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2021 List of Best Places to Work in Austin Honors Effective Spend

The Austin Business Journal has recognized Effective Spend on its 2021 list of the Best Places to Work in Austin. This is the third time for the digital marketing agency, adding to its BPTW awards from 2018 and 2020. This year, ABJ recognized 71 Austin-area businesses ranging in size from 10 employees to 250+ and representing a range of industries, including software & technology, healthcare, marketing and real estate. Effective Spend ranked #13 out of only 20 top Austin businesses awarded in the small business category, moving up one spot from last year’s rankings.

“Amid titanic shifts in how we live and work — from widespread adoption of working from home to new ways of supporting essential workers — these 71 companies stood out for their commitment to employee satisfaction,” wrote ABJ’s Business Manager, Will Anderson.

ABJ BPTW Trophy Winner

ABJ has also recognized Effective Spend as one of the fastest growing private companies in Austin, naming the company to its FAST50 list in both 2019 and 2020, with a third award anticipated later in 2021. The company’s quick growth has also been highlighted on the Inc 5000 and Inc’s top 250 Texas companies.

The exponential growth that the company has seen over the last several years led to the decision in 2020 to expand to the Los Angeles market. And with COVID finally declining, Effective Spend was recently able to open its first LA office in the Culver City area.

 

About the Best Places to Work Program

Each year, ABJ works with an unbiased third-party research firm, Quantum Workplace, to administer anonymous surveys to the employees of the companies nominated for the award. The survey asks employees to rate their company culture in six key areas, such as manager effectiveness, trust in leadership and team dynamics. Quantum then collects and scores the surveys to determine which companies will make the cut. 

According to Quantum Workplace, their survey measures a wide range of research-validated workplace factors that impact employee engagement and satisfaction. The best companies to work for foster a workplace where employees willingly go above and beyond in their work, advocate for the organization and intend to stay into the future.

“The standards for making the ABJ’s Best Places to Work list are incredibly high,” said Natalia Wulfe, CMO of Effective Spend. “We’re very proud to receive this award for the third time and incredibly thankful to our awesome team who has help build our company culture and keep it thriving, even during a year of working from home.”

 

Celebrating This Year’s Winners

To honor this year’s winners, ABJ held an award ceremony at the new Q2 Stadium, home of the Austin FC. 

Each member of Effective Spend’s leadership team nominated a guest of honor to join them at the event to recognize the employees who have made the largest contributions to the company’s culture. These “culture champs” have contributed in many ways over the years, by uplifting their fellow teammates, driving client success, sharing their industry knowledge and championing Effective Spend.

“We know that a great company culture can’t be driven by leadership alone,” said Brian Wulfe, Founder & CEO of Effective Spend. “Our culture and incredible growth wouldn’t be what it is today without the enormous efforts of so many of our team members across the organization.”

BPTW Event Collage

 

A Return to the Office

Starting in May 2021, the company began a phased reopening, with employees returning to the office 2-3 days per week. The company is preparing to expand their office space in Austin over the next year to support its continued growth.

While the team was successful in working from home during the pandemic and saw an incredible year of growth, the team is happy to be together again – at least part of the time. One of the core tenets of the Effective Spend culture is what leadership calls “Knowledge Philanthropy.” It’s a commitment to support our fellow teammates by freely and generously sharing our industry knowledge with others. While plenty of knowledge-sharing has happened over the course of the past year, the company believes that the most effective knowledge-sharing is done together in the office, where employees can exchange information over chance conversations and micro-training moments.

As part of the anonymous survey, employees were asked “What word best describes your work environment?” and asked to write in their top three answers. The top word Effective Spend employees wrote in was “collaborative.” 

Collaborative quote

Further underscoring the company’s commitment to teamwork, training and excellence, one employee gave this anonymous survey response when asked what they liked most about Effective Spend:

“I love working here and am proud to be a part of this team, as I firmly believe that we are a leader in this industry and do some of the best work out there. I think this starts both top-down and bottom-up, as our leadership is extremely accessible, communicative, and committed to making a good learning environment for everybody, while everyone at every tier of the company is hungry and eager to learn. I think this makes a culture where everyone is working to do their best – and once they get there, they don’t just settle, but stay hungry and keep striving to improve and grow.”

Check out this video to hear what more Effective Spenders love about working here!

 

Want to Be Part of an Awesome Team of Digital Experts?

See job openings in our Austin and Los Angeles offices. 

 

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Jen

Jen was born in the Seattle area and spent much of her childhood there. Upon graduating from high school, she lived in Florida for a year before moving back to the Seattle area. She then began working in the high tech industry in sales and marketing, and transferred to the Bay Area in California where she met and married her husband of more than 20 years. They lived in California for several years before moving to the Seattle area and then onto Montana, and now Austin. Now that she’s been in Austin for more than a decade, she considers herself a true Austinite. Jen has been a jack-of-all trades since leaving the tech industry. She has done everything from teaching music, to professional chef, to preschool teacher, and photographer. Raising their three children has been a joy and blessing to Jen. She loves all things creative, cooking, and traveling.



 

 

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