RESTON, Va., May 21, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Public Interest Registry (PIR), the people behind the .ORG domain, has been named one of the “Best Places to Work” in the Washington, DC region for the second year in a row. The 2021 award holds special significance because it reflects the virtual workplace environment required to meet the unique demands of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Washington Business Journal’s annual Best Place to Work Awards celebrate Washington, DC area companies that prioritize organizational culture and create strong connections to the workplace for employees. PIR was honored in both 2020 and 2021 because of its culture of caring and respect, its deeply held mission, and its commitment to honoring its people.
“PIR believes in putting our people first and fostering a culture of caring, inclusiveness, and respect,” said Jon Nevett, CEO of Public Interest Registry. “This award is a reflection of our incredible team and the thought and care that we’ve put into building a culture and environment where people are seen, heard, and respected.”
“2020 was a year unlike any other, and our amazing workforce never lost sight of our mission: supporting the inspiring organizations and people who make the world a better place through their efforts,” Nevett continued. “The PIR team stayed true to our mission by focusing on our culture and caring. And for this reason, and because of the culture we already had in place, I believe that PIR was able to accomplish our goals.”
PIR closed its office on March 12, 2020, and nearly all of its team members have worked virtually since. PIR took many steps to ensure that its culture extended to the virtual workspace and embraced three basic principles — flexibility, resilience, and engagement. The goal through it all was to make sure the team felt connected and respected during this difficult time.
- Flexibility — PIR adjusted work hours to give team members control over their schedules; enabled employees to use up to 80 hours of sick leave to assist with children doing virtual learning; and implemented weekly “coffee breaks” to give employees time, opportunity, and space to socialize in an unstructured format.
- Resilience — PIR checked in with team members on a weekly basis to make sure they felt supported; conducted surveys seeking employee feedback on how it was doing; and established a “Return to Office” team to develop guidelines to ensure a safe, phased-based return to the office.
- Engagement — PIR put in place activities to do what it could to replace office camaraderie — everything from sending snack boxes to team members at home, to scheduling virtual happy hours with live performances and conducting monthly team “game time” events. PIR also matched employee contributions to charities working on Covid-response and hosted a virtual holiday party.
PIR’s culture includes a commitment to its mission of supporting the global .ORG Community and a fundamental belief that each employee is a whole person, and is to be respected and valued as such.
The Best Places to Work Awards are determined based on a quantitative survey of Washington-area employees, administered by a third-party organization. Respondents were asked to rank their organization on qualities such as team effectiveness, trust in senior leaders and coworkers, manager effectiveness, communication, work-life balance and alignment with company goals.
The Washington Business Journal honored PIR at a virtual event held on May 20, 2021.
About Public Interest Registry
Public Interest Registry (PIR) is a nonprofit that operates the .ORG top-level domain—one of the world’s largest generic top-level domains with more than 10.5 million domain names registered worldwide.
PIR has been a champion for a free and open Internet for more than 15 years with a clear mission to be an exemplary domain name registry, provide a trusted digital identity and help educate those who dedicate themselves to improving our world. PIR was founded by the Internet Society (internetsociety.org) in 2002 and is based in Reston, Virginia, USA.
.ORG is open to everyone, providing a global platform for mission-driven organizations, associations, clubs, businesses and individuals to bring their ideas to life. For more than 30 years, .ORG has built an enduring legacy of trust, preserving an open and secure Internet where diverse communities can establish a trusted online identity and freely share ideas.
PIR believes that more mission-driven organizations make our communities a better place.
Visit www.TheNew.org for more information.
Media contact: Scott Gerber, [email protected], 408-202-4255
SOURCE Public Interest Registry
