Company culture is at the top of the list for much of tech’s top talent. These six companies share the specifics that make their organizations so attractive.
Top tech performers are savvy, with around 71 percent of job seekers pursuing internal insight on potential employers through friends and acquaintances before exploring an open role, according to recent Gallup research.
Tech organizations hoping to appeal to virtuoso candidates must be able to clearly define the unique practices and benefits that foster their “it” factor — specifically, their company culture. When Built In NY sat down with six Big Apple tech companies, one thing became clear: Tech leaders aren’t afraid to lift the curtain on the culture markers that define them.
MadHive told Built In NY how it uses its beloved “burndowns” as a tool to whip up engineering engagement, while Yotpo shared the joy of its sales organization’s “walk-out songs” to celebrate closed deals. Life insurance company MassMutual spoke about its “stretch projects” — designed to challenge high performers to hone new skills, dabble in mentorship and otherwise blossom in new and thrilling ways.
To nurture its team of “bar raisers,” Radar rhapsodizes the “we” versus “I,” celebrating wins during its quarterly “Golden Arrow Awards.” Tonic.ai bolsters morale through an annual hand-sent letter from its founders, and Trumid lifts its employees by providing tailored “learning trails” for robust professional development.
From company-wide mantras to bustling Slack channels, these organizations know what it takes to attract and retain top talent — and they aren’t shy about providing candidates with a window into the tangible culture-builders that make their work life rich.
Trumid
Parker Gordon, Engineering Lead – Scala • Trumid
Trumid is a financial technology company and fixed-income electronic trading platform focused on US dollar-denominated investment grade, high-yield, distressed, and emerging market bonds. Trumid aims to optimize the credit trading experience by combining agile technology and market expertise, with a focus on product design.
What are the key characteristics or values of a good team culture, and what are some ways you and your team bring those characteristics or values to life?
We’re firm believers that trust, respect, adaptability and collaboration serve as the best foundation for a healthy team. While there are many qualities to look for in a team, these four characteristics enable groups to find enjoyment in the work they do — and ultimately be as productive as possible.
How Trumid Fosters Culture
- Encouraging collaboration and engagement through an inclusive team environment
- Actively seeking input from all team members
- Taking time to socialize daily
- Being responsive to team members, especially when they need support
- Giving individuals autonomy, responsibility and ownership of technical areas of interest
- Being polite and professional, providing constructive feedback and valuing individual contributions
- Being clear and concise when communicating
- Actively listening to and valuing the ideas of others
- Ensuring that everyone is open to change, continuously learning and growing
How do you ensure members of your team continue to feel challenged, engaged and excited by the work they’re doing?
We provide frequent opportunities for learning and development through tailored online “learning trail” courses for various language and technical learning paths, as well as encouraging all team members to refresh their project initiatives regularly.
We also organically recognize, celebrate and reward contributions. Continual feedback is provided at one-on-one meetings, and we ensure that team members have control and ownership of their work.
We work hard to eliminate bureaucracy and avoid wasted movement — a goal that we strongly believe leads to a more empowering and fulfilling work environment. From top-notch self-service developer documentation and ad-hoc remote environments to technical autonomy, our team has developed an engaging environment with minimal friction and a balanced amount of freedom.
Do you have any unique team celebrations, traditions or rituals to celebrate successes? Please offer a real-life example.
We regularly post shout-outs to our #kudos slack channel to acknowledge the accomplishments and hard work of our team. It’s a fulfilling way to recognize and show our appreciation for one another. Just the other day, I posted in #kudos to thank my team member Ashley for doing an excellent job cleaning up our tooling for service monitoring and alerting.
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