ET Group is a Certified Great Place to Work®!
Posted by ET Group on October 16, 2023
ET Group is officially a Great Place to Work® in Canada.
This summer, a survey was distributed to all of our team members, encouraging them to reflect on their experience at ET Group and share their honest feedback.
The results blew our minds!
To summarize: 92% said they feel a sense of trust and 97% say ET Group is a great place to work overall!
- 90% believe in our credibility as an organization
- 91% feel respected by their fellow team members
- 91% state that they are treated fairly
- 92% feel a great sense of pride in working at ET Group
- 96% say there is amazing camaraderie among our team
We wanted to know more about why our team felt so strongly about working at ET Group, so we sat a few folks down for an interview.
Here’s what we discovered:
“I think we have a really great sense of community within our team” – Erin G, Contract Administrator
“Everybody is really willing to help and is open minded.”
We can’t be a human-centered organization without all of the amazing people that we work and connect with everyday. We work hard to create an environment that is trusting, equitable, diverse and, of course, fun.
We truly value having the safety to bring our whole selves to work without fear of judgment for being “unprofessional”. This allows us to really see and understand each other better, encouraging empathy when someone is having a rough day, rather than being bothered that a task wasn’t completed.
From our Share the Love channel, to our team connects, to our everyday shenanigans, everyone is appreciated as a person first, and really encouraged to be social and form bonds with each other.
“Working at ET group has made me able to travel the world a lot more since I have the ability to work wherever I want.” — Jason C, Drafting Specialist
We are a remote-first organization, with a team that’s distributed not only across the country, but the whole world. It is important for our team to have the freedom and flexibility to actually live life and focus on our personal goals as well as our professional ones.
We are also self-managed, and trust our team members to know when and how we work best in order to produce the best results, and support each other without compromising our work/life balance.
“We have a team-based approach to accountability” — Colby H, Vice President
Building teams with shared accountabilities and co-creating projects and initiatives is very important to our ways of working. Our culture is built around collaboration and acknowledgement that everyone brings different skills, experiences and values that enhance everything we do in our own ways.
We share the workload and help each other to grow and learn with every new idea.
“I love the encouragement to be creative and bring things to the table.” — Travis O, AV Design Engineer
“That was stifled in past jobs, and I left my old career because of it.”
Part of being innovative is allowing ideas to come from anywhere and anyone, no matter their role or experiences. In fact, the variation of roles and experiences at ET Group is what MAKES us innovative.
Some of our team members energize multiple roles, because we are complex human beings with multiple interests that benefit our organization from many different angles.
“It’s freeing to have ownership over what you do, how you participate in the company.” — Erin G, Contract Administrator
“You own what your output is, how you’re energizing your role is up to you to own and put your best foot forward. When it’s within such a great organization and such an amazing group of people, then you really want to own that. You’re just so proud.”
Having the autonomy to make our own decisions about our roles and how we want to contribute and use our unique skill sets is an important aspect of our culture at ET Group.
We are constantly creating and iterating new roles with accountabilities that not only help our organization to better reach our goals, but also give our team members more control over how they want to fulfill their roles.
So how did ET Group become a Great Place to Work®?
Let’s start by saying: it wasn’t always like this. Years ago our team members were feeling burnt out, our leadership was toxic and we were on the verge of bankruptcy.
Inspired by a life-changing trip to the Galapagos Islands, our CEO, Dirk Propfe made it his mission to change our organization for the better by evolving our ways of working.
Over the past 5 years, we’ve truly committed to evolving into a life-giving organization. We are constantly iterating and experimenting with new structures and practices. Sometimes this means doing things that are messy and uncomfortable in order to get to a place where everyone feels seen, heard and valued.
What made the biggest difference? The people who make up our team. Everyone recognized the need for a change and rather than jumping ship, we came together to make this new workplace possible.
We adopted a self-managed structure inspired by Holacracy and decentralized decision-making processes. New compensation strategies, shared ownership and the ability to make our own schedules became the new norm at ET Group.
Today, our team is happy, healthy and thriving. Learn more about our award-winning journey of reinvention here.
Interested in being part of ET Group? We’re looking for passionate individuals to join us. If you’re ready to contribute your skills and grow with us, fill out our application today!
