Finding a good company is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

They are hard to spot, but when you come across that one special one, it can truly make all the difference.

We’d like to believe we’re one of the good ones.

We value a lot of things, but our culture and the relationships we cultivate are among the most important.

Just like a house, there are a lot of steps that go into building a name worth talking about. But before you can get to the exciting parts, you must first start with a strong foundation. At WorkSmart, our company is built on the foundation of a service mentality – internally and externally. At its core, the staffing industry is a service industry, serving both clients and candidates. We not only serve our clients and candidates but the people we come into contact with every day – our employees. We support our frontline employees in whatever capacity they need to help them get the work done because we strive to improve and impact the community around us, and that includes each other.

We seek to give meaning and purpose to work that could otherwise seem empty and insignificant. In turn, it gives essence to the work of our candidates and our employees – it is an intrinsic circle of providing meaning and purpose to every individual we come into contact with. In keeping that service mentality and the desire to impact our community, we meet people exactly where they are and assist them on their journey to where they want to go.

Our culture is the bread and butter of who we are. Though the dictionary will give you many options, for us, culture is comprised of the daily interactions we have with each other. It’s how we go about doing the work that we do. Having a defined culture allows us to set standards by which we conduct business and ourselves. It’s a way to ensure that our values, goals, and purpose are being met, and in the manner, they should be.

Our culture here at WorkSmart circles back to servanthood. It is one where we want to encourage and help others to be innovative, creative, out-of-the-box thinkers to accomplish goals. All the while, doing it with a servanthood mindset. We work hard to break down the barriers that not only keep us from where we want to be but also separate us from each other. When we fully adopt this mindset, we can help each other in ways unimaginable, while simultaneously working toward the same common goal.

Empathy is the other strong guiding principle in our culture. We work hard to establish the difference between empathy and sympathy. Sympathy is feeling, while empathy is relating. Even though we may not encounter the same circumstances, we can look back on our experiences and find something similar. That allows us to truly grasp how someone else may feel, and it guides us in our response to helping them overcome it. We let each other feel, grieve, and hurt, but we don’t let each other live there; we help each other out of it. We allow and encourage vulnerability because when we can be open and be our truest selves, we flourish.

Relationships are the next part of the equation. Relations are an essential part of this industry, and we take them very seriously. We believe every relationship starts with trust – that’s what they’re built on. These relationships help us to meet the goals of the company because they drive performance and engagement. They are important to our candidates because that’s what keeps them coming back to us. They’re equally as important to our clients because that’s how we maintain business and become trusted advisors to our clients. Trust is the pattern in all of these relationships. 

More importantly, relationships drive employees’ emotional well-being. When you establish good relationships, you create safe places for people to be in. When an employee feels safe, they’re going to do their best work, be the most creative, and be the most engaged. Those are dream employees.

The beauty of it is that it’s not hard. We offer opportunities for people to build relationships and encourage groups to do things outside the office. It allows people to let loose and really be themselves while strengthening those relationship bonds. We also have open-door communication and invite conversation and input at all times. We develop these relationships within our culture by fostering the value that people bring and offer.

Our success in this industry has relied on these two things – our culture and our relationships. Through these things, we have cultivated an environment for people to thrive. Because of this, we have been able to accomplish things we, at one point, did not deem possible.

Looking forward, we hope to continuously improve in both these areas. While some believe you shouldn’t fix what’s not broken, we believe that any and everything can always be improved; be better. We will continue to do the things we’re doing, but also provide leadership training and coaching opportunities. We want to bring in new concepts.

An important area we want to hone in on is diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. We understand it’s not just ethnicity and race, but involves different backgrounds, life experiences, educational levels, etc. We want to continue to teach people to be accepting of others who come from all walks and areas of life, and how to value everything they have to offer. In doing this, we want to instill in our employees that while diversity, equity, and inclusion are important, belonging is the most crucial part. You can have all those things, but if you don’t create an environment that teaches people how to help others belong, then none of the other ideas can truly be effective. By continuing to bring in new concepts and teach others, we will always be one step ahead of the competition.

Five years from now, we have high hopes for where we’ll be and are confident that we can achieve those goals. When people think of WorkSmart, we want them to believe we are the most amazing company in the world to work for. Continuing to value and put time, energy, effort, and other resources into these areas will allow us to diversify and grow as a company. It will allow us to not be but exceed the place we envisioned being in five years.

We look forward to all the new things we’ll learn, all the amazing people we’ll meet, and all the wonderful things we’ll do. Most importantly, we hope that you will join us on our journey. Follow along with us, work with us, support us – whatever that may look like for you. Even though we’re 30+ years in the game, this is just the beginning and we’re excited for all that is to come.