While remote-work models grant organizations access to a wider, more diverse talent pool, they also offer employees the chance to set their own schedules and strike a healthy work-life balance.
These are all advantages that Indigov Head of People Operations Jolie Spiegelman knows well. Over the past year, she has seen the constituent experience management platform double in size and foster a vibrant remote-work culture.
Despite rapid growth, Spiegelman said the organization’s core pillars remain the same: a sense of ownership, accountability and humor. Remote workers who join Indigov have ample opportunities to cultivate culture and celebrate these values, whether that’s through weekly game nights or hackathons.
For some local companies, remote work isn’t new territory. Endpoint Clinical is one such organization. Senior HR Director Beth Sawyer said the interactive responses technology systems and solutions provider is focused on building out its sales, marketing and client services teams while prioritizing both virtual and in-person connection.
Sawyer said this focus on relationship-building makes it easy for remote workers to bond with their peers, regardless of where they live. In addition to sponsoring regionalized in-person gatherings, the company has always offered various virtual events, such as cooking demonstrations, fitness challenges and guided meditations.
While these two companies are undoubtedly busy searching for remote talent and building inclusive cultures, they’re far from the only organizations doing so. Built In San Francisco caught up with local leaders from seven scaling companies to learn about their 2022 growth plans and remote-work cultures.
What plans do you have to expand Indigov’s current remote workforce?
We have embraced a remote-first culture at Indigov. Our team is currently spread out across 20 cities in 14 states. Our team doubled in size in 2021, and as we have grown, we’ve ensured our culture scales alongside our team. Our culture values ownership, accountability and a sense of humor. We have built an incredible team committed to redesigning the user experience of democracy.
We plan to continue growing throughout 2022 and will focus on expanding our sales, marketing and client services teams. Our engineering and product design teams are also continually looking for new talent. We recently added a “talent network” job opening on our website so potential candidates can express their interest in Indigov and submit an application, regardless of whether there is a position posted that meets their skill set. If you're interested in the govtech space, spurring efficiency through technology, or working in a high-growth startup, we would love to hear from you.
Our culture values ownership, accountability and a sense of humor.”
How do you help remote employees feel connected, engaged and supported?
With team members distributed across the country, we are always looking for ways to stay connected. We start and end each week with a companywide huddle to call out wins, celebrate milestones, provide departmental updates, and ensure everyone is working toward the same goals. We also prioritize in-person gatherings when possible by hosting regional meet-ups and strategic planning sessions. Recently, we hosted our first offsite and brought the entire team together in D.C. to take part in three days of relationship-building. This event was the highlight of 2021 and we are excited to bring the team together again sometime this year.
Indigov has also embraced remote events, including virtual weekly game nights, “secret Santa” exchanges and gingerbread house decorating competitions. We also offer hackathons to bring teammates together across departments and geographies. Lastly, we keep our culture alive and our team connected through Slack. We use the platform to recognize team members and have dedicated channels covering a wide range of topics, from cooking and fitness to pets and memes.
What plans do you have to expand Canva’s current remote workforce?
Our team in the Bay Area is mainly composed of marketing and print operations roles and we’re expecting rapid growth in 2022. The marketing team is focused on making Canva a global brand and growing our community, while the print operations team ensures we can offer a variety of print products to ship around the globe. We currently have co-working spaces that allow the team to come together, celebrate successes and set goals. This provides the team with the flexibility to work where they feel most productive, whether that’s at home, in a co-working space or in a conference room for a team planning day. We hope this balance between flexibility and connection will empower our team to perform the best work of their lives.
We hope this balance between flexibility and connection will empower our team to perform the best work of their lives.”
How do you help remote employees feel connected, engaged and supported?
We provide regular opportunities for remote employees to travel and get together. For our quarterly “season openers,” we prioritize viewing opportunities both in-person and remotely. In 2021, we launched our “Vibe and Thrive” program, which provides everyone at Canva with an annual stipend to spend on whatever they choose, from gym memberships, home office equipment and coffee catch-ups to textbooks, language classes and meditation apps. The categories are intentionally broad so we’re able to cater to a wide range of working styles, hobbies and outside interests.
Additionally, we offer more than 400 employee clubs. Everyone is encouraged to join or create any club, as it’s a great way to meet peers with similar interests. Engagement has always been a crucial part of our culture. The U.S. team hosts bi-weekly, all-hands meetings, during which time new team members introduce themselves, announcements are shared and teams present exciting project updates. It’s an effective way to get everyone up to speed and unearth opportunities for collaboration.
What plans do you have to expand endpoint Clinical’s current remote workforce
Endpoint had a strong remote-work culture prior to the pandemic. Throughout 2021, our employee base grew more than 25 percent across all regions, including the U.S., U.K., India, China and the Philippines, and we’re projecting similar growth for 2022. We’re currently hiring for experienced project managers, software engineers, test engineers and customer support personnel across all levels and spanning every region.
The flexibility we offer, specifically through remote work opportunities and our new flexible time off program, is a significant perk for employees.”
How do you help remote employees feel connected, engaged and supported?
Employee satisfaction surveys indicate that the flexibility we offer, specifically through remote work opportunities and our new flexible time off program, is a significant perk for employees. Additionally, we hosted the Joy Tour in 2021, during which our leadership team sponsored regionalized gatherings and activities in large hubs where our remote employees are located. It granted employees the opportunity to gather safely in-person in various cities, such as Philadelphia, Boston, Raleigh and San Francisco. We plan to hold another Joy Tour sometime in the future.
