The tech sector is back in 2021. And it’s only expected to keep booming.
According to research consultancy International Data Center, the expected growth for technology companies in 2021 and 2022 is expected to be around 4 percent, higher than previous forecasts due to strong third and fourth quarter results in 2020. And they’re not the only ones on the growth train: Research and advisory company Forrester predicts 6.6 and 7 percent growth in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
What’s this mean for companies in the Chicago area? Organizations of all shapes and sizes will have their plates full for the foreseeable future, working to hire new talent at a rapid clip to keep pace with their ambitious roadmaps.
For example, Analytics8 CEO David Fussichen told Built In Chicago that, coming into 2021, the company's goal was to double its workforce. Avant’s head of talent and chief of staff said the company is aiming to increase its corporate headcount by 45 percent for the year. And Peapod Digital Labs and Maven Wave are both looking to add more than 200 new employees before the end of the year.
Below, Built In Chicago connected with nine scaling companies to get more insight on their rapid growth and the kinds of roles they’re looking to fill to keep up with the quick pace.
What they do: Tovala is a meal delivery service. In addition to its pre-packaged meals, its countertop smart oven cooks foods to completion with the scan of a QR code. The company landed a $30 million Series C in February.
What do your hiring plans look like this year, and what are some of the key characteristics or traits you look for in new team members?
We’re in a phase of rapid growth and are adding people across every department, from engineering to marketing to operations to finance to HR to data to culinary. We’re looking for team members who are hungry — people who are ambitious, want to be challenged and pushed — and eager to join a company that’s rapidly scaling and changing. At the same time, we want people who are humble. People who, more than anything, get joy out of seeing their team succeed. Lastly, we’re looking for people who want to get better; people who believe in the growth mindset and want to advance and develop with our company.
What steps are you taking to make sure this period of rapid growth goes smoothly from an employee experience perspective?
We’ve spent a lot of time revamping our onboarding process so we can set new teammates up for success. Our new onboarding focuses on making sure every new employee understands how Tovala works. It’s a complicated business that requires a high degree of cross-functional coordination and understanding, so we’ve put together much better materials and documentation to help new hires get up to speed. We also want to make sure new hires are meeting teammates and building relationships across many different departments. Finally, we share our culture by having one-on-one time with our leadership team so they can explain things like our company history, our values and our Tovala dictionary.
We tell new hires to resist the temptation to deliver something or add value right away, and instead encourage them to be curious and ask questions. By having our new hires focus on building relationships and learning how things work through our onboarding program, we hope to set our team up for success as we rapidly scale.
By having our new hires focus on building relationships and learning how things work through our onboarding program, we hope to set our team up for success as we rapidly scale.”
What’s a project you’re really excited to tackle this year, and what impact will this project have on the business?
This fall we are opening a brand-new, state-of-the-art 250,000-square-foot production facility in Utah. It'll be larger than both of our current facilities combined and help us unlock weekly meal production capacity, as well as deliver a better experience for our customers west of the Rockies. Opening this new facility is a huge cross-functional effort, from coordinating training to staffing to ensuring our internal software can scale. It’s all-hands-on-deck for this next chapter of our growth.
What they do: Avant’s online lending portal provides customers with personal loans and credit cards.
What do your hiring plans look like this year, and what are some of the key characteristics or traits you look for in new team members?
Avant has an ambitious 2021 roadmap, including new product launches and a transformation of our platform to ensure we are best supporting underbanked consumers. None of this is possible without our awesome team, and we’re looking to grow corporate headcount by 45 percent. The diversity of characteristics that make up our team is what makes Avant great, but we are conscientious about preserving our culture as we scale. We seek culture contributors who get excited by our mission and problem-solving while being comfortable operating within the gray.
What steps are you taking to make sure this period of rapid growth goes smoothly from an employee experience perspective?
This year, we launched a reimagined onboarding experience for Avantees with emphasis on getting them up to speed quickly, inviting them into our community and enabling their ability to navigate success in a virtual environment. This included creating resources for new hires and managers as well as reimagining how we form meaningful connections.
