The 2022 Best Firms to Work For: Slalom Consulting

Client Industries Served: All industries

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

Our people come first. Always have, always will. We feel that when we focus on our people, the rest will follow. We celebrate our people and believe they reach their highest potential when they can bring their whole, authentic selves to something they are passionate about. We are transparent with them, and they are with us. We meet our people where they are—as they are—so they maximize their potential and contribute to our positive impact with our customers and in our communities. This is why we've been able to stay among the industry's top firms, despite today's challenging circumstances.

Our people-first culture is why we led with transparency and accessibility in our business updates to team members via our Slalom Town Halls. It's why we put an emphasis on mental health resources when educating our team members on our benefits. It's why we built a career framework that rewards the journey rather than the destination. We know the decisions we make today will shape lives for generations to come, so we don't take them lightly.

We also strive to ensure our people feel a strong sense of belonging, engagement, and appreciation. This aligns with our core value: Celebrate authenticity.

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

We're committed to helping our team members thrive so they can love both their life and their work. That means supporting their holistic health with resources for emotional, mental, physical, and social well-being. The following programs enable us to support our team members in ways as unique as they are.

Slalom offers a full range of life, health, wellness, disability, leave, retirement, and optional benefit programs and services focused on ensuring that each employee can thrive at work and at home. In 2021, we expanded our health offerings for US employees by joining the Aon Active Health Exchange to enable a greater range of plan and provider choices. We also began providing fertility assistance and expanded discounted voluntary benefits, such as pet insurance, on-demand legal services, and identity theft protection. In 2022, we increased our company match to the 401(k) plan from 3% to 4% as part of our commitment to financial well-being.

Years from now, we'll still be processing the prolonged stress and uncertainty of the pandemic. We have bolstered support around health and well-being as a result—but holistic support has always been integral to our identity as a company. We also encourage people to take advantage of our Employee Assistance Program, including the 24/7 hotline, webinars, and Talkspace digital counseling platform.

Through regular communications from all levels at Slalom, we've shared a clear and consistent message with team members that resources are available, and we are all in this together. We've pivoted key elements of our culture to virtual to help keep our community connected. In 2020, we launched Slalom Town Halls, which give our employees the opportunity to hear directly from our CEO and executive team about everything from strategic goals to hackathons, employee awards, and wellness.

In 2022, we expanded our pilot with Care.com globally. The program provides team members with much-needed support—including secure access to background-checked childcare providers, household cleaners, pet walkers, and more. We also increased the number of backup family-care days from five to 10. In early 2020, we also enhanced our paid parental leave benefit to provide eight weeks of bonding time for all parents (16 weeks for birth mothers). In 2021, to be equitable and inclusive in the many ways our team members grow their families, we expanded our adoption and fertility benefits to include elective fertility preservation, surrogacy, and enhanced adoption with a lifetime limit of $25,000 per employee. We're launching a pilot program for elective fertility, that is, non-medically necessary preservation, in 2022. All these investments signify our commitment to helping our team members and their families thrive.

Slalom is also committed to ensuring equitable access to needed well-being services. Retroactive back to July 1, 2022, Slalom will be putting in place a new, innovative, travel well-being offering that will help defray costs team members and their families incur when having to travel out-of-state to receive needed well-being services that they do not have access to where they live. We expect to launch this program in 2022 Q3.

Once in a while, we all need a day of self-care—and perhaps never more so than in the past few years. In early 2021, we offered our teams the first-ever "Me Day" holiday for use at any time through the end of the year. As the pandemic rolls on, we continue to see a critical need for holistic health and well-being support, so in the second half of the year, we surprised employees again with an additional day off. In 2022, we transitioned "Me Day" from a perk to a permanent additional floating holiday.

CMAG: What's unique about your firm? What sets it apart?

What's unique about Slalom is our culture, which is built on our purpose—To help people and organizations dream bigger, move faster, and create better tomorrows for all—and our ten core values:

Do what is right, always. Take ownership. Get it done. Focus on outcomes. Fuel growth and innovation. Build and shape a better future. Drive connection and teamwork. Inspire passion and adventure. Celebrate authenticity. Stay humble and curious. Smile.

In a recent companywide Town Hall, Chief People Officer Lucy Hur reminded us of Slalom's employee promise and four EVP focus areas. "At Slalom, we bring our heads and our hearts to everything we do, because that's who we are. People come first in our lively, inclusive, and entrepreneurial culture. Here you can be your most authentic self and do the best work of your life. Together, we drive purposeful innovation every day—in our local communities and around the world."

And it's not just our leaders who are inspired by our culture. Team members shared the following about their experience in a recent survey:

"The company appreciates me not just for my current skill set, but for my potential. They are always looking for ways to embrace employees' unique interests, even if that means allowing them to flex into new roles. I feel like the company is invested in all of me, not just in the person I was when I was hired."

"Culture is bar-none the best I've experienced. We have this contagious start-up mentality that encourages creativity and bold, unconventional ways of thinking but remains rocksteady in results and outcome-based focus. Everyone is accountable for effective delivery to not only our clients, but to contributions to our culture."

"Out of all the places I have worked, three things stand out to me as unique. One, this company puts a lot of energy, tools, and infrastructure into place to allow employees to grow professionally in a path of their own choosing. Second, our core values are demonstrated from the top down by leadership which is something I don't see often from other employers. And third, employees are empowered rather than hovered over." What's the top priority over the next 6 to 12 months?

A top priority for us going forward is to grow with purpose in a way that enables our team members to do meaningful work that has a positive and lasting impact on our clients and in our communities.

Demand for our partnership and expertise is driving our continued global expansion and we are thrilled to be welcoming team members to new Slalom markets and countries later this year.

Today, we have more than 13,000 team members working in more than 43 markets across six countries. By 2030, we hope to have a presence in 20 to 25 countries, with our increased global footprint paving the way for even more impactful work.

CMAG: When you look at the remainder of this year and 2023, what excites you? What opportunities do you see in your future?

A focus area for the remainder of this year and into the next is progressing on our inclusion, diversity, and equity journey. We are working to create an environment where all team members feel included, safe, valued, challenged, and excited about their future at Slalom.

A few programs that support this goal include our employee resource groups, new training for leaders on best practices in inclusive recruiting, and technology education partnerships—like our Breaking Barriers program with Microsoft which promotes technology certifications for team members belonging to underrepresented communities.

This year, we are also continuing our Social Equality Initiative (SEI) grant program which calls on our team members to nominate local not-for-profit organizations to receive grants in support of their work addressing education and economic disparities faced by individuals in underrepresented communities. Ten organizations received SEI grants totaling $200,000 in 2021, and we intend to disburse additional funds as part of this program going forward.

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

For Slalom, being a 'Best Firm to Work For' will support our continued growth by promoting our culture among potential team members and assuring our customers and partners that our people truly do love their life and work.

For our team members, it reaffirms our purpose-driven strategy and the importance we place on living our core values. These two elements—our purpose and our core values—are the foundation of our unique culture and our team members express that it's our culture that sets us apart.

And finally, with our clients and partners, being a 'Best Firm to Work For' will enable us to deliver more innovative solutions and develop deeper relationships with our partners because we'll be able to retain and attract the top talent needed to do this.

CMAG: Thank you, and congratulations.