Q&A with the 2024 Best Place to Work award winner, Smarty Pants 

Editor’s note: Smarty Pants is the winner of the 2024 Best Place to Work award, a category in the Marketing Research and Insight Excellence Awards. The award winners were announced during a virtual celebration on November 19, 2024. To learn more about the awards, visit https://www.quirksawards.com/. 

Smarty Pants, a woman- and minority-owned research consultancy, is human-centered in everything it does. From clients to employees, the organization focuses on transparency, generosity, diversity and growth.  

In an interview with Quirk’s, founder and Chief Smarty Pants, Wynne Tyree emphasized that no matter a company’s size it is possible to have genuine employer-employee relationships.  

“Regardless of size, there’s opportunity for organizations to lean into the human side of the employer-employee relationship,” Tyree said. “Employees today want to bring their whole selves to work, so meet them there. Identify what motivates them, inspires them, stifles them, etc., and then do what you reasonably can to connect in meaningful ways.”  

Smarty Pants connects by checking in and gathering employee feedback often and then actually implementing ideas or addressing concerns. Jennifer Dixon, head of happiness at Smarty Pants, explained more about including employees in the creation of company culture. 

“Give people creative freedom to magnify the culture the way they see fit,” Dixon said. “Much like brands, executive leadership teams can design and model the culture, but it is employees who ultimately own it.”      

Tyree and Dixon shared more insight into Smarty Pants, the 2024 Best Place to Work award winner.

How do you ensure your initiatives effectively address your employees' needs? 

Our initiatives typically originate directly from employees. We have a standing “open call” for suggestions on how we can enhance the organization and the experience of working at Smarty Pants. 

Additionally, there are times throughout the year when we proactively seek the input and recommendations of employees at all levels – through phone calls, e-mails, chats, polls and surveys. This helps us ensure our efforts are based on employee desires.   

Once we receive specific requests, we assess the organizational desire and feasibility. When it makes operational, fiscal, legal and cultural sense, our goal is to say yes. We strongly believe that the sacrifices employees make every day to drive our clients’ businesses forward warrant benefits, perks and a company culture that is appreciative at its core.      

As part of our ongoing employee feedback, we annually conduct an anonymous “Happiness Survey” to gauge the feelings and perceptions of all employees. We use these qualitative-rich findings to monitor employee satisfaction, solicit ideas for new programs or policies and assess existing efforts. 

We share the results with the whole organization in an effort to be fully transparent. In recent years, we have been even more intentional in thinking through not only the results but also the specific actions we need to implement to ensure employee morale and professional happiness remain strong.

What changes/implementations have made the most impact within your company culture? 

Collaboration without colocation remains a key driver of employee happiness. While we now have a finance and operations headquarters, we have been a virtual organization since inception.  

Employees continue to appreciate the trust and autonomy that come from working from home alongside the tech, structural and cultural systems we’ve put in place to help everyone feel like they work down the hall from one another.  

We can’t overstate the professional comfort that comes from WFH and never having to worry you’ll be called back to the office.   

Offering an annual paid family leave plan – for child, partner or elder care – was another game changer to Smarty Pants a couple of years ago. This is a benefit that our company couldn’t absorb when it was smaller, but it made a world of difference to employees when it was introduced. Having financial peace-of-mind and job security while taking care of family is highly valued across life stages.    

Other time and space perks like quarterly happy hours –to pursue personal interests and passions – are embraced by the Smarty Pants team. Likewise, reframing sick days to “just get better” days – and making them unlimited – was appreciated by all.  

Employees want the respect and trust to make the decisions that are right for their physical and mental health.  

Additionally, we have invested heavily in professional development and team cohesion.  

Our Smarty Pants University training keeps talent at the top of their game and reinforces the Smarty Pants growth mind-set. Our semi-annual “Smarty Parties” offer company-wide team building and training in exciting domestic and international locations. And our cross-company committees encourage brainstorming and activation of innovative ideas across client teams. Our annual day of service provides employees across the country with an opportunity to gather with colleagues in their area to volunteer together and promote a culture of giving and service. And our buddy system pairs colleagues from different parts of the organization to meet informally, share news about their lives and personal interests and simply chat without work pressures.  

It’s not one change that has made the most impact; it’s the daily investment in building and reinforcing culture. 

What advice would you give companies looking to build an outstanding workplace culture? 

We have five core pieces of advice.

Envision it 

Consider what an outstanding culture looks like for the company. Define the company’s priorities when it comes to culture and employee satisfaction.  

Then identify the behaviors, philosophies and procedures and processes that will contribute to that defined company culture.  

Flesh out – and share – a company vision that represents these ideals. Seek as much input as possible from employees during the process. 

Model it 

Senior leaders should consistently model the behaviors they wish to promote. For example, when our CEO hired a Head of Happiness, it immediately communicated that “employee satisfaction” wasn’t the bar at Smarty Pants. Holistic happiness, well-being and professional fulfillment were.  

Similarly, willingness for leaders to pitch in and cover even the most junior of tasks demonstrates a collaborative, “all for one” cultural ideal. And leaders who take “just get better” days, vacation days and happy hours demonstrate the acceptability of prioritizing time for personal needs.   

Live it 

Be intentional in holding everyone accountable to the shared behaviors and vision for the culture. Filter all procedures and processes, business decisions and changes through the defined philosophies.  

For example, a policy decision to cover costs for shipping breastmilk home when a working mom is traveling demonstrates to all employees that the company is committed to families. Taking an employee poll about which organizations to donate to on Giving Tuesday reinforces the cultural and charitable priorities of the company but also provides another opportunity for employee input into corporate decisions.  

Protect it 

All recruiting, hiring and orientation of new employees should be based on the defined intentions, behaviors and philosophies that make up the company's culture. Seek individuals who fit the culture, then protect the culture from the first day the employee starts.  

Factor in cultural expectations to performance reviews and individual coaching opportunities.  

Evolve it  

What worked in the past simply doesn’t work today.  

Continually revisit and update your company’s culture through changes to policies, benefits, perks, touchpoints, activities, committees, dialogue, etc.