AireSpring
Van Nuys, CA
Grade: A
| Editor’s Summary: Family owned and family oriented. 86% of workers are satisfied or very satisfied. A growing, stable, industry-leading communications company processing over 4 billion call records per month with a culture of work hard, play hard, celebrate success and delight customers with relentless passion. Senior management has a relentless focus on enhancing the corporate culture while ensuring the right mix of benefits, culture and opportunity. Finally, a great CEO ranking 4.6 out of 5 stars in a recent survey and an average tenure of seven years. 90% of workers would recommend the organization as a place to work. |
| Intro: AireSpring is not your average telecommunications employer. Our senior management team is committed to creating a culture that allows employees to thrive while delivering exceptional customer and channel partner service. We offer a broad set of award-winning products and services and our leadership continues to innovate, regularly introducing new, cutting-edge offerings. The formula works….AireSpring has experienced 18 years of exponential, profitable growth, lending stability in a tumultuous industry. Our recruitment process encourages only top tier employees who are given ample opportunity to broaden their skill sets. We work hard, play hard, celebrate our successes and pursue our goal of delighted customers with relentless passion. These key points, elaborated on below, truly make AireSpring an exceptional place to work and deserving of the 2019 TMCnet Tech Culture Award.
Culture and Team The culture at AireSpring is unique in that we successfully blend the humanity found in a family-owned business, the nimble aggressiveness of a high-tech startup and the confidence that comes with being a growth-oriented market leader with visionary top management. While there are many aspects that make AireSpring an outstanding place to work, the emphasis on recruiting and developing great team members means, across the board, employees are incredibly talented, motivated and willing to help. This spirit of collaboration and team spirit permeates the organization, and AireSpring leadership has always maintained that it is truly these dedicated team members that drive our success. We are a fun place to work! We work very, very hard–otherwise, we would not have our outstanding customer satisfaction and retention record, but we also know how to celebrate our successes and relax. In fact, we have a long-standing fun committee with representation across the company. Their mission? Ensuring that when we celebrate, we do it like we do everything else… all in, 150%! From our legendary Halloween celebrations to pick-up games of pool, to levity shared on the internal communication channels, we know the importance of relaxation, humor and camaraderie in achieving our goals. Relationships fostered over a game of pool or ping pong go a long way in helping ensure teamwork when we are faced with a challenge like a large outage. Beyond being family-owned, we are family-oriented. For example, every team member is given the opportunity to introduce themselves at a monthly staff meeting. When surveyed, employees frequently cite this feeling of commitment to employees as one of the key factors that drives our very high team member satisfaction ratings. Our last employee survey indicated 86% of respondents are satisfied or very satisfied. Management demonstrates consistently that they are committed to the well-being of the employees and their families, that work-life balance is essential to our continued success and that each and every team member makes valuable contributions towards our shared goal of providing quality, competitive Managed Connectivity and Cloud Communications Services to our customers while delivering outstanding personalized service and support. Stability and Growth AireSpring employees have always enjoyed unprecedented employment stability in an industry rife with consolidation and layoffs. We are a privately held, diversified, and debt free company. Despite our growth year over year, we remain fiscally conservative. In 18 years of business, we have never had wholesale layoffs. In fact, when many others in the industry are forced to lay off, we recruit the best and brightest from the expanded talent pool to join our team. Last year AireSpring experienced phenomenal growth of 30%, enabling us to expand our team and creating opportunities for individual growth. In fact, we are one of the fastest growing telecommunications carriers in the USA with over 4 billion call records processed every month. Visionary, Innovative Leadership Our management has a long history in this industry. While AireSpring is celebrating our 18th anniversary this year, the founders were previously involved in telecommunications with another successful firm. Their ongoing success in the industry is due, in large part, to their willingness to innovate and their ability to look to the future without losing sight of delivering excellence in day-to-day operations. In addition to staying abreast of the changing industry and continually evolving technological landscape, Senior Management remains committed to enhancing the corporate culture and ensuring we provide the right mix of benefits, culture and opportunity to ensure we attract top tier candidates within and outside of our industry. This ranges from ensuring we provide outstanding training opportunities and the tools employees need to do their job, to ensuring communication channels are open at all levels. The team members recognize this, giving the CEO a rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars in recent satisfaction surveys. Industry Reputation and Employee Longevity AireSpring has a reputation for exceptional customer service and being 100% channel focused, but we also hear from potential recruits in the industry that they sought out AireSpring based on our reputation as an ethical, results-oriented place to work. That reputation is well earned, and as a result AireSpring boasts incredible longevity among team members, with average tenure of 7 years. It is telling that our most recent satisfaction survey shows 90% of AireSpring team members are likely to recommend the organization as a place to work. Even more telling, we often have employees return to AireSpring after accepting positions with other companies and learning that what we offer here is truly unique. |
Impact statements:
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Advancement Opportunities:
AireSpring firmly believes on promoting from within the organization when a suitable match between team member and an opportunity exists. Over the last year, 15% of the vacant roles were filled by promotions from internal candidates. Given that the nature of our growth necessitates hiring a significant percentage of entry level employees, this is an impressive statistic. To ensure employees are fully developed and prepared to accept additional responsibilities, we offer paid training and on the job opportunities so the employee can demonstrate they are ready to assume additional responsibility.
