How do you keep a company with offices all over the world from feeling like a bunch of disparate entities, only working under the same name? You make sure that team members from all over the world have opportunities to connect with one another through company-wide happy hours and uniform office designs.
We spoke with global tech companies Showpad and GTreasury about how they manage to keep their far-flung employees connected, and how their team members reap the benefits of an international perspective.
When a company’s workforce is comprised of team members from almost 30 different countries, it becomes impossible for an internationally-focused culture to not permeate it. Showpad knows this well, and Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist Kristin Carlson explained how the company invests in keeping that global culture thriving.
How does your company’s global presence influence your culture or how you work?
Showpad was originally founded in Europe and has an expanding global footprint. We’re committed to building our teams not only in close proximity to our customers, but also in markets with great talent. With eight worldwide offices, we know the importance of establishing systems to enable collaboration between employees across the globe, which is why we’ve invested in both technology and processes to make it easier for teams to work together. And above all, we value the range of perspectives a global workforce offers because we know that our individual differences make the global team stronger.
Our team of more than 450 employees is 42 percent female and comprised of 28 different nationalities.”
How do you ensure your offerings are inclusive to users of different backgrounds and abilities?
We’re laser-focused on experience — whether that be the experience of our customers or the experience of our employees — because we know that the best experience wins. And the best experiences come from bringing together diverse skills and backgrounds. We’re committed to immersing ourselves in a truly diverse environment, which is why our team of more than 450 employees is 42 percent female and comprised of 28 different nationalities. We’ve also created internal organizations like Women of Showpad and others to ensure that these groups are supported with the resources they need to succeed.
GTreasury’s offices are spread across a few continents, which allows the company to tap into the knowledge — and culture — of its international hubs. Chief Technology Officer Pete Srejovic said the treasury and management SaaS provider is working hard to make a geographically distant team feel close.
How does your company’s global presence influence your culture or how you work?
Our clients span North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia-Pacific. Our global development allows us to leverage the strengths of our regions as we need them. We have strong development teams in Chicago, Sydney and Manila, among which we rotate people quite regularly. For example, our Chief Product Officer Ashley Pater is now based out of Sydney to be closer to the culture there and the APAC region.
We’ve also done some interesting things culturally to ensure we think globally and act locally. We extended our office happy hours globally and celebrate team competition and recognition with rewards. Environmentally, with our office management partnership in the APAC region, we’ve matched the aesthetics in the new Manila office to make sure teams wouldn’t feel physically dispersed from the organization, so regardless of where our employees sit, they can still feel like they are one team.
With our office management partnership in the APAC region, we’ve matched the aesthetics in the new Manila office to make sure teams wouldn’t feel physically dispersed.”
How do you ensure your offerings are inclusive to users of different backgrounds and abilities?
GTreasury applies technology to aid in cross-training our teams. Because our product is functionally diverse, we ensure a continuity of subject matter expertise with on-demand videos and video conferencing, which also keeps us connected in a ’follow-the-sun’ client support model.
