Today’s guest blogger is Orkideh Shahidi, Director of People Operations at SADA Systems
All Hands 2015. With our remote employees spilling in from every corner of the country, key partners anxiously preparing to share their roadmaps, and the kitchen overflowing with snacks, SADA Systems kicked off 2015 with our 3rd Annual “All Hands On Deck” weeklong event.
Our theme this year was ‘Transformation’. Tony Safoian, CEO and President, kickstarted the week with one of our core principles, “We firmly believe that technology can empower people to transform their world.” With every SADA employee gathered in one space, together we looked back at our accomplishments in 2014, established key objectives, announced improvements to employee benefits, got excited about new partner offerings, gave credit to our highest achievers, and took some valuable time just to celebrate being SADAians!
Looking back on 2014, we saw 44% growth in revenues, and look forward to once again ranking on the Inc. 5000 list for the nations fastest-growing companies!
We were also honored to host several representatives from both of our partners, Microsoft and Google, who joined us to speak about their company vision for 2015 and how SADA Systems has contributed to their successes. Amidst presentations, sales training, and open discussions with our partners, our teams were able to align their goals, discuss objectives and roadmap details, and ask questions about how SADA can continue to support their success. We greatly appreciate the time that our partners took to inspire, train, and lead our team not only this week, but throughout every aspect of our practice.
We always strive to give credit where it’s due, and we spent an afternoon with the whole team gathered to make sure that exceptional SADAians were appreciated and received awards for their accomplishments during the past year. Certain teams and individuals were awarded for exceptional service, innovation, and team contributions based on SADA’s core values: Make them rave, be data driven, be one step ahead, be a change agent, and do the right thing.
As we set to achieve another record-breaking year, continued investment into growing our skills and providing exceptional service to our customers was augmented by a series of skills workshops to help our employees develop and enhance their abilities in areas like negotiation, problem solving, conflict resolution, and communication. Our trainers and leaders led small groups in practicing and discussing strategies and ways to practice and improve these skills in order to better serve our customers and partners.
Team building events were planned throughout the week. Scavenger hunts and team exercises had employees doing everything from coordinating office-wide searches to learning how to work as a team in a lego building project (one that vaguely resembled a deployment project). Our goal was not only to work better together as a team, but also to understand the different roles and functions within a project and how people we work with every day contribute to the overall success of our company as a whole.
And finally, for a SADA tradition that always gets an encore: Casino Night. We came, we played, and we conquered. Well, of course not everyone conquered, but a little healthy competition keeps us motivated.
A huge thank you to our exceptional leaders, partners, and clients for making 2014 an overwhelming success. Here’s to 2015!
