Company Culture: Carolina Junghans, managing partner at Blink Marketing (asi/141424) in Franklin, TN, says the upbeat, collaborative culture at her firm stems from the positivity among its people. “We hire hard workers with a positive attitude,” she says. “It creates an environment where people want to work. They genuinely enjoy working with the person sitting next to them, so the sky’s the limit.” Employees have also taken notice, scoring their company well on the Best Places to Work survey in the area of colleague cooperation. During COVID, the management team has also been intentional about hosting fun events, like potlucks and murder-mystery nights.

COVID Changes: Before COVID, Blink was mostly in person (apart from a few sales reps). In the early days of the pandemic, the more than two dozen employees were hybrid, with a few people in the office full-time to work on kitting and fulfillment projects. There’s now more flexibility surrounding remote work (which works well in the event of inclement weather, for example), but the company has moved to almost all in-person operations once again. “We’ll maintain the hybrid setup, but we’ll never be more work-from-home than the office, and we’re not going to be work-from-home all the time,” says Junghans.

Parting Tip: Key to maintaining a healthy corporate culture that attracts people is hiring the right team members. “Look for positive people who are hardworking, communicative and collaborative,” says Junghans. “They also need to be solutions-driven, but we find that’s natural for positive people.” Junghans says several of the warehousing staff recently offered to come in on a Sunday to finish up a fulfillment project since the office was closed that Friday due to a bad ice storm. “I’d never ask them to come in on a weekend, but we’re super appreciative,” she says. “They’re willing to do what it takes.”