterly basis through our PRAISE portal, Yammer and town halls.
All in all, we believe in the culture of standing ovations for those that sprint!
So, if you are more of a sprinter, you'll love this place. No day is the same. Everyone is on the move and doing really meaningful and innovative work.
You have to be quick here because fun happens every day. Blink and you'll miss it!
