Nitro Software reveals the stunning ways it built a high-performance work culture.
Although studies find that companies with enabled employees experience 2.5 times as much revenue growth as their competitors, only 25% of organisations actively pursue a strategy to combat low performance and declining engagement.
This is why Nitro Software, the San Francisco-based document productivity firm recently named one of JobAdvisor’s “Coolest Tech Companies,” developed a cutting-edge program to increase productivity without causing burnout.
Under this system, employees agree to a 90-day contract detailing three to five specific objectives for the quarter. The contracts are visible to everyone in the organisation, and supervisors hold weekly one-on-one meetings to discuss progress and brainstorm solutions to any obstacles that arise.
“The 90-day contract is like the North Star guiding everyone to focus on what really matters,” said COO Gina O’Reilly. “And because of the visibility into everybody’s 90-day plan, it helps others to prioritise, because they might want to work together on something but didn’t realise what else that person was working on.”
The company also provides an abundance of educational opportunities such as subsidised coursework, language classes, and the chance to request books in the organisation’s monthly Amazon.com order.
“A lot of people confuse great culture with beer, Skittles, and Ping-Pong, but we’ve found that people care more about their career, whether they’re progressing, and ongoing learning and development,” said O’Reilly.
