At N-able, we pride ourselves on creating a world-class culture where people are the center of everything. We know that when we take care of our N-ablites, they will be able to bring their best energy to work every day and focus their time and attention on supporting our customers.
This same idea holds true for MSPs—and anyone who wants to create an exciting and desirable culture within their own organization.
I’m excited to share some simple, yet important actions you can use to create a people-first organization to help fuel the success of your MSP business. The best part? Anyone can follow these steps, but the secret is how you bring these ideas to life. They may look different across different organizations, but by taking these actions, you’re building the foundation for a culture that will attract and retain great talent.
Let’s take a look at some ways to build an irresistible culture for your MSP:
1. Establish Core Values
A company’s core values should be an integral part of its employee experience and culture. At N-able, we’ve intentionally mapped out what we see as the defining moments of our employee, or “N-ablite,” lifecycle and set out how our values support each step of that journey. From attracting and hiring to onboarding and integration to engagement and belonging, our core values serve as our guiding principles and help drive our decisions and actions for everything we do. We consistently communicate our values, incorporating them throughout our hiring process and careers site, our peer-to-peer recognition platform where we recognize N-ablites based on our values, or when providing our new N-ablites a deep dive on our culture as part of our uniquely designed New Hire N-tegration program.
2. Create a Culture of Recognition
There’s no such thing as too much recognition. But do keep in mind how different people may like to be recognized. Our N-ablite Recognition platform, where our N-ablites recognize each other peer-to-peer based on our core values, has proven to be a deeply engaging and meaningful way for employees to connect and feel appreciated. They can reward each other with points that can be used to purchase unique, custom-branded swag. It’s a lighthearted and fun way to create community and culture, while also grounding us in our values. We also host quarterly Town Halls with our CEO, and an important segment of the meeting is centered around recognizing N-ablites for their accomplishments, anniversaries, and more. These may sometimes feel like small acts, but they can go a long way when it comes to making people feel seen and appreciated.
3. Champion Diversity, Equality, and Belonging
Research has shown that Diversity, Equality, and Belonging (DEB) initiatives and practices benefit companies tremendously. It’s important for companies to be intentional about ensuring DEB is at the forefront of their company in order to create a culture where everyone feels welcomed and valued, and knows they belong. Embed DEB as part of your company’s journey and know that it will be ongoing and well worth the commitment.
4. Consider a Flexible Work Model
The world is changing and so is the way people work. Our hybrid working model, “The Way We Work,” is based on trust and flexibility. It supports a positive work-life balance and allows our N-ablites to determine the most productive working style based on their roles, responsibilities, and team needs. We launched “The Way We Work” across the globe, and designed it to embody our core values while keeping N-ablites engaged with each other, our culture, and the work we’re doing to support our customers. It ensures each team member is supported and celebrated so that they’re able to live out our values of N-riching lives, N-spiring others, and N-joying the journey along the way. Creating an environment centered around trust, flexibility, and responsibility is key to keeping employees happy and connected with your company.
5. Drive Engagement through Milestone Moments
We’ve mapped our N-ablite journey and ensure each touchpoint—from engaging communications to fun contests to recognition and more—all tie back to where they are in their journey with us. By providing this type of intentional, tailored approach, we’re able to both integrate new hires and engage our current N-ablites to live the company core values, create a culture of belonging, and drive engagement programming that continually builds our culture. We listened to N-ablite feedback to ensure we offer engagement opportunities they want as a part of their N-ablite experience, which is why we focus on engagement around Diversity, Equality, and Belonging, N-ablite Giving, N-ablite Wellness, and—let’s not forget—Fun! When looking at your employees’ journey, think through the milestone moments and use your employee feedback to design the experience they’re seeking to attract and retain top talent.
Which leads me to my final tip…
6. Focus on Both Candidate and Employee Experience
As I mention in this recent piece on forbes.com, it’s incredibly beneficial to make a conscious choice to invest in all areas of your talent attraction, hiring, and onboarding process. Strengthening these areas with diverse hiring and onboarding specialists helps to provide a stellar potential and existing employee experience. When your employee experience is prioritized, it feeds into the overall culture of the company, making it a great environment to work for all.
Kathleen will be sharing more thoughts around this subject at Empower by N-able—click here to find out more. And if you’re curious to learn more about N-able’s culture, check out Life at N-able blog.
Author Kathleen Pai is chief people officer at N-able. Read more N-able guest blogs here. Regularly contributed guest blogs are part of ChannelE2E’s sponsorship program.
