Behind the scenes at SumUp in 2019
A few of the things that made life at SumUp great this year.
Before we wind down for the festive season, we’d like to take a moment to celebrate a few of the things that made SumUp such a rewarding place to work in 2019.
We were excited to welcome 454 new joiners this year, bringing us to a grand total of over 1700 SumUppers worldwide.
With this substantial growth, we’ve also been thrilled to see SumUp become more multicultural. Today, our global team is made up of 61 nationalities, up from 47 at the beginning of 2018.
We’re proud of the fact that over 50% of SumUppers are female, but we’re determined to bring more women into leadership and tech roles. To spread the word, we took part in initiatives like WomenHack in Brazil, Women in Developer Circle in Berlin and Go for It in Sofia.
“We care” is one of our core values, and SumUppers across the globe consistently ensure that we practice what we preach.
This year, our Brazilian team donated 436 kg of food to Força do Bem, a charity that cares for underprivileged, hospitalised and elderly people.
In Bulgaria, SumUppers donated books to a rural community centre, helped plant a forest outside Sofia, raised money for conservation and breast cancer charities, and recycled 36 kg of bottle caps for an organisation that donates baby incubators to hospitals.
In Berlin, 78 SumUppers gave up free time to participate in our social days programme. Our volunteers took part in 6 different charitable projects, including preparing food for 1000 homeless or needy people, and wrapping Christmas gifts for around 1300 child refugees. And our sustainability guild strove to make SumUp more environmentally friendly by launching a card reader refurbishment scheme, new public transport perks and other green endeavours.
Meanwhile, SumUppers around the world take part in our weekly Friday shirt initiative: for every person that wears a loud, patterned, slightly embarrassing shirt into the office, SumUp donates €1 to a good cause. This year, we’ve raised €400 for The Ocean Cleanup.
Our colleagues often tell us how much they appreciate the opportunities for growth and learning offered by our Talent Development team. This year, 676 Europe-based SumUppers took part in internal training. Of the 21 different courses offered in 2019, the most popular were ‘Giving and Receiving Feedback’, ‘Interviewing Skills’ and ‘The Art of Public Speaking’.
Meanwhile in Brazil, 24 career development workshops were hosted, while 70 SumUppers took part in leadership training.
And because many of us work outside of our native countries, a number of our offices offer free language lessons to help SumUppers adjust to life in a new city or work in a language other than their mother tongue. At present, around 80 SumUppers attend after-work German classes in Berlin, 11 are learning Bulgarian in Sofia, and 20 are honing their English skills in Warsaw and Kielce.
In July, a dedicated group went above and beyond to arrange something special for Berlin Pride. Our LGBTQ+ community put together an enlightening awareness session exploring the origins of Pride and why it’s so important. The event was a resounding success, with around 100 attendees. The awareness session format has since been adopted to discuss other vital social and cultural issues, such as mental health and our code of conduct. Each event has empowered SumUppers to speak openly, ask questions and play an active role in shaping our culture.
Finally, don’t just take our word for it that life here is special. See what a few of our 2019 joiners had to say about their SumUp journey to date.
2020 will be another year of massive growth for SumUp. Interested in coming along for the ride? Check out our latest vacancies.
