This company’s “people-first” culture offers IT employees challenging assignments and family-friendly policies.
Fresh out of college, Jason Ruggles joined Ultimate Software in internal applications support, figuring he’ d take a couple of years to learn the ropes and then move on to his next gig.
Fifteen years later, after multiple promotions, marriage to a woman who still works across the hall, and the birth of their now five-year-old daughter, Ruggles considers himself part of the extended Ultimate Software family and says he’s not planning to leave anytime soon.
Ruggles says the ability to work with the latest technologies and concepts (microservices architecture, for example) , coupled with the fact that Ultimate execs take time to get to know him and his family, make for an environment that is both challenging and comfortable — a unique combination for the competitive world of high tech. “Every time I see the CTO, he remembers stories and he knows my daughter’s name, ” says Ruggles, now 38 and a solutions architect. “It makes me feel like I don’ t have to compartmentalize my life. I’ m not working for ‘the man,’ I’ m working for family and friends.”
Ultimate Software’s self-proclaimed “people first” philosophy and culture has helped the maker of cloud-based human capital management (HCM) software land in the No. 1 spot for midsize organizations the very first year it is participating in Computerworld’s 100 Best Places to Work in IT program, a rare feat.
It’s no surprise the 3,607-person company, with 1,062 U. S.-based IT employees, also ranked No. 1 among all 100 Best Places for benefits. The Weston, Fla., firm doles out a sweeping set of top-shelf benefits, such as 100% employer-paid healthcare coverage for employees and their families (including same-sex couples) ; an employer match of 40% for 401 (k) retirement accounts; an equity stake in the company upon hire; paid maternity, paternity and adoption leave; and paid community service days, to name a few.
There is also a generous set of perks, from on-site fitness classes and a car-wash service to numerous rewards programs and reimbursements for children’s after-school activities.
The company’s chief technology officer (CTO) Adam Rogers, himself a 20-year Ultimate veteran who started as an IT intern right out of the University of Florida, Gainesville, says what sets the company apart from other firms is its commitment to its people, both professionally and on a personal level.
Rogers, 42, got the message early on in his career at Ultimate, when a lead web developer on a small team Rogers was managing opted to postpone his honeymoon to make sure a major new product release went off without a hitch. Rogers was able to award that developer an all-expenses paid trip to the Bahamas post-project without having to jump through hoops to get management approval.
“It’s more than just paying for stuff—it’s taking care of your people and doing the right thing, ” explains Rogers. “ ‘People first’ is much more than a tag line; it defines our culture.”
CTO Adam Rogers (right) and programmer Lenis Hernandez share a laugh. Ultimate’s executives frequently collaborate with front-line employees.
Duygu (DJ) Yapar, 37, was so enamored by what she heard from friends who worked at Ultimate that she made a concerted effort to come on board. After two years of interviews for various positions, Yapar finally joined Ultimate in June 2016 as a business analyst, and so far, the work experience has met, maybe even exceeded her expectations, she says.
Most impressive, according to Yapar, is a commitment to fostering work/life balance at Ultimate, which ranked No. 2 among all 100 Best Places for career development, and placed No. 2 as well for employee retention. While Yapar has been encouraged by management to pursue leadership training as a way of furthering her career, she’s also been able to take advantage of such perks as two paid service days to pursue her volunteering interests as well as the annual reimbursement for her kids’ swimming lessons and camps.
Eamonn Caufield, 55, grasped the significance of the Ultimate Software culture the minute he walked through the doors 11 years ago for a role as the director of software delivery.
In his previous experience, IT executive teams operated at arm’s length from staffers, prioritizing a highly regimented corporate atmosphere over individual focus, Caufield says. That wasn’ t the case at Ultimate, where IT execs share office space with staffers, are highly accessible and shun red tape and office politics—a management style Caufield happily embraced as he rose up the management ranks.
Now, as vice president of information services in charge of Ultimate’s 257-person internal-facing IT team, Caufield is committed to an open-door policy and radical transparency, devoting plenty of one-on-one time to every new hire and conducting quarterly reviews and more frequent all-hands meetings.
“I don’ t care if you’ re cleaning toilets or managing a team, I get to know who everyone is, ” says Caufield, who’s been in his latest post for four years. “I don’ t want to be that guy who doesn’ t know the people on the team.”
Caufield also places a heavy emphasis on hiring line managers committed to building collaborative teams, and he promotes team-building exercises like awards programs and social events.
One such example is the IS Olympics, a set of games held regularly during lunch time to promote camaraderie, along with monthly off-site team-building events, including a recent corporate run where Ultimate sponsored 600 runners—the largest participating team.
On the awards front, the company hosts the Ulti Spirit program, which mimics the Boy Scouts by doling out badges for professional and personal successes, along with the Ulti Bucks peer-recognition effort, which gives everyone in IT $50 a month to award to peers for outstanding work. “I’ m a strong believer in a leader who is a great cheerleader for the team, ” Caufield says. “I consider it a big part of my job to troll for successes and wins and publicize them internally.”
Mike Klein, 55, who started at Ultimate as a contractor back in 2000 working on Y2K conversions, considers his Christmas 2006 nomination for the coveted UltiPeep MVP award one of the highlights of his career. Klein, who came on board full time as employee No. 493, says it was an honor to be chosen as the embodiment of the core “people first” values of Ultimate. Still, he says it’s the collaborative spirit of the company that he finds so compelling. “Everyone works together as a team to achieve the company’s goals, ” he says. “The team effort drives everything.”
Even so, the individual doesn’ t get short shrift. Ultimate puts a huge emphasis on training and innovation, a combination that’s particularly relevant to IT, says Klein, who is now manager of client services. Everyone is encouraged to stay current on the latest technologies, which keeps it interesting from an individual’s perspective, Klein explains, but it also makes it easier for his team to do their job delivering top-notch customer support.
“It’s a big thing to have the chance to discover new ways of taking care of [customer] issues without having your hands tied using old technology, ” Klein says, citing as an example the ability to deliver critical system updates via imaging and an enterprise app store as opposed to traditional methods of networked or individual machine upgrades. “We’ re able to find the best possible means of helping our customers. Many other companies I worked for were short-sighted and didn’ t put money towards making sure IT had the tools they needed.”
Ultimate’s culture fosters a strong sense of teamwork and camaraderie among IT staffers.
Giving employees the tools and the latitude to experiment with creative problem solving and out-of-the-box innovation is one of the hallmarks of the Ultimate culture, says CTO Rogers.
