With Rhode Island struggling to develop a solid 21st-century work force, attract new business and kick-start the state’s lagging economy, there are practices in place at Envision Technology Advisors LLC that show this company already gets it.
There’s a line running through the company where vision, technology, business acumen, staff empowerment, professional development and fun come together.
That powerful combination earned Envision Technology Advisors the No. 1 ranking among small companies (with 15 to 49 employees) in Providence Business News’ 2010 Best Places to Work program.
The plan for business and employee success was born when CEO and Chief Technology Officer Todd Knapp was a student in ocean engineering at the University of Rhode Island. Knapp started helping people solve computer problems to earn some cash. He kept getting referrals and by the time he was 20 years old, he had developed an information technology consulting business with 30 clients.
After Knapp and his business partner made a tidy pile of money doing Y2K consulting, they sat back and developed a clear and simple business plan. Their three priorities were, and still are:
• Have fun doing work they enjoy.
• Be better at the work they do than anyone else.
• Make money.
That colleague is still in the company and those priorities drive Envision Technology Advisors.
“Rhode Island was thirsty for a company that was willing to look beyond its own interests and focus on what was best for the client,” Knapp said. “We’re not just selling a product. We focus on what can make our client’s business grow.”
Meanwhile, Envision has been growing, adding employees during the past few years to reach the current staff of 25. Whatever an employee’s skill level when hired, it increases substantially on the job. Employees spend 20 percent of their time in training.
Her skill level rose dramatically right from the start, she said.
“I’ve been growing with the company,” Niemczyk said. “I had a tremendous amount of book knowledge, but in the technical world that doesn’t take you as far as you need to go. Todd and the team bridged that gap for me.”
Niemczyk describes Envision as a “really fun place to work” and her job as “really challenging.” She’s out working with clients all the time, mostly locally, but at times she’s gone to client sites in Connecticut, New York, North Carolina and South Carolina.
“We’re always being trained for what we need,” Niemczyk said. “Management makes sure we’re putting out our best work.”
Being what Knapp describes as “Rhode Island-centric” is a plus for Ocean State residents who have found employment at Envision and those who might do so in the future.
“We focus on hiring people from inside the state, but there’s not a great training base in Rhode Island,” Knapp said. “What we find in Rhode Island are smart, motivated people who want to be experts in technology.”
“We spend six figures annually for training our team. An educated work force is a great work force,” Knapp said.
Take virtualization, for instance, which makes up 90 percent of Envision’s business. Virtualization uses a wide range of existing technologies to do more with less equipment. It reduces the number of servers, cuts costs, trims electric use, reduces maintenance and frees up technology staff for other projects.
Every one of Envision’s 25 employees have virtualization certification.
“I’m proud to have virtualization certification,” Metivier said. “It was the hardest test I ever took.” While there are different areas of virtualization certification, Metivier said the training broadens her ability to assist clients.
While virtualization includes many aspects of technology, the company’s services also include consulting for networking, business-strategy consulting and website design.
Envision Creative Director Jeremy Girard is a principal in the company and manages all Web products for clients. A native of Woonsocket, Girard also went to New England Institute of Technology in Warwick.
Recently at a Web-design conference in Boston “to keep my skill set sharp,” Girard said the push for continuous training is typical of Envision and an important factor in employee satisfaction.
“We push ourselves to learn how to do it better, whether it’s from conferences, books or webinars,” Girard said. “Envision doesn’t want to be part of the pack. We want to blaze the trail, lead the pack.”
Blazing a trail also applies within the company, where after a couple of years employees routinely find themselves with a job description they created themselves.
Careful attention is paid to balancing work and personal life, with flexible work hours and remote access to meet family schedules, and some programmers working from home 50 percent of the time.
The company wellness program includes health screenings, clinics, flu shots, massage therapy, smoking-cessation programs, and a corporate membership to Gold’s Gym, about a mile away from the office.
Then there’s fun, including frequent “Happy Hour” Fridays with lunch and a movie, or the staff might decide to play video games after a trip to the slushie drink machine. •
