The document summarizes the evolution of company culture at Morton, an IT staffing firm. In 2017, Morton's leadership realized changes were needed to support future growth. This included expanding teams, defining culture, and refreshing their brand. Changes like loosening dress code, improving communication, and focusing on employee and client engagement strengthened culture. Emphasizing their community impact and embracing technology also helped Morton connect internally and externally, resulting in a stronger culture where new hires notably enjoyed the workplace environment. Making strategic but minimal adjustments allowed Morton to better achieve their goals while maintaining their core values.

1. EVOLUTION OF COMPANY CULTURE:
THE SMALLEST CHANGES CAN MAKE THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE

2. WHO IS MORTON?
• Primarily mid- to senior-level IT roles
• Contract, contract-to-hire, and direct hire
• Headquartered in Richmond, VA
• 18 Internal Employees
• 90 Consultants on payroll at all times
throughout year
• $12.5M in Annual Revenue (2018)
Core Values: Teamwork, Results, Integrity, Partnership
• IT Staffing Firm, founded in 2006
• Putting people first is always the right
thing to do

3. 2017: LIGHTBULB MOMENT
• Physical location of Headquarters
• Executive Leadership Team Expansion:
Marketing
• Internal Staff: Size & Makeup
• Staff & Consultant Demographics
• Defining Our Company Culture
After 3 years of steady revenue growth, it was time to think
even more strategically about the future of Morton.

4. 2017: STRATEGIC DECISIONS
ü Purchased a building in a revitalized neighborhood to better align with
what we do;
ü Hired Director of Marketing to implement tactical solutions and create
strategic visions;
ü Began increasing staff size to adequately support business needs;
ü Loosened dress code to align with staff and consultant demographics;
ü Began better articulating, internally & externally: who we are, what we
do, how we do it, why we do it.

5. INTERNAL TEAM: TOUGH QUESTION
Did I have the right team in place to help us reach
our goals, while adhering to our core values?
In 2018, I looked in the mirror and asked the tough question:

6. INTERNAL TEAM: TOUGH CHOICES
Long answer:
• Some managers were mismanaging their
underperforming teams
• Lack of support roles in Operations
• Significant need to increase our Recruiting Team
size to support the business growth
Short answer:
• No

7. INTERNAL TEAM: SIMPLE SOLUTIONS
• Hired in those who we felt met core values, managed out those who did not
• Hired fractional HR Director to manage the big challenges –
creating/implementing performance management procedures, from
performance improvement plans to annual performance evaluations
• New Hire Orientation:
• Made sure all new hires understood who we are, what we do, how we do it, and
why we do it
• Managed expectations of individual & team metrics/goals from Day 1
• Weekly one-on-one meetings with individuals and full teams to help resolve
challenges quickly and open lines of communication

8. INTERNAL TEAM: INCREASED ENGAGEMENT
• Slack – increased communication on both work-related and
non-work related thoughts
• Bi-monthly Staff Events
• Happy hours, team lunches, outings
• Quarterly Contests for cash bonuses and additional PTO
• Provided monthly reports on progress towards goals
• Solicited feedback on any and everything from internal
team – then changes where we could, as quickly as we
could. Examples:
• Business hours altered to get out early on Fridays
• Added Sonos to liven up the office
• Snack choices for in-house 7-11

9. BRAND REFRESH – NOT A REBRAND
• Our logo was outdated and our company name was confusing
• Social media was inconsistent – from messaging to frequency
• Website was new, but looked dated
• Navigation worked well, the look didn’t
We were already a company with a good culture, so there was no
need for a full rebrand. We needed to figure out how to take our
positive brand to the next level, so we refreshed.
With the hire of a Marketing Director, we quickly discovered that
we had a brand without a voice…

10. BRAND REFRESH – OUR PAST
Dated font
Underwhelming color palette
What we were “consulting”?
Bottom line: our look was outdated and our name created confusion

11. BRAND REFRESH – OUR PRESENT
Modern Font
Bright Color Palette
Tagline explains what we do
Purposeful decision to put
”people” first in tagline
Bottom line: modern look, intentional focus

12. NEW HQ
• Moved from corporate office park to trendy, revitalized
neighborhood;
• Purchased building and custom renovated for our team needs,
community needs, and to align with our refreshed brand;
• Open concept mixed with private office space;
• Event space for internal and external events;
• Increased visibility & branding – social media, banners in front of
building, joined neighborhood association, videos, etc.

13. CHECK OUT OUR NEW SPACE!

14. ENGAGING CONSULTANTS
• Bi-monthly lunches hosted in our office
• In a digital world, it’s nice to remind everyone that there’s a face
behind the screen
• Holiday gift certificates for all internal employees + consultants
• Company swag bags on first day for all internal employees +
consultants
• M&M jars refilled by account managers once a month
• Birthday cards signed by full internal staff and sent to
all consultants

15. ENGAGING CLIENTS
• Account managers have more focused time to build partnerships with
existing and new clients.
• Subtle shift to Account-based Marketing (ABM):
• Morton was already fostering personalized relationships with clients; how
do we take it to the next level?
• Staying on top of upcoming client projects and staying in front of clients more
frequently;
• Hosting events at local breweries for clients to interact with full Morton team;
• Courtside seats to collegiate basketball games & other 1-on-1 events for
individualized attention;
• Customized holiday gifts

16. EMBRACING TECHNOLOGY CHANGES
Two major platforms that have digitally transformed our
engagement, internally and externally:
Provides automated messaging platform to an audience of
our choosing
• Primarily use with current working consultants – automated
check-ins, referral reminders, NPS scores, and 30-day out
notices to help make sure no one slips through the cracks
with personal communication
Provides metrics from our team’s daily activities to help
track real-time highs and lows, areas for improvement,
and causes for celebration.

17. FOCUS ON COMMUNITY
Supporting community initiatives has always been a part of
Morton’s values. Over the past 12 months, visibility and awareness of
involvement and support has increased significantly.
2017:
• Small, local community partner
• 100 backpacks
• 3 social media posts/mentions on
1 outlet
• 119 engagements
2018:
• Larger, local community partner
• 500 backpacks
• 40+ social media posts/mentions
on 4 outlets
• 2,500+ engagements; plus, two
local TV news interviews
Example: Backpack Program for Underserved Students

18. SUMMARY
• In a free-response survey sent in October 2018 to
our 10 new hires, 100% said our culture was the
#1 thing they liked most about Morton.
• Morton made very few policy changes:
• One financial adjustment to the commission rates
for our recruiting and sales teams to better align
with competitors.
• Some new hires were not the right cultural fit –
and we knew it within weeks of them starting:
• They were performance managed out of Morton and
the team was stronger for it.
• We found our brand voice – and we’re using it to
grow our business:
• Target 3-year growth goal: $25M

19. QUESTIONS?
MARK@THEMORTONWAY.COM
(804) 290-4272