I have a great job. Every day I have the opportunity to interact with some of the brightest, most interesting, and thoughtful people I know. Appreciating this environment is quite easy because I haven’t always had such a great experience. For many people I know, work is just that – work. One of the first sayings I heard while training for the world of human resources was that people don’t quit their jobs, they quit their bosses. I reflected back on my own career and concurred this was indeed the case. I was determined to learn from my experiences and try to avoid repeating the mistakes I observed elsewhere. Most people enjoy what they do, as long as they like the people they work with and feel appreciated.
At Merriman, we constantly look for ways to create great experiences for our clients. As Director of Human Resources, I have very little direct interaction with Merriman clients. I do, however, have my own set of clients – the great people who work at Merriman. Human Resources indirectly has an impact on Merriman’s clients by ensuring our employees are well taken care of. Because we give great care to our internal clients, they can take great care of Merriman clients.
Lauren Gauntz is my awesome HR counterpart. Both Lauren and I understand that our job is to make sure we hire great people who are fantastic at what they do and make sure they enjoy coming to work every day. We have a thorough hiring process to help keep turnover to a minimum. We have high expectations of our staff, and in turn like to reward them for their efforts. We know that all of this ultimately translates into great experiences for our clients.
I asked around to see what people appreciate most about working here and loved the fact that I heard so many different answers. Some appreciate the flexible work hours; others love the fact that our leaders truly value their input and recognize they are contributing to Merriman’s success.
The overwhelming theme in all the answers I heard was “great people”. We hire talented, passionate people who believe in what we do. Our staff members support one another in many different aspects of our lives and do everything we can to help each other. Our most recent new hire, Mischa Bellarin, noted that “everybody on the roster is an incredible person”.
Another recurring theme was the shared passion we all have for putting our clients first. Lauren and I want our employees to know they are extremely valuable assets, just as clients of Merriman want to know they are exceptionally valuable to us. So an occasional pancake and egg breakfast, made fresh by the HR department, is an easy thing to do to put a smile on my clients’ faces. The newly added ping pong table doesn’t hurt our cause either.
