The 2021 Best Small Firms to Work For: A-LIGN

Client Industries Served: Accounting, Healthcare, Financial Services, IT, Manufacturing

Consulting Service Lines: Strategy and IT

CMAG: How would you say you've managed to stay among the industry's Best Small Firms to Work For amid these unprecedented times?

A big part of A-LIGN's company culture is tied to our core values: to be "all in", commit to quality, always do the right thing, and innovate constantly. This is our policy both internally, with our employees and externally, with our customers. Covid obviously threw everyone a curveball and demanded remote/distributed workforce arrangements for us and our customers, too. We felt it was important to pay attention to the physical, mental and emotional toll Covid was taking on our employees and their families. By paying attention and being flexible and supportive with our employees, we have earned their trust and continued teamwork!

CMAG: Were there any specific programs or initiatives (internal or external) that contributed to you being a Best Small Firm to Work For?

One of our organizational developments involved moving our service delivery teams to a pod structure to allow for smaller working groups and greater team autonomy. This created a positive team dynamic and enabled everyone to operate more efficiently. Another initiative of note would be adapting our annual company-wide meeting called "CLIMB" to be virtual for the last two years. A series of internal community-building activities, town halls, and fun activities build-up to the main event in June. CLIMB is an opportunity to share with the entire A-LIGN team what is in store for the upcoming year and always helps get everyone aligned (pun intended) with our company vision.

CMAG: What is unique about your firm? What sets it apart?

Our employees will tell you that our team atmosphere is genuine and infectious! This goes a long way to set our company apart from many other organizations in our sector. Additionally, the leadership has a clear vision and drives successful execution. The vision is ambitious and involves everyone on the team. In other words, we set goals and then accomplish them! We find our employees are genuine, committed, ethical and professional. We try our best to provide them with the resources they need to be successful at A-LIGN and in their careers.

CMAG: What's the top priority over the next 6 to 12 months?

In August 2021, A-LIGN received a significant strategic investment. This investment will be put into play in a variety of ways over the next six to 12 months:

1. Driving product development in A-LIGN's proprietary A-SCEND SaaS platform
2. Growing our portfolio of service offerings
3. Expanding our global footprint
4. Executing on an aggressive hiring strategy

CMAG: When you look at the remainder of this year and 2022, what excites you? What opportunities do you see in your markets?

It is an exciting time to be in the technology sector and more specifically, the cybersecurity industry! Some of the biggest trends and opportunities we see include:

• We are seeing a growing trend toward automation and Software as a Service (SaaS) and it is having a huge impact on the market. Customers will see this impact in the form of major efficiency improvements (financial, time, resources, etc.) that will drive value. As a technology-enabled compliance company, we feel our "readiness to report" platform that integrates SaaS with human compliance expertise is pretty exciting!
• Another exciting trend is that our customers are getting serious about cybersecurity. The cybersecurity threat landscape continues to expand and morph. Organizations are becoming more aware of the need to improve their cybersecurity posture.

CMAG: What impact do you think being a Best Small Firm to Work For has on the firm? Employees? Clients?

Being a Best Small Firm to Work For certainly benefits our recruiting efforts by helping us attract great talent! It also reinforces the passion and commitment of our employees to our customers.