Telesystem
Northwood, OH
http://www.trusttelesystem.com
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Editor’s Summary: Telesystem, with more than 30 years in communications and security services, emphasizes transparency, recognition, and opportunity for growth. Employees are encouraged to advance through technical, supervisory, or leadership tracks, supported by cross-department exposure and mentorship. Community service is a priority, with company-led and employee-driven efforts benefiting charities such as the Toledo Zoological Society, Ronald McDonald House, and the Special Olympics. Employee satisfaction is tracked through annual surveys with consistently high participation and engagement scores. Flexible scheduling, generous PTO, and hybrid work models support work-life balance across teams. By combining long-term stability with a culture of open dialogue and service, Telesystem creates an environment where careers and communities flourish. |
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Intro: “Why Telesystem?” is a question that we often get asked during our interview process. People choose Telesystem because they want to be part of an organization that allows people to come to work as their authentic self and work towards a greater goal. |
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Impact statements:
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Advancement Opportunities:
At Telesystem, we prioritize promoting from within, which has led to numerous employees advancing to supervisor and management positions across the company. Many of our directors began their careers as individual contributors. This structure enables them to develop essential skills and successfully navigate their way up the leadership ladder. For those who prefer not to manage teams, we offer “lead” and “senior” roles that allow for career advancement through a technical or subject matter expert pathway. We recognize that not everyone aspires to a management role, so we provide various avenues for professional growth.
Additionally, we actively encourage employees to engage in cross-functional exposure meetings within different groups across the company. This opportunity allows them to get a better understanding of what other departments do and consider new career possibilities and interests.
Community service/charitable causes:
At Telesystem, we take our commitment to giving back to the communities that support us very seriously. Our dedication to local charities and to sponsoring events for our customers is a core part of our mission. Whether it’s backing the Toledo Zoological Society in our headquarters backyard, supporting New Jersey Charter Schools, donating to the Special Olympics, or contributing to a health system’s annual gala in California, Telesystem is dedicated to uplifting the organizations that serve our communities and help those in need. Additionally, team members regularly volunteer their time for causes such as preparing meals for Ronald McDonald House or packing care packages for those in need at local food pantries.
Measuring satisfaction:
Telesystem utilizes a variety of tools to measure team member satisfaction. First and foremost, we conduct an annual employee survey every spring including both satisfaction and engagement questions and have been doing so for nine years. Our response rate has been at 94% or above for the past 5 years. Our data shows, for the most part, an upward trend in both satisfaction and engagement, with our most recent scores at 77% and 84% respectively. We also request detailed feedback on the lowest scoring items from the previous year. Those results are shared with executive leadership and the entire management team.
In addition to the survey itself, we conduct departmental group follow-ups with all team members to provide additional context to their responses, and determine specific areas for improvement for which action plans are developed and tracked.
In addition to that survey, we conduct surveys after each of our quarterly, all-employee State of the Business meetings. Again, results are shared with senior leaders, and any questions that arise as part of the survey are answered by the pertinent senior leader(s) and the information shared with all team members. Multiple adjustments have been made to these meetings based on received feedback, including time and length of the meetings, live-in person/live-virtual/recorded formats, etc.
Further, we conduct stay interviews to assess motivators for continued high performance, which may include specific tasks/activities, task team leadership roles, and/or involvement in special projects.
Many departments also have key performance indicators (KPIs) that involve inter-departmental communication and processes. Gathering that information is done in a variety of ways, tracked on a regular basis and shared with the pertinent departments.
Work/Life:
Unlike some companies who still require some sort of “tether” to their work, Telesystem has a very generous PTO policy. We take pride in our generous PTO policy and have a leadership team that truly supports employees in unplugging while on leave. This commitment is reflected in our culture, where team members feel comfortable reaching out to management in the absence of their immediate supervisor and are well-equipped to share responsibilities thanks to our cross-training initiatives.
When actively working, Telesystem promotes a work/life balance by understanding that our employees have lives outside of a typical 8-5 and offer flexible scheduling for the positions that allow it. Our remote work policy also gives employees the opportunity to work where they feel most comfortable.
Perks:
Besides our robust health insurance plan, additional perks such as: a discount purchasing program, robust EAP, weight loss program, 401k match, and a health services concierge. In our corporate location, we have a corporate membership with EPIC Toledo which provides free or discounted events for young professionals in the area. We also offer our female team members the option to join Alliance of Channel Women (ACW), who works to empower and advance women’s careers and leadership in the telecom and IT sales channel.
Fun:
The opportunities for people to participate in fun activities have changed dramatically since COVID and the implementation of hybrid and fully remote work schedules. For instance, since our company now has team members spread out across 20 and multiple time zones, it further complicates our ability to come fully together as a single, unified team for fun/teambuilding types of activities as we have in the past.
As a result, department leaders have focused on fun activities for their individual departments such as virtual happy hours, escape rooms, online holiday games, secret Santa, wine & painting, trivia teams, etc.
We also have periodic office activities (for the two main office locations) such as potlucks, pizza parties, Employee Appreciation Day, March Madness game viewing, Easter Egg Hunts, Christmas in July, Trunk or Treat for families, and Reindeer Games in December.
