How to Build a Company Culture Where People Thrive

Having a positive company culture is an important part of any business, as it will ultimately bleed into everything you do or produce as a company. When you have happy employees who enjoy coming into work every day, you will have lower turnover rates. When you have lower turnover rates, you will have better company performance. Starting at the root and building a fantastic culture from the inside out is key.

For the past several years, MGA has been consistently named as a best company to work for through many platforms. To be the very best we can for our clients, we have to continue to invest in ourselves and our team. We have found that to be a critical factor in our success.

While we understand that what works for us may not be the answer for your specific company or industry, it helps to learn by example to get started on building your own great culture.

Here’s a quick overview of the things we do at MGA to keep our talented employees here and happy.

Treating People as Individuals Is Key

As a Best of the Best Firm, we make it a top priority to invest in our folks.

We offer many unique opportunities and programs to help our team members grow. We have some who are currently participating in a six-month Personal Development Program which is being led by a Corporate Anthropologist — an outside consultant not from our industry. The program is optional and offered to every single team member who is looking for ways to grow both their personal and professional lives. We have others who are participating in a one-year leadership program hosted by PrimeGlobal, and we have another group participating in the two-year Vistage Emerging Leader Program.

On top of those three distinct programs, we also send team members to different conferences where they can interact with colleagues on a similar career path to get inspired with new ideas and new perspectives.

Our team members stick around at MGA because we do things differently. Not only do we hear that from anonymous employee surveys via programs such as Accounting Today’s Best Accounting Firms to Work For and The Best and Brightest Companies to Work For, but we also see that in our low turnover rates.

Over the last two years, we have even had four team members come back to MGA after trying their hands with other firms or industries. They each have told us that the positive environment here could not be matched.

How to Create a Place Where People Want to Work

We are continually asking our employees for their honest feedback about the environment here at MGA. We take their feedback seriously and improve on the things they suggest — a true open door policy.

In our annual employee reviews, we work with team members to set goals put forth by them and devote resources to help them achieve those goals (whether that be time spent with them, training, courses, CPE, etc.). We also have our team members annually review the organization from the top down. This candid, anonymous feedback allows our management team to grow and improve continually.

We also take our social calendar very seriously here at MGA. Spending time with each other outside of the office allows us to unwind and remember that we are part of a great family. We do seasonal happy hours, celebrate many holidays (our annual Halloween costume contest is pretty intense!), enjoy family picnics, and host several sporting challenges throughout the year. We also do numerous small-scale things for our team members to remind them how much we appreciate their hard work and dedication, such as in-house chair massages, random cupcake truck deliveries, annual dessert competitions, daily office bingo, and much more. We truly make an effort to go above and beyond for our great team.

When it comes to our actual work here at MGA, team members are not given a specific manager and placed within a box to operate. Instead, each team member works with each of the department managers as well as with each partner to get a mix of technical and soft skills. We take the time to develop and empower our team members within the Firm and make sure they are growing how they want to grow.

“At MGA, we celebrate and support the realities of life. While we’re all here as professionals, we’re all human too. We’ve laughed together and cried together, but always, we band together to support our MGA family.” — Michael Miller, Director of Operations

We Can Help You Invest in Your People Too

Building a great company culture doesn’t happen overnight. To start, we suggest thinking backward. Think about your end goal first. Where do you want your company to be two years from now? What do you want your environment to be like? Once you have those goals written down, then work backward. This will help you set specific and realistic goals for you and your great team.

Like we said before, there is no one size fits all for building a positive working environment. What works for us may not work for you. We are happy to share the things that we do as a Firm to both attract and retain our exceptional talent in order to help you do the same, and we are happy to think with you in terms of YOUR own company too.

When you build a place where people enjoy working, it will show in all aspects of your company.

Can we help you get started on that path?

Let's talk!