Top Companies Still Hiring — Dcode
Today’s Top Companies *Still* Hiring article features Dcode! Like each company featured here, not only are they still actively hiring but they have not undergone any layoffs. Dcode is a privately owned, women-led startup based in Washington, D.C., connecting the tech industry and government to drive commercial innovation in the federal market.
Thank you to Director of Operations Whitney Jones as well as Director of Marketing Clare Bennett for sharing their personal and team experiences working with Dcode. To see which roles Dcode is hiring for, please visit their Careers Page. They have a number of openings virtually and in Washington D.C., with plans to double in size by the end of the year.
To learn how they’re navigating COVID-19 and why they’re a special place to work, keep on reading!
COVID-19 has highlighted some of the best aspects of Dcode’s business, emphasizing its mission and encouraging the team to reimagine how to deliver once in-person offerings virtually. Could you share a bit more about the changes Dcode has experienced over the past few months?
The pandemic has emphasized the government’s need for emerging tech. For example, when the entire government transitioned to widespread telework, there was an increase in vulnerability to cyber attacks. The government needs the proper tools to protect its data but does not necessarily know where to look to find tech solutions that are reliable and safe for government use. That’s where Dcode comes in, bringing the best commercial innovation into the federal market.
Due to the pandemic, we had to move all in-person programs to virtual formats. We are proud to say that our team dropped everything to work together and find a strong way forward in just 4 days. From enhancing content to organizing virtual events, we had to reimagine how to deliver a quality customer experience and engage with our community of tech and government leaders.
The success of our virtual offerings — like our tech accelerator, government training courses, and panel events — has created opportunity, and we realized the need to hire more talented rockstars. We’ve onboarded 7 people (virtually) already! Starting any new job is an adjustment, so our team has dedicated a bunch of time and care to help new Dcoders feel welcome and fully equipped to succeed even while we all work from home.
What have you been doing to keep your employees engaged and feeling supported during this time?
The changes we have made to keep our team engaged and supported are based on what the team wants and needs. Each week, our Director of Operations, Whitney, sends an anonymous 5-minute survey to the team, consisting of 3–4 short questions that change each week to focus on different themes, and with one question that always remains the same: “How are you doing generally?” Rather than asking managers or leadership, we engage the team directly. And the results have been phenomenal. Each week, Whitney synthesizes the responses and makes recommendations to the c-suite, who then implement the slight changes or new solutions each Monday.
We also continue team-building activities like we used to do in person. A couple of our favorite remote team activities so far have been a virtual scavenger hunt (including items from inside people’s homes to butterflies, streams, and birds) and our meme competition, where the team compiled video-call screenshots of each other with captions and made the winning memes into desk calendars for everyone.
Another important company initiative that we have continued to prioritize while working remotely is our series of quarterly diversity and inclusion discussions that started last year. Topics include white privilege and code-switching to help strengthen our inclusive team culture beyond those group discussions so that we’re all learning and supporting each other, especially since our team is 66% female and nearly half from minority backgrounds.
Plus, Dcode cares about our team’s lives and wellbeing. In an effort to support everyone, we created a Covid-19 response plan, which is brimming with resources and information, that we update weekly. Information on how to access mental health or physical health resources provided by our healthcare provider are listed in the plan. Resources for parents juggling work and children are in there. Dcode reimburses any work-from-home “office space” needs. While we implemented unlimited vacation (2-weeks minimum) and unlimited sick policies before Covid-19, we have been encouraging the team to take time off each month even if it’s to have a staycation.
A lot of the changes you’ve made for your employees were directly influenced by their requests. It has encouraged you to continue sending the surveys you mentioned, even after returning to the office. What are some notable new approaches you adopted since polling your employees for feedback?
So many constructive ideas have come from our anonymous surveys, which we modeled after the concept of radical candor. All Dcoders have been really thoughtful about their survey responses, and the surveys help managers determine how to best address their teams’ needs as well as ways to improve Dcode. The surveys have provided additional opportunities for our team to share their ideas without fear of judgment — we can truly speak our minds and know that leadership is taking these comments seriously because we can see the direct changes week over week.
We make sure to highlight when feedback leads to a new Dcode initiative or policy. For example, Meeting-Free Wednesdays and Half-Day Fridays were implemented because employees pointed out that the virtual meeting load was weighing on them. Spending so many hours per week in meetings (because people were trying to stay connected and engaged) made getting work done hard, and the change has boosted spirits and productivity.
Another approach we changed based on team feedback was our weekly “Let’s Chat” rotation. When we first transitioned to full-time telework, leadership was calling every Dcoder to chat individually for 15 minutes every Friday to see how everyone was doing. The team requested that these calls evolve to include 2–3 Dcoders to just catch up with colleagues they don’t get to speak with as often given working from home. The chats began in the second week of working remotely, and 10 weeks later, the team still loves them, based on the survey results.
The surveys also helped us update our meeting structures to be more engaging. In person, our meetings functioned well, but virtually, some fell flat — especially our recurring meeting on Mondays to kick off the week. One new element is that we’ve added an interactive “whiteboarding” session using Miro for brainstorms in our weekly kickstarter meeting. After the virtual whiteboard brainstorm, managers provide direct insight into how their team’s priorities for the week and work affect the rest of the company. And the c-suite shares what they’re working on for greater transparency. To wrap up, we reserve the last 15 minutes of each kickstarter meeting to discuss any relevant topics the rest of the team would like to cover.
For Dcode to become fully virtual in just 4 days’ time was a huge lift. Could you tell us a bit more about the core team that led this initiative?
A core group of about five people across our tech and government teams led the charge on transitioning all of our event-based offerings to virtual formats. A lot of energy was spent up front ensuring we were not duplicating efforts, making the process more streamlined and sustainable in the long term. Every team across Dcode stepped in to help identify and implement new tech tools, test the user experience, and come up with ways to make virtual presentations more engaging for our customers. We received so many questions about how we made video calls look quality, we detailed the process in a blog post.
It was clear throughout our conversation that Dcode’s leadership has enormous faith in and willingly leans on their employees to contribute in meaningful and actionable ways. Pandemic recommendations aside, how does this influence the day to day at Dcode?
Our leadership’s trust in the team is core to our business. Our CEO and chief strategy officer (CSO) take pride in hiring experts and equipping them with what they need to do their jobs well. The c-suite leads by example, inspiring employees to take the steps they see as best and enabling teams to improve and implement new processes without being bottlenecked for lengthy review and approval cycles.
Dcode’s leadership has created a culture of extremely self-motivated problem-solving. Our culture maintains that if anyone, in any role, has an idea, they’re encouraged to run with it. Take ownership. It fails? What did we learn from it, and should we try and tweak it? Who do we involve to do that?
That culture plus our team’s diversity of backgrounds leads to a constant influx of new ideas, collaboration, and iteration for a proactively improving and evolving workplace.
If your tech company is actively hiring, you have not experienced layoffs, and you’re interested in being featured, please fill out this Google Form. I’ll reach out directly.
