Competition to be a Best Firm to Work For is fierce, and requires constant effort and a never-ending stream of initiatives in a wide variety of areas – which means that you should grab at any opportunity to multi-task.
Take Anders CPAs, a Best Firm to Work For in St. Louis: During tax season, they brought in puppies from a stray rescue agency for stressed-out employees to play with, which is a great way to take the edge off. (Gray, Gray & Gray, a Best Firm in Massachusetts, holds a similar event in partnership with an animal rescue league called Puppy Adoption Day.)
Busy-reason relaxers are a staple at top-notch accounting firms – but for Anders, this one does double-duty because the group it works with, Stray Rescue, is also its “Charity of Choice” – an organization the firm has chosen to support throughout the year. Anders has made Stray Rescue the focus of many of its fundraising events, including its “Hoops for Hope” NCAA basketball pool, which this year raised $9,500.
So the puppies are destressing tax preparers and serving as an example of the firm’s commitment to its community – but they also show how employees are empowered and given a say in the running of the firm, since staff members vote in January to pick the firm’s Charity of Choice each year.
The more you can combine or expand initiatives – by making them fun, or introducing elements of employee choice or control, or finding a way to make it serve the community or your clients, and so on – the easier it will be to be an employer of choice.
