StratusGrid has been recognized by Chattanooga Times Free Press (TFP) as one of the Best Places to Work for 2022 in the Chattanooga region.
This is a list published each year by Chattanooga TFP (run by Best Companies Group) that features 10-14 companies who undergo an extensive application process in order to be eligible for consideration. The first half of the application required employers to provide detailed information about the organization’s benefits, diversity, and community involvement.
The second half of the application required direct communication between our teammates and the Best Companies Group. Eligible team members were sent a survey with a series of questions about the work environment and overall engagement. These answers were anonymous and counted for 75% of our overall score, which means this recognition is based most heavily on our teams’ feedback.
The companies with the highest composite scores from both portions of the application were selected and will be featured in the TFP and the May issue of EDGE Magazine.
We recognize we are featured on this list because we have been very purposeful about our focus on creating and maintaining a great, healthy culture, but also because our teammates believe it. It is important to us that we continually facilitate and foster an environment where people not only enjoy working, but where they are challenged and given the opportunities, resources, and support they need to conquer those challenges and develop personally and professionally.
If you would like to learn more about what makes StratusGrid a best place to work, check out our feature in the Chattanooga Times Free Press by following this link .
You can also read this article by our CEO, Chris Hurst, on why StratusGrid is a unique place to work, not just because of culture but also because of our unique approach to I.T. and DevOps.
By the way, if you are interested in joining our amazing team, take a look at our Careers page to see the multiple positions we are currently hiring for!
**Below is the original article from Chattanooga Times Free Press**
Company's commitment to cultivating a culture that empowers and values its people is key to its success
* Year established: 2019, with a rebrand in 2020
* Employees: 50+, with some Chattanooga-based and most distributed across the U.S., Spain and Colombia, with plans to expand into Ireland
* Milestones: StratusGrid began 2020 with three employees after a change in ownership and leadership, finished the year with 20 and is now at 50 and counting. The company's growth is the result of a combination of factors, including a focus on understanding and serving its customers' needs, but it's also a direct result of a commitment to cultivating a culture that empowers and values people, says CEO Chris Hurst.
"If you're not paying attention to the team, the company becomes dis-balanced and starts tipping," he says. "You may be profitable in the short-term, but not long term." Finding the balance between serving the market, the owners and investors, and the people who make up the business is the most important role of leadership, Hurst says. "Culture really ties into every single piece of that," he says. "Culture dictates your ability to be innovative, to have people trust you."
Creating a level playing field for a distributed workforce across multiple time zones is one essential element, he adds.
"We do our best to make sure it's inclusive for people not at headquarters," Hurst says. "If we have a meeting, we are all hopping into a Google Meet even if most of us are here."
* Why this is a Best Place to Work: StratusGrid is a cloud-first professional and managed information technology services company and Advanced AWS [Amazon Web Services] Consulting Partner with a globally distributed team headquartered in Chattanooga. We are highly invested in supporting, developing, coaching, and mentoring our people both personally and professionally through training, certifications, gamification, and more. We even have a dedicated Flight Instructor whose purpose is to build customized growth plans for each and every member of the StratusGrid team, including executive leadership. But the best part about StratusGrid is that the culture is purposeful, real, honest, ever-improving, and always a primary focus of leadership. There's tons of growth, flexibility, good work-life balance, and autonomy.
* Quotable, from CEO Chris Hurst: "We're intentional about culture, about not letting it happen as a side effect of doing business, but making it an integral part of the business. For us, it just makes it a place we want to work. I like going to work, and I like the people I work with and the feeling of working here, and that's important to me."
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