Measuring satisfaction:
Team members complete a survey annually to identify opportunities to increase employee satisfaction. Each year, many significant improvements are implemented in key areas including work environment, enhancing communications, improving benefits and streamlining organizational structures as a result of this survey. For example, last year benefits were restructured to significantly reduce premiums and shorten the eligibility period, a mini-mart was introduced and employee social hours were implemented to foster collaboration based on survey feedback.
In addition, there is an open-door policy for the CEO who encourages employees to engage with him. This culture trickles down and permeates the organization. There is also an email address where employees can send ideas, and each is personally read by the CEO.
We also have an internal communication stream, and the chatter provides leadership with a key indication of any issues that need resolution to ensure satisfaction remains high.
In early 2018, AireSpring relocated to a completely renovated headquarters building that was pivotal in enhancing employee satisfaction. The historically significant building, centrally located to most employees, is proximal to mass transit and has plenty of safe parking–key issues raised in the 2017 employee satisfaction survey. The brightly lit office offers modern, aesthetically pleasing work stations, and as medically necessary, stand up desks are offered. Employee-friendly perks like a full kitchen with organic espresso and cappuccino machines and a full organic tea bar, a Zen Relaxation Room with a top-of-the-line massage chair, a play room with a pool table, ping pong, foosball, basketball and board games were built into the space design. The lobby was converted to a restful lounge where employees can relax with a magazine and a cup of coffee or tea on comfortable sofas. A picnic table is placed on the outside under a shady tree providing more break time options. In addition to creating functional, ergonomic workspaces, we have a location where we can collaborate, innovate and deepen our work relationships. An open floor plan encourages this collaboration and innovation. Playing a quick game really helps employees to destress and rebuild bonds with teammates. Sometimes, you need real downtime and our Zen Room lets employees rest and reset. In response to our 2018 survey, a well-stocked mini-mart with plenty of healthy food options and company provided snacks in the break rooms were implemented. With all the great perks, there is incredible pride of ownership in our new headquarters!
Creative meeting places:
Our headquarters is really an amazing place, so when possible, we host events there, bringing in food and entertainment. These events (videos) are anticipated and enjoyed by all… we have brought in a Las Vegas magician, hosted a luau, a gourmet brunch, a carnival complete with a caricature artist, karaoke, had dragon breath nitrogen frozen ice cream, and a bunch of other really fun, creative events. This enables everyone to participate. Our international offices also have fun, with local traditions such as a boodle fight in the Philippines often being featured. We share photos and videos across the miles, allowing for team bonding.
Once a year we host a company-wide meeting at a local venue with the emphasis on crowd favorite foods and creative entertainment – from lip sync videos of the team to a mannequin challenge to having the senior management perform, each year we look for ways to make it fun and enjoyable while building the team up. At milestone years, for example, our 15th anniversary, we celebrated by taking the entire team to Knott’s Berry Farm, a local attraction.
Perks:
We offer gourmet, organic coffee, tea and cappuccino with regular and almond milk and a full selection of organic teas. The break room also provides limited free snack options.
A full mini-mart with plenty of healthy, fresh food options (and some not so healthy treats) is available on site.
We offer gym membership and mobile phone plans at a discounted rate.
We offer discounted transit passes to support employees to make environmentally friendly travel choices.
