Slalom, a business and technology-focused consulting company, with offices in Hartford and throughout the country, calls its work ethos ‘fiercely human.’ The philosophy is to put employees and clients above all else.
“Whatever we put in writing, it can’t be just a marketing phrase, we’re here for the human beings we get to work with every day,” said Jim Goldschlager, general manager for Slalom’s Hartford office. “If I’m not inspired to get out of bed and do this work and if I’m not proud of my work at the end of the day, then I need to course correct and figure out what’s going on. That’s really our litmus test.”
Headquartered in Seattle, the company of about 13,000 workers embraces balance and well-being. It allows employees to prioritize their personal life while making meaningful contributions at work, Goldschlager said. And because Slalom is a consulting business, it heavily invests in human capital.
This focus on putting people first is one of the main reasons why employees consistently rank it among the top places to work in the country. Slalom has been ranked second in midsize category in the Courant’s Top Workplaces survey for 2023, with high marks received for its work culture. The company is no stranger to making the list, as it previously held the title of the No. 1 small employer in The Courant’s Top Workplaces survey in 2014 and 2019.
“Everything we do is centered around our people and community members. It’s why we’re local first and why we continue to be locally driven,” Goldschlager said.
The company’s local focus is evident through its offices in 45 markets across the country, along with the United Kingdom and Australia, with each office tailored specifically to the needs of customers in the region. Each day consultants work with clients looking to do anything from something as simple as electronic file organizing to cloud transformation or as complex as adapting an AI strategy.
Goldschlager, who was born in Hartford, convinced the company’s Seattle headquarters back in 2011 to open an office in Connecticut.
“We haven’t even tapped into all of the potential here, we’re not even at 50% yet,” Goldschlager said. “I had happened to get a client at the time in the area and I realized that the local model means so much to a place like Hartford. There’s so many businesses here.”
First a client of Slalom, Goldschlager said he realized he had stumbled upon a company he did not want to leave while working at the corporate office in Seattle. “It feels good to be home in Hartford, working in the local community. You realize as you get older that Connecticut is really a great place to raise a family.”
The Hartford office, located on the 32nd floor inside the City Place building, employs approximately 165 people. The company has expanded over the last several years through consistent hiring but has seen a small retraction in employees over the past year due to a struggling technology sector.
“This is probably the oddest non-recession recession I’ve seen in about 30 years,” Goldschlager said. “We had great growth in 2018 and 2019, and while during the pandemic things were on hold, in 2021 and in the first-half of 2022 hiring picked up again and we were probably about 200 employees. But entering 2023, and everything we saw around technology jobs with our partners like Microsoft, Salesforce, and AWS, almost the opposite has happened and that sector whipped back the opposite direction with layoffs.”
But despite the slowdown, the company’s focus on human interaction means that year after year it receives high scores among employees for job satisfaction. Everything from the way employees are hired to how the office is designed is all about putting people first. Instead of the traditional hiring practice of matching applicant history and experience to a specific role, Slalom instead focuses on getting to know the applicant.
“It can be surprising to people but generally we want to get to know someone before even talking about the role,” Goldschlager said. “Our first meeting will sometimes just be a conversation and what their interests are. We really want to know and invest in that person before hiring them.”
Slalom’s downtown office also includes several intentional features suggested by employees, including a mixture of both open, collaborative, and fun spaces. The office includes soundproof phone booths to offer privacy, a quiet space called ‘the library’ with three rooms and open seating, and a kitchen with a popcorn machine and iced coffee along with a wine refrigerator and beer taps for events. The space is designed to be flexible and multi-use, with both traditional office spaces and open tables for consultants to work together and share ideas.
“We also design a bobblehead for each employee who makes it to the five-year mark with the company,” Goldschlager said. “We’ve got a shelf with a lot of bobbleheads now. It’s something we started here in Hartford that’s really taken off. One of our employees who loves her Peloton has a bobblehead with her on it. So we try to incorporate everyone’s personalities as well. It’s really a lot of fun.”
Lauren Hinojosa, who serves as Slalom Hartford’s staffing lead, has held multiple roles with the company since being hired in 2021. She started on the company’s talent acquisition team for recruiting and now serves on the business operations team leading internal staffing.
“Slalom really gets to know you as a person,” Hinojosa said. “It’s really about bringing on the right people who want to do the work and have a great mentality towards everybody. It’s been great and I’m fairly new to the position still but I think that’s what is so great about Slalom. The team saw potential and there was an opportunity for growth.”
Other Slalom employees, like Berta Zack, who prior to being hired by Slalom worked for LEGO in Enfield, is a rehire. Zack first worked for Slalom in 2018 and left in 2020 before rejoining the company in 2021.
“It’s really the focus on the whole person, that was the biggest differentiator for me. The interview process was all very conversational,” Zack said. “I left not for any specific reason outside of an external opportunity that presented itself. While everyone was sad to see me leave, they were also very supportive. Jim even said you can always come back and you have a home here. Even when I started my new position after leaving, Jim and I kept talking. I finally reached a point in the summer of 2021 where I realized that the one thing that was missing from my new company was Slalom’s values. So I then decided I was coming back.”
Zack, who has been back with the company for two years, said that she intends to stay for the long term. Both she and Hinojosa said they feel that Slalom values them not just as employees but as people and community members, a key difference from other companies they have worked for.
“I plan on getting my bobblehead,” Hinojosa said. “The shelf is completely full, which shows people stay here.”
Stephen Underwood can be reached at sunderwood@courant.com