Why My Passion for Perficient Continues to Grow: A Personal Perspective

Sandhya Meesala — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 08:18:04 +0000

In my career journey, I’ve been fortunate to work in different environments, each shaping my professional growth. However, my experience with Perficient has been unparalleled. Here’s why my passion for this organization continues to grow day after day.

Appreciation and Recognition: A Culture of Acknowledgment

In my previous role, despite delivering outstanding results, recognition was often elusive. Hard work went unnoticed, and motivation slowly waned. At Perficient, this dynamic has been refreshingly different. Here, even the smallest achievements are acknowledged, and genuine encouragement flows freely. Whether it’s completing a complex task or making a small contribution, the appreciation I receive fuels my drive to do better.

A key part of the support is my manager, Ramya Jayakrishnan, Technical Architect, who continually motivates and inspires me. She is not just a manager-she’s a true mentor and friend. Ramy has guided me through every challenge, offering advice and assistance whenever needed. Her dedication to helping grow our careers is unwavering. Ramya goes beyond the standard managerial role, always offering a helping hand and striving to ensure we succeed.

Empowering Review System: Growth on Our Own Terms

One of the standout features at Perficient is the unique review and development system. Unlike traditional performance evaluations, where ratings are given solely based on deliverables or quality of work, Perficient encourages a more holistic approach. Employees are empowered to recognize their strengths and cultivate their talents in self-chosen paths. Whether building a website from scratch, automation testing processes, or mastering a new technology, the freedom to choose one’s area of interest is immensely gratifying.

Each employee is paired with a mentor who offers guidance and helps overcome blockers. The biweekly meetings help track progress, ensuring personal and professional development without feeling forced. Additionally, having a reporting manager dedicated to our career growth is invaluable. These managers don’t just oversee projects – they ensure we stay aligned with our career goals, keep us updated on organizational changes, and encourage participation in leadership and motivational sessions. The regular, open discussions feel less like formal meetings and more like conversations with a friend.

Seamless Project Onboarding: No Lengthy Bench Periods

Unlike some organizations where employees spend prolonged periods on the bench, waiting for project allocations, Perficient’s onboarding process is streamlined. The organization has fine-tuned its project staffing mechanisms to ensure employees are recruited directly into projects whenever possible. This proactive approach not only optimizes the allocation of talent but also significantly reduces downtime. It creates an environment where employees can quickly transition from onboarding to hands-on contributions. This seamless process enhances both employee engagement and client satisfaction, as skilled resources are consistently available to drive project success. It means I can focus on what I do best without the uncertainty of waiting for the next assignment.

Inclusive Communities: Fostering Diversity and Empowerment

Perficient Women in Technology

This channel brings together women from different regions and backgrounds, providing a space for sharing knowledge, celebrating achievements, and discussing challenges. The group hosts regular updates on the latest tech innovations, holds sessions on healthcare technology, and organizes events such as Women’s Day celebrations. It’s a community that recognizes the contributions of working mothers, advocates for gender equality and fosters a supportive network for women to thrive in the technology industry.

Know More: See more about Women in Tech at Perficient

Perficient PRISM

This channel underscores Perficient’s broader commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion by supporting the LGBTQ+ community and its allies. Perficient fosters a safe and empowering environment through this group where everyone is encouraged to be authentic. The mission of Perficient PRISM is to promote professional and personal growth while advancing a culture that values and respects every individual’s uniqueness. This focus on diversity not only enhances the work culture but also aligns with Perficient’s core values of inclusion.

Know More: LGBTQ – Wikipedia

Global Connections Over Coffee: Breaking Down Barriers

Perficient’s approach to fostering connections among employees goes beyond formal meetings and project collaborations. One initiative that truly exemplifies this is the Coffee Break program. These informal sessions allow employees from different countries, departments, and backgrounds to connect in a relaxed setting, fostering a sense of community and shared understanding.

I’ve had the opportunity to participate in two such coffee breaks, and the experience has been both enlightening and enjoyable. I’ve connected with colleagues from different states, and our discussions spanned everything from professional challenges and best practices to cultural exchanges about food, customs, and traditions. These interactions provide a refreshing break from the usual work routine, helping to build meaningful relationships that transcend geographical boundaries.

The Coffee Break initiative is not just about networking; it’s about creating an engaging work environment where employees feel connected to the larger Perficient family.

Learning to Lead: Cultivating the Next Generation of Leaders

Perficient’s commitment to employee development is evident in its leadership programs, particularly the Learning to Lead initiative. This program is a comprehensive leadership development platform designed to equip employees with the skills, knowledge, and confidence needed to take on organizational leadership roles.

As a current participant in the program, I’ve found it to be an invaluable resource for my personal and professional growth. The program comprises several key components: collaborative cohorts, interactive learning modules, and one-on-one mentoring sessions.

For me, Learning to Lead has been a transformative experience. It has not only helped me develop the technical and interpersonal skills needed for leadership, but it has also instilled in me the confidence to take on greater responsibilities within the organization.

Learn More: Level Up Your Leadership with Perficient’s Learning to Lead Program / Blogs / Perficient

Delete Emails and Save the Earth!

Erika Hernández — Thu, 25 Aug 2022 14:21:58 +0000

As we all may know now, global climate change is more real than ever and it is happening right now.

Earth’s temperature is increasing rapidly as a result of emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gasses produced by human activities and the effects can be already seen in the environment: both the North and South poles have been melting down to the point of almost disappearing in the last decades and now, we can even see flowers in Antarctica, where there was ice before; and an increase in the ocean water level, a threat for coastlines around the world shortly.

There are also intense heat waves even in cities that used to be cold, along with other effects such as droughts and wildfires, which are risking the ecosystem for several plants and animal species, some of them in danger of extinction.

All these events are occurring faster than scientists have predicted and despite the fact that they cannot be reverted, as human beings and inhabitants of this planet – the one and only home we have – there are many things that we can do to help: eat less meat and dairy, cut consumption of things such as fast fashion, try to minimize waste, moderate use of flights, cut down on car usage, reduce your energy use, recycle, respect and protect green spaces and even …. delete emails!

Do emails have something to do with climate change? Yes, despite the fact that emails no longer contribute to paper pollution, the tons of emails generated daily need to be stored in servers that consume loads of electricity, which still needs to be generated by fossil fuels, leading to carbon dioxide emissions (CO2e).

According to Eco2 Greetings, text-based emails may generate approximately 4 grams of carbon dioxide equivalent. They also calculate that an average office worker sends and receives around 140 emails which leads to 136 kilograms of CO2e in a year or the equivalent of driving 322 kilometers in a gas-powered car.

However, we can all improve our carbon footprint by implementing small changes into our daily routines:

Avoid sending that email: Have you considered going and talking to the person you need to talk to?
Make sure to send emails only to the people who need to read them.
Avoid attachments and hyperlink files or information held online. An email with attachments releases 50g of CO2 against 4g for one without.
Check your emails thoroughly before sending them to ensure they contain all the necessary and correct information to avoid the need for follow-up emails.
Regularly clean and maintain mailing lists. Remove any contacts that unsubscribe and update changes to the email address immediately.
Delete your spam.
Create rules and keep your emails organized into folders to ease deleting old/irrelevant emails.
Unsubscribe from newsletters you don’t intend to read.

In conclusion, can avoiding sending emails or deleting them actually save the earth? Yes, it can. We can really help the Earth breathe by simply putting into practice the suggestions above. It’s definitely worth it and there is no better day for deleting emails than today.

Sources:

Sustainability Articles / Blogs / Perficient