We proactively explore ways to play to the strengths and uniqueness of our Avant culture and stay connected regardless of whether our Avantees are in person or remote. We don’t believe that culture is something you can solve for once or that building culture only happens when someone new comes in the door. By encouraging continuous feedback from employees of every level, we are able to create opportunities to engage and connect as part of the Avant community no matter how large our organization grows.
The diversity of characteristics that make up our team is what makes Avant great.”
What is the most interesting challenge facing your team at the moment, and how are you working to overcome it?
Our most interesting challenge has been the scale and speed of our growth from a headcount perspective. In the past year, we’ve hired more than 100 new corporate employees, something that would have been challenging regardless of outside conditions. Add in the pandemic and shift to a remote working environment and it became doubly challenging.
We’ve done a few things to help overcome this challenge. First, the partnership between the talent acquisition and learning teams has been increasingly vital with the continuous build of onboarding materials and processes based on employee feedback, and we’re happy with the engagement and alignment we’ve been able to create across the organization. Next, we run a monthly pulse survey to assess employee engagement, and we’ve worked hard at digging into the data to constantly evolve the way in which we’re creating a better workplace for our employees. And finally, we are working hard to ensure that the key elements of our culture — all of which, at their core, are centered around relationship-building — are preserved.
What they do: Maven Wave was built to help large organizations implement new digital tools, out-of-the-box solutions and cloud technology.
What do your hiring plans look like this year, and what are some of the key characteristics or traits you look for in new team members?
We are aggressively hiring 200-plus new Mavens this year and could not be more excited! Our definition of our X-factor is continuously evolving, but ultimately it comes down to our core values: aptitude, impact, passion and communication. We are looking for individuals who showcase a strong interest and curiosity in technology, a desire to solve tough business problems and the hunger to never stop learning.
We cannot hire fast enough. It’s such a good problem to have because that means we are seeing success in all areas of our business.”
What steps are you taking to make sure this period of rapid growth goes smoothly from an employee experience perspective?
Candidate and employee experience have always been our top priority. As we welcome new Mavens to our team, we work hard to ensure the remote onboarding experience is seamless. Once hired, we make sure our new remote employees truly feel like part of the team through virtual happy hours and cooking classes, a variety of themed chat rooms, and the promise of meeting each other in person at our events in the — hopefully very near — future. We are always asking for feedback from candidates and employees to ensure we are aware of our own blind spots and additional ways to make the overall experience exceptional.
What is the most interesting challenge facing your team at the moment, and how are you working to overcome it?
We cannot hire fast enough. It’s such a good problem to have because that means we are seeing success in all areas of our business. We have never been a post-and-pray type of talent team so we are putting emphasis on how and where we are sourcing our candidates. We also put a significant focus on referrals because we believe great people know great people. Our IGNITE Analyst program is also proving to be the best way for us to develop fresh new talent and allows us to really focus on DEI initiatives. Keeping up with the hiring demand in such a hot market is a challenge but it keeps our jobs exciting.
What they do: Optiver, a proprietary trading firm, uses technology to provide the most up-to-date and competitive prices in financial products around the world. Put simply, their mission is to improve the markets. Rutger Brinkhuis said its employees have an "entrepreneurial mindset, are committed to constant improvement, display a strong sense of ownership and excel at collaboration," which is a reflection of the talent they're looking to hire as they expand.
What do your hiring plans look like this year, and what are some of the key characteristics or traits you look for in new team members?
For Optiver to remain at the forefront of market making — one of the most competitive segments of finance — we require the industry’s undisputed top talent. Whether recruiting recent graduates or experienced subject-matter experts such as traders, engineers and business operations specialists spanning compliance, finance, legal and HR, we seek the same key characteristics across all areas of the business.
Our people possess an entrepreneurial mindset, are committed to constant improvement, display a strong sense of ownership and excel at collaboration. These qualities have defined Optiver’s company culture for 35 years, and as we continue expanding globally in all technical, trading and business functions, we will remain dedicated to our founding values.
