Creatis Employee Spotlight - Mel Viens

Clients: Creatis Studio, Cargill, Optum, UnitedHealthcare
Skill Set: PowerPoint Designer

PowerPoint presentations are ubiquitous in professional settings these days. Our Creatis Studio offers a variety of flexible PowerPoint services, including template building, refinement and design. But did you know we have employees working on-site at clients who are also experts in PowerPoint design?

PowerPoint expertise isn’t easy to find in an employee who is proactive and embodies our core values. But 7 years ago that person came along when we met Mel Viens. She was fresh out of college and looking to begin her design career. She started out working with our Studio team on a few PowerPoint projects for large clients like Cargill and Optum. When an opportunity opened for an a Creatis employee to work on-site at UnitedHealthcare; our Relationship Managers partnered with Mel to fill our client’s needs.

Because of the excellent work and service she provided, Mel's opportunities at UnitedHealthcare expanded quickly. A small project turned into several long-term engagement on other internal teams. Mel is a great example of how an employee and Creatis can carve out an exciting, specific career for an expert creative marketer. The added flexibility of the Creatis on-site resourcing model has allowed Mel to served UnitedHealthcare for over 7 years, where she remains today as a Creatis employee! Her proactivity, communication and excellence make her an ideal Creatis employee.

Get to Know Mel

We chatted with Mel to find out a little more about what she does, her history with Creatis, and some fun facts. 

What brought you to Creatis intially? 

Mel: After college, I knew that I wanted to freelance, but needed experience, so I began working for several creative staffing agencies. Creatis stuck out right away. Better projects and higher standards. 

What do you like best about working at Creatis?

Mel: flexibility, project variety & caliber of clientele

What kind of PowerPoint work is your favorite and why? 

Mel: I find clean up requests relaxing. There is something therapeutic about scrubbing a deck for consistency and brand compliance. It's essentially a presentation makeover, and afterwards the deck is transformed and looks really polished. I also like the challenge of creating custom PowerPoint graphics. Leaders come to me with complicated ideas/concepts and I help them create clear and compelling visuals that they can use to deliver their message. I learn a lot while working on these types projects and they give me the chance to flex my creative muscle.

Do you have any hobbies outside of work?

Mel: I spend a lot of time inside on the computer for work, so when I'm not working, I love being outdoors. I like hiking, gardening, traveling/exploring new cities.

Employee Spotlight: Sandi Swenson

Sandi Swenson knows how to make a difference. She’s been doing it from the start for Creatis -- a journey that has spanned over four years of partnership.

She first heard about Creatis through the professional grapevine - heard the name Creatis here and there throughout her career as a graphic designer in the Twin Cities. She also had a good friend who’d done an assignment through Creatis as well.

When she left her permanent design job in 2013 - where she’d worked for 8 years -- she was looking to shake things up and try other avenues of employment; beyond looking for another permanent position right away. Because of the great things she’d heard about Creatis, she decided to come in for an interview and get to know us.

Shortly after we interviewed Sandi and found her corporate brand, print and design skills to be a perfect match for the kinds of roles we fill, we landed her an assignment at our former client Blip Toys. She did such a fantastic job that we knew the partnership had a bright future, and worked to find Sandi another assignment. It was clear that Sandi was not only a proactive and talented designer, but also service-oriented and extremely personable. A great combination of traits!

Sandi really does exemplify the kind of Creatis employee who has success with many different clients because she’s flexible, focused on providing first-rate service, and delivers excellent work consistently.

Through the four years since her initial assignment at Blip Toys, she’s worked continually and exclusively for Creatis on teams at Optum and finally UnitedHealthcare, where she’s currently working. She works with a team of consultants and has to toggle between projects throughout the day to day. It’s a perfect fit for Sandi. “I love being part of a professional team and being treated as [a member of the UHC team]. I enjoy working in the healthcare industry and love working on designs for various pieces.” The type of work and clients has kept things exciting for her these past four years. “I really like the variety of contracts that I have had the opportunity to work. I’ve met so many new people in different companies,” Sandi said.

Her continued success and praise from each client has not gone unnoticed by us!

In 2018, we awarded Sandi the “Of Service” Core Value Award. Here she is with former Staffing Director (and current Relationship Manager) McKaela Baldus (above).

When not designing, Sandi has an 8th grader who keeps her plenty busy. She loves spending time with her family and scrapbooking.

