FluentStream
Denver, CO
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Editor’s Summary: FluentStream is lauded for its employee-first culture, fostering an inclusive environment and empowering its team through equity grants, encouraging a business owner mindset. Embracing a fully remote setup in 2020, the company offers flexibility, enhanced work-life balance, and increased focus on self-care for its staff. Employees are involved in decision-making processes via engagement surveys, while managers actively seek their feedback. The company offers generous training and advancement opportunities, promoting from within where possible, and an annual $3,000 toward learning and development. The firm recognizes the importance of work-life balance, offering Discretionary Time Off and encouraging a recommended 3-4 weeks off per year. Perks include a $125/month work-from-home stipend, discounted pet insurance, and fitness membership. Community involvement is encouraged through 20 hours of paid volunteer service. Lastly, FluentStream’s remote setup and employee-centric practices have fostered strong employee loyalty amidst the “Great Resignation.” |
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Intro: According to employees who have left competitive organizations to join FluentStream, the company’s employee-first culture is refreshing and novel. |
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Impact statements
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Advancement Opportunities:
Employees are encouraged to get out of their comfort zone to help colleagues with projects when help is needed. These growth opportunities allow employees to better understand the business, their colleagues’ roles and enable them to acquire new skills. FluentStream also generously invests in employee training by offering $3,000 annually toward learning and development. Also, rather than searching outside the organization, the company adheres to a “promote from within” approach whenever possible. This keeps employees engaged and motivated to excel in their roles and support colleagues in other positions.
Training Opportunities:
FluentStream is intentional about cultivating a unique, inclusive culture. For instance, company leaders spend significant 1:1 time building relationships with individual employees. FluentStream believes investing in individuals creates happier, more loyal, and more productive employees.
Community service/charitable causes:
Employees are also encouraged to give back to their local communities, with 20 hours of volunteer service paid for by the company.
Measuring satisfaction:
The leadership team regularly utilizes Polly surveys that enable employee engagement and allow the team to gain feedback on the overall sentiment of the team. FluentStream consistently achieves a 95% participation rate in its engagement surveys. This feedback empowers executives to make informed changes to improve internal processes. For example, employees were polled on how they prefer to receive their internal Streamade newsletter. Based on employee preference, FluentStream changed how it disseminates its internal newsletter, which resulted in greater engagement among employees.
In 2020, FluentStream made the decision to operate as a fully remote, distributed organization with employees all over the U.S. to honor the preferences of its employees.
Work/Life:
FluentStream encourages employees to use their discretionary time off. The company is a fully remote organization, which allows employees to have a lot of balance and avoid commutes. Additionally, many departments allow for flexible schedules – focusing on quality of work, accomplishing goals, and productivity.
FluentStream recognizes that employees have diverse needs for time off from work. The company has an approach to time off in which, in lieu of vacation, sick, and personal time, employees are provided with Discretionary Time Off (DTO). Discretionary Time Off gives employees, subject to the professional judgment and approval of their manager, the freedom to decide when and for how long to take time off. Forecasting time off as soon as possible with their manager is key to helping with company operations. Employees may utilize DTO to meet their needs, including vacation, professional development, and sick time. Employees are encouraged to take at least two weeks off per year, and generally, three to four weeks off per year is recommended.
Perks:
FluentStream offers all employees a $125/month work-from-home stipend that can be used for home office expenses or for coffee and snacks. The company has partnered with discounted shopping companies, Working Advantage and Perks at Work, to bring discounts to employees. FluentStream also offers a $3,000 per year professional development benefit, discounted pet insurance, and a fitness membership.
Fun:
FluentStream encourages employees to report colleagues’ excellent work and earn rewards through monthly Shoutouts and the internal Streamade newsletter. Birthdays, hiring anniversaries, and life events are celebrated in public channels like Slack and on internal Zoom calls. The company also hosts fun, virtual events and allocates time during company meetings for casual conversation so colleagues can get to know each other. As an example, in lieu of a holiday party, the company just hosted a European Holiday Virtual Tour exploring excellence in design of iconic inventions in Rome and Prague during a live experience! Additionally, FluentStream launched quarterly Superstar Awards that celebrate employees who go above and beyond to help the company achieve its goals.
How corporate vision is communicated:
FluentStream employs several communication channels to express its vision: Streamade is a monthly digital newsletter that provides company updates and words from the CEO. The company also has monthly meetings in the form of Quarterly Business Reviews or Retros to give updates from rotating departments and how the company is tracking towards goals and its vision. FluentStream also holds quarterly “ask me anything” sessions with officers, which allows employees to ask questions of the C-Suite and allows executives to further express the company vision.
Empowering employees:
FluentStream relies heavily on employee feedback to make decisions. The company wants employees to be a part of the process and to know they’ve been heard and are valued.
One way the company engages employees in decision-making is through engagement surveys that are conducted twice a year that result in action items and goals to track year-over-year improvements.
FluentStream also empowers its managers to solicit team feedback and make decisions. Most decisions are not a top-down approach. The company hosts a monthly meeting called “Calibrate” in which line managers and top-performing individual contributors meet and discuss challenges and/or improvements needed.
These conversations, ideas, and/or action items are then presented to the leadership team to support implementation. FluentStream uses Cooleaf as its recognition, rewards, and engagement platform to show appreciation in real-time. It encourages team members to continue to be innovative, solve complex problems and bring new ideas to the table.
Every FluentStream employee is granted equity, which helps them to feel more invested in the company and think more like a business owner.
FluentStream uses Cooleaf as its recognition, rewards, and engagement platform to show appreciation in real-time. It encourages team members to continue to be innovative, solve complex problems and bring new ideas to the table. Additionally, employees can report excellent work and earn rewards through monthly Shoutouts and the internal Streamade newsletter. Birthdays, hiring anniversaries, and big life events are posted and celebrated in public channels like Slack and on internal Zoom calls. The company also hosts virtual events and social Slack channels and allocates time during company meetings for casual conversation so colleagues can get to know each other. The company also launched quarterly FluentStream Superstar Awards that celebrate employees who go above and beyond to help the company and/or its customers achieve their goals.
Ensuring well-being:
In addition to encouraging employees to take the time off when they need it, FluentStream offers benefits to support well-being. Being fully remote adds a lot of flexibility to employee schedules. Additionally, the company offers an employee assistance program, a medical care travel policy that covers up to $3,000 per year for travel expenses related to medical treatments, and a generous paid parental leave, which offers 6 weeks off for employees who birth, adopt, or foster a child(ren). Lastly, employees have a fitness membership that provides both physical and mental well-being exercises and resources.
During the pandemic, FluentStream made the decision to operate as a fully-remote, distributed organization with employees all over the U.S. – for good. The company found the remote structure gave employees more flexibility and control over their workday and more time to invest in family matters and self-care. This culture-first decision has solidified employee loyalty. To sustain the company’s culture in a remote environment, FluentStream has worked with its employees to implement several ways to stay connected and motivated, including hosting an annual in-person employee retreat that prioritizes relationship-building.
| Closing company statements:
Many attest to FluentStream’s approach to employee relations as a primary reason they appreciate their position and, despite the Great Resignation, have no plans to leave. Also, according to Glassdoor, the FluentStream CEO, Cass Gilmore, has earned an 87% satisfaction rating. |
Back to the entire list of TMCnet 2023 Tech Culture Award winners.
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