In general, we try to spend a few moments at the beginning of meetings either celebrating accomplishments/milestones and or just talking about things unrelated to work to bring the team “together” when various work locations may not allow it.
Communication and Collaboration Tools:
The Telesystem team utilizes both Microsoft Teams as well as our own UCaaS solution, TrustUC with Webex to host internal and external meetings, chat, screenshare, and collaborate on documentation. In office, we utilize Poly Studio conferencing setups to create an engaging experience between in-person and virtual attendees.
Telesystem leadership has access to our dedicated IT Staff that processes all new hire onboardings. When an employee is hired all potential technology needs are submitted in a portal as directed by the hiring manager. Once onboarded if there are other technology needs that an employee requires a simple change request is submitted, approved by the manager and fulfilled by the IT Staff and shipped direct to the employee’s home or workspace.
How corporate vision is communicated:
Telesystem’s corporate vision is conveyed through various channels. It begins with Organization Development, which introduces new hires to the culture during orientation sessions led by the Telesystem President. Here, the Telesystem Leadership Document is reviewed, outlining our key purposes: higher purpose (brand ideal), guiding purpose (values and principles), future purpose (vision), and current purpose (mission). Furthermore, our corporate vision is reinforced during the quarterly all-employee State of the Business meetings, where presenters connect our actual achievements back to our key results, mission, vision, and values.
Vision is also reinforced for management and full team development during our extensive exploration of key concepts in various book studies: Good to Great (Collins), Team of Teams (McChrystal), One Mission (Fussell), Extreme Ownership (Willink), and the Oz Principle (Conners, Smith & Hickman), among others. Additionally, department heads conduct ongoing team meetings and 1:1 conversations where each team member is encouraged to discuss and make the tie between what they do on a daily basis and how it impacts our key results (and therefore our vision).
Empowering employees:
Recognition is one of our key team practices and demonstrated in many ways. A welcome email is sent to all team members every time a new hire comes onboard, or someone is promoted into a new role. The email includes their new position, reporting structure, background information, how they will add value to the organization, and a warm welcome to the Telesystem family (if new). This gives existing team members the opportunity to welcome/congratulate their teammates. At the start of nearly every meeting, we spend a few minutes recognizing any birthdays, work anniversaries, or recent accomplishments by participants and team members are also give the opportunity to share their own accomplishments (personal or work-related).
During our quarterly all-team meetings there is specific time set aside where people are publicly welcomed/recognized by the president as new team members, newly promoted, or at tenure milestones. Further, we include a “story-telling” time to share experiences where people have gone above and beyond to exceed customer expectations, meet a tight deadline, collaborate to accomplish a goal, achieved a degree or certification, etc.
We also publish a monthly company newsletter which reinforces many of these recognitions.
Externally, we’re always eager to share news about new hires, promotions, and milestones with our Channel publication connections, Newswire and through our social media outlets.
In addition to the items listed in Question #7, each new team member completes Accountability training within their first 6 months. As part of this process, each person is tasked with developing and implementing a “See It Own It Solve It Do It” project, where they identify a gap in their area jeopardizing achievement of one of our four main key results. This initiative not only equips them with a disciplined method for improvement (applicable in both their professional and personal lives), but it also creates better ways of conducting business within the organization.
Additionally, we regularly hold “stop/start/continue” exercises, along with “lessons learned” exercises when outcomes were not as expected. We implement changes and assess their effectiveness, adjusting as necessary.
Each year, we conduct strategic planning sessions with our senior leaders to outline the best paths forward for achieving our desired key results and strategic objectives. Our employees can provide valuable feedback to other departments during cross functional exposure exercises. This allows them to look at processes within their own area and in others to continuously improve our operations.
A key component of our culture is operating in an atmosphere of full-disclosure and “dialogue and debate”. We make decisions through collective alignment after engaging in thoughtful conversations where relevant parties can share important facts, insights, and suggestions.
Moreover, cross-functional teams contribute valuable input into the products and services we offer. They work together to determine the best ways to tailor these offerings to meet our customers’ needs, ensuring that we deliver with confidence to empower their businesses.
Ensuring well-being:
We have a generous PTO policy for our employees. We recently moved from separate sick, vacation, personal banks to a single, combined bank of time. This allows our employees to manage their earned time off in ways that are most beneficial to their personal lifestyle and family needs. All our employees immediately start accruing time and, in most cases, they can begin taking it right away.
At our office in Northwood, we have a work-out room well-equipped with free weights, resistance machines, and cardiovascular machines among other items. There is also a marked walking path on the corporate campus used not only for dedicated physical exercise but for “walking meetings” as well.
Our fantastic Employee Assistance Program (EAP) offers help with childcare, elder care, marital issues, grief counseling, depression, anxiety, and many other issues that come up throughout life. In addition, it offers personal services like financial and legal advice.
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Closing company statements: Each voice is heard and is important here. Our culture of feedback and dialogue and debate forces our teammates to think differently and grow. Our employees get the opportunity to work alongside people that come in every day to do their best and provide the best possible services and solutions to our customers. Our average employee tenure is 9 years with multiple employees currently over a 20+ year tenure, which is a testament to the inclusive and engaged culture we have established over 30 years in business. |
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