Conducting the Orchestra: Reflecting our Ideals as a Team

Companies that are a rocketship of growth can see many changes in their internal environment. With many astronauts working together, all from different backgrounds, the culture of the company can be diluted if they are not guided to interact and propel the ship in the best way. How exactly is this done?

For this, there must be a clear understanding of the optimum work environment, the foundational values of the company, and how these can intersect. Let’s explore a few key ideas that we hold dear at Hevo and how these are seen every day through the people function — from launch to touchdown.

Feeling of Ownership

An Ownership Mindset is a cornerstone for the culture at Hevo. It is when people feel genuinely invested that they give their best. So we’ve doubled down on our efforts to encourage this sentiment of ownership, and meaningful and constant communication is at the core.

We have a series of touchpoints for people to be able to connect with their work beyond a perfunctory way. This process starts right from the word go to bring the new team member into the fold. Through one-on-one meetings with managers, skip leaders, and other team members, the candidate gets a clear picture of Hevo even before they join and strikes a personal connection right away. Blogs and articles provide a good backdrop for this. Often, this is complemented with a meeting with the founders to have a discussion about Hevo’s ideals and lay out the impact of the new joiner in the company.

Our 30-day onboarding program provides a runway for people to truly become insiders. ‘No paperwork on day 1’ is our mantra, and the first two days are all about meeting with the buddy, manager, team members, and the people function. Building these connections is even more important in the remote world, where it can become easy for members to feel siloed rather than working as a team. A cross-functional induction program is a particular highlight of the onboarding, which opens with a welcome and a discussion of our product and mission by the Founder. What the different teams do, how the business functions, how we create differentiation for customers, accompanied by customer stories that we’re proud of — all of these together tell a very clear story. Every person who enters Hevo must see the big picture before they get their heads down and begin their real stint.

Connecting the Dots

The feeling of ownership can only be nurtured when people feel the impact of their work and voice. We make sure that we keep upping our ante for our team to feel seen and heard.

Our Campfire sessions are informal discussions with the co-founder about challenges, solutions, goals, and ideas. This unfiltered, free-flowing session with participants, without any conflict of interest, is a keen insight into the heartbeat of our company.

Inculcating that keen business interest and a strong inclination to win is extremely important for us to build rewarding careers. A founder-led All-Hands keeps us connected and transparent, rallying people in a common direction. We candidly discuss our place in the market, our journey, and our internal achievements and goals.

Celebrating People

Celebrating people is crucial for us, and we do it with pride — Be it a Hevoite joining, completing a work anniversary, accomplishing work, or the company itself achieving a business milestone.

Even before they join, a series of gifts like books, hampers, and Swag Kits is our little way to convey that we can’t wait to have them on board.

Our Spotlight series goes out from the founder’s desk, where they take the time to acknowledge and honor the work of teams. This underscores the importance of moving towards our goals together rather than focusing on one individual’s contribution. It reinforces our idea that success is a consistent group effort over a period of time rather than a discrete set of individual accomplishments.

Peer recognitions have been interesting cultural artifacts of how we break barriers of hierarchy and create an inclusive work environment.

Reciprocation

With the high standards that we expect from our people, our commitment to building rewarding careers and lives is equally top of the mind.

While managing performance, the reward is for the ‘How’ of accomplishments and not just for the ‘What.’ The journey towards long-term success lies in the potential of people, and we strongly err towards rewarding high potential, hard work, and bias for action.

When it comes to giving back, our WFH policy ensures that all members have the best environment to produce their best work. We try to provide the utmost flexibility through unlimited leaves and go out of the way to provide the best tools and resources to help people work effectively, no matter the cost. Productivity blossoms when people are relaxed and balanced, so an entertainment allowance also forms part of the joining kit!

Continuously evaluating ourselves in how we give back is an absolute priority for us to build a truly world-class team.

* * * *

We always keep our Hevo values in the back of our minds as lodestone throughout our people practices. The goal is to stick close to our core principles as far as possible and organically bring all our new Hevoites onto a path of these principles as well.

Our main mission is to create a workplace where ambitious people are excited and encouraged to work. We want each person’s contribution to be significant and aligned with both their personal goals as well as the goals of Hevo.