Q: Over the past year, what extra actions have you taken to strengthen your company’s culture and keep employees engaged, motivated and happy at work?

 

Phil Yawman, President, Cooley Group

“At Cooley Group, we value teamwork, recognition and communication. As an all employee-owned company, we share our successes and help each other out in times of need, professionally and in the instances where colleagues faced personal challenges during the pandemic. More than ever, we have encouraged and emphasized the need for frequent and transparent communication across our team. We embraced a work-from-home/hybrid-office environment, conducted weekly Zoom calls with all of our colleagues and paid special bonuses in recognition of extraordinary efforts. We did not lay anyone off, have had a 97-percent employee retention rate in 2021 and are aligned in our core mission and values that will guide our future.”