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RETENTION

AT CHARIOT SOLUTIONS, ENGAGEMENT REQUIRES AN

'Inspirational Environment' FEATHER

WEIGHT

Founder and CEO Michael Rappaport talks with ESM about how he keeps turnover TUMI.COM © 2013 TUMI, INC.
low and morale high among his pool of top-tier talent

I t always gets our atenton when we receive a press release from a company says Rappaport. “What separates us from others in sofware development is
“The botom line is that Chariot’s brand is all about quality and consistency,”
toutng its commitment to employee engagement, so we followed up on a
project success. Our record is of the charts, especially for this industry, and the
recent release from Chariot Solutons to fnd out why.
The company is a sofware applicaton development, consultng and
Our clients are the benefciaries of this, and our commitment to employee
training frm specializing in open source technologies, enterprise and mobile obvious reason is the caliber of our consultants and our incredibly low turnover.
applicaton development based in Fort Washington, PA. Founder and CEO engagement is behind it all.”
Michael J. Rappaport had in interestng reply to our queston that’s indicatve Being a relatvely small company, it’s sometmes easier to address
of what’s happening with many companies requiring highly skilled employees. engagement, so we asked how he implements his engagement strategy. “Our
“Chariot Solutons is known for the deep technical chops of our consultants business practces are built around our formula for success, which includes
and our excellent track record of successful projects,” explains Rappaport. “Our hiring exclusively ‘A’ players that ft our culture (team/family culture), keeping
greatest challenge has always been acquiring new talent. Our growth is limited them challenged, engaged and constantly learning, listening to them, following
by supply. So I want top-ter sofware architects outside Chariot to see how great their lead and treatng them exceptonally well – being supportve, respectul,
an environment we have so that they’ll consider joining us.” generous and understanding, genuinely caring about them and their happiness
The company currently has 60 employees serving a customer base of (family culture, work/life balance.)”
roughly 100, and Rappaport believes he could expand more rapidly if he Rappaport says the diference between the top sofware architects and
could find more of the high level developers he needs. (Do you know any the rest is signifcant, and that the secret has been out for many years, making
Scala developers?) it imperatve for organizatons like his to create an inspiratonal environment.
There is a plus side, he explains: Having a staf made up of many of the best and
IT’S ABOUT CONSISTENCY brightest technical minds around makes it possible to atack complex sofware
So is that it, we asked him: Is employee engagement only about retention development projects with fewer people.
and recruitment?

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12 engagement strategies Vol.18 Issue 3

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