Values based hiring
One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced as a co-founder of Zego is how to maintain our company culture in spite of ambitious hiring plans. When you double and triple your headcount, how do you make sure that the initial behaviour and mind-set that have made us successful are not diluted?
Ultimately, it comes down to hiring the right people. We had a team of almost 30 before we started to formalise our company values — we knew that we couldn’t just pick what we wanted; we didn’t want to create a set of values, but to discover what these were, and we wanted the people we worked with to help in that discovery. With that in mind, we sat the entire company down and listed our thoughts collectively. It was interesting, though in hindsight not surprising, to see how well-aligned we already were. The team observed a de facto set of Zego values, even though they had never been written down. We had already been practising values based hiring since the beginning without even realising it.
As Zego grows, I fully expect our values to evolve with us, but when we look at who we are now, this is what we see.
If it’s important, it’s important enough to be challenged
When we started this business, people told us that it was a nice idea but it was never going to progress. This idea of challenge is ingrained in Zego from it’s very beginnings, and it extends from both how we consider the outside world and how we act within the company. I expect anyone from any department to feel empowered enough to challenge what we’re doing and why. When I’m looking for people to join our team, I want to know that they won’t accept being told to do something a specific way because that’s the way it’s always been done.
Great things happen when you move
Don’t get me wrong, ideas, plans, and visions are all important, but true value is only created by acting on them. Because we believe in getting things done, we try hard to remove barriers that prevent this from happening quickly. Startups have to be fast, nimble, and constantly on the lookout for opportunities. The ability to act fast, be pragmatic in solutions, and deliver is paramount. It’s this kind of hunger that I’m looking for.
Excellence is the result of always trying to make things better
If we stop trying to make things better, then somebody else will take over. This goes for our products, our relationships, and all of our internal processes. Life is inherently iterative and we embrace that. We can’t be fast, nimble, and pragmatic, and still achieve excellence on the first pass. But if we keep coming back to things and constantly striving for improvement, then we will reach excellence. Soon after that, we will set the bar even higher again. I want people to come in and fall in love with whatever they are working on, not just launch it and move on to the next thing. I want people to be as excited by iteration as I am.
We don’t need permission to do our jobs
Of all our values, this is the one that seems to cause a visible shift in energy when I explain it to people. It’s as though most people go to work with shackles on their feet, and I’m offering a field to run around in. I believe in hiring people I trust, and then trusting them to do their jobs. If somebody wants to discuss whether they should do something or not, I’ll offer my opinion, but I don’t want to be in a position where I have to give my permission. This autonomy is something that we try to build in at all levels, and I’m always asking myself when hiring whether I would trust this person to be making the right decisions.
We’re all in this together
You can’t achieve all this without creating a safe space for people to make mistakes. We are all moving fast, we are all trying to be excellent, we are all making tough choices, and we will all stumble on the way. At Zego we don’t believe in a culture of shame. My job as a co-founder is to support the people who are helping me build this business, pick them up after a stumble, dust them off, and then work out how we’re going to fix things together. We have such a diverse team of people, and with the right support and the understanding that we’re all on the same team, we can accomplish anything. There isn’t room for massive egos or rockstars at Zego; we want to build a family.
We’re now a team of a little over 50, and by searching for people who share these values with us, we have been successful at maintaining, nurturing, and growing the culture here at Zego. Somebody once told me that your company culture is like a garden; there is no one single way to make a beautiful garden, but if you want it to thrive then it takes work, and that work is what I come in every day to do.
If you’re interested in joining the team or discovering more about Zego, head on over to our careers page and get in touch.
