In this year’s Indiana Chamber “Best Places to Work” awards program, Moser Consulting took home top honors in the medium employer category (75-249 U.S. employees). It’s one of the most recent examples of how cultural excellence has been woven into Moser’s DNA throughout the years, and showcased in numerous honors that the company has received for its culture. It also helps to demonstrate how the company supports its consultants—embedded with companies throughout Indiana and beyond—and encourages them to achieve both their personal and professional better selves.

Moser Consulting takes benefits to the next level

Founded by Ty and Paula Moser in 1996, Indianapolis-based Moser Consulting provides contracted IT services—especially focused on Big Data opportunities—to mid-sized and enterprise-level companies. Selling “Moser-as-a-service” is core to the company’s rapid success in the past several years, as is the focus on company culture apparent throughout the organization. When we talked with Moser in 2016, the company was sporting a 98% consultant retention rate. Three years later, that percentage remains the same.

Many of its company benefits would sound familiar to others around Indiana: free lunches for employees, wellness programs, flexible scheduling. But at Moser, the company puts an incredible focus on providing the best of the best in these benefits.

“One of the keywords that kept appearing in employee surveys when we received the Best Places to Work honor was flexibility. It’s a very flexible company; we understand and encourage a work-life balance with flexible scheduling and generous vacation hours,” said Allison Mitchell, human resource advisor at Moser.

Flexibility can lend itself to opening others doors, including an important one at Moser: training. For consultants, training can include attending seminars or classes, traveling to conferences, or whatever enables the kind of learning the consultant needs to be successful at his or her job. The company provides access to a deep well of training options, to the tune of $5,000 per employee. But getting involved in training opportunities is a choice incumbent upon each consultant, which demonstrates the character of talent Moser is seeking. “It’s up to you to search it out. Find out what you should be doing and develop your own career,” said Moser’s director of business development Matt Wren.

That character has manifested in some of the internal initiatives that Moser’s employees have taken to create training opportunities. After joining the company, new hires can access internal web applications and tools for training—all created by fellow Moser employees in a clear case of Moser’s self-proclaimed philosophy of “eating your own dog food.” That’s a mentality critical to every new hire. “The most important thing is a good cultural fit, that new hires understand how we operate,” said Malinda Lowder, marketing team lead/consultant for web design and development at Moser. “You need to be self-driven. We will open up any opportunity to you training-wise, but you have to be willing to take it.”

Consultants find lots of ways to engage during their tenures

Once they’re on board with Moser, employees are encouraged to get involved with the company’s wellness program, which offers funding for employees to take command of their wellness. This is another crucial component of the company’s culture. At Moser, the concept of “wellness” recently underwent a strategic overhaul. “We took a hard look at different things that help a person do well. Yes, there’s physical wellness; there’s also mental wellness, financial wellness,” said Allison. “We internally looked at what wellness means to us.”

The results of those conversations became a broadly-focused wellness program. Physical wellness can be supported with a reimbursed gym membership; however, if you find financial wellness is important to you now, Moser can help pay for monthly credit reporting. Allison notes that employees have responded positively to the program. “They’re very appreciative that people have different ways of destressing and being healthy. It’s in the mind and body, so we wanted to make sure we hit both of those.”

The wellness of the community is also important to Moser, which often extends beyond office hours. Habitat for Humanity has been a long-standing partnership that Moser has cultivated over the years. Recently, employees banded together to construct a house in the company’s parking lot. Corporate sponsorship extends through organizations important to the Indianapolis community, such as the Indianapolis Zoo, as well as creating opportunities within the tech space, like hosting conferences or sponsoring tech meetups.

Moser Consulting employees participate in a build for Habitat for Humanity. (Photo Credit: Moser Consulting)

Self-reflection and deep roots keeps Moser focused on future

Undergirding all the opportunities Moser presents is the need to maintain cultural cohesion between employees and offices. While the company has about 150 people in its Indy location, many of them spend considerable time on-site at client offices. Add in about 50 Baltimore-based employees, and managing that disparate employee network presents its own challenges.

“We realized a long time ago that you have to keep connected to your people, and as a company, you have to put time, effort and money into just staying connected to them,” said Malinda. She notes that Moser invests heavily in internal marketing to keep consultants informed and connected no matter where they are.

Company leadership also takes its responsibility in culture governance seriously. Moser is constantly evaluating what is and isn’t working for employees. “Ty personally takes the feedback that we got from our Best Places to Work surveys and our usual internal surveys. He reads every single piece of feedback,” said Matt. “We’re always trying to revolutionize what we do internally.”

As the company continues adding new people to its award-winning culture, it holds onto its roots as a guide for its future—building “the Indiana way,” one person at a time. “We don’t just go out and borrow a million dollars and start a company; we work our way to it. That’s how we do things. That’s how this company was started. And that represents the values of this place, of Indianapolis and Central Indiana,” said Matt. “We’re a part of it, and I think we could be a part of where it’s going.”