At Norwalk’s FactSet Research Systems Inc., youthful enthusiasm is highly valued and often rewarded. FactSet, which offers instant access to accurate financial data and analytics to thousands of investment professionals around the world, provides its employees, often hired straight out of college, with many responsibilities, while ensuring they have the tools they need to succeed.
FactSet is known for doing college campus recruiting for many positions in sales and product development.
Mike Frankenfield, executive vice president/global director at FactSet, said employees are hired in classes of 20 to 50 people.
“Right away, there’s a great sense of camaraderie,” Frankenfield said. “One of the great things is not only the initial training, but many ongoing learning opportunities. We have a strong culture with value placed on knowledge acquisition and learning.”
Frankenfield said employees find out the work is going to be challenging and interesting, with a strong service component to it.
“They have a ton of interaction with clients and with each other to make it all happen,” he said. “Employees get a lot of responsibility at a pretty early point in their tenure, and it’s very, very rewarding.”
Employees’ mistakes are corrected, and those who do well are rewarded.
“They get more responsibility and as they continue to improve their skills, there are lots of opportunities to expand in new areas of their career,” he said.
Human resources recruiting specialist Ellen Pittoni said although employees are entrusted with big responsibilities early in their tenure, they can’t just slide by. Employees’ peers and clients are often consulted for performance reviews.
“You have to really be the total package here,” Pittoni said. “You have to be able to play with others. If you’re miserable to work with, people are going to share that.”
FactSet employees are treated to several above-and-beyond benefits, including free lunch, drinks and snacks, three weeks of paid vacation to start, regular visits from food trucks, and health fairs including yoga, acupuncture, chair massages and biometric screenings. Those bonus benefits are consistent throughout the company’s several offices.
Employees have especially enjoyed the food trucks’ visits.
“It’s a chance to step away from your desk, go downstairs, have a snack and talk to your co-workers,” Pittoni said. “Even senior-level employees participate. They step away, refresh, and then go back and do what they need to do.”
Other on-site events have included competitive games, such as one based on the television show, “Minute to Win It.”
“Rather than pull everyone away, (saying) ‘You have to go do this after work,’ they bring stuff to us here,” Pittoni said.
The company organizes participation in many charitable events as well. According to Frankenfield, offering a creative environment to help employees live well-balanced lives is crucial.
“The first and most important driver of job satisfaction is that people are placed in an environment where they can learn, where they feel like they can have an impact on the business, and where they can understand what their contribution means,” he said. “If the work itself is not satisfying, none of that other stuff matters, but if the job is good, all that other stuff makes it a really, really special place.”