Listening to new voices enabled us to not only conduct business as usual throughout this period of rapid growth but actually thrive and further scale.”
What steps are you taking to make sure this period of rapid growth goes smoothly from an employee experience perspective?
Reacting to market events in nanoseconds and strategically navigating volatility are embedded in our company DNA. Whether it’s to improve pricing models or optimize hardware to send orders to the exchange faster, we seek innovators from all backgrounds who enjoy solving complex challenges. As a flat organization and meritocracy, we empower the next generation of talent to make a direct impact by giving input, sharing ideas and challenging the status quo.
Listening to new voices enabled us to not only conduct business as usual throughout this period of rapid growth but actually thrive and further scale. Together, we were able to push the boundaries of global best practices to ensure a smooth employee experience and continued company success.
What’s a project you’re really excited to tackle this year, and what impact will this project have on the business?
We are excited about our burgeoning focus on single-stock equity options. We believe our longstanding expertise in trading options, futures and ETFs across most asset classes will allow us to add great value to the equity options market. Our anticipated growth in this area provides enormous opportunities for strong graduates and industry talent to join our existing teams in challenging the incumbents within this space.
What they do: Peapod Digital Labs is the e-commerce engine of Ahold Delhaize USA, one of the nation’s largest grocery retail groups.
What do your hiring plans look like this year, and what are some of the key characteristics or traits you look for in new team members?
We plan to hire more than 200 employees in 2021 across a variety of departments, locations and levels. Our core values serve as a model for what we look for in new team members: courage, care, teamwork, integrity and humor.
What steps are you taking to make sure this period of rapid growth goes smoothly from an employee experience perspective?
We’ve built out a robust onboarding program that doesn’t end after the employees’ first day. We check in with new hires after 15, 30, 45 and 90 days and offer them exposure to leadership and mentorship right from the beginning. In addition, we’ve added in numerous checkpoints to solicit feedback on the process, so it’s always improving in real time. We also introduced other ways to get involved early through our business resource groups. These include our DE&I Council, Women in Tech+ and wellness groups that help both new and tenured employees stay connected to the rest of the organization.
Adding 200-plus employees is never easy, and we’re taking aggressive steps to prepare ourselves for this influx.”
What is the most interesting challenge facing your team at the moment, and how are you working to overcome it?
Adding 200-plus employees is never easy, and we’re taking aggressive steps to prepare ourselves for this influx. We’ve increased the size of the talent team by 200 percent in the last two months and completely revamped our onboarding process. Driving much of these changes are the numerous feedback loops we've implemented to stay abreast of issues. We’ve also reimagined new hire swag and found fun ways to keep our employees engaged virtually through a variety of activities, such as happy hours, yoga classes and cooking classes.
What they do: Analytics8 is a data and analytics consulting firm.
What do your hiring plans look like this year, and what are some of the key characteristics or traits you look for in new team members?
We started the year with a bold plan to double in size in 2021, which requires us to hire more than we ever have before. We have focused our hiring on recent college grads as associate consultants, but we are also hiring experienced consultants as well as sales, marketing and finance professionals.
The number one criteria we look for in candidates is cultural fit. For us, that means we hire problem solvers who like to work with others toward common goals. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace where folks from all backgrounds can work together to build a better world with data.
What steps are you taking to make sure this period of rapid growth goes smoothly from an employee experience perspective?
In anticipation of our growth this year, we had to make some changes, especially around hiring and onboarding. For the past year, everyone worked remotely. That meant all aspects of our business, including interviews, onboarding, training and client work, was done remotely. Many employees who were hired right around the start of COVID went more than a year without ever working in the office or seeing their coworkers in person.
One thing we did to make new hires feel more integrated in this remote world was grouping them into monthly cohorts and putting them through initial onboarding and training together. We’ve found that employees with a start group feel more connected to the company and their colleagues and are better able to navigate the resources they need to do their jobs.
At the same time, we formalized our onboarding process and spent time enhancing our new-hire training. Each cohort goes through the same onboarding process and we refine and improve it each month using feedback from recent new hires.
