What It’s Like Working At One of Washington’s Best Workplaces of 2021

By Brittany Lieu, Marketing Consultant at Heinz Marketing

I work for an organization with an award-winning culture.

Washington’s Best Workplaces of 2021

Recognized in the Puget Sound Business Journal’s annual ranking for Washington’s best workplaces, Heinz Marketing proudly makes the 2021 list. 

There’s a lot that contributes to defining the “best” workplace. Whether that includes compensation, the overall benefits package, and flexible work hours, all these perks illustrate what PSBJ considers “a company’s commitment to foster a healthy office culture and enable employees to come to work happy and ready to get the job done – which ultimately improves the bottom line.”

With that said, as many remote workers may agree with, the last year has shown me that the ideal workplace is less of a physical office or quantifiable employee benefits and more about the way your work and team makes you feel at the end of the day. In other words, how invested are companies in creating and sustaining an intentional company culture? So to recognize the best of the best, the Puget Sound Business Journal took to the employees directly.

In partnership with Quantum Workplace, the Puget Sound Business Journal partners surveyed thousands of Washington employees to determine the top 100 finalists. Companies were categorized based on size with four lists with proportionate survey participation requirements:

• More than 250 workers
• 100 to 249 workers
• 50 to 99 workers
• 10 to 49 workers 

So, what does the “best” workplace culture look and feel like? As an employee, here are a few of my favorite ways my team at Heinz Marketing makes working together and apart enjoyable. 

Carrying the Common Thread

According to the Society for Human Resource Management, company culture can broadly be defined as “the collection of words, actions and behaviors that clarify and reinforce what is truly valued inside an organization.” With our own unique set of core values – Results-Driven, Generous, Creative, Curious, Proactive, and Respectful – our shared philosophy is not only explicitly expressed but also reinforced and reflected in our everyday engagements. From how we lead our client projects, collaborate through obstacles, and treat one another, these values guide our success as a dynamic team. 

Cheers to Our Peers

At Heinz Marketing we love our stickers, helmet stickers to be specific. Similar to the college football tradition, our “Heinzie” sticker recognition system is one way we boost team morale and celebrate our individual wins. Despite how small stickers may seem in creating impact, this weekly ritual of shouting each other out is a great reminder for me to vocalize how much I value my team and vice versa on a regular basis.

We also love celebrating each other in ways above and beyond expectation. Special occasions and milestones like work anniversaries, birthdays, and recently even bridal showers are only a few reasons we need to throw a little virtual party. For me, it’s the “non-billable” moments in our week that allow me to better connect with the humans that are sharing their lives doing the same work as I do. 

Honoring Business Hours 

I rarely, if ever get work emails past dinner time. Our team is a huge proponent for mid-day strolls, full lunch breaks, summer hours and most importantly honoring our daily work schedules. We put in the hustle throughout the work day, but once 5pm rolls around everyone makes the serious effort to save any unfinished conversations for the next morning. Not all industries and businesses may have this luxury, but this intentional practice has helped me personally separate work and personal and focus on not being at work after hours. 

Candor and Communication

According to a MIT Sloan Management Review survey, the most meaningful thing that a company did in the last year was issue high-quality communication. Here we are always in the loop, when it comes to new hires, updates to our remote-work policy, and the future of our hybrid work model and almost everything in-between. Likewise, our leadership team also values our thoughts and opinions when it comes to making decisions that impact us as a team. Channels of communication are always open, whether that be through our various Slack channels, email, all hands meetings, or weekly employee engagement survey questions. 

As a Forbes article articulates, “your company’s culture doesn’t belong to you. It belongs to everyone, from the front line on up.” Aside from these practices, I am so grateful for the countless ways my team co-creates a healthy culture with intention. 

Congratulations to the 99 other small and large organizations that were awarded alongside Heinz Marketing! To be recognized in this year in particular speaks to the power of a strong culture through the unprecedented obstacles of 2020. 

Found this read interesting? Check out a few more posts on workplace culture below!