Exploring Hyland's Award Winning Culture In Westlake

WESTLAKE, OH - Two Northeast Ohio companies made it onto Fortune's list of the 100 best companies to work. Those companies were Hyland Software and Quicken Loans. Nestled in a business park in suburban Westlake, Hyland is consistently ranked as one of the best companies to work for in the region. They're consistently on the NorthCoast99 and the Fortune 100 honor is just the latest award for their trophy shelf. So what makes working for Hyland so desirable?

Patch spent time exploring the Hyland campus and interviewing Hyland's Employee Engagement Manager, Kathleen Vegh, to get a feel for what has enabled the company to consistently land on best places to work surveys.

The first thing you notice when you walk into Hyland's building three is a giant, shiny slide that descends near the double glass front doors. It's an immediate symbol of the company's conscious decision to depart from Northeast Ohio stereotypes. This is not a grit and grind, blue collar company, the models of which dot the Northeast Ohio landscape and fill perceptions of our region.

In fact, Vegh says the company has been trying to blend its company culture to mimic some of the more encompassing, freewheeling qualities of companies located in Silicon Valley. As you move through the building, you find low cubes and a lot of open spaces. Megan Larsen, a public relations specialist for Hyland, says the company believes the open spaces will aid collaboration.

Throughout the building, there is also a barber's shop, more slides, on-site daycare, Star Wars-inspired posters and Star Wars cardboard cutouts. Other buildings house a full-sized basketball court and an arcade, billiards, and games room. Employees are mostly decked out in T-shirts and jeans. Everything feels very casual, almost like a harder working college dormitory.

"We believe in investing in employees," Vegh told Patch. "If employees are happy, they invest in customers and the customers invest in Hyland."

That talk veers perilously close to boilerplate, but the employees at Hyland do appear to be genuinely happy and at ease. During a tour of campus, employees were seen gabbing happily in food courts, aggressively playing ping pong in a game room, and going to play badminton on a full-sized basketball court.

Part of the reason for Hyland's cultural success is its unique hiring process. One of the worst kept secrets in Northeast Ohio is that on any application to Hyland, there is a section asking applicants to write a poem. It does not matter if you're applying to be a developer, a marketer, or a secretary, you will be asked to write the poem.

Vegh said the poem gives an avenue for applicants to display creativity and a willingness to break from tradition. The poem won't make or break an applicant, but being willing to put effort into the poem cannot hurt you either.

"Everything starts with hiring the right person," Vegh said.

Coming Into The Culture

When a new employee starts at Hyland, they go through an intensive on-boarding process. The process is designed to get the employee comfortable with Hyland and excited about their decision to join the company. Vegh described it as "three days of culture assimilation."

New employees are broken into training classes. They learn the history of the company, the details of the products the company sells (regardless of department), and they meet with Hyland CEO William Priemer. Priemer introduces himself to the new workers by asking them to call him Bill.

"Our culture has always come from the top down," Vegh said. "There's a genuine feeling that all of this on-boarding matters."

Following the "culture assimilation" an employee goes through two weeks of technical training. If the new hire is a developer or has a technical role, they could go through an additional two weeks of training. That means up to a month of on-boarding before a new employee may touch meaningful work for Hyland.

Once you've put the training behind you, how do you move through the ranks? Some of the upward mobility is traditional, strong performance plus time equals promotion. However, there are also avenues for employees to submit new ideas through managers and to be recognized for their work.

The company also hosts Hylite speeches (sort of like TED Talks) from employees. Workers can talk about any topic that they feel passionate about and that may spur creativity.

The Future

Hyland may be unique in Northeast Ohio business culture, but it's also become a success story. The company just announced that it would be expanding its Westlake headquarters and hiring an additional 300-plus employees by 2018.

Patch reported at the time that the company crossed the 1,000 employee mark about six years ago. Now Hyland employs 2,230 people, with another 330 inbound before the end of the year. Most of those new workers will be located at the Westlake campus.

“This is an exciting time for Hyland. This expansion reflects our continued growth and is one of many initiatives underway to support our growing global customer base,” said Bill Priemer, president and CEO at Hyland, in a press release. “We feel fortunate to be in this position and look forward to welcoming employees, customers and partners to our new space."

Photos by Chris Mosby, Patch