SmartBug Media—a leading Intelligent Inbound marketing agency that assists businesses in generating leads, increasing awareness, and building brand loyalty through inbound marketing, digital strategy, design, marketing automation, and public relations—announced it will join forces with HubSpot, Inc., a leading growth platform, in hosting its first World Certification Day on July 10, 2020. On this day, businesses around the world are encouraged to provide ongoing education opportunities to employees during regular working hours—a concept inspired by SmartBug CEO Ryan Malone, who conceived of the idea three years ago.
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Part of SmartBug’s culture is investing in its employees’ professional development. In order to achieve this, the company suspends its normal client services operations for one day each quarter for what it coined as “Certification Day.” On this designated day, each of SmartBug’s employees can spend their time taking online classes and tutorials, learning new skills to enhance the work they produce and further their careers. SmartBug has been practicing Certification Day since Dec. 15, 2017 and plans on dedicating nearly 700 hours to training this quarter.
“For us to continually meet and exceed client expectations, stay ahead of the curve, and maintain our values around employee development, we choose to invest in training—a lot of it,” said Ryan Malone, founder and CEO of SmartBug Media. “Certification Day ensures our clients have better outcomes and our teams continuously expand their skills, the combination of which reinforces our position in the market and as the destination of choice for top talent.”
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When HubSpot recognized the success that this practice drives for SmartBug on a quarterly basis, it decided to create a version of its own—World Certification Day. Leveraging its official learning resource, HubSpot Academy, the company is making the event available to anyone who would like to work on their professional development and encouraging businesses around the world to take part in the event.
“We’ve seen from SmartBug how important and impactful it can be to dedicate a full day to professional and career development, and we couldn’t be more excited to bring this intentional day of learning to HubSpot Academy’s global audience of learners,” said HubSpot Academy Manager of Education Kevin Dunn. “We feel education is a human right. Therefore, we are proud to pair our learners’ commitment to education with UNICEF’s mission to provide gender-equitable, quality education to children with disabilities, marginalized children, and those living in humanitarian and emergency settings. We hope this year’s World Certification Day becomes the inaugural event of a new annual tradition.”
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