March 19, 2018

This piece is presented by the Sioux Falls Development Foundation.

Lemonly has a message for millennials: You don’t have to job hop to gain experience: You can role hop.

That has helped Morgan Hauck grow within the company over the past five years. She has gone from an SDSU intern to a project manager and then a role that involved working with social media and blogging. She was promoted to director of communications this year.

“It’s so great to be in a place that really respects us as employees and wants us to grow,” she said. “Everyone has the same vision to do great work. It’s been so refreshing, and I don’t want to leave.”

With big-name clients from Major League Baseball to Netflix, Lemonly offers employees in Sioux Falls and beyond the chance to use their creativity on major campaigns. The agency specializes in visual marketing and information graphics, and has grown to 21 employees since launching in 2011. It’s a team filled with millennial workers whose culture is centered around continual learning.

“We’re almost all millennials here at Lemonly, and I’m a big advocate of the millennial,” co-founder and CEO John Meyer said. “They will work as hard as everyone else. I feel like as CEO my job is to show them the future, show them where Lemonly is going and how every one of them indivIdually is going to help us get there.”

Hauck’s career at Lemonly already has come full circle as she now leads the internship program.

“We put so much value in our interns and growing, even if they don’t stay here but just growing them in Sioux Falls and seeing we can do really great work in South Dakota.”

Here’s Lemonly’s recipe for recruitment and retention success:

• Start young. One-third of Lemonly’s staff began as interns going through a program created to give them a hands-on experience.
• On their first day, employees are told “This is a place of asking for forgiveness not permission” and encouraged to try new things.
• Employees are given laptops and are able to work where they want, including remotely and at different places around the office that allow for standing or a more comfortable space.
• Transparent benefits. Lemonly lists all of its benefits online – and it’s a long list.
• Summer hours. Lemonly closes early on Fridays in the summer and hasn’t noticed any productivity loss from the 38-hour work week.
• Connect company values to benefits. Because Lemonly values adventure, employees receive $2,500 at their five-year anniversary to travel outside North America.
• Engage employees in appreciation events. A staff committee plans company events, including lunch-and-learns with speakers.
• Embrace the community. Lemonly encourages employees to experience Sioux Falls through volunteer projects, barbecues in the park and outings to places such as new breweries.

To see more workforce development strategies, read the latest edition of WIN: Workforce Information Now from the Sioux Falls Development Foundation.