Perficient has recently named a Best Place to Work by the Orange County Business Journal, which is a program designed to identify, recognize and honor companies based primarily on a direct and anonymous survey of employees, as well as each company’s benefits and rewards programs and policies. This is a first for us in Southern California and serves as a testament to our local culture and colleagues, as well as Perficient’s commitment to fostering an inclusive, employee-centered culture where we strive to support and learn from one another.
To celebrate this award, the Perficient team gathered at a local retro arcade, complete with video games and pinball machines from the 1970s, 80s and ’90s. The evening saw some colleagues reliving their analog and 8-bit childhoods, while younger team members enjoyed playing games created well before they were born. The crowd favorite was Pac-Man Battle Royale, which featured four players competing head-to-head along with a side of friendly trash talking. Challenges were made and accepted and bragging rights were won, at least until our next visit to the arcade.
Perficient being named a Best Place to Work means a lot to me personally. While growing up, my mom worked for a manufacturing company in the Chicago area named Fel-Pro, which for decades was an industry leader with a dominant brand, market share, and financial success, but also a nationally recognized and award-winning set of programs to care for its employees. Like many other “Fel-Pro Kids,” I basically grew in and around the company, starting at age six with attending the company-owned summer day camp with children whose parents ranged from Fel-Pro executives to mechanical engineers to cafeteria workers. I worked in the Information Systems group during high school, learning about technology and helping with what at the time were major changes – updating workstations across the office and factory floor from green-screen terminals to PCs that were connected to the company’s local area network (which was before the Web and internet). During my undergrad studies, I spent a summer working in Information Systems again, though by this time the Web and the Internet were becoming mainstream, so my stint interning on the helpdesk was a mix of learning more about corporate IT while getting experience dealing with frustrated users, often explaining why they couldn’t read their AOL email at work. Throughout this time, Fel-Pro won many awards for its progressive approach to its people, essentially treating them like a family. The ethos could be summed up as “take care of the employees and in turn, they’ll take care of the company,” which eventually was written up in several books and business school case studies.
Experiencing employees at all levels modeling behaviors that embodied the company’s values always stuck with me, and as a result, I’ve gravitated toward companies with a similar philosophy regarding culture and employees — which is why I continue to choose Perficient. During my time here, I’ve had numerous opportunities to learn, take on new roles and responsibilities, and even move across the country in pursuit of professional challenges and personal growth. As my role with Perficient has evolved, I’ve sought ways to cultivate a local culture across our Southern California team in which our colleagues feel the same way about Perficient. Interacting with brilliant and unique colleagues coming from a variety of professional backgrounds, cultures, and walks of life is inspiring, exciting and something I look forward to every day. Recognition as a Best Place to Work in Orange County serves as validation that we’re building something special and reaffirms Perficient’s commitment and investment in its people.
No matter where you start your workday, the reality is that no job or workplace is pixel perfect every day. With that in mind, one of my favorite business quotes states that “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” My interpretation of Peter Drucker’s famous words is that when nobody’s watching or telling employees and leaders what to do, culture is what guides their actions. At Perficient, we do our best to bring integrity, innovation, collaboration, pride in our work, and a focus on client success to everything we do. Our people are the thread tying each of those values together, creating the close-knit culture that wins awards and makes Perficient a great place to crack open my laptop each morning. Now about that breakfast…
Perficient celebrating its Best Place to Work award
More about Perficient’s commitment to people:
Perficient has also been named a Top Workplace in markets including St. Louis, Denver, Chicago, and Minneapolis. In addition, FlexJobs, a job service specializing in remote and flexible job opportunities, named Perficient a Top 100 Company to Watch for Remote Work for three consecutive years.
At Perficient, we continually look for ways to champion and challenge our talented workforce with interesting projects for high-profile clients, encourage personal and professional growth through training and mentoring, and celebrate our people-oriented culture and the innovative ways they serve Perficient and the community.
Learn more about what it’s like to work at Perficient at our Careers page.
Go inside Life at Perficient and connect with us on LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram.