We’re so glad to have Sandi on the Creatis team.

20.19 Program

As the new year quickly approaches, we wanted to take some time to evaluate where we’ve been, who we’ve served, and introduce our intentional new service program for the upcoming year.

Here are two of the major volunteering events we participated in last year:

Step-Up Mock Interviews

Back in March of 2018, Creatis leaders Kathy Hollenhorst and Beth Bitney participated in Achieve Minneapolis’ “Step-Up Mock Interviews” event. They sat down individually with interns and young job seekers to help them practice and hone their job interviewing skills, and provide helpful, specific feedback. You can learn more about Achieve Minneapolis and volunteering with them, here.

United Way “Action Day 2018”

Later in summer, several Creatis team members joined over 3,000 other volunteers in the United Way’s “Action Day 2018” hosted at the Target Center in downtown Minneapolis. We helped pack backpacks full of school supplies that would be given to children in need, as well as wrote personal notes to students encouraging them for their upcoming school year. Over 25,000 backpacks were packed through the effort!

20.19 - 20 Hours, 19 Minutes of Service

We got to thinking...while it’s great to get out into the community and volunteer whenever we can throughout the year, maybe it’s time to be more intentional with our time. We’re always focused on making business goals for growth, so why not do the same with our volunteering efforts?
Starting with core team members here at the Creatis home office - we are individually committing to doing at least 20 hours and 19 minutes of service at organizations we’re passionate about during 2019.

Those hours will be a combination of group and individual efforts. We want our team to really focus on serving in ways that match their skills and passions individually - and as a group, we’ll focus on organizations that are dedicated to training and growing job seekers who will contribute to the Twin Cities community.

We’ll be tracking our ongoing efforts on the website and social media as well as featuring the fantastic organizations we’re partnering with throughout the year. And who knows, we may even hand out special awards at the end of 2019 for those who’ve hit the 20 hour and 19 minute mark and gone beyond it.

We hope this program inspires you, too. Anyone is welcome to join us, not just Creatis employees. We want to encourage giving back in whatever way we can in our community. Stay tuned for more updates soon. 

Employee Spotlight: Christy Ressler

Creatis Marketing Manager Christy Ressler is committed to doing the right thing, and doing it consistently.The positive impression she made when we first met her three years ago hasn't worn off - if anything, it's grown!

Like many of our current employees, Christy was referred by a colleague (another Creatis alum) back in 2015, and we helped land her an assignment on an important team at Optum - one of the largest and most innovative healthcare corporations in America. Her expertise in marketing strategy and project execution - including developing and delivering marketing materials - made her a perfect fit for the role. 

Christy has shined at Optum - and because of her dedication and skill, has taken on more and more responsibility. She's become a valuable, fully integrated member of her team at Optum.

Her current supervisor gave a glowing review, "She is a rock star! Christy is the highest producer on the team...She started (in 2016) as a [project manager] and her responsibilities since then have tripled. I don't think our team would survive without Christy!" 

She is also an example of the kind of employee Creatis loves to hire and retain. Aside from being a fantastic marketer who makes us look good on her assignment, Christy's also an active volunteer working to improve lives in our community. Her good work extends beyond just work. That makes her a valuable Creatis team member in all the right ways. 

Christy sits on the volunteer board of newly-formed non-profit Minneapolis Angels. Their work is focused on improving the lives of foster children and their families in the greater Twin Cities area. When asked the mission of the company, Christy said, "Our mission is to walk alongside foster children and their caretakers by offering consistent support through intentional giving, relationship-building and mentorship."

To learn more about Minneapolis Angels and how you can get involved, click here. 

The partnership between Christy and Creatis has been extremely fruitful. She is the 2018 recipient of the "Doing What's Right" Core Value award at Creatis, an award that prizes employees who go above and beyond to do the right thing in every area of their lives. Christy also loves the flexibility Creatis offers and she's able to spend more time with her children because of it, without losing the benefits and loyalty Creatis provides. 

We can't wait to see what the future holds for Christy, and we're so happy to support her journey!

Pictured, Mary Schneider (left) and Seth Conover (right)

Employee Interview: Mary Schneider, VP/Managing Director of Staffing Services

Our Marketing/Content Specialist Seth sat down with Creatis' new VP/Managing Director of Staffing, Mary Schneider to discuss her new role, and why her background leading sales and marketing teams translates so well to Creatis. 

