President’s Message
Seven years ago, I took a huge leap into the unknown, along with my brothers Bob and David and our friend Nate McKie. 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. More personally, we believed that we could make a good life along with a good living.
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
We've come a long way since 1999, and we’ve had a very good seven years. We’ve grown every year, even through the times after 9/11 when the business ran on our credit cards and a lot of prayers. Just in the past few months, St. Louis Commerce magazine named Asynchrony as one of the region’s "Top 50 Businesses Shaping Our Future," citing our work for the United States Department of Defense as having "bolstered St. Louis’s credibility as a high-tech resource for the federal government." And my brother David said some very nice things about me to the St. Louis Business Journal when that magazine included me on their annual "40 Under 40" list.
But what are we proudest of? Well, from the beginning we’ve talked about how we’d be crazy to create a workplace that we hate to come to every day. 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
And what we’ve found is that not only has this been good for our lives, it’s been good for business. Let me explain: 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 at their ability to deliver technology that meets our high expectations and those of our clients. Even when we were on the ropes, 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.
Our employees also have to trust that management is doing all it can to make their work lives personally rewarding. We try to only 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? I can honestly say 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 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.
Steve Elfanbaum
President, Asynchrony Solutions