When Connie Connors launched a public relations firm in her downtown Manhattan loft in 1985, she knew she wanted to create a unique workplace. Today, the former dancer and actress heads a company that places high value on employee satisfaction and growth.
"We try to create an environment where people are free to grow, explore, be challenged and love it, and want to do the best for themselves, the team and the client," Connors says.
Connors Communications is a full-service public relations firm with about 30 employees. The company specializes in emerging technology and boasts a variety of business-to-business and business-to-consumer clients such as Cablevision, Deloitte & Touche, and National Geographic among others.
According to Joan Wyly, vice president of operations and an employee since 1993, the firm's corporate buddy system is one of its most important programs. Implemented with the launch of the company and enhanced as the firm has grown, the buddy system is designed to help new employees better understand their surroundings by providing mentors outside of a worker's immediate division.
"There are times you want to vent and understand more about your work environment, and you might not get that from someone within your group," Wyly says. "Having someone outside of those teams who you can catch up with, vent to, and bounce ideas off of is a great help."
Intended as a "Human Handbook" for new employees, the program is a method by which employees can ease into the inner workings of the company. When a buddy takes on a new Connors employee, program guidelines stipulate that the veteran worker should:
Wyly says any Connors employee can become a mentor through the buddy system. The manager of the new employee's group helps select the appropriate buddy based on multiple criteria.
"We usually think about the personalities, who they will be reporting to and who at Connors could provide the type of insight the person may need," Wyly says. "The program is relatively informal, and we've always had it.
"The goal of the program is to integrate new people quickly into the culture, so we rarely have instances where someone vents about a problem or issue," she adds. Wyly stresses that the firm's horizontal hierarchy keeps everyone involved in new employees' success and aids in problem solving. "In those rare cases, issues get taken to the logical person, which, in almost every case, isn't Connie. There isn't a chain of command, so anyone could be involved in a solution," she says.
Cezanne Huq, vice president of the Connors' Interactive Group, is a product of the Connors buddy system. Having joined the firm in 1995 from a job in the mayor's office, Huq says the program helped him become quickly acclimated.
"My buddy was someone I could talk to about the company in a completely free-form manner and ask things I wouldn't feel comfortable asking my supervisor," he says. "That was a great way to get me involved with the company's culture."
With the cost of the buddy system equal to "maybe a lunch or two," says Wyly, the immediate engagement in corporate culture on the part of a new employee can help tremendously and with low overhead costs. She adds that any company looking to incorporate this kind of program should have its corporate culture well solidified.
"Our culture is employee driven, and our employee handbook is somewhat thin because we are not procedure or policy heavy," she says. "Learning how the company operates is critical. If not, people cannot be successful."
Connors Communications takes other steps to create a rewarding workplace, such as yearly off-site retreats, regular training sessions, and paid attendance to skill-focused seminars and conferences. Wyly says the buddy system gives Connors an effective suite of company programs, which in turn make the company's end product more compelling.
"If you encourage positive attributes such as inclusion, problem-solving from the bottom up and creative thinking, then the work you produce is going to reflect that," she says.
Company: Connors Communications
Web site: www.connors.com
Industry: Communications
Location: New York, N.Y.
Number of employees: 30
Sales: N/A
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