Valuing individual employee needs and aspirations ultimately boosts the bottom line

Michael George has special workplace needs. Not for himself, but for his 17-year-old son, who has multiple disabilities, including cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and developmental delays. “His last major surgery was four years ago,” says George. “He’ll always need care and the time that it takes.”

That’s why three years ago, workplace flexibility was a non-issue when George negotiated the terms of his current job as a specialist in systems integration and software architecture management with Saint John-based Ambir. He wanted enough flexibility to be able to take his son to the IWK Health Centre in Halifax for semi-annual checkups, amounting to a minimum of three days per trip, assuming nothing went wrong, without interfering with his vacation time. The response from his future employer? “They said to take the time I need,” says George from his home in Saint John, N.B., “and not to worry about it.”

James West

A 25-year veteran of New Brunswick’s IT wars, George has worked for several companies in that sector and knows his arrangement with Ambir is special. “In a larger organization it would depend on the manager, because there usually wasn’t a human resources policy in place [to accommodate the flexibility I need],” he says. “And there was often less appreciation for the impact things have on your personal life. So if you had to take vacation time to deal with a personal matter, you did.”

In 2007 George was diagnosed with colon cancer and had to undergo nine months of treatment. Again, management told him to take the time he needed. He did, worked from home, and went back to the office as soon as he could. So what’s the payoff for Ambir? Loyalty and commitment to the bottom line. “To have that kind of unconditional support eliminated the worry of losing my job,” he says. “So I did everything I could to minimize any revenue hit by remaining ‘billable’.”

Now cancer free for three years, George is more committed then ever to the company and he believes that Ambir is unique. “It’s a very collegial atmosphere,” he says. “People aren’t out for themselves. Those who go there tend to stay.” That’s unusual in IT, where worker mobility is high and retention is an issue. Ambir keeps pace with the competitive wages and generous benefits associated with the industry and also helps people achieve their goals—not just that of becoming vice-president or being best in sales, but also personal dreams of sailing around the world or climbing Mount Everest.

Promoting professional and personal satisfaction doesn’t stop Ambir from focusing on business. “We’re still capitalists,” says CEO Ian Cavanagh. “We still have to have solid financial results, but we want it to be more meaningful than just the bottom line.” That vision came with Cavanagh, who joined Ambir about six months after its founding in 2004. Despite its name, which is based on the Latin root of the word “ambition” and means “to embark on a journey, to move around freely, and to exert a sphere of action, expression, or influence,” the company at that point consisted of “half a dozen guys who wanted to form an IT company in New Brunswick,” says Cavanagh. His experience included stints in California’s Silicon Valley and that hotbed of outsourcing, India. Over time they developed a broader vision, one in which Ambir’s western limit became Toronto and its southern boundary New York.

The company’s mission—“leading Atlantic Canada by delivering great IT solutions in the Flatworld”—is explained in detail on the firm’s website. The way to achieve that vision, says Cavanagh, is by hiring the right people. It’s not unusual for companies to credit their employees with their success, but Ambir takes the building of management-employee relationships to a whole new level.

“First, they’re not employees,” says Cavanagh, “they’re team members.” That means Ambir managers spend a lot of time helping staff members get to know each other. “We’ve brought our advisor from India in to run workshops for us where people are asked to share their life’s most meaningful moment. Most companies don’t want to know that type of thing. The purpose is to demonstrate that we’re all human.” All levels of employees are included in these sessions, with the belief that if everyone bares his or her soul, a foundation of trust is built that’s reflected in the workplace.

That system is paying off in terms of exceedingly low attrition rates. With a staff of almost 50, Ambir’s attrition rate since opening in 2004 is less than one person a year. Part of this success has come from letting employees take off large chunks of time, such as one person who wanted to try university teaching and took a sessional appointment; he’ll be welcomed back if he wants to return. 

However, Cavanagh admits the system isn’t perfect yet. “This is an experiment. We don’t have it all figured out, but we think it will contribute to the long-term sustainability of the business.” So far the system is working; the company has been profitable from day one, and repeat business runs at 80% or greater.

Sustainability secrets
Halifax-based Southwest Properties Ltd. is a 60-year-old property-management and development company. It would seem that being the largest landlord within the old city limits could be pretty staid, but second-generation owner Jim Spatz says his vision for his company and its 100 employees involves both giving people autonomy and challenging them by constantly moving Southwest into new areas of business.

Spatz, 61, credits his father, Simon, who died in 2007 at the age of 94, with values that still ground the company today. Simon had a hands-on management style that included 16-hour workdays and tough but fair business dealings. “He would say, ‘Never squeeze the orange dry. Leave something for the other guy. He has to eat too,’ ” says Spatz. Simon specialized in buying or building and operating apartment buildings. His son, who joined the family business in 1987 after a career as an emergency room physician, has expanded into shopping malls, mixed-use condo and retail developments, resorts, and hotels.

Over the past 10 years, Southwest Properties has more than doubled in size, in both net income and revenue, through a combination of buying underperforming assets and constructing new buildings. Constant expansion and diversification are the secrets both to sustaining the company and keeping employees engaged, because good people need to be constantly challenged with something new. Spatz cites a comment his VP of design and construction, Robert White, made recently. “He said, ‘I just used to take care of maintaining buildings. Now I’m building hotels!’ ” With increased size and diversification, Spatz has had to change from his father’s hands-on management style to delegating more and allowing increased autonomy. 

It’s working well at all levels. “There’s a huge sense of accomplishment when you delegate to competent people,” says Spatz. “Good employees want those kinds of challenges.” The new approach has worked well for Spatz too; unlike his father, who had no time for hobbies, Spatz sails, skis, and cycles, and in June he joined several friends on The Ride to Conquer Cancer, a 211-kilometre cycling trip to help raise money for cancer research. That charitable venture is aligned with Southwest’s company-wide vision of community involvement.

Putting people first
The human element of business has been top of mind for CEO Scott MacIntosh since he launched SwiftRadius Inc. in 2004. Despite having grown to a staff of 50 “team members,” as employees are called, with offices in Charlottetown, Fredericton, and Saint John, MacIntosh still considers HR to be one of his main areas of responsibility, spending time each week with his HR team working on growth strategies and workforce challenges.

SwiftRadius is a business and technology-consulting company that, when it went through the branding exercise that resulted in its name, chose one that was purposefully abstract. “It could become whatever you want it mean,” says MacIntosh. But when it came to developing its “people first” vision for hiring personnel, it was specific and detailed in laying out the culture it wanted to achieve. Its goals include pursuit of balance (trying to achieve a work-life balance considering both client and employee needs); informal internal (collaboration and open discussion among teams, all within a flat management structure); professional external (understanding clients’ businesses and working with them to achieve goals and visions); and mutual success (mentorship and participation to provide engagement that keeps the best talent interested).

MacIntosh explains that he has been “building a team” rather than simply hiring employees. Several people who joined the company early on have become partners and have helped grow the HR vision, turning the “people first” concept into a culture through an extensive program of mentoring, meetings, retreats, and social events.

These kinds of activities, along with flexible work hours, paid time off for volunteer work, and company participation in community activities, is becoming the norm in the IT sector. “Here it’s genuine from top to bottom, in the beliefs, actions, and support for others,” says Ambir’s Michael George. “That value system has helped Ambir rise to the top.”