Company Culture
Business / Career development / Health / Jobs / Startups

How is your company supporting employees’ career resilience?

For Lessons in Resilience Month, we asked our Technical.ly Talent companies what programs and benefits they have in place to support employees in areas such as adaptability, upskilling, growth and stamina.

An all-hands staff meeting at Infinite Blue. (Courtesy photo)

This sponsored content is a part of Lessons in Resilience Month of Technical.ly's editorial calendar. The companies appearing in this article are Technical.ly Talent clients.

It’s true: 2021 is finished, while many are still recovering from 2020.

As we are still trying to process a turbulent era while in the midst of it, we have also faced inevitable growth and change in our personal and professional lives. The pandemic has affected how we function in our workplaces, from employees becoming used to an asynchronous schedule to, for some, returning to IRL work once again. Mental health has become paramount as burnout abounds. And through it all, employees may feel stagnant in their careers.

So, how are company leaders encouraging growth and resilience right now?

For the month of December, Technical.ly’s reporting explored the theme of Lessons in Resilience for our editorial calendar. For some additional perspectives, we asked our Technical.ly Talent companies the following question:

How is your organization encouraging and supporting career resilience for your employees (i.e. flexibility, adaptability, upskilling, growth and stamina)? 

Here are some of the replies from their hiring teams, and if you like what you see, follow the links to companies’ Culture Pages to learn more and explore open roles.

Azavea

“While Azavea has always had a flexible work-from-home policy, the pandemic has really highlighted the utility of this for our colleagues. Along with WFH, other structures that employees have identified as an asset are the ability to switch to an 80% schedule (32 hours vs. 40 hours), flexible working hours, accommodations to work from either the office or home depending on the individual, and the option to take extended leaves of absence if needed.

“We also offer up to $5,250 annually for learning and professional development. We encourage employees to build and deepen connections with their colleagues during this time of increased remote work. This is done through team lunches, specific time to pair with a colleague chosen at random, and end-of-year festivities which have been held both virtually and in-person when possible.”

Infinite Blue

“In 2021, we implemented a monthly program around positivity and personal growth to ensure our team members are fulfilled emotionally and have positive outlets to help move their career forward. Our entire team meets once a month on Zoom for two hours to focus on well-being, and each month is focused on a different skill to help individuals flourish and develop. With all of the changes that COVID brought us in the past two years, it was important to take a step back and make sure our employees are taking time to reset and understand themselves personally.”

SmartLogic

“Growth and adaptability are critical for our team. The tech landscape is always evolving, and it’s our business to know about new tools, trends, and best practices. We think about career development as a continuous investment. We recently built out a career trajectory map for our software developers, and our whole team takes a day a month to focus exclusively on learning and R&D.

“We’ve also been working on growth for our new leaders. As we’ve grown, we now have a cohort of managers who are learning new skills through a combination of direct experience and guided learning in monthly sessions on topics like psychological safety, seeking and receiving feedback, etc.”

The Tactile Group

“We encourage our staff to be entrepreneurial about their careers. Through our system of open communication, we actively work with our team members in charting their career paths within the organization. We want everyone to always be learning. Keeping one’s skills up to date and picking up new ones is not only good for the individual employees, but essential to the company if we are to remain competitive. We support staff growth and development through access to resources like LinkedIn Learning and our educational reimbursement benefit.

“We want everyone to be engaged. Our team has always had flex hours as part of their work, outside of our generous PTO plan. This allows them to do their work, collaborate with their team members, but also respond to when life needs them elsewhere. This has been especially important during the pandemic — sometimes we all need a couple hours to respond to a call, or help a family member, and have a trusting team know that your work will get done.”

Think Company

“We believe that employees deserve a support structure at work that focuses on individual needs rather than a blanket, one-size-fits-all approach to building career resilience.

“Managers at Think Company work from this philosophy and see team members as human beings first, offering support in the form of paid formal training and transparent career pathing, but also through other means like providing pumping support for new mothers and taking mental health first aid training. We believe this approach gives team members the ability to form a career path forward that is built on their personal goals and needs — which is more likely to enable each person to thrive as our industry evolves.”

URBN

“It’s easy to stay motivated at URBN when you’re surrounded with such creative and inspiring leaders and peers in an energetic and collaborative work environment,” said Christen Sylvester, the executive director of inventory and supply chain technology from URBN. “URBN understands the crucial role technology plays in successful businesses today, and it’s incredibly rewarding to be a part of a team that delivers and continually enhances best-in-class technology solutions for our family of brands. URBN is constantly changing, growing, and evolving, and it’s exciting to take part in the journey.”

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Interested in how other companies are encouraging resilience and support? Check out all the Technical.ly Talent companies here to read more.

P.S. If you’re curious about Technical.ly Talent for your own org, find more info here and connect with us.

Explore Technical.ly Talent companies
Companies: Infinite Blue / URBN / The Tactile Group / Think Company / SmartLogic / Azavea
Series: Technical.ly Company Builder Monthly Prompts / Lessons in Resilience Month 2021
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