We also curate non-work-related Microsoft Teams channels for employees to share experiences, seek peer advice, and post pictures. These channels include “Endpoint PETS,” “gardening@endpoint,” “endpoint4change,” “GoodNews” and “Wellness.” Also, our “Celebrate Diversity” team runs events throughout the year centered around global celebrations and wellness. We’ve hosted themed cooking demonstrations, guided meditations, fitness challenges and guest speakers on various topics, including autism awareness and Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders heritage.
What plans do you have to expand TaskRabbit’s current remote workforce?
Our employees live in more than 30 U.S. states as well as the U.K. We are a remote-first company, which means we prioritize flexibility and work-from-home accommodations while still considering those who prefer to work in an office. We recognize that different working styles are more suitable to certain settings and we aim to offer the best possible environment to keep our employees energized and productive. We remain open to applicants from anywhere in the U.S. and are working toward expanding globally over the next year. Our engineering, data, design and product teams are each doubling in size while all other teams across TaskRabbit are hiring as well.
We cultivate an environment where life comes before work and work is rewarding, exciting and innovative.”
How do you help remote employees feel connected, engaged and supported?
We cultivate an environment where life comes before work and work is rewarding, exciting and innovative. Our remote-first culture was built on three key principles: flexibility and choice, diversity and inclusion, and connection and belonging. We use these principles to align our programming in an effort to make employees feel connected, engaged and supported. This means we focus our perks and benefits package on what matters most to our employees while ensuring inclusivity. For example, we introduced family planning benefits that provide both resources and financial support for fertility treatment, adoption and surrogacy. We also extended our leave benefits to include loss of pregnancy and bonding time.
When we come together as a company, we connect through community efforts fostered by employee resource groups and cultural celebrations. Additionally, we’ve increased our travel and events budget to allow team members to bond in-person.
What plans do you have to expand Embroker’s current remote workforce?
Our remote workforce has grown and changed significantly since we expanded our locations during 2020. We have access to more talent, which is propelling us forward in the wake of raising $100 million in a recent funding round. We recently added 10 new states to our operations and began hiring in Canada last year. We look forward to adding more places for our team members to live in and are focusing heavily on growing our engineering and product teams in particular this year.
We prioritize providing team members with opportunities to connect with their peers around the globe to learn about other cultures and traditions.”
How do you help remote employees feel connected, engaged and supported?
We start with our values, which are to “put the pack first” and “create magic.” We support remote employees by offering virtual onboarding and work-from-home stipends. Additionally, we prioritize providing team members with opportunities to connect with their peers around the globe to learn about other cultures and traditions. Besides that, we host first-week meet and greets, which are designed to replicate in-office interactions for new hires. These events are casual and fun and offer a personal connection that is difficult to replicate over Zoom.
We also use Slack to connect on a daily basis and host bi-weekly, all-hands meetings, during which time new team members introduce themselves and share fun facts with the rest of the team. We enjoy seeing employees’ families and pets over Zoom and host quarterly “Pack Presents” events, which enable team members to share non-work-related talents. We love to surprise our employees, and in the past, we hosted a remote scavenger hunt at the end of the year, which the team still reminisces about.
What plans do you have to expand PointCard’s current remote workforce?
A majority of our employees reside near our San Francisco headquarters, but we also have employees based out of our New York office and some who are fully remote. We are in a hyper-growth phase and looking for talented people from across the nation. As we continue to scale, we are expanding into different tech hubs. We will continue to prioritize hiring for engineers and designers as we keep building out our product team in an effort to deliver the best possible customer experience.
Open communication and transparency are extremely important for us.”
How do you help remote employees feel connected, engaged and supported?
We offer a very collaborative environment, both in-person and remotely. We work together through Google Docs and project management software Notion and constantly communicate through Slack. Open communication and transparency are extremely important for us. Our roadmap and founder's notes are visible on Notion to all employees and our CEO hosts office hours to connect with team members on a regular basis. Most of our meetings are held using Google Meet, including engineering sync-ups, and we are continuously iterating on ways to build culture as we continue to grow quickly. We want to make sure our remote employees feel equally included so we send out quarterly appreciation boxes, which employees open together during our all-hands meetings. We also sent out champagne during the holidays so that every employee could join in on a celebratory toast. Additionally, we make it easy for employees to purchase remote-work essentials.
What plans do you have to expand Freedom Financial Network’s current remote workforce?
After nearly two years of working remotely, we asked our employees about their experiences working from home, including what they enjoyed, what they missed, and what makes them effective, productive and well-balanced. Consequently, we learned that our employees enjoy and appreciate the flexibility of remote work, although they do miss getting together in-person to collaborate.
For these reasons, we decided to pursue a remote-first hybrid approach, which offers our employees the ability to work from home without the expectation of coming into the office on a predefined schedule. We recognize the value of using our offices as co-working spaces to give employees the chance to travel and see their team members. Additionally, we realize that the tech scene extends beyond the Bay Area and Arizona. We want to find the greatest and most diverse talent from across the U.S. so we’ve expanded our search and are paying special attention to the Dallas market, as there is a wealth of engineering talent in that area.
The pandemic has demonstrated the resilience of our employees.”
How do you help remote employees feel connected, engaged and supported?
The pandemic has demonstrated the resilience of our employees. Our people proved that many traditional office jobs are suitable for remote work, prompting us to reinvent the way we collaborate. Our employees have conveyed the importance of flexible scheduling in supporting a healthy work-life balance so we plan to offer a range of working arrangements, whether those be in-office, remote or hybrid. We learned connection is critical and the team has hosted remote team-building events. Our leaders developed new ways to lead virtual teams, and based on our recent employee engagement survey, the support they’ve provided throughout the pandemic received one of the highest favorability scores.
