Get to Know Bellmont Partners: What Makes a Best Workplace?

Peo­ple. When it comes down to what makes Bell­mont Part­ners spe­cial, it’s the peo­ple. Ear­li­er this sum­mer, we were grate­ful have the dis­tinc­tion of being named to Inc. Magazine’s Best Work­places list for the fifth time. Recent­ly, we asked the team to reflect on what they val­ue about work­ing at BP. While some words such as “sup­port­ive,” “flex­i­ble” and “col­lab­o­ra­tive” came up more than a few times, the attrib­ut­es folks shared all tie back to peo­ple. With thoughts from our founder to our newest employ­ee (just days in!), get to know a bit more about our team and agency. 

Work­place Culture

“From our Bell­mont Part­ners team to our clients to our media part­ners, I val­ue the peo­ple we work with every day. Our team is not only incred­i­bly tal­ent­ed but also kind, sup­port­ive, respect­ful and gen­er­ous with their time and com­mu­ni­ty involve­ment – and thanks to them, we’ve built a true peo­ple-first cul­ture. Our clients see this and under­stand that it’s our peo­ple and cul­ture that make Bell­mont Part­ners such a spe­cial place and the rea­son why we deliv­er out­stand­ing work and results on their behalf.” – Shel­li Lis­sick, part­ner

“I appre­ci­ate how every­one who works at Bell­mont Part­ners cares about my life out­side of work. It’s so mean­ing­ful to get to share my pas­sions with my col­leagues, even those pas­sions that aren’t relat­ed to PR/communications!” – Hope Hansen, account coordinator

“The two areas that I val­ue most at BP are the flex­i­ble cul­ture and smart, hard-work­ing staff. I love that I get to decide where I work – in the office or at home – and each day looks total­ly dif­fer­ent depend­ing on my pro­fes­sion­al and per­son­al com­mit­ments. Since I’ve start­ed, I’ve been so impressed by my col­leagues and great­ly appre­ci­ate the sup­port and smart think­ing every­one brings to the table. It’s been reward­ing to find my place and col­lab­o­rate with my fel­low account team mem­bers.” – Katie Fitz­patrick, direc­tor

“I appre­ci­ate the wel­com­ing, inclu­sive and friend­ly envi­ron­ment the entire team has giv­en me right from the start! It’s easy to see this is a spe­cial place to work that val­ues the whole per­son, not just their pro­fes­sion­al expe­ri­ence.” – Saman­tha Lieb­hard, account strategist 

“The flex­i­bil­i­ty and cama­raderie can’t be beat.” – Jen Bell­mont, own­er and head of finance

“I appre­ci­ate the team­work and how every­one is always will­ing to step up and help out – even if it isn’t on an account/client they nor­mal­ly work on. I also val­ue the flex­i­bil­i­ty. With my kids, I some­times need to sign on a lit­tle lat­er or sign off ear­ly to run them to activ­i­ties. Hav­ing flex­i­bil­i­ty helps nav­i­gate it all!” – Bre­an­na Welke, vice president

“The things I val­ue most about our agency are all dri­ven by our peo­ple-cen­tric approach. It’s reas­sur­ing to know that even dur­ing peri­ods of intense growth – we were just named one of the Twin Cities’ fastest-grow­ing com­pa­nies for the sec­ond year in a row – our cul­ture is about focus­ing on how the deci­sions we make across the agency impact each oth­er. Whether that’s step­ping in when a cowork­er needs to help care for an aging par­ent or a sick child or step­ping up to assist with a project that needs an extra set of hands, we’ve got each oth­ers’ backs.” – Bri­an Bell­mont, own­er and president

“Flex­i­bil­i­ty to have a career/family bal­ance that aligns with our shift­ing care­tak­ing respon­si­bil­i­ties. Col­lab­o­ra­tion with team mem­bers who are smart, steady and always will­ing to help out.” – Angela Seut­ter, account strategist 

“Flex­i­bil­i­ty, sup­port, col­lab­o­ra­tion.” – Hye­di Nel­son, direc­tor 

“I val­ue the cama­raderie, flex­i­bil­i­ty and gen­uine engage­ment at Bell­mont Part­ners. I feel val­ued as an indi­vid­ual by my col­leagues, and I respect how tru­ly invest­ed each per­son is in their work.” – Gretchen Sitzer, account executive

“The peo­ple make Bell­mont Part­ners spe­cial. It’s a col­lab­o­ra­tive work envi­ron­ment with peo­ple who are fun and cre­ative yet sup­port­ive and empa­thet­ic. And people’s title doesn’t dic­tate how they con­tribute. Each per­son at Bell­mont Part­ners is a val­ued team mem­ber and whole­heart­ed­ly wel­comed to bring their unique per­spec­tive to the work­ing table.” – Krista Kuz­ma, senior account executive

Pro­fes­sion­al Development 

“I val­ue that Bell­mont Part­ners is such a growth-cen­tered envi­ron­ment for bud­ding young pro­fes­sion­als. Each employ­ee at Bell­mont Part­ners has an incred­i­ble knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence with­in the indus­try, it is so valu­able to learn from and work with them!” – Made­lyn Eli­zon­do, assis­tant account executive 

“The col­lab­o­ra­tion, trust and respect among col­leagues and the gen­uine joy of work­ing with each oth­er is some­thing you do not find every­where. We have worked hard to build a cul­ture that employ­ees can thrive in while they also con­tin­ue to learn and grow.” – Mau­reen Cahill, part­ner

“The oppor­tu­ni­ties to learn and grow.” – Julie Goulette, account executive 

Team­work

“We win togeth­er, and we grow togeth­er. We take a teams-based approach to almost every­thing which makes weath­er­ing chal­lenges eas­i­er and cel­e­brat­ing suc­cess­es more ful­fill­ing.” – Michelle Grif­fith, direc­tor 

“We have a com­mon goal of deliv­er­ing excel­lent work to clients. It’s awe­some to have this team­work approach and while also being empow­ered to use our strengths and con­tribute.” – Stacey Robert­son, account strategist

“We’re a team that’s com­mit­ted to work­ing hard and achiev­ing results, while still keep­ing cul­ture at the fore­front!” – Megan Ander­son, direc­tor

Tan­gi­ble Ben­e­fits & Opportunities

“Our sup­port­ive cul­ture facil­i­tates the abil­i­ty to pri­or­i­tize my health, whether that means flex­ing my sched­ule for a walk, tak­ing time to vis­it the doc­tor or unplug­ging when on vaca­tion. And, while insur­ance isn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly the flashiest ben­e­fit, the com­pre­hen­sive health plan offered – with pre­mi­ums cov­ered 100% for employ­ees – pro­vides amaz­ing access to care and peace of mind.” – Sara Gras­mon, account supervisor

“I appre­ci­ate the gen­er­ous spir­it that runs through­out the agency. Every­one is always will­ing to lend a help­ing hand, whether with client work or on someone’s per­son­al endeav­or near and dear to their heart. This gen­eros­i­ty flows over into every­thing from our ben­e­fits to our ‘Bell­mont Gives Back’ month­ly paid vol­un­teer time. The agency’s spir­it of gen­eros­i­ty is def­i­nite­ly one more thing that makes me feel like a val­ued human and part of the agency, not just anoth­er cog in the wheel!” – Megan Derkey, direc­tor 

If you’d like to learn more about how to fos­ter a best work­place cul­ture, or if you’d like to work with our award-win­ning team, please reach out – we’d love to connect!