We offer the option to share hotel rooms and receive incentives when traveling for the corporation.
Monthly social hours with a full array of healthy snacks allow employees to mingle and build connections and deepen relationships.
Anniversaries are celebrated annually with public recognition and a gift from AireSpring.
AireSpring is working on going green! Each employee will be outfitted with an eco-friendly mug to enable us to reduce our environmental footprint in the office.
We offer a 401K with employer match to encourage employees to prepare for the future.
Fun:
We take ensuring the workplace is enjoyable seriously. We have a long-standing fun committee that works to plan unique events for the team members.
They work with our administrative team to plan events from our legendary Halloween party each year where even the CEO dresses up and gets in on the fun, to less intense events from photography contests to themed potlucks for holidays.
When sales goals are achieved, we celebrate with themed lunches including some really amazing entertainment options. We’ve had Olympics festivals, luaus, professional magicians, a gourmet Springtime Brunch, and many, many other awesome celebrations.
In addition, we have a well equipped game room where employees can play pool, foosball, pop a shot, ping pong and board/card games such as Jenga or Connect Four on a huge grid.
The fun culture permeates to daily working conditions. We know our business is serious, but we find ways to inject humor…for example, sharing memes on the internal communication chat. A recent source of fun? We recently were honored with a Stevie Award for being an outstanding employer… the voting process generated lots of conversation in addition to a great deal of AireSpring pride!
How corporate vision is communicated:
Employee communications are very important and AireSpring and we are always looking for ways to enhance them. In 2018, in addition to the annual survey and monthly staff meetings, the CEO began sending weekly updates to all employees that includes company news, a focus on a character attributes, international holidays and featured talents of a team member.
Each month, one person is recognized as the team member of the month – in 2018, this process was formalized to ensure consistency and highlight contributions.
In 2019, we added a new product to our suite, Accession Meeting, and every team member received access. This enables team members to communicate and collaborate across the miles (we have a large percentage of remote employees in the U.S. and in international offices.) The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.
Empowering employees:
Our culture places an emphasis on corporate communications – across all levels. Team members are encouraged to identify and resolve issues, escalating as needed through clear channels. A long-standing committee is in place comprised of top tier leaders meets three times a week to address any potential issues. Issues are raised and tracked until a resolution is achieved. Employees are encouraged regularly to funnel any concerns or ideas upward through this channel so decisions can be efficiently made and implemented.
Innovation and continuous improvement are encouraged with channels available to get ideas in front of the CEO, who personally responds to any idea submitted.
We have a team member of the month who is publicly recognized and receives a gift to encourage employees to contribute, and the CEO often reminds people that they truly are the thing that makes AireSpring uniquely positioned and successful.
All kudos from customers and partners are publicly shared in the organization, so when an employee has made a difference, everyone knows! In addition, the performance of the organization is very transparent, with sales, retention and other key metrics being disclosed daily and discussed at a monthly meeting. There is a clear linkage between performance and results for all employees. Even better, when goals are collectively achieved, the entire organization celebrates.
Approximately one time a quarter, the CEO personally meets with new staff to ensure lines of communication are open and he knows the members of his team.
Every kudo received from a customer or a partner is publicly acknowledged.
Every time we meet our monthly objectives, we celebrate as a work family. Depending on the achievement, this can be a breakfast from a favorite local bakery to a full catered lunch with entertainment.
Individual performance is assessed annually in a formal process and increases are merit based.
We have a formalized process for determining and recognizing team member of the month which includes a certificate, public recognition and a gift card to commemorate the occasion.
Employees make decisions daily to execute their job functions across all departments and all levels resulting in satisfied customers and improved processes. For example, a manager and a team lead recently revamped our customer satisfaction survey process, increasing the number of surveys to record levels by making several small changes to the process. As a result, we are now receiving much more direct feedback from our customers and are able to identify both strengths and areas for improvement.
Ensuring well-being:
The company demonstrates this through the wide-ranging and well thought out benefits package they have crafted, from a 401K to ensure financial wellness to providing the Zen Room, recreation areas and break areas to ensure adequate and relaxing breaks during the day. Comprehensive benefits take a holistic approach to addressing the well-being and happiness of team members.
| Closing company statements: We offer stability, visionary leadership and a great culture. |
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