At 9GaugePartners, we believe our people drive our success and put them first in every business decision we make. During the pandemic, we held weekly interactive video calls to check in on our employees and foster connection among team members. Feedback is important to us, and we collect weekly employee feedback surveys to identify areas of improvement. Our HR team performs employee interviews every two to six months to gauge employee satisfaction.

At AchieveIt, two words we hear often are planning and execution. We provide our clients with the tools to create a plan for success that is feasible and optimized amid times of uncertainty. Rather than pursuing a strict "make a plan and stick to it" approach, however, the strengths of our company lie in our ability to remain flexible, transparent, and collaborative in addressing the unexpected challenges the real world presents daily. Our teams' response to Covid has highlighted these strengths and reminds us what makes us a top-tier workplace.

At all levels of our company, people feel valued. Despite the pandemic forcing a portion of our staff to work from home, our company has maintained a sense of family. Management shares the conviction that employees are our top priority, followed by our vendors and our customers. Employees are treated fairly and with compassion, and this mutual respect guides our company’s success. Our employees and their well-being take priority above all else.

Our managers give actionable feedback on a regular basis and are responsible for guiding the success of their reports. Over the past year, we recognized that learning/teaching was one of the best ways to stay connected, and many employees volunteered to teach classes about their interests, passions, and ideas. Employees also founded creative groups about remote work, diversity and inclusion, and more. We also started monthly Fireside Fridays, for which we found people who represented what our employees wanted to learn about or they wanted to hear from.

Our CEO often reminds us that "to build the right company, you must first tend to the company's culture." To that end, we've built a culture centered around community engagement, leadership development, and a family-oriented atmosphere. Before the pandemic, that meant company retreats, career counseling, and a wide range of periodic reconnects. These days, we've learned to lean more heavily on technology, regularly hosting virtual huddles to share success stories and brainstorm new ways to help farmers and ranchers in this new reality.