My first blogpost ever… how to start? Just by doing it I guess…

This week I’m celebrating my 9 year anniversary working for my first employer with still no plans to change! Why is that???

HR has always been my cup of tea, my true love and passion. At ACA IT-Solutions, I started out as the first full-time HR employee and got the awesome opportunity to implement the entire HR framework from scratch. Quite the challenge being a graduate, but that goes without saying.

In those years, it became clear to me that a lot of my colleagues also liked the fantastic work opportunities that you are presented with at ACA. An astonishing retention rate of 92.05% (*) shows that we are able to keep the ACA’ers motivated and refrain from moving away to other opportunities. In a highly competitive IT market, with turnover rates on the high side, that’s quite an achievement! And being able to keep a team together is what makes a team strong and one you can count on!

So, what makes people stay?

Culture is crucial in creating an atmosphere that goes beyond “going to work each day”. Even though we experienced an exponential growth last year at ACA IT-Solutions, we keep focussing on creating a familiar environment. This results into a ‘work hard, play hard’ culture. Combined with an organizational structure that encourages autonomy & innovation, this mixture leads to a team of highly motivated people that are able to go the extra mile!

As HR, we are convinced that any colleague, at any time, should be able to give feedback on how they feel, what they would like to change, how they would improve work processes, etc. Besides having this opportunity in place in an informal manner, we also provide a more formal way to collect everyone’s feedback.

Coaching = part of the deal

From day 1, all colleagues are assigned a coach within the organization. This coach will make sure your first weeks will pass smoothly by giving you the necessary support when needed. After that, nothing really changes. Your coach will always provide you with the best guidance within his possibilities! We take pride in the fact that our employees always have the autonomy to initiate an informal meeting with the coach, or HR.

In parallel, the coach will set up regular formal meetings as part of the coaching process. By having these regular feedback loops in place, we aim to create a no-nonsense atmosphere in which all employees feel free to provide points of improvement. This allows us to detect potential issues in an early stage.

Your feedback please!

At ACA we are convinced that a coaching culture is not a one-way process. To allow ACA IT-Solutions to become a better employer, the HR team has set up a process that enables employees to provide feedback about the organization as a whole.

This process consists of a 2-year cycle:

• One year, HR will initiate a face-to-face meeting with every employee individually to collect feedback about our strengths & points of improvement as an employer and an organization.
• The other year, an anonymous ‘Employee satisfaction questionnaire’ will take place.

Both are extremely valuable input channels that allow the organization to improve continuously!

How ACA creates a culture of staying

A few years ago we explicitly asked the questions “what makes you stay at ACA IT-Solutions?”, as well as “what would make you leave ACA?”. Quite a tricky and challenging question according to some colleagues, but so worthy and grateful for us as HR at the same time.

So what makes them stay? Let’s summarize the answers:

Our ACA atmosphere

• the many great events we organize (eg. ACA weekend)
• our kudos appreciation program
• so many great and helpful colleagues you can count on

Our ACA culture

• a culture of ownership, autonomy, teamspirit, mutual respect and transparency
• our human touch and facilitating approach
• our level of expertise, high quality standards and innovative mind-set
• the way you can feel proud to be part of the ACA-family

Our learning and development opportunities

• the corporate Insights Discovery program available for everyone
• product and framework specific trainings / seminars
• the elaborated onboarding process for new colleagues

Our market competitiveness

• being a financially healthy organization
• the way we combine a fast but steady growth each year
• our external visibility through social media, blogs, events, …

I told you! Our work as HR team is so grateful!

Making a round-up after 9 years, it simply boils down to this: 

It’s such an honor to be part of this organization, this ACA-family!

Want to be part of the ACA culture?

Check our open vacancies here.