“Our culture is infused with collaboration, adaptability, and a cando approach to our work. We really love working together!”
—LESLIE AUMENT DIRECTOR OF HUMAN RESOURCES
| Company / Noonday Collection Headquarters / Austin, Texas Number of Full-Time Employees / 46 Year Founded / 2011 |
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE YOUR COMPANY CULTURE IN A FEW SENTENCES?
Our team is united by our mission to create meaningful opportunities for people living in vulnerable communities across the globe. Working at Noonday Collection is more than just a job. Our work ties into our personal values and drives our performance, our teamwork, and our creative innovation. Our culture is infused with collaboration, adaptability, and a can-do approach to our work. We really love working together!
WHAT MAKES YOUR COMPANY ONE OF THE BEST PLACES TO WORK IN DIRECT SELLING?
Our mission is to build a flourishing world where children are cherished, women are empowered, people have jobs and we are connected. Working with purpose-driven people creates high commitment and engagement with the work. We also reflect our mission in our home office policies by having family-friendly benefits, policies, and work-life balance.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR COMPANY’S COLLABORATION EFFORTS WITH EMPLOYEES IN ALLOWING THEM TO VOICE THEIR THOUGHTS, IDEAS AND SUGGESTIONS?
One of our core values is collaboration, and we demonstrate this on a daily basis through all the input we receive on our cross-functional project teams. We do have a meeting culture here, which allows frequent opportunities for team members to voice their thoughts, ideas and suggestions. We have monthly meetings for people managers, quarterly offsite All Hands meetings, and many of our teams have daily huddles.
WHAT UNIQUE OR UNUSUAL PERKS DO YOU ALSO OFFER?
At Noonday, we offer many fun and unique perks such as Summer Fridays, First Fridays home office team breakfasts and onsite happy hours. We also offer generous product discounts (50% off, product credit, deeply discounted sample sales) and quarterly offsite team-building activities. We even have the opportunity of international travel to visit our artisan business partners.
HOW DOES YOUR COMPANY SUPPORT TEAM MEMBERS IN THEIR PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT?
We engage our teams with a number of tools to help them know themselves better so that they can grow, Gallup Strengths Finder and Enneagram, for example. We also provide lunch and learns on a variety of topics from information on our artisan suppliers to fair trade to Excel to our financial statements.
HOW DOES YOUR COMPANY GIVE BACK TO THE COMMUNITY?
We encourage our home office team to take time off to volunteer with the organizations in the community that matter the most to them. We provide 16 paid hours per year to volunteer, and if a team member uses all 16 hours, Noonday will also make a $100 donation to the 501c(3) of the team member’s choice. We also contribute to local non-profits and relief efforts, like Hurricane Harvey relief for our neighbors in Houston and our local CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) organization to benefit children in foster care. Additionally, we coordinate canned food drives and clothing drives onsite and plan team volunteering activities, like with our local food bank.
HOW DO YOU DEVELOP AND MAINTAIN TRUST BETWEEN ALL LEVELS OF YOUR COMPANY?
Communication and follow-through is key. We try to be as transparent as possible about why decisions are made. Consistent follow-up and follow-through on our work has helped us build trust among crossfunctional teams, which, as a highly collaborative company, is key.
WHAT IS THE SINGLE MOST FUN DAY OF THE YEAR AT YOUR COMPANY? WHY?
Either our first day of Shine–our annual conference–or the day of our year-end home office celebration. Our whole team participates in the first day of the conference by welcoming our Ambassadors and some of our artisan business partners. Our owners celebrate all our stakeholders through their keynotes and introduce the Home Office team from the mainstage. Each year we also celebrate all we have accomplished with a big year-end party offsite where we get dressed up, bring along a plus one, and enjoy food, drinks, and dancing together.
HOW MANY EMPLOYEES HAVE BEEN AT YOUR COMPANY FOR FIVE YEARS OR MORE? AND WHY DO YOU THINK THEY STAY?
Our team is so committed to the mission and the impact that Noonday is making in the world. Our team members with the greatest tenure continue to be a part of that impact and love it! We have 7 employees who have been with us for five years or more. In addition, our collaborative culture means that our teams are more than just coworkers—they are family. Our tenured team members say that they love feeling part of a team where each member is valued and cared for.
Best Places To Work In Direct Selling 2018 Honorees!
Pick up the April 2018 issue here in which this article appeared.
