10/20/2006
In the News! - TeleTracking Among 'Best Places to Work'
Software Company Makes Pittsburgh Business Times List Again
No Place for Gordon Gecko
PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Gordon Gecko, the backstabbing stockbroker from the movie "Wall Street," probably wouldn’t last a day at TeleTracking Technologies, Inc.
He couldn’t stand the kindness.
That’s because the Pittsburgh-based medical software firm places special value on kindness and a pleasant, supportive workplace. This attitude has once again resulted in the company being voted one of the region’s "Best Places to Work" by the Pittsburgh Business Times.
Companies like TeleTracking seem to be on the crest of a new trend toward "kinder, gentler" workplaces, as chronicled in a wave of new books like "The Kindness Revolution" by Ed Horrell, which identifies a quiet culture change that is becoming an operative philosophy in some companies.
Horrell believes that culture shift is the path to superior customer service as well as excellent employee retention. He says the way companies treat their employees "is virtually the way they’ll treat their customers."
In "The Power of Nice: How to Conquer the Business World with Kindness," ad executive Robin Koval and co-author Linda Kaplan Thaler note the movement to interdisciplinary teams in the workplace. People have to work together, not against one another, Koval suggests, adding that "meanness is so last millennium," she asserts.
Gordon Gecko was the icon of 1980s greed, which justified virtually any action in the name of personal success. The excesses of that era, culminating in the Enron and Global Crossing scandals, have led business schools across the country to include ethics courses in their curriculum as well as programs on teamwork.
TeleTracking, which creates software solutions which help hospitals relieve overcrowding by maximizing their existing space, is an innovator in the field of patient flow logistics. The company seeks the best and brightest to develop its new products.
"This is a creative business that starts with a blank screen," says TeleTracking’s Beverly McGrath, director of human resources. "The atmosphere has to nurture cooperation and cross-disciplinary contribution."
Pittsburgh is a hotbed for new technology companies, but it must vie for talent with Boston, Seattle and the Silicon Valley.
"We have a wonderful, friendly city that is a top recruiting ground for other high tech centers," says McGrath. "So we like to remind our local talent that no matter where they go, working is how they will spend most of each day, so it better be enjoyable."