Corporate culture is a difficult thing to describe. It generally refers to the shared values, attitudes, standards, and beliefs of company employees. If you ask any of Orion’s employees, they will say the high-standard, low-key culture is a primary reason that they enjoy working at Orion. A very low turnover rate proves this.
Orion is a community: Individuals committed to excellent technical work operating in an open environment that emphasizes caring about one another, clients, subcontractors, vendors, and the greater community.
Beyond work, we have fun! Daily, brown-baggers gather in the lunchroom (Long Beach headquarters), to watch various Netflix design and food shows (and even “The Bachelor”). Monthly, we celebrate birthdays and other life events and hold happy hours. Yearly, we celebrate Orion Day, which includes a State of Orion financial address from the president, teambuilding exercises, and a party. For Orion’s 25th anniversary last year, teams combed through Long Beach on a scavenger hunt. Our employees also have informal clubs for such specialties as bread-making and home brewing.
One common element of Orion’s culture is collaboration, whether strategizing on a project and completing complex scopes of work or planning a fun event and organizing a chartable event in the community. We like to have our staff in the office to learn from and interact with each other and enjoy the diversity of thought and attitudes.
During 2020’s Covid-19 pandemic, how do you maintain collaboration and culture when everyone is working from home? This has been a challenge, but using networking tools, we are doing our best in true Orion fashion.
Ways Orion is still being Orion
- Video conferencing – Regular face-to-face meetings are now replaced with video calls. Orion uses Microsoft Teams: it definitely helps to see your coworkers’ faces, even if they look…um…less polished. (Are combs and brushes in short supply during the pandemic?) Video calls break up the loneliness of working by yourself, allow you to share documents, and show people’s reactions. The whole company joins together on Teams for the monthly staff meeting.
- Sharing on Microsoft Teams – We set up an Orion Team page on Microsoft Teams. This is a location where we post just about anything, whether it is the dish we cooked the previous day, a nocturnal video of a raccoon rummaging through the trash, or a note about a work anniversary from one of our staff. These are our conversations around the virtual drinking fountain.
- Virtually keeping the lunch group going – Most of our staff signed up for the Netflix Party app on Google Chrome. At noon every day, we watch the same show and attendees contribute a running commentary.
- Celebrating life events – Special events such as a birthday, new babies, or a big work anniversary have gone virtual. For a recent event, Orion treated everyone to lunch, then we got on Teams to chat. We also all downloaded the Trivnow app on our phones and the whole company had a blast playing “Jeopardy” against each other.
- Understanding these troubling times together – Spurred by the country-wide protests, Orion is committed to stopping racism, sexism, and other bad-isms. As an example, Orion is purchasing the book, How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi for all its personnel. Staff members eagerly volunteered to lead book discussions and run an ongoing forum to pose questions and share personal experiences.
These are highlights of what we’re doing to keep every person engaged and our culture intact during this pandemic. Stay safe!