It is my most sincere honor to share that ClearlyRated has earned the 2020 Top Workplaces designation from the Oregonian. We proudly take our place at number 21 on the list of 45 small Oregon and SW Washington employers honored as Top Workplaces this year. What This Honor Means This Year 2020 is the second year in a row that ClearlyRated has made the sought after Top Workplaces list. But it’s almost impossible to communicate the full scope of this accomplishment (and what it means to me and the rest of the team) to be recognized in this way, in this year. Our team has somehow, some way, navigated together through the difficulties and perplexities of 2020 while keeping the ClearlyRated company culture intact, and while maintaining an unwavering commitment to one another to show up as best we can, in any given moment, to move our business forward. That endurance, that resilience, that drive, and that compassion are the spirit of this organization, and I believe that they, more than anything, are the qualities that make ClearlyRated a Top Workplace. What the ClearlyRated Team Has Accomplished in 2020 I have asked so much of the ClearlyRated team this year. Like many organizations, we pushed hard to innovate and make ourselves “essential” to the businesses that we serve. We launched additional features for our clients, we launched new product lines to more comprehensively serve our target industries, we launched real-time research projects to track business and professional sentiment at the outset of COVID-19. We did this all while navigating frozen budgets, while trying to build around the loss of reliable channels for business development, while keenly and meticulously tracking our micro goals and financial outcomes, and while completely reimagining and rebuilding the nuts and bolts of just how we work together to get business done. But wait, that’s not all. Our team moved their work into their homes, where their children also live and play and, now, attend school. The parents (and the partners of parents) working at ClearlyRated have taught me about the depths of the human capacity for resilience, for tenderness, and for vulnerability as we have all stumbled to understand how to make space for full-time parenting, full-time teaching, and full-time work. Much of the ClearlyRated team was affected by the massive wildfires that have burned millions of acres of our western states. Each member of the team found ways to continue to get work done while surviving the worst air quality in the world, while responding to calls for evacuation, and while mourning with friends and loved ones who lost their homes to fire. We are so grateful to report that the ClearlyRated team is safe and back at home, but we grieve with the rest of Oregon and the Western United States the loss of wilderness, property, and human life that has been caused by these fires. Being based in Portland, Oregon, the ClearlyRated team has also experienced (in many cases first-hand) the 4+ months of protests that have brought national attention to our city, and that show no signs of slowing down, as national calls for racial justice and reform echo throughout our society. As an organization, we’re moving through an internal reckoning about just how to address and dismantle systemic racism and systemic oppression from within. I expect this will be an ongoing, lifelong project with no real end. We’re prepared for that. We’re also asking questions about how we can make an impact as an organization outside of our four walls. In our 2020 State of the Staffing Professional research project with CareerBuilder and the American Staffing Association, we added new questions to address employee perceptions and experience through a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) lens. When building our latest product offering, an employee satisfaction survey, we made the decision to add in questions specifically designed to help business owners assess their organizational performance as it relates to DEI. As an organization, we are committing energy and resources towards helping our business partners “lean in” to conversations about (and commitments to) anti-racism and anti-oppression. ClearlyRated, Let’s Raise a Glass 2020 has been a monster of a year for everyone, and we at ClearlyRated no doubt have many privileges that have empowered us to move through the past 8 months with more support and more confidence than many of our fellow humans. And…looking back on this year, I am in awe of the depths of resilience of this team, and I am so proud of what we have accomplished together. While it’s our second year to win a Top Workplaces nod, this one feels different. On behalf of the entire leadership team at ClearlyRated, I want to thank the dedicated and compassionate people who make this business work. You all are amazing. Let’s go get 2021.
