November 18, 2020 | Megan Morris | Vice President, Human Resources
2020 has been a challenge for all of us, but in August of this year, a great thing happened: I joined the leadership team of Spinnaker Support. My specialty is helping independent companies maneuver through the HR challenges that accompany high growth, and it’s been a perfect fit for me.
Over the past few months, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed getting to know my Spinnaker teammates, and I want to share some observations of why I’m excited to be here.
Reason 1: We Have Highly Engaged Employees
For HR leadership, Glassdoor can be both a blessing and a curse. Like most review sites, Glassdoor hosts assessments where contributors (in this case employees) either absolutely love the company and want to share why with the world, or are very unhappy and bent on using the public forum to expose what they see as the company’s flaws.
As I write this post, our rating on Glassdoor is an astounding 4.9/5.0. Not to mention a 100% approval of Matt Stava, our CEO. The employee reviews cite much of what I have come to know and respect about the company so far: strong leadership, experienced and collaborative staff, transparency, work flexibility, and community.
Well before I arrived, we were hiring not just for skills but for strong cultural fit. At Spinnaker Support, this means an emphasis on integrity, intelligence, engagement, and collaboration. We also look for individuals with a natural, customer-first mentality and a passion for succeeding in their roles. We also offer great benefits and group activities like volunteer days, impromptu lunches, game days, and more to give the team a chance to cement our community.
I think that the sentiments showcased on Glassdoor (which are much higher than those of our direct competitors) represent us very well in those areas. My team doesn’t have to focus on improving morale or building a high performing culture. My objective is to help ensure we retain our unique culture through this period of astonishing growth.
Reason 2: We Have Highly Satisfied Customers and an Excellent Reputation
From my experience, I know that when we get the employee experience right, exceptional customer service follows. And our customers are highly pleased with our services. In our 2020 annual customer survey, the results of which will be released shortly, the rating for overall customer satisfaction this year was 98.7%. We have scored in the very high 90s since we began our annual surveys. Happy customers help fuel our employee growth and retention plans, which is why I’m here.
Respondents also gave us a Net Promotor Score (NPS) of 79. This is that question where customers rate the likelihood from 0 (worst) to 10 (best) that you will recommend a company, product, or service to a friend or colleague. Any score of 70 and above for a professional services company signifies a world-class rating.
Finally, we recently posted about our top ranking on Gartner Peer Insights (4.9/5.0 star review overall average). These independent, Gartner-verified customer reviews do a fantastic job of highlighting what we’re best known for: our exceptional engineers, our responsiveness and dedication to issue resolution, and the positive relationships we develop with our customers.
From an HR perspective, I suspect that a large share of this success – and the high satisfaction levels – has to do with the highly engaged employees I mentioned before. These include engineers who average 20+ years of experience with the products they support (24+ years for our JD Edwards team) who stay with us. Our customers benefit from low turnover and a stable, long-term relationship with the same assigned team. This reputation in the market helps with attracting even more top talent.
What’s Next for Human Resources?
I’m excited to be leading HR for near-term opportunities. First, we’re hiring at a fast clip to accommodate our ambitious plans for growth. As I write this, we are listing more and more openings on our careers page, especially for operations staff and leaders in our many offices. My team’s schedule is jam-packed with interviews, and we couldn’t be happier with the quality of candidates.
We’re also working through the infrastructure issues related to growth. We’re expanding our global presence into new regions, and at the same time are looking at alternatives for our regional headquarters, which pre-pandemic was quickly running out of space. And my team and I are researching creative solutions on how to improve and scale our back-end HR systems, streamline our onboarding practices, and embrace our growing diversity. All in all, it’s a nice position to be in.
If you have questions, please contact me, and if you’re interested in joining our team, I encourage you to check out our openings.