When employees are taken care of, it can result in better client services. Such was the case with malware prevention ad tech platform Confiant, which made the Ad Age Best Places to Work list for the second year in a row, coming in at No. 5 among companies with up to 200 employees.

Like other companies, Confiant went fully remote in response to the pandemic. It has since homed in on how to best keep staff connected.

In 2021, Co-Founder and CEO Louis-David Mangin considered moving to a four-day workweek, but he changed course after getting employee feedback.

Instead, Confiant sets aside two weeks each year, one in the summer (last year’s was in Park City, Utah) and one in December, where the whole company gets together offsite.

“We operate 24/7 in some departments, so we need full-time coverage,” Mangin said. “But that was hard for our employees to disconnect from, knowing that the system was still going. We found it was much easier for the full company to take a breather together.” He added that many teams get together on their own each quarter.

Employees seem to have passed on that happiness to clients. In 2022, the company reached a net promoter score of 86, according to Mangin, after previously being in the 70s. Net promoter score is a widely used market research metric that is based on a single survey question asking respondents to rate the likelihood that they would recommend a company, product or service to a friend or colleague.

“I think that speaks to the caliber of engagement with our customers, and that starts with our internal culture,” Mangin said. “We have a new high-water mark.”

Confiant has also kept up its commitment to employees' mental health. The company covers subscriptions to online therapy service BetterHelp, along with company health plans.

The company has unlimited PTO, flexible work hours and paid six-week sabbaticals for employees who have been with the company for five years (and then every third year thereafter). New hires are given a home office stipend of $500; every year after that, employees can be reimbursed up to $250 for other home office accommodations.

What will set apart Confiant as a Best Place to Work amid the challenges of 2023?

CEO Louis-David Mangin: “Our people are our power. We’re kind, authentic, purposeful, audacious, fun-loving problem-solvers, which means we’re built to tackle tough times.”