I’m Candace Whitaker. As the person in charge of Human Resources, I witness what’s innovative about our corporate culture every day. For starters, there’s no hierarchy here. Someone once presented our founder, Jay Cohen, with an organizational chart. He literally turned it upside down. Here, management serves those who work on the front lines. Not the other way around.
It really comes down to people feeling a sense of ownership. When you understand that everything you do impacts the company as a whole, you can’t help but react with greater responsibility. As a result, we value people’s thinking and welcome people’s input. It’s a very developmental environment.
More than anything, though, working at Signature is like being part of a great big family. We just naturally want to help each other out instead of competing against each other. It makes the workday a lot more enjoyable.
My advice? Whether you’re a consultant, an account manager or a recruiter, if you get a chance to work here, jump on it. You’re not likely to find this combination of integrity and opportunity for growth anywhere else.
From the beginning, we wanted Signature to be a different kind of place. A large part of that developed around a culture of striving to “do the right thing” and becoming “friends first.” What this means in a broad sense is that we treat everyone–whether it’s our client, consultant or fellow employee–as we would treat a lifelong friend. Because friends will solve in minutes what enemies may never solve.
Put into practice, this means weekly Recontacting of our clients and consultants. After all, being friends is about staying in touch. We plan regular events like happy hours, lunches and other activities that involve plenty of face-to-face interaction.
The second component of our culture is striving to “do the right thing.” This means transparency in everything we do. We tell the truth to clients and consultants even when that truth reveals our own mistakes. It’s better to own up and solve the problem, and you can’t do that by pretending it doesn’t exist. Accountability is expected from everyone here at Signature, from the CEO on up.
A lot of companies talk about their culture. At Signature, we make sure we live it every day. Just about anyone who has ever worked with us will tell you, this truly is a special kind of place.
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