If your company takes a stand as a community partner so too should your vendors. Finding those aspects in your vendors and partners shouldn’t be hard. A good match should be clear from the start.
If your company takes a stand as a community partner so too should your vendors. Finding those aspects in your vendors and partners shouldn’t be hard. A good match should be clear from the start.
For many sponsors, the COVID-19 pandemic altered their company culture. As workers moved to remote locations, they focused on which coworkers had young families, which had parents out of town and so many more details about each other’s lives just to schedule conference calls. That process of learning how to learn about each other may have popped the positives of a company’s culture to the forefront. Additionally, many employees now have a heightened awareness of the impact of their purchasing power – whether that comes from seeing social media campaigns about purchasing from Black owned businesses or from acutely feeling the needs to shift purchasing power towards local businesses during the pandemic to help keep neighboring businesses afloat.
While that result of the heightened attention to culture may be beneficial to employee retention, it may have many sponsors and HR departments suddenly, awkwardly, aware that their company’s vendors aren’t in alignment anymore. Selecting new vendors may seem like a herculean task – the research, interviewing and reference checking alone could take months. Is there an easier way to spot vendors that align with your company culture? Can you find an easier way to find a vendor that is not too soft, not too hard but just right, like Goldilocks’ bed? We think so.
First, assess your company culture. As we wrote in our article on company culture and 401(k)s:[1] “So what is company culture? The best ones are those that have a unity or shared set of beliefs that underlie or support the strategic plans of the company. Organizations that emphasize company culture have employees that feel like they understand management’s expectations, especially on safety or accident prevention. In a strong organization, company culture is reinforced through training and onboarding materials created by HR.”
Next, assess your vendor’s company culture. Back to that article on company culture. We said to look to the actions of management and company leadership. We also suggested assessing role definition of key leaders separate from job function or descriptions. When discussing services with a law firm, for example, are you working directly with the paralegals who will be doing the day-to-day work on your compliance needs or with the partners who are highly knowledgeable or visionaries? Those companies that can start with the folks who will be directly working with you are focused on your needs and finding a fit and may be more flexible. That could be an essential issue if your company culture involves innovation and flexibility.
Another way to assess a vendor’s company culture is to look at how they view people, including their own employees and clients in general. “Are they inherently good and to be supported? Or are they wayward and should be constrained?... Also look to how the company sees itself as a player in its community. Is it important that the company leads as well as profits? This may indicate that the company will be more likely to try innovating for diversity or work harder to make enrolling all employees in a 401k plan. Do leaders value passion and positivity? Are employees encouraged to be creative problem solvers? In one small business, a customer was referred to as “our mascot,” indicating that the owner of the company valued customer input on design as well as customer loyalty…. But more than the qualitative elements of culture, the quantitative elements can be measured as well. Examining how a company sets its goals and then measures those goals can show an outsider what the company is seeking to reinforce as its culture.”
Shifting company culture for your business over the last year may also involve how to recruit and retain valuable employees from diverse backgrounds, increasing corporate philanthropy or the importance of making a clear verbal stand on social issues. If those are employee-driven aspects of your culture they should be celebrated on your website and in your marketing and branding campaigns, right? So too for your vendors. If your company takes a stand as a community partner so too should your vendors. Finding those aspects in your vendors and partners shouldn’t be hard. A good match should be clear from the start.
[1] https://www.bcgbenefits.com/blog/company-culture-and-401k
for more on selecting vendors, see
https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/benefits/pages/selecting-benefits-providers.aspx
These articles are prepared for general purposes and are not intended to provide advice or encourage specific behavior. Before taking any action, Advisors and Plan Sponsors should consult with their compliance, finance and legal teams.
Before leaping into the unknown, we recommend a thorough examination of your plan. Because we are experts in the field, we know the marketplace and know what your existing vendor is capable of offering. Through this examination, we can help you optimize the service you receive.
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