A People-Focused Business: Why AIM Consulting Employees Love Their Work

sponsored by AIM Consulting

This article is part of a series focusing on select companies who placed among WA’s 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2017, as determined by employee surveys that measure their perceptions and satisfaction across 61 individual attributes within 10 employment categories.

When working in technology consulting, its difficult to say which matters more: enjoying the people you work with, or being passionate about the work you are doing to help clients compete in the digital age.

Fortunately, the employees of AIM Consultingone of the top Small Companies on this years list of 100 Best Companies to Work For in WA–dont have to choose, as the company scores high marks on both the quality of its employees and the results they deliver.

This office is the Space Needle amongst the rest of the Consulting companies in Seattle summarized one AIM employee, and it only takes a glance at the rest of the employee comments to understand why.

Its All About Relationships

75% of AIMs employees rated the company across several categories, and the most striking takeaway from their feedback is how much they enjoy working with one another, and their clients.

One element that separates AIM from other companies is the emphasis we place on building strong relationships, explained an employee. Whether this is within our office, with our clients, or with our consultants, we conduct ourselves with the highest level of integrity, transparency, and open communication to foster strong relationships.

Another employee agreed: AIM is a people-focused business–specifically the importance of relationships to our business, and the importance of having good people work for our company.

Also appealing, as another employee noted, is the fact that were always going the extra mile for ourselves and our clients to ensure that the AIM brand is the premiere standard for technology consulting.

AIM Consulting, which was founded in 2006 and recently acquired by Addison Group, has around 90 full-time permanent employees and deploys over 800 technology consultants annually on client projects in the areas of application development, data & Analytics, solution delivery leadership, digital experience & mobile and infrastructure, cloud and ITSM. The company is headquartered in Bellevue, WA with offices in Denver, CO and Minneapolis, MN. In addition to serving those three markets, they have the capability to expand their Solutions Delivery practice to 15 additional markets across the US through the partnership with Addison Group.

As a leading provider of technology consulting services and solutions delivery, AIM prides itself on staying on the leading edge of technology as one employee described it. Projects vary widely from revamping Holland Americas online check-in process, to building an experimental design and analytics framework for a large multi-chain retailer, to working with Microsoft to consolidate Outlook options and settings into a modern framework.

As much as they love the challenge and diversity of their work, AIMs employees are perhaps even more passionate about their co-workers, submitting countless comments like these extolling their virtues:

• Extremely skilled, intelligent, and committed people.
• It’s the best group of people I’ve ever worked with.
• Best group of individuals I’ve ever worked with. Competitive, but fun and truly has a family feel.
• The people are certainly the best part! Driven, hardworking, fun, genuine people!
• The people are great, they look out for each other, hold each other accountable and create a rewarding and fun environment.
• I love the people that work here!

According to one employee, AIM is about great people who like working together as a team and working hard and then celebrating the success.

It helps that the company is located in a modern office with a mix of standing and regular desks, high-tech meeting rooms, a gym, and free coffee and snacks.

Teamwork Starts at the Top

Employees credit AIMs exceptional work environment to fantastic leaders who work as a unit with their employees to achieve important goals that everyone feels vested in.

Co-founders Bill VanSickle, Kyle Guilford, and Josh Bowser started the company with a vision to become a leader in technology consulting services through building and maintaining long-term relationships with clients, employees and partners. The companys differentiatorscommitment to teamwork, passion for results-oriented service and processes, and relentless attention to customer care–sound like platitudes, but the company really means them.

As one employee stated, my peers are genuine, intelligent professionals that are focused on solving problems for clients that really need us.

Leadership is strongly credited for building AIMs rewarding culture. The transparency and engagement of senior leaders within the company is unique and makes me feel very included in the company’s direction and long-term goals, stated one employee. Another applauded the companys open communication and team-focused environment. Leadership’s doors are always open.

Management excels at emphasizing how individual goals allow the collective to achieve company goals, commented one employee, who also noted they have a good track record of promoting from within.

AIMs leadership prioritizes long-term relationships over a transaction-based culture, and it shows.

The Ripple Effect

Employing great people creates a sense of camaraderie and teamwork that extends beyond strong one-on-one relationships to create a welcoming environment, committed to helping each other learn and be successful as one employee explained. Working for AIM has not only proven beneficial to my career, but also to my overall wellbeing, asserted another employee, who has forged lifelong friendships and mentorships with the people here.

This environment is beneficial to employees throughout their tenure at AIM, and creates exceptional opportunity for career development and growth.

This company has helped me personally achieve more than I ever would have dreamed, stated one employee. It was my first job out of college and I’ve had the opportunity to grow within the organization. AIM has provided me significant learning and earning potential.

AIM is an awesome place to work at for people who want to leave a mark on a company, insisted another employee, because it perfectly blends the excitement and agility of a startup with the processes and infrastructure of a larger enterprise.

Perhaps the best aspect of working for AIM? The feeling, as one employee summarized, that I do something every day that matters to the people that I work with and I am not just a cog in the wheel.

Learn more about careers at AIM at AimConsulting.com, and find out more about WA’s 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2017.