
Whether it is a local cafe or a nationally renowned corporation, the troubles that confront every business tend to be the same. Morale, retention, stress, relationships and profit can place obstacles in the path to success. Shelley D. Smith, founder and CEO of Premier Rapport, recognizes the difficulties facing businesses large and small, old and new, local and miles away.
Premier Rapport offers services that evaluate workplace cultures when companies are experiencing problems in areas such as productivity, profitability, turnover, customer relations, sexual harassment and more. This human resources consultancy allows the optimization of a company’s success. Through Premier Rapport’s evaluation and predictive process, solutions create long-lasting results leading to further achievements.
After spending 30 years working in corporate America, Smith found herself assisting others by developing tools to push businesses closer towards their goals, and in their journey to uncover their potential, Smith discovered her passion, turning it into a career through founding Premier Rapport in 2009.
“Newport News is filled with start-ups and parent companies that thrive after using our services,” Smith says about her choice to locate here. The diversity and range of business types and models allowed Smith to expand her knowledge in business and understand how to create more personalized solutions for each company’s needs.
“We take the pulse of an entire company to figure out how to create solutions to problems. We look at the culture of the group with a wide-angle lens so we can see the entire picture,” Smith says of the most integral part of her evaluation system, The Corporate Culture Inquiry. This system allows owners, operators and managers to take control of their company’s culture and decrease turnover, improve workflow, efficiency and employee satisfaction.
For Smith, the most crucial feature to succeed as CEO of her business is her ability to maintain balance between her personal and work life. Smith claims that to her, work never feels taxing because of her passion and love for her business.
Smith herself understands the detailed differences within each workplace culture from her own experience. After deciding to take a non-traditional path towards success and forego pursuing a college education, Smith immediately jumped into the workforce. This decision positively impacted her career path. Today, she holds a multitude of certifications in leadership development, strategic thinking, teams and collaboration, managing profit, sales and marketing, supervisor development, task force management, opening strategies and more. Her most recent accomplishment is being named to the National Small Business Association Leadership Council, the nation’s oldest non-partisan small business organization that advocates for interests of small business to policymakers in Washington, D.C.
“My career path has allowed me to place myself in each and every employee’s shoes and understand because
I have been there,” Smith says.
When Smith is not creating plans and business solutions, she is relaxing with her family. With three children her most rewarding times are spent during family games, hikes and movie nights.
Smith’s own personal journey through the corporate industry has allowed her to develop solutions to assist in solving the problems faced by so many businesses. Whether these solutions can be discovered by reading one of Smith’s six published management books or by consulting with a team member, Premier Rapport is ready to offer answers with positive results.
TO THE POINT:
Premier Rapport
Contact: Shelley Smith, CEO
Phone: 757-897-8644
Email: Shelley@PremierRapport.com
Website: www.premierrapport.com
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