It has been estimated that the average person will spend one-third of their life at work. That’s roughly 90,000 hours at work over your lifetime! It’s more important than ever to find fulfillment at work, this includes having a workplace that aligns with your own values.
Here at Sampler, it not only matters about what we deliver, but how we deliver it. Our values; Ownership, Transparency, Growth, Inclusivity and Balance, are not just words written on a wall, they are being instilled by our team everyday. This is how we drive alignment across the organization and empower our team to make the best decisions.
Our team works hard demonstrating each value and embracing our culture, what better way to recognize their efforts than to celebrate with an award? Our peer-voted Sampler Awards began in 2018 and the tradition still continues. This year we had the following categories:
- 1 award for each value
- 1 Award for All the Tacos 🌮
- 1 Commercial Star Award
- 1 Product & Engineering Star Award
- 1 Audience Star Award
- 1 Ops & Finance Star Award
- 1 Sampler MVP Award
“Sampler’s annual awards are a great opportunity to recognize the teammates who have gone above and beyond within their roles or in displaying our values in their daily actions.” says Marie, CEO and Founder of Sampler. “The awards are a small way for us to show how grateful we are for our team’s dedication to our mission and values. Congratulations to the winners of this year’s award. You are such an inspiring group!”
We’re excited to recap and recognize our 2022 winners this year!
Growth: “When you grow, we grow.”
“It was very special to receive the Growth Award. When I joined Sampler, I wanted to make sure that I made an impact daily. To make sure of this, I have had to learn a lot and grow a lot. It has been amazing. Really grateful to be recognized by my peers for the Growth Award, such a great theme to wrap up 2022 with.” - Armish Sehar, Operations Manager.
Ownership: “We own the good and the bad.”
“Anyone who has had the opportunity to work with Josie understands why she was nominated by her peers for the Ownership Award. Josie takes full responsibility for her clients' experience with Sampler and is focused on ensuring they get the best possible result from their campaigns. Whether that's managing 3PL challenges, ensuring that programs are set up correctly, collaborating with clients to get the assets in a timely manner, consulting on the best possible design to meet the clients' objectives, or tailoring insights that reflect how we've been able to help them achieve their goals... Josie does it all.” says Christine Smith, Sampler’s Director of Client Success.
Transparency: “You can only grow, what you know”
“Winning the transparency award meant so much to me. I really value transparency and spend a lot of my time working to improve how we communicate as a team to make sure we're all rowing in the same direction. Learning that my efforts towards this value were seen and appreciated by my team meant the world.”
Inclusivity: “We win together”
“Since joining us last year, Jenny has had a massive impact on Sampler’s culture. It’s through her efforts that Sampler continues to be recognized as a Great Place to Work. Couldn’t be prouder of Jenny to receive this well-deserved recognition from the team she works tirelessly to support.” - Shonezi Noor, Chief Operations Officer
Balance: “You’re always the most important thing on the ‘to do’ list.”
“If I were to have chosen one award to win, it would have been the Balance Award. It's something that I've struggled with for a lot of my career, and always to my detriment. To have been recognized by my peers for embodying this value means a lot to me. Sampler's priority on giving our associates the freedom to define what balance means to them was one of the major reasons why I was so attracted to the company culture. Also, who doesn't love Fri-YAYs?!” - Christine Smith, Director of Client Success
All the Tacos 🌮
The person who received the most “kudos” throughout the year
“I'm glad that Sampler is using this creative way to recognize people's work and I'm humbled to receive this award, and happy that engineering work is making a difference.” - Tanya Bilous, Senior Full Stack Developer
Commercial MVP
“Over the last 1.5 years, Trey has led the development of Sampler’s Retailer Private Exchange program from an initial concept to a multimillion dollar offering representing over 30% of Sampler’s sales for 2022. Through his leadership Trey has built deep relationships with Kroger & Target and supported our Sales team in driving incremental client conversations.” - Garret Kowalyshyn , Chief Revenue Officer
Product & Engineering MVP
"What sets Nadeem apart is not his technical competence, though it's hard to imagine Sampler achieving everything we have without it. It's what he brings to his everyday engagements with the team beyond the code and the architecture. His patience and generosity make him a mentor for those around him, and they progress in their own journeys in no small part because of him." - Erik Davis, Chief Product Officer
Operations MVP
“It’s always great to see when your hard work is making an impact on the rest of the team, even when a lot of it is done ‘behind the curtain’.That being said, none of it works without the whole team coming together and everyone made huge contributions.” - Brian Pippert, Director of Operations
Audience MVP
“While Emily is on the Audience team with a focus on the consumers that are a part of Sampler's Audience, she steps up regularly to support and lead key Sampler-wide projects. Her ownership of those key projects, her collaborative attitude, and growth mindset are all key in the impact she has had on not only Sampler's performance but company and team culture as well.” - Morgan Kingdon, Director of Audience
Sampler MVP
“Shonezi is often referred to as the ‘glue that keeps us all together’. In 2022, Shonezi led several key projects for the business while also unblocking the major projects that other teammates were running. We are so thankful for Shonezi’s hard work and dedication to our business. I am so thrilled to see her continue to push limits in her extended role as Chief Operations Officer. Bravo Shonezi!” - Marie Chevrier
Congratulations to all our 2022 winners! We are privileged and grateful to be working with the best in class. Onwards and upwards!
About the Author
Jenny Yu is Sampler’s Office and Culture Coordinator, leading internal culture initiatives, events and people operations. Her passion is to ensure the best experience for her colleagues by creating an inclusive, welcoming and positive work environment. Besides answering her team’s internal Sampler questions, she keeps busy with her toddler son, trying new foods and travelling.
