Kim's Blog

I Wish I Had A Crystal Ball (Part 3)

In my last two posts (see “I Wish I had a Crystal Ball [Parts 1 and 2]” below), I talked about the difficulty of trying to make a 2009 sales forecast. Confident in my knowledge that my company’s commitment to quality was not going to change, I knew another certainty for Shakespeare Squared.
We find and retain talent. Because I am focused on the culture I am building at S2, finding and retaining talent is a core ongoing effort. Since we are truly in the talent business, my team identified early on the type of talent we were looking for. As a result, we have hired and trained our editors and project managers along with our complete staff carefully. In return, we are surprised by the employee satisfaction rate - hence the Alfred P. Sloan Award in Workplace Flexibility in 2008 and being named one of the Best Places to Work in Illinois in 2008. Both of these awards are a result of employee satisfaction and the benefit packages we offer.
As many of us have learned the hard way, a great teacher does not automatically make an exceptional editor in the same way a PhD does not mean you have a grasp of the technical aspect of how to achieve clarity, focus and creativity in a small box annotated for ESL or DI students. So, it is important to make sure you are hiring the right mix of employee. Also since we are a family-friendly environment, children are around—a lot! We have a working parent’s office with a play room attached. Most staff members who have children bring them in from time to time. My own three children frequent the halls.  Employees embrace this as part of the culture we all embrace.
Company culture plays a huge role, from Freelance Appreciation Night to Wellness Programs and our Stress Management room (with a masseuse that come once a month. Seriously if you are a business owner, this is a cheap and effective benefit! As for a referral—Gail moves from business to business and performs daily miracles. Just ask and I’ll give you her information) my S2 employees are constantly coming up with ways to make our office special, different, better—and it shows.
Even in light of the down economy, when we had to perform some very difficult layoffs in order to adjust to the reality of our industry, I found my employees leaning on each other, coming forward with ways to save costs and even offering to sacrifice themselves for others. I will never forget October of 2008 because I learned that company culture is not just about the good times but truly about maintaining those core values through the hard times. I like to say that we built this company with integrity and had to dismantle parts of it in the same way. 
This talent, my staff and my family, have made Shakespeare Squared who it is, and I can’t imagine it any other way!
Check back next week for part 4.