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Employees are family at Ashburn IT firm
Elizabeth Lake //February 1, 2024//
Sriven Technologies President Prathima Guntupalli says she considers her company’s employees part of her family. Photo by Will Schermerhorn
Sriven Technologies President Prathima Guntupalli says she considers her company’s employees part of her family. Photo by Will Schermerhorn
Employees are family at Ashburn IT firm
Elizabeth Lake// February 1, 2024//
A lot of companies like to say they have a familylike atmosphere, but few seem as close as Ashburn-based Sriven Technologies, which has twice topped Virginia Business’ Best Places to Work small companies’ rankings, and this year leads the rankings of midsize employers for the first time.
Sriven’s employees are so chummy with the company’s president, Prathima Guntupalli, that they fondly call her by her first name — and she refers to them as her “family,” instead of employees.
“We care about family first, and so we treat our employees like that,” Guntupalli says. “I encourage all employees to view each other as an integral member of a close-knit community. I personally call individual employees and check back with them to see how they’re doing periodically.” Founded in 2009, Sriven Technologies employs about 35 people in Virginia and provides IT and consulting services ranging from cloud migration to data management and cybersecurity.
The familial collegiality at Sriven manifests itself in a variety of ways, from periodical check-ins with employees about life outside of work, to financial help and advice. In cases of family emergencies, Sriven allows employees to borrow money from the company, and in more routine financial matters, advisers help employees learn “what to invest [in] and where to invest.”
That’s because learning is the key to financial success, Guntupalli says.
Continued learning — especially for technical jobs — is a core pillar of Sriven’s work culture. This includes providing training and certification programs on newer technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and “whatever else is coming to the market,” Guntupalli says.
Management training is also available for nontechnical employees. Employees can take individual training on technologies they need to know in order to improve their job performance, or workers can group together to learn a new skill.
“I always encourage the employees to learn new technologies, come up with new ideas,” Guntupalli says. Sriven helps “employees to upgrade their careers because their success is our organization’s success. That’s what our family believes.”
Guntupalli also meets individually with employees to discuss their career paths and goals, sharing personal stories of her own development in order to motivate employees, she says.
Health and wellness are also important to Sriven Technologies employees and leaders, and that starts with providing good benefits. Sriven pays 100% of health care, dental, vision and life insurance premiums for employees and offers on-site meditation and physical training workshops. These packages have created a “stress-free” workplace that allows employees to better focus on their careers, Guntupalli says.
“We care about the health of the employees,” she adds. “Work-life balancing is leading the healthy lifestyle here.”
Balance at Sriven Technologies means flexibility in work hours and the option to work from home, as well as unlimited paid time off.
“We don’t care about the timing and/or the location,” Guntupalli adds. “We care about the productivity of the work.”
Lastly, service and giving back is integral to Sriven Technologies’ work culture. “Our family believes in the ‘give back’ philosophy, in which our organization takes an active role in social initiatives,” Guntupalli says.
One such project has included providing funding and services to transform public schools in rural India, where educational facilities are few and far between. The company has helped to implement sanitation facilities, clean water systems and other services schools may require. Company representatives have also visited schools to help implement changes.
Here in the United States, Sriven also provides food, clothing and medicine to elder care facilities and children’s hospitals. For Guntupalli, it all comes down to that concept of family.
Sriven cares greatly about employees and their loved ones, she says. “We personally go deeper and talk to them.”
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