Flexibility for a Truly Empowered Team
Any corporate professional needs to be a highly flexible person. We balance multiple avenues of work, family, hobbies, travel, and many ‘adult responsibilities’ that come our way. And then, we need to address the creeping existential questions like ‘what do I want to do with my life?’
Such a person needs a flexible environment to thrive as well. Can a gymnast be happy sitting all day in a wooden hard-backed chair?
Individuals within any organization think about their careers differently based on what roles, experiences, and potential they have. Everyone plans toward having a career, rather than a job. At Hevo, flexibility means empowering individuals to build such a career in a myriad of ways, rather than just a job that you treat like a pitstop on your journey. Things like choosing your work schedule, choosing your impact tasks, and working with your team in the office for a high pace of execution and success, help individuals have a very high level of control over their development.
How can the line between individual flexibility and team dynamics be defined?
The key aspect is accountability and trust. When a team works with a lot of trust, there is mutual respect and confidence developed due to each individual’s expertise and willingness to achieve the outcomes of the team. There is no question of whether team members can rely on each other, regardless of individual idiosyncrasies. This brings a sense of accountability and responsibility and also encourages individuals to pitch in their ideas, build upon them, and drive to execution.
This is why we have a flexible leave policy as well- true achievement and productivity are achieved when people use good judgment to choose what works for them as well as their customers while taking time for themselves and their priorities outside of work. A high amount of ownership and accountability towards work means that we take care of deadlines and make sure we support team members in achieving shared goals.
Flexibility beyond the day-to-day
At Hevo, the meaning of flexibility also involves intellectual aspects of work to a higher degree apart from the basic, tangible aspects. Things like freedom for innovative thinking, building a team, taking ownership of tasks that excite us in our role, mentoring people to move to the next levels, etc. are all part of the kind of work environment we are aiming to create.
A focus on such concepts requires an understanding of, and empathy towards, the needs and aspirations of each individual. Beyond this, it requires the ability to figure out the best way to create a synergy from these. Every single person must truly belong to the team, whether that is achieved through engagement activities and events or career guidance and in-person meetings.
We also believe that having fun together leads to better relationships, more tightly-knit bonds, and ultimately a better working experience. So we have regular floor engagement activities, sports events, parties, coffee chats with founders, etc. All this helps us take our minds off work and also create a holistic and balanced workplace where we feel we belong.
Defining Flexibility at Work
Real flexibility comes when, as an organization, we consider our team’s long-term growth. Trust, ownership of work, and mutual accountability, which are the aspects that enable true flexibility, aren’t formed automatically- they need to be viewed as a joint goal that we all work towards. We’re glad to build flexible careers at Hevo, that empower individuals in the long term.