Seth: Mary, what initially attracted you to Creatis?

Mary: I’d heard about Creatis’ great work, their values and their results. I’ve always known Kathy Hollenhorst, Creatis President/CEO, through our mutual networks. When she reached out to her network about this role last summer, we connected to discuss it further as I knew about some possible candidates. Through our conversations we each realized that this would be a good fit for both the organization and for me, and several months later, I joined the team.

Seth: Networking works! So when you were leading marketing teams – what qualities did you look for in an outside agency partner? 

Mary: When I previously worked with outside agencies, I was looking not only for a strong reputation, great work, responsiveness, clear communication, trust and effective time/budget management; but for a partner that would challenge my thinking instead of just following my orders. An agency that could relate to my business challenges and offer solutions that gave me confidence in their knowledge and delivery. This is the difference between being a vendor and being a true partner.

Seth: How does Creatis meet those qualities you just described?

Mary: By truly listening to the needs of our clients to understand expressed needs as well as hidden needs; the Creatis team works closely to support resourcing needs and match the best candidates to the right assignment – not just expecting our clients to do the upfront work. We make suggestions and offer solutions that might not be apparent, but these solutions actually work! And we live our values to share the journey with clients and employees and to build strong and trusting relationships.

Seth: A theme is emerging - Creatis focuses on people and partnerships. Is that what separates Creatis from the pack?

Mary: The level of service and the value-added touch points that Creatis provides to both its clients and its employees is a true differentiator. We do a great deal of upfront work to save our clients time and offer quality solutions.

We invest in building trust and establishing strong relationships. We work in a highly accountable environment which drive our delivery to our clients and supports our working experience with employees. We reinforce our values through touchpoints with clients and employees, and recognize employees that demonstrate our values in their professional lives at an annual event.

With clients, we show them that we share their journey and that we care about and focus on their results. We place a high value around building long-term, trusting relationships, and both our clients and employees tell us how much they appreciate our commitment.

Seth: What do you see as the biggest challenge for marketing/creative leaders from a people or resourcing perspective?

Mary: The need for new skills in digital, marketing automation, content strategy and customer centricity are current challenges for marketing leaders today. Marketing changes constantly and keeping pace with the fast-pace of change – especially from a resourcing perspective – is critical to success.

Seth: Marketing changes so fast it's probably changed over the course of this conversation! So why should a prospective client want to work with Creatis?

Mary: Creatis has a long history of serving clients by presenting strong and creative people, and effective solutions. We are marketing professionals that support the needs of marketing organizations. We understand the unique needs that our clients have, and we provide resources that meet these needs. I recently had a client tell me that “Creatis is the Gold Standard.” We truly care about the success of our clients and our employees.

Seth: Do you have something like a professional mantra when it comes to serving clients?

Mary: Early in my career, I had a mentor who told me the best way to differentiate yourself from others and to drive for success is to “say what you’re going to do; and do what you say – follow through, follow through, follow through.” I have incorporated advise throughout my career and my personal life. It is not always easy to do, but I have found it to be one of the best ways to establish credibility and integrity and to develop trust. It has served me very well in all aspects of my life.

Seth: Thanks for taking the time and for the thoughtful answers, Mary.

Mary: Thank you! I'm excited to be part of the Creatis team. 

What’s the Creatis Studio?

A team of Creatis designers, writers, proofreaders, Powerpoint specialists and project managers trained on client brand standards who work on-site at Creatis or remotely to execute creative/marketing projects. Our Studio is able to handle all kinds of creative/marketing work including presentation development, content creation, digital assets, versioning and marketing materials. This includes a thin layer of project management so our clients can focus on other top priorities. In other words, we’ll do your spring work cleaning for you! *(And it sure looks like spring is here to stay outside!) The studio saves our clients time and money, and adds a little peace of mind, too.

The range of projects our Studio works on go from a small one-off Powerpoint Deck Design to monthly or annual ongoing support - like our multidimensional support of Portico. If a client has needs that go beyond a few bundled projects - and really needs help over the long-term - we’re a fantastic resource.That ongoing support aspect is why we call ourselves great “execution partners.”

Why is Creatis Studio a good execution partner?

First of all, we’re flexible. And because we’re flexible - we can create the capacity to adapt to client needs - no matter what they are - big or small.
We can proofread thousands of documents or work on more complicated graphic designs and production.

