Case Study – Axis Technologies – How Axis Teknologies Used Professional Values To Elevate Themselves As An Employer of Choice

In adopting professional values as an organization’s ‘north arrow’, leaders not only make their professional life easier but set the stage for some significant benefits—powerful ones.        Becoming an ‘employer of choice’ is one such benefit.  Think about it: who doesn’t want to work for a ‘professional’ organization?  Turns out, that’s a powerful draw. After all, what’s not to like about leaders making it a priority to instill a sense of professionalism—both in purpose and execution—within their organization?

Sometime back we chronicled in a blog Axis Teknologies’ experience in becoming an ‘employer of choice’.   Click here to read the post in its entirety.  Without repeating the whole story here, suffice it to say Axis has significantly enhanced their recruiting since adopting professional values as their ‘north arrow’.

Jennifer (Jenn) Schoenhofer, is President and CEO of Atlanta-based Axis Teknologies. And if you knew Jenn you wouldn’t find it surprising she has adopted a ‘we only hire professionals here’ philosophy.

Jenn originally participated in one of our programs—-one that introduced the principles associated with The Power of Professionalism.    As a result, she became one of many that have since become enamored with applying the principles within their organization.  It’s as if they say, “Where’s this been all my life? This is profound—an incredible way to think about the business.” For Jenn, and many like her, their adoption decision was very intuitive.

Typically it doesn’t take long for real results, real impacts to emerge during implementation—just as Jenn realized in the ‘recruiting’ space.  To no one’s surprise, Jenn isn’t bashful about telling others.   In Seth Godin’s language, zealots like Jenn are “sneezers” because of the way their excitement infects others.  They spread the word. When Bill Wiersma originally mentioned the idea of using professional ideals to aid her recruiting efforts Jenn really lit up. She had never considered it. Today, the results speak for themselves.

When Jenn was interviewing the candidate who would later became one of her chief lieutenants she gave a really good vision of who they were, she was able to communicate very effectively that her company was centered on professional values and that it meant a lot to them. Then she gave examples of how that played out and what it meant and the emphasis they were putting on it and why it made a difference. It really made an impact with this candidate.  In his case, professional values won out over a more lucrative offer from a more prestigious company.  Bottom line: she now regularly lands candidates that one would argue she wouldn’t have a prayer in landing.  Again, you can read the complete story here.

Axis’s success in applying professional values within their organization isn’t limited to recruiting.  In other words, for Axis, becoming an employer of choice is one success story among many. This has been a pleasant surprise for Jenn.   Did Jenn originally think that she’d be applying professional values to important aspects of the business like recruiting? No. She, like many others, had as their initial focus using professional values to correct undesired behavior.  Today she knows better—appreciating that professional values are powerful levers for improvements in both brand and culture.