Our most interesting challenge is navigating aggressive growth in a completely changed business environment.”
What is the most interesting challenge facing your team at the moment, and how are you working to overcome it?
We're navigating aggressive growth in a completely changed business environment post-COVID. Our services are in high demand. The technology we work with is rapidly evolving. Business travel, which used to be a defining characteristic of consulting, is no longer required, meaning we can hire more broadly and serve clients from any location. But along with that comes increased global competition.
With so many moving parts, the challenge is to keep everyone — leadership, sales staff, consultants and even clients — on the right track with unforeseen challenges and opportunities at every corner. One thing that helps keep everyone aligned is frequent communication around our company vision. As the CEO, I make sure everyone knows what our long-term goals are, the strategy for how we are going to achieve these goals, the progress we are making toward our goals, and the role each department and employee plays. Having everyone on the same page and marching toward the same vision helps us better navigate an unpredictable and complex business environment.
What they do: Fusion Risk Management provides cloud-based software solutions for operational resilience, particularly focusing on managing IT and security risks, business continuity, and crisis and incident response. Its solutions are funneled through one system that’s designed to move organizations beyond legacy tools and empower them to make data-driven decisions and mitigate risks within their businesses.
What do your hiring plans look like this year, and what are some of the key characteristics or traits you look for in new team members?
Hiring is one of our top three priorities for this year. We are looking to scale the organization with more team members who are dedicated to making our customers’ implementations successful as well as support customers through the entire customer lifecycle. Having experience in implementing enterprise software is always a plus, but I have always found that hiring curious people with a bias to action means you are hiring employees who will grow with your company. And, they must have a sense of humor. If we can’t laugh together, who wants to be at work?
We must keep delivering high-quality services and ensure new employees are getting the support they need.”
What steps are you taking to make sure this period of rapid growth goes smoothly from an employee experience perspective?
What got you here will not get you there, so change is always part of the equation. Over-communication is very important. I have often heard from employees that they want to know the "why" behind changes, and if you can get employee perspective that feeds into the decision-making, all the better. As a leader, you must be open to feedback about communication, and you usually only receive feedback on things you got wrong. I do not always get it right, but I keep trying and changing based on what is resonating with the team.
One of the greatest challenges for a scaling business is taking employees' experiences into consideration while also knowing unpopular changes may need to be made to future-proof the organization. The classic example is that growth may mean you have fewer hats to wear during a given day. Some people thrive with variety and do not want to change even if it has become obvious that the team has a bottleneck.
What is the most interesting challenge facing your team at the moment, and how are you working to overcome it?
The most interesting challenge we are facing is picking the most important strategic projects to take on. We are experiencing tremendous growth and onboarding several new employees, which means we must keep delivering high-quality services and ensure new employees are getting the support they need. We also must be disciplined in picking some key strategic projects to successfully complete along with our day jobs that will help us be successful in the future.
An example of one of those projects in a professional services team is having systems and processes in place to understand the team’s available capacity to start new projects and partner with our customer success and account management teams to serve our existing customers. If you do not have the proper view of how the inflight projects are tracking, other cross-functional asks of team members, and knowledge of each team member's capabilities on our various products, it could be easy to over-burden the team and not be ready to deliver a great customer experience. It may sound easy to figure that out, but there are multiple pieces to the puzzle, and it takes everyone’s focus to ensure accuracy.
What they do: BigTime's cloud-based time-tracking and expense-reporting tools are used by a variety of enterprise-level companies around the world.
What do your hiring plans look like this year, and what are some of the key characteristics or traits you look for in new team members?
With a massive market opportunity and demand for our software, we have been working on doubling our headcount since the beginning of 2021. Some key areas for growth include positions within our go-to-market teams, adding key members to our customer support and success teams, and adding to our product and engineering teams to help further accelerate innovation and growth.
From a hiring perspective, our key characteristics revolve around BigTime's five core values: respect the customer, own it, always add value, respect your team and stretch. These core values play directly into our company culture and allow BigTime to continue to grow both as a company and as a team.
What steps are you taking to make sure this period of rapid growth goes smoothly from an employee experience perspective?