Our studio works from an annual or individual project budget - so clients never pay for work they don’t need. Our flexibility is more than just being able to scale up and down resources; we’re chock full of talented people trained with diverse creative/marketing skills, too. They’re the perfect mix of right and left brain. So when you need a little or a lot of different kinds of creative resources, the Creatis Studio should be your choice. 

As execution partners, we manage work all the way through the marketing process. We do things like project in-takes, design/production, proofing and final delivery of materials - both print and digital. This kind of behind-the-scenes work really frees up our clients and alleviates stress. And the fact that we keep delivering excellent product quickly puts our clients’ minds at ease. They know they can trust the Studio with ongoing work.

Here’s a highlight of 5 different clients and how we support them as an ongoing execution partner:

We are the sole partner for Optum’s monthly proofreading program. This is a big task and we love doing it because we’ve got the sharpest, most savvy proofreaders in the Twin Cities working on Optum’s documents - which, given the healthcare industry’s standards - must be checked and proofed for 100% accuracy. Last year we completed 150 projects and proofread almost 3,000 documents for Optum. 

Marketplace Events - Provide weekly design/production support of all Marketplace Events’ trade show materials for over 40 national events including exhibit signage, billboards, digital media and more. We work proactively to get their designs and templates updated and ready to go in time for each show (Spring, Fall, Holiday). In our over 4 years of working with MPE, we’ve executed thousands of projects.

We are the sole execution partner for the Ameriprise Ad Program. We work on approximately 50 to 60 advertisements per month that include; billboards, presentation signage, business cards, print & digital ads, mailers for Ameriprise Financial advisors and much more.

We manage annual versioning of hundreds of sales materials and emails for UnitedHealthcare's intensive open-enrollment periods. Some of the work included PowerPoint updates & cleanup, print brochures and emails. Our dedicated project managers work with several different UnitedHealthcare teams to delegate tasks to our designers who can quickly and effectively execute projects according to time sensitive deadlines. We’re great at working with highly matrixed companies because we can help them keep things straight by providing prompt, clear communication. In 2018 we completed almost 60 projects for UnitedHealthcare.

Portico - We provide weekly, monthly and annual support from creating dynamic emails to open-enrollment design and communications. We love supporting great companies like Portico and saving them much needed time and resources by easing the weight of their marketing workloads. In 2018, we completed over 130 projects for Portico.

Client Spotlight: Starkey Hearing Technologies

"Hear better. Live better."

Did you know that 1 in 5 Americans experience hearing loss?
It’s a real and significant problem impacting the lives of millions of people worldwide. Unfortunately, it’s a problem often overlooked and unfairly stigmatized.

Starkey Hearing Technologies is here to help overcome this problem. They understand that hearing technology can empower people to have a better quality of life. They’ve become the global leader in manufacturing and delivering advanced hearing solutions because they’re not just in the hearing aid business: they’re in the business of changing lives.

This greater purpose has led to fantastic growth for the company - in 50 years they’ve become a global leader in technology and innovation, and that growth continues, while still being privately owned and operated out of Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

Starkey is also working to destigmatize the general public’s perception of a “hearing aid.” It’s far more than what you may have seen saw an older relative wear thirty or forty years ago - the technology has become incredibly advanced. Starkey offers all kinds of options like: in ear, invisible, outer ear aids. Many of their hearing products are discreet and comfortable and offer fantastic results for the user.

Creatis & Starkey

All of this innovation and growth has created a need for more marketing help. In 2017, our president and staffing team met with Dawn Hepper, Director of Retail Marketing at Starkey. Dawn needed help extra arms and legs supporting Starkey’s extensive marketing network by helping to manage complex projects and accounts.

Through that initial meeting, we quickly identified that Dawn was in need of staffing assistance - Creatis employees who could fully integrate on Dawn’s team - and we got to work sourcing the perfect candidates for Dawn’s team on a tight turnaround.

This is our bread and butter. Our staffing team is great at finding employees who not only have the skills and experience to make an immediate difference on a client’s team, but who are also great cultural fits - in the case of Starkey, we needed collaborative, hands-on learners who could ramp up very quickly. We found two perfect employees for Dawn, and the professional relationship has been blossoming ever since.

Through our employees' success with Dawn’s team, we were able to support another Starkey team with marketing project management and brand/creative marketing help. The great part about our relationship is that whenever Starkey needs more help, we're ready for it. 

We look forward to providing more support to Starkey in the months and years to come!