Founders’ Message
I can honestly say our people are more excited by the work they do than the paycheck they get for doing it.
Steve Elfanbaum
President
A Good Life & A Good Living
In 1999, we all walked away from our safe, secure careers to chase a common dream. Maybe we were naive – scratch that – we were definitely naive. Our start-up capital could charitably be described as thin, and possibly a tiny little mid-life crisis was clouding our judgment. But we believed that our group of upstarts had something to add to the great technological conversation. We believed that Asynchrony could be the vehicle that allowed us to pursue all the ideas that excited us.
We've come a long way since 1999. But what gives us the most pride? Well, from the beginning we’ve talked about how we’d be crazy to create a workplace that we hate. Our names are on the letterhead, so if we wake up dreading coming to work, we have nobody to blame but ourselves. We’ve always tried to make the entire company a place where we love to be, a place we look forward to each morning.
Overachievers Unanimous
In 2010, Asynchrony joined the Schafer Corporation team. We are now part of an innovative scientific analysis and engineering company providing solutions to government and industry in the areas of Defense, Space and Energy. With greater resources, excellent leadership and a desire to grow through excellence and innovation, Schafer was the ideal partner to continue the vision of doing great things in an environment where we love to come to work each day.
And what we’ve found is that not only has this been good for our lives, it’s been good for business. Asynchrony owes all of our success to our employees. We’ve managed to attract and retain a brilliant group of overachievers, people who continually amaze us with their ability to deliver technology that meets our high expectations and those of our clients. Even when times were tough, all of our key players stuck around. We rode it out together, and we emerged stronger than ever.
It wouldn’t have been possible without two simple but deceptively difficult concepts: trust and loyalty.
Let’s start with trust. We’ve always had an open-book policy with our employees. During tough times, they never wondered why their raises were so small. During good times, they expect a fair share of the bounty. Our bonus structure is now moving away from billable-hour bonuses toward bonuses for achievement of team objectives. We’ve created an expectation that we all rise and fall together, including management. Every employee has stock options – some piece of the Asynchrony (and now Schafer) future.
Our employees also have to trust that management is doing all it can to make their work lives personally rewarding. We try to seek work that will be technically interesting and challenging to our employees, even if that means we don’t necessarily take every job we can get. And highly intelligent people are drawn to other intelligent people, so it’s up to us to make good hiring decisions. The result? We truly believe our people are more excited by the work they do than the paycheck they get for doing it.
Not Just High Ceilings and Ergonomic Chairs
Once we’ve assembled this talented group and given them interesting tasks to wrap their heads around, we keep their loyalty by putting them in an environment that helps them be successful. This ranges from giving them the best possible equipment to maintaining a casual atmosphere – jeans and t-shirts, a downtown loft environment with comfy furniture, and creative company events focused on bringing our team members closer to each other. And although we do offer some overtime bonuses, most employees choose to work a normal week in order to have a life outside of work – a choice we strongly encourage.
When our employees trust us – when they know that their satisfaction is paramount in our minds – they tend to stay around. While they’re here, they reach down and give us those extra strokes of genius we know they’re capable of. And we all share in the results. That, even more than the casual dress and the big office windows and the fridge full of soda, makes Asynchrony a great place to come to work every day.
Brothers Bob, Steve, and Dave Elfanbaum - and our other brother Nate McKie