In the past 18 months, we went from 40 employees to 100 employees. COVID-19 brought on a new challenge for us when it came to employee onboarding and company culture. Moving to a hybrid-remote system meant revamping our entire hiring and onboarding process along with figuring out how to sustain company culture.
We hired an employee training team to onboard all new employees virtually, hosted monthly team happy hours and empowered team leads to create virtual events with their teams. We also sent out branded swag boxes to all employees each quarter to thank them for all the hard work they were putting in that was positively affecting our company growth.
We’ve also invested in external manager training to enhance leaders’ emotional intelligence, communication and overall impact with their teams. This helped us learn how to build resilience and adaptability to better manage employees in our new hybrid-remote environment.
With a massive market opportunity and demand for our software, we have been working on doubling our headcount since the beginning of 2021.”
What’s a project you’re really excited to tackle this year, and what impact will this project have on the business?
One project I’m really excited about this year is expanding our footprint within the Chicago tech scene by taking on additional office space that will allow employees to come into an office that has plenty of room for them to work comfortably when necessary in our new hybrid-remote culture.
We also recently opened a new office in Phoenix, Arizona and are looking to open an additional one to two offices within the next 12 months. This will allow us to recruit from a larger talent pool outside of Chicago, ensuring that BigTime is bringing in top talent across the United States, continuing to build the best-of-class team that our customers expect.
What they do: CardX provides businesses with automatic compliance with all of the requirements for surcharging, allowing businesses to accept credit card payments at no cost.
What do your hiring plans look like this year, and what are some of the key characteristics or traits you look for in new team members?
CardX is in expansion mode, and we expect that to accelerate through 2021. In 2020, the client support team tripled in size with a focus on creating a foundation that would scale over time. As part of that growth, new team members were trained as generalists, allowing the team to be nimble and provide value to the business in various capacities.
In 2021, we plan to continue building the team, and our hiring focus will shift to adding more specialized roles within customer success and technical support. These new roles will serve very specific business needs and ensure we’re creating a servicing paradigm that promotes overall customer satisfaction for many years to come. We’re also adding more technical resources to serve our growing number of enterprise clients, which tend to have more complex credit card processing needs. With all CardX hires, we are looking for candidates who are positive, strive for excellence and are naturally curious.
What steps are you taking to make sure this period of rapid growth goes smoothly from an employee experience perspective?
During 2020, our team primarily worked remotely, which has resulted in a unique employee onboarding experience. Remote onboarding is challenging in many ways, from delivering new hires’ hardware to providing the hands-on experience that many new team members thrive on.
This was a particular challenge for our client support team because we’re collaborative by nature. Much of the historical onboarding has involved physically sitting down with another team member to shadow live client interactions and ask questions in real time. This period of remote work has allowed us to review our onboarding experience through a new lens and really streamline the process.
Through the joint effort of individual team members, we’ve developed a formal onboarding program that involves a mix of classroom learning and live shadowing using programs such as Zoom and Zendesk. By utilizing technology, we’re able to get many of the benefits of in-person training and make sure new team members feel supported. The formal onboarding program we’ve put together will translate well to an in-person work environment, and we’re excited to continue growing our team this coming year.
Our hiring focus will shift to adding more specialized roles within customer success and technical support.”
What’s a project you’re really excited to tackle this year, and what impact will this project have on the business?
In the coming weeks, we plan to introduce chat as a new feature on CardX Portal. Historically, we’ve provided support to our customers through phone and email, but chat will be a brand-new way to communicate with our customers. We’re excited about chat because it will provide the extra level of support that many of our merchants need, and it integrates seamlessly with our portal. Not only will clients have access to state-of-the-art credit card processing and reporting tools, but now they’ll also have real-time access to interact with our support team.
Through this new support experience, we’ll also have increased visibility into what our client sees, giving us the power to troubleshoot quickly and with ease. In a year where we’re anticipating significant growth within our client base, we’re confident that this added feature will complement our onboarding experience and decrease the time it takes to succeed with new client launches.
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