The 2023 Best Firms to Work For: Slalom

Client Industries Served: Financial Services, Health Care, Life Sciences, Manufacturing & Mobility, Media & Communications, Public & Social Impact, Resources, Retail & Consumer Goods, Technology

Consulting Service Lines: Strategy, Operations Management, HR, IT, Financial Consulting

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

We understand the value of the diverse skills, expertise, perspectives, and backgrounds of our team members. We remain true to our vision of a world in which each person has the opportunity to love their life and their work. We've fostered a culture that celebrates authenticity and doing the right thing, always—two of our core values—and those actions build trust. Now more than ever, trust matters.

We also demonstrate our people-first culture through our local model, which allows people to work in the communities where they live, rather than traveling to other locations. This provides the greatest value for our customers and our communities while standing as a testament to our vision for our people to love their life and work.

Our people-centricity is also reflected in how we celebrate and recognize our team members. For example, we have a quarterly recognition program in every market, celebrating achievements by individuals and global teams across different categories such as "Outstanding Performance by an Individual—First Year," "Impact through Innovation," and "People-First." These awards are informed by peer-submitted Workday feedback and nominations.

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

We believe a successful career extends beyond promotions or awards, working hard to nurture everyone's unique talents and discover how, together, we can make the impossible possible. Team members deserve a clear understanding of their position and performance expectations. They also deserve to know that their skills and expertise are seen and appreciated by others and have clarity on what it takes to get to the next level and beyond.

Our me@slalom career program allows us to carefully balance titles, roles, capabilities and skill development—creating a framework for us to make fair and consistent decisions based on an individual's level, title, skills and contributions. Me@slalom has allowed us to enhance equity by creating job architecture, skills and competencies across nine paths, 45 tracks and 350 job titles.

As part of our commitment to our team members, we support their holistic health with resources for emotional, mental, physical and social well-being, with competitive coverage in the countries in which we operate.

In the U.S., 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. Slalom worked closely with our benefit partners to keep out-of-pocket expenses down and offset potential premium increases by raising the company share of coverage costs. We began providing fertility assistance and expanded discounted voluntary benefits, such as pet insurance, on-demand legal services and identity theft protection.

Also in the U.S., we offer paid parental leave benefit to provide eight weeks of bonding time for all parents (fathers, non-birth mothers and adoptive parents) and 16 weeks for birth mothers. Supporting 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. In 2022, we launched a pilot program for elective fertility, that is, nonmedical necessary preservation.

Slalom is committed to ensuring equitable access in the U.S. to well-being services. In January 2023, we launched our Well-Being Travel Program to defray travel costs up to $4,000 for benefits-eligible US team members who must travel out of state in order to receive well-being services not legally accessible in their state of residence.

In 2022, we increased our company match to the U.S. 401(k) plan from 3% to 4% as part of our commitment to financial well-being. Some of our benefits offerings outside the U.S. include:

• Fertility coverage, mental health coverage and telehealth in Canada.
• A mobility benefit to subsidize commuting costs in Germany.
• An electric car benefit in the UK that offers team members the opportunity to lease a new electric car, with payments deducted through payroll.

In 2021, we implemented a global THRIVE benefit-focused exclusively on well-being: US$350/equivalent per person by country, reset annually. Though it looks different in each country, in the U.S., for example, people can use it for almost anything that will improve their personal well-being, from exercise equipment to a spa weekend. Slalom also provides a U.S. $200 stipend for home office equipment.

In 2022, we globally expanded our partnership with Care.com, which provides team members with much-needed support—including secure access to background-checked child care providers, household cleaners, pet walkers and more. We also increased the number of backup family-care days from five to 10.

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 10 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.

As CEO Brad Jackson explained in a recent Town Hall, "We are committed to a future where all our work has a significant benefit in the lives of our customers' customers, drives a positive long-term impact on the performance of our customers, and is executed by a multidisciplinary Slalom team who is learning and growing, and loves what they are doing. That requires a clear understanding of the business and human cases within each engagement—how much our client plans to invest in working with us, the expected return and the life-changing impact the work will have."

There's a learning curve in becoming a global company, but we're meeting the challenge in true Slalom fashion—carefully considered and people-first. We will not sacrifice our core values for the sake of growth. And though we know it won't always be easy, protecting and evolving our unique culture is important to us. We love seeing our calendars dotted with the unexpected: Global Marketing Book Club, Garden Buddies meetings or College Athletes connections. Being a great place to work is what makes our work possible.

It all comes together in our employee promise:

"At Slalom, we're fiercely human. We bring our heads and our hearts to everything we do."

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:

"I have been given so many opportunities to take trainings. I learn new things almost every day in my client work and from my colleagues. I feel confident in being able to build relationships with others and am encouraged to be my best self at work."

"Slalom is an unbelievable place to work, where you have the confidence to achieve exceptional things because you have the total support directly and indirectly across the teams and organizations."

"Most companies talk about valuing their employees, but Slalom is the first place I've worked that embodies its values of a people-first organization. It's very supportive, focuses on inclusion, and celebrates its people at every opportunity."

CMAG: 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.

Today, we have nearly 13,000 team members working in 45 markets across eight 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 2024, what excites you? What opportunities do you see in your markets?

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.

In 2023, for our people, we plan to:

• Continue to develop programs and curate experiences for our underrepresented team members to promote belonging and provide sponsorship.
• Work to create the best experiences possible for all team members through meaningful work and recognition opportunities.
• Ensure pay equity for all of our team members and competitive market benefits.
• Review benefits and consider enhancements for each country.

A few programs that support this goal include our employee resource groups, a new training for leaders on best practices in unconscious bias, and technology education partnerships—like our Breaking Barriers program with Microsoft that 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.

Through SEI grants—funded by the Slalom Foundation— 11 community-led organizations were awarded a total of US$295K in 2022. To date, a total of US$676,000 has been made available to 22 organizations through the SEI.

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' confirms that our people truly do love their life and work, and brings a wave of positive affirmations not just for us, but also for our employees and customers.

For our team members, it's like a big high-five—solidifying our purpose-driven strategy, the importance we place on living our core values, and showing that we walk the talk when it comes to valuing our team.

And finally, with our customers and partners, being a 'Best Firm to Work For' will allow them to feel more confident in partnering with a company that takes care of its people, knowing they're working with a team that's engaged and ready to go the extra mile. So, being a Best Firm to Work For isn't just a badge; it's a win-win for us all.