Leaders are great because of their ability to empower others, not because of their own authority. It is no secret that most IT businesses claim their culture as “unique” or “open,” but when you dig deeper, you will find that it’s typically only on the surface. Yes, you may allow dogs on leashes or provide unlimited beer on tap, but how are you assisting your employees in becoming their best selves? We are at our best when our people are at their best, so we go to great lengths to ensure that happens.
After successfully running Vincit in Finland and Switzerland, we expanded to the United States in 2016, establishing a California office. Despite the fact that we had relocated almost 5,000 miles to a new country, our two major KPIs remained the same: employee happiness and customer satisfaction. We think that happy staff led to satisfied clients, who in turn refer you to others. As a result, it was critical that we bring this good and productive work atmosphere with us to the United States.
Therefore, in addition to regular benefits like complete medical coverage, 401(k) matching, and normal office facilities, we used our Finnish heritage to create and deliver an unconstrained, supportive environment for our employees. We strive to make our business culture as transparent as possible, and we strongly believe in the power of employee empowerment. We do not have any managers or a clear role hierarchy. Employees are not required to go through an approval process for all work they conduct.
We welcome all of our workers to visit our headquarters in Finland. We hold “Fail & Learn” meetings instead of “Lunch & Learn” sessions, in which staff can share something that did not work and what they learnt as a result. We also give an employee the opportunity to be CEO for a day once a month.
The “CEO of the Day” program is, unsurprisingly, one of our most popular efforts. The sole restriction is that our employee has complete control over the software for 24 hours with an unlimited budget. The CEO must make one long-term decision that will enable Vincit workers have a better working experience. The corporation follows whatever the CEO of the Day decides. They can buy something for the business, change a policy, and update a tool we use, and so on… Anything they come up with can implement.
