The staff at Gladney are the most giving, talented professionals I have worked with in my 17-year career in Human Resources. They truly believe in our mission, whether they are regularly working with Gladney clients, fixing a leak in the building, or upgrading a computer, all understand their impact is part of a larger purpose greater than the individual task at hand. With the help of the Disney Institute, we have focused our culture on this very idea: our work should be purpose focused, not task focused. This mindset has helped with both our internal and external client experience because when you are purpose driven, there is much more meaning behind the task you are doing. Most importantly, it leads to more engaged and fulfilled employees.
Historically, Gladney has had a high retention rate for our staff. Our average tenure for a Gladney staff member currently sits at 7.75 years of service. Many would say that our mission has a lot to do with that (and it does!), but it alone won’t keep staff engaged, motivated, and satisfied in the long-term. That’s where our culture comes into play. Our HR team, alongside management, spend quite a bit of time focused on how to best serve our internal clients (Gladney employees). Disney will tell you that caring for your internal clients is the best way to ensure your external clients are receiving the best experience possible. As such, we focus on many factors that impact this experience for our internal clients, from the recruitment process to onboarding of new staff, from the way we create goals and evaluate performance to how we communicate, as well as the way we recognize and reward the behaviors we value. Focusing on these aspects has allowed us to maintain a culture we not only cherish, but one we are all committed to preserving and reinforcing through our recruitment process and beyond.
Are we perfect? No, but we care about our staff and strive to make their employment experience at Gladney the best possible. We are a work in progress, and I can honestly say we are seeing our efforts pay off. Through 11 years of semi-annual employee satisfaction surveys, we see our staff are more engaged and more satisfied than they were 6 years ago. I believe they are the key to what a quality adoption experience looks like for every client we serve. We will continue to focus on our most treasured asset, our employees, so each of you has the best experience possible when you partner with Gladney. I encourage you to let us know when you have a positive experience with one of our staff members. We would love to celebrate them adding a little Disney magic to your Gladney experience!