Company Culture: “Things got wild,” says Bryan Goltzman, owner of Liquid Screen Design (asi/254663), of the first months of the pandemic. “We brought on so many people for fulfillment.” But in the midst of the craziness, Goltzman and business partner Benji Bearman made sure the already-hybrid team stayed connected and engaged, like with virtual yoga/mindfulness sessions.

On the Best Places to Work survey, the company scored well among employees in a variety of areas, including involvement with decisions that affect their work and transparency from management. “We pride ourselves on giving staff permission to make big decisions,” says Goltzman. “We help them when needed, but we don’t micromanage. We decrease stress by letting them make whatever change they need to make to ensure the customer is happy. We want them to be able to say, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll take care of it.’” And generous compensation doesn’t hurt, either: Liquid Screen offers a 3% match retirement plan and 10% base bonus for full-time reps.

COVID Changes: While the team has always been remote – Goltzman is based in Minneapolis, Bearman is in Chicago, and the rest of the team is dispersed across the Twin Cities as well as Nashville and Austin – Goltzman and Bearman took the working environment to the next step in late 2021 with a Sims-inspired virtual office: Gather simulates an office environment in order to foster more impromptu conversations and ideation. “It’s created an atmosphere of casual drop-ins,” says Goltzman. “We still use Slack, but this has replaced Zoom because we wanted more casual brainstorming. This platform is the future for everyone, even hybrid offices.”

Parting Tip: To find new hires who fit into the culture – and to foster ongoing communication among team members – management runs a DiSC Assessment for each prospect. The assessment screens for four personality attributes: Dominance, influence, Steadiness and Conscientiousness. Based on a report, Liquid Screen can see the main personality type of the hire and how they’d fit in the company culture.

“A consultant runs the assessments and then tells us how the person would integrate with our team,” says Goltzman. “And then we reference the assessment after they’re hired. For example, Conscientious people need reassurance that a job is getting done. It’s not that they don’t trust others, but they identify with the customer. Everyone is aware of their own and others’ assessments. That’s important because we’re all interdependent.”