If you know anything about Choozle as a company, you probably know that we tend to keep a strong focus on our company culture, aka, employee happiness and growth. Our unique employee perks are something that’s served as a strong base layer for all of the good and bad throughout the years, and we’re striving to continue to keep employee happiness and productivity front-of-mind as we grow even more.
…and it shows.
Employee happiness and productivity is about putting—and keeping—people first.
Just last year alone we won six top workplaces awards including #1 Inner City 100, #2 Denver Post Top Workplaces, and #9 Outside Magazine’s Best Workplaces. As a company, our five core values are Balance, Growth, Service, Attitude, and Ownership.
Balance
Enjoying the ride
Growth
Complacency is boring
Service
We are all the face of Choozle
Attitude
Be the place you want to work
Ownership
Step up
Although we’ll be the first to admit that we haven’t always kept an intense focus on our values in the day-to-day, we’ve always embodied them in everything we do, and it’s one of our goals this year to tie everything we do more closely to those five principles.
Here are some of the cool job perks we’ve implemented to create that award-winning culture and to encourage our team to keep learning, growing, and thriving along the way.
Quarterly education stipend
The Choozle education stipend is a perk we offer to help our team evolve and be the best version of themselves—both personally and professionally. Each employee receives $250.00 per quarter to spend on courses, classes, or workshops to further their personal and/or professional knowledge.
We want to help cover education opportunities that add value to our employee’s lives whether that’s furthering a side hustle, forming a new hobby, furthering their career at Choozle, helps them learn a new skill—all outside the walls of our office.
Rob Brockmann, Client Engagement Lead
What are you currently using your stipend on?
I’m currently taking an online Data Analysis Circut course at General Assembly. I realized how many “unknowns” there were about the CE client-base, and my goal was to gather and surface client data and transform it into something actionable. We’re using this data to transform our processes and offerings—the division looks a lot different now than it did a year ago!
What do you typically use it for?
I use it mostly for career-oriented classes to help me in my current role at Choozle and beyond, although my fiance Ashley and I are planning on using part of it for dance lessons before our wedding this summer!
Have you ever had anything similar at other companies?
I’ve had an expense account before, but never $1,000/year to better myself personally and professionally. It’s my favorite Choozle perk!
Megan Dyer, Strategist
What are some cool ways you’ve put your education stipend to good use?
I’ve used mine for an intensive DSLR photography class, and was able to enjoy a Wildlife Photography Workshop. I’ve also taken online language classes, guitar classes, received local memberships, and made my commute much more bearable with an Audible subscription ( Becoming, by Michelle Obama). As you can tell, I’ve definitely used it for some work-related things, but I most frequently use it for hobbies.
Have you had similar opportunities at other companies?
At my last company we had a smaller stipend that could only be used for things that directly related to the job, but even then it had to be applied for almost like a grant. I’ve really appreciated the flexibility we have at Choozle to take advantage of fun and interesting experiences.
Jeremy Leiser, Data Team Lead
What are you currently doing with your education stipend?
For the past year, I’ve been taking Krav Maga classes, which is an Israeli self-defense system. It brings peace of mind to not have to worry about physical violence and it takes me far outside of my comfort zone, which is the only way to learn anything.
Ellen Nash, Inbound Account Executive
What’s your favorite way to use your stipend?
Last year, I started taking weekly Spanish lessons using my education stipend. Before Choozle, I worked in restaurants where most of the kitchen staff spoke Spanish. I found it incredibly impressive that despite English not being their native language, they could fluently speak or at least attempted to speak English to me. While I no longer work in that industry, I still have the desire to communicate with Spanish-speakers that live here in the U.S.
While right now I do not need to speak another language for my position here at Choozle, being fluent in multiple languages is a huge advantage professionally as more and more companies become globalized.
I’ve also used it to support some amazing institutions here in Denver. My current memberships include the Denver Botanic Gardens, Denver Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver Film Society, CultureHaus, and the yearly Denver Film Festival. While ideally, I would want to support these foundations without the education stipend, Choozle allows me to hold these memberships without the financial burden.
Super cool Denver headquarters
Having an open, positive work environment is key. We may be biased, but we’re pretty lucky to have one of the best offices out there in one of the best areas in Denver.
Our River North (RiNo) headquarters is located on the fifth floor of Catalyst HTI. It offers plenty of light, space, #views, and room for creative energy for our company to continue to grow. With eight conference rooms and a community area that can hold 60+ people, we’re thrilled to call this space home for the next five years.
A few highlights:
- A very well-loved Bevi machine, although I’ll admit, I was a little sad to let LaCroix go. Add plenty of snacks, cold brew, and beer on tap and you’ve got everything you need to power through your busy day.
- Call rooms with unique wallpaper patterned with things like gold cassette tapes, books, and cars provide space away for when you just need to be alone for a bit.
- Taking it back to the kitchen, we have two dishwashers, two refrigerators, AND two microwaves! (Obviously, these things are very important to us.)
- An office-wide Sonos system sends smooth tunes throughout our space all week long. Our favorite playlists include Spotify’s “Lush Lofi”, “Throwback Jams” (most appropriate for #bangerfriday), Maggie Rogers, Leon Bridges, and Lake Street Dive.
- Sweeping views of, and easy access to, Downtown Denver and the Rocky Mountains.
Bi-annual all-team summits
Each summer and winter, we fly all of our remote employees to Denver for a weeklong summit.
Our bi-annual summits serve as the perfect time for us to realign as a company, get to know each other that much better, set goals, and celebrate successes.
In our downtime, sometimes we put on our annual ping-pong tournament, sometimes we go to the mountains, sometimes we have a company-wide Hack Day, and sometimes we stay here in Denver & have game nights and take improv classes. Either way, it’s a week full of hard work, lots of goal setting (and crushing), and straight up team bonding.
Choozle Crews
Last spring, we decided to level up our team building game with Choozle Crews. The entire company is divided into four teams—Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter—to compete, mainly for bragging rights, sometimes for gift cards. Some ways we gain points: Attend or speak at a panel or meetup, wear Choozle swag somewhere 50+ miles away from the office, climb a 14’er, win one of our in-office bake-offs, have virtual coffee with a remote employee. The list goes on.
A winner is announced at the turn of each season and, as you can imagine, it can get pretty competitive. I’m on the Winter crew (go Wolves!) and we’ve won two of the four seasons so far, a not-so-humble brag.
Employee happiness: more than perks
While our unique work perks certainly help to land us top spots on those Best Workplaces lists, at the end of the day, it’s our sharp, gritty, work-hard-with-a-smile-on-your-face team that keeps Choozle at the top of our employee happiness and productivity game.
We constantly keep our team’s growth, balance, and learning opportunities top of mind to ensure everyone is thriving both in and outside of the office. That, along with an overall positive work environment, is what matters most. We couldn’t imagine growing this company with a sharper group of people.
Think you’ll love it here? (We think so, too.) Check out our job openings.
