Meet Shelly, our newest Web Content Strategist and Writer. Shelly helps our clients tell their story on the Web. Here’s some information about our latest #GEOSTANDOUT.
#GEOSTANDOUT: Meet Shelly!
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Category Archives: Geonetric Culture
#GEOSTANDOUT: Meet Donna!
Meet our Facilities and Cafe Coordinator, Donna! Not only does Donna keep Geonetric’s cafe looking sparkly clean, she also makes amazing monster cookies and mouth-watering candied bacon. Here’s some information about our latest #GEOSTANDOUT.
#GEOSTANDOUT: Meet Alex!
Meet Alex, our Proposal Writer and another #GEOSTANDOUT! Alex manages all aspects of our proposals – from responding to RFP’s to writing proposals to evaluating results. Here’s some information about our latest #GEOSTANDOUT.
#GEOSTANDOUT: Meet Megan!
Meet Megan, our newest Client Advisor! Not only does Megan love troubleshooting client requests but she provides top-notch service while doing so. Check out more about our latest #GEOSTANDOUT.
#GEOSTANDOUT: Meet Lindsey!
Meet Lindsey, a social media and Google Analytics guru! Lindsey joined the Digital Marketing team in April as a Digital Marketing Coordinator. But there is more to Lindsey than creating stellar campaigns and analyzing data. Check out what our newest #GEOSTANDOUT had to say when we asked her some pretty important questions.
#GEOSTANDOUT: Meet Carey!
Geonetric is known in our industry for providing top-notch service. It’s because of the awesome client advisory team we’ve assembled. Meet Carey, the newest member of the team and another #GEOSTANDOUT.
#GEOSTANDOUT: Meet Sarah
At Geonetric, Agile coaches are an important part of our culture. They are relentlessly focused on improving team and individual performance. We’re excited to welcome our newest coach, Sarah Ernst. Here’s some more about our latest #GEOSTANDOUT.
#GEOSTANDOUT: Meet Cole!
Geonetric hired about 20 new employees last year – and with that kind of growth it’s hard to get to know all the new people delivering amazing websites and digital marketing to our clients. That’s why our human resources team decided to introduce new employees and share some interesting (and random!) facts about them.
First up, Cole. Cole joined Geonetric’s content team in January as a Web Content Writer. We asked Cole some pretty important questions in order to get to know him better.
Voting Results Are In
Here in Iowa, we recently tallied some very important votes. Here’s what I see as the big takeaways.
- Near-record participation: From both sides of the aisle, we had fabulous representation. I firmly believe the process works best when as many voices as possible are heard. So participation is an important metric, and we work hard to encourage as many to participate as possible.
- A winner by a razor-thin margin: Everyone has expectations and goals. So when you hit a personal goal – something you’ve worked hard to achieve – by even the slimmest of margins, it’s difficult not to bask in the victory.
- Come-from-behind surprises: Each time we go through this process, there are predictions of winners and losers…and then there are some results nobody on the outside predicted. Those unexpected results are important, and not just because they help keep the process interesting and the voters engaged. They’re important because they expose the hard work and focus that are happening every day behind the scenes.
- Clear momentum: And then there’s that all-important momentum. Not a top-vote-getter, it’s something that shows such a surge, the results actually change the conversation and platform. We certainly saw that in the results.
Client Survey: Participation Soars & New Hires Get On Board
Our mid-year client satisfaction survey was a success in so many ways.
One, more than 80 percent of Geonetric’s clients responded. Maybe that’s because clients know we listen and they’re eager to share their thoughts. Or, maybe it’s because we gave away four $100 giftcards to random participants! Either way, we’re thrilled when we get feedback from so many of our clients and can really dive deep into what’s working and what needs improvement.
Two, the biggest area we need to focus on is an area we’re aware of and have already applied considerable pressure: our backlog. We’re excited to see these scores improve as new team members get up to speed.
And three, it’s so much fun to be in a position to share some of the amazing comments we get. Client advisors are called out by name over and over again for consistently delivering top-notch service. Established clients appreciate the new functionality that our engineering team delivers. New clients rave about the launch process.
So let’s dive in and take a closer look.
Client Satisfaction Surveys: A Retrospective
Geonetric has been doing our quarterly client satisfaction survey for a few years now. It’s a valuable tool for gathering feedback from our clients and making sure we’re all aligned on the right path … and we’ve been seeing great results.
In an agile environment, however, periodic retrospectives are a critical component – even when things seem to be running smoothly. A retrospective is a planned meeting that gives a team the opportunity to reflect and adapt. In a typical retrospective, we ask three overarching questions:
- What’s going well?
- What could use improvement?
- What actions should we take?
We applied those questions to our Client Satisfaction Survey process … and here are our observations and interpretations.
Skills are Only Part of the Package: Hiring the Best Web Vendor for Your Organization
Do you ever wonder if Scott Adams, creator of the “Dilbert” comic strip, is sitting on your shoulder? I have to admit, sometimes I do. This week, he’s lampooning the idea of hiring for cultural fit — something we at Geonetric have recently started intentionally focusing on.
It’s often amusing … and fairly easy … to joke about trends. Because frankly, any business concept, taken to its illogical extreme, has negative aspects and can be a target for ridicule.
But here’s the thing: a bad hire is expensive. We all know that. There’s all kinds of research that shows bad hires cost companies not just in terms of the time and resources to hire and train employees, but also in missed sales opportunities, lower client satisfaction and retention, strained employee relations, and potential legal issues. It’s often said that companies traditionally hire for skills and fire for behavior.
Of course, no one is hiring ONLY for cultural fit. At Geonetric, we use a combination of interviewing approaches — skills tests, personality assessments, behavioral interviewing, etc. — to get at a candidate’s ability to perform a job well within the team environment we’ve created.
What Hospital Marketers Can Learn from the Ice Bucket Challenge
Have you logged into Facebook today? If so, you’ve likely seen at least a few new ice bucket challenge videos in your news feed. And it’s not slowing down! In fact, the Geonetric client advisor team was recently nominated — and accepted — the challenge. It’s simple. Pay a $100 donation toward ALS research to stay dry, or donate $10 and dump a bucket of ice water over your head. Then, nominate your friends to do it.
Here’s what we learn from this viral campaign, which has raised over $88 million in a matter of weeks:
Sometimes It’s Hard to See Change From Up Close
For the past month or so I’ve been working very little with the Geonetric team. We moved to our brand new building last month, and I was pretty focused on that. But I’ve also been working with startup teams on our second floor in the Iowa Startup Accelerator, and will be until November. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know about our 18-month old experiment in which our teams operate without managers. Perhaps this takes the experiment to its logical conclusion: can the teams run without a CEO for three months?Of course the answer is yes.
Today I joined the entire company in our new café for our monthly company meeting. But unbeknownst to me, they had changed it up dramatically. And the modifications they made to the meeting are indicative of the important cultural changes that have been taking place.
Geonetric is a Blue Zone Certified Worksite
Geonetric was recently designated a Blue Zone Certified Worksite, becoming the 20th employer in Cedar Rapids to receive certification. Our timing coincided perfectly with the construction of our new building in the New Bohemia District. Much of our building planning took into consideration the Blue Zones certification requirements. For example, our new campus will be Tobacco Free. Our new café will have 10 inch plates and tall, skinny glasses. Our new workspace will have height adjustable desks.
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