Here in our Remote Employers Masterclass we’ve been taking a look at some of the most successful companies globally that are hiring remotely. It can be daunting for those thinking about changing their working life and starting a remote career. However, getting the right job can feel like finding the Holy Grail! Each masterclass will provide a brief description of the company, along with some features that make them particularly interesting for remoters. There will even be a Q&A video so you can find out what really makes a remote friendly company successful. For the fourth installment of our Remote Employers Masterclass, we’ve decided to take a look at Vero.
Vero is a messaging platform that helps businesses engage customers and grow their business. The platform empowers teams to use their data to create, test and optimize automated emails, push notifications and custom interactions, to deliver better customer experiences. The company’s HQ is based in Sydney, but more than half of the teamwork remotely from places across the globe – Florida, Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Hong Kong, Seattle, Portugal, Brisbane and more. Their remote team enables them to provide 24-hour support to customers all over the world, some of which include Monzo, Unsplash, Tidal, Helloprint, Pipedrive, and Thread.
Vero’s Mission & Team
Vero seeks to help teams deliver best-in-class customer experiences and grow their business. They work with a number of digital-first businesses, SMBs and mid-market companies that sell globally 24/7 and interact with their customers online. Their main mission and goal are to help businesses thrive by enabling them to service their customers better and more efficiently. By having a remote team it has enabled them to provide a high standard of service to customers all over the world with just a small team, AN increase in diversity and being able to hire talent from all around the globe are also major benefits from hiring remotely. For the team at Vero, “remote work [doesn’t] solve all problems, [but] it’s a growing trend that enables us to be at the forefront of future work.”
Hiring and Standard Processes
When assessing new candidates for a position at Vero, they mainly look for experience and demonstrable results in the given field. Also important is talent, hard work and a passion for what the candidate does. Being curious to learn and a continuous want to improve makes candidates stand out to the Vero hiring team. The culture of the company places importance on great teamwork, humility, respect, and support for everyone else on the team.
As some of the team works together in the office in Sydney, it’s important for Vero to ensure their remoters are just as engaged. To them, this can be the most challenging area of remote work. By using day-to-day tools like Slack, Notion, Asana & Zoom, collaboration is made much easier. The whole team can also engage in remote water cooler moments and laid back chat by using Slack. All decisions and communication have to be done through these programs, wherever they happen to be. That could be in the office in Sydney or in a remote location. All processes are standardized to make sure that tasks are assigned in the same way across the whole team. Weekly stand-ups take place, with a combination of sprint planning and retrospects.
To help build up the social side of the team, they also make sure to have an annual team off-site, which ensures everyone gets an opportunity to meet, work, and socialize together. This is really important for building and maintaining a great culture at Vero.
Onboarding & Remote Culture
Vero has created their own onboarding process and checklist that is used to induct all new team members. The initial few weeks involve practical tasks: getting set up, self-directed learning about the remoter’s area of the businesses based on past documentation or the application code. The other half of the process is about getting to know the team and the company as a whole, as well as how Vero get things done (how our planning and processes work). New team members are also paired with a “buddy”- this could be someone on their timezone, near their city or their direct report. The designated buddy guides them through the first few weeks and is a trusted mentor whose always on hand to answer questions and help them settle in. This also helps with introducing the new team member into the company culture.
As quite a large part of this culture is remote, team members sometimes dial into meetings when traveling. The team loves the feeling of camaraderie that is engendered when someone dials in from an atypical place: a bullet train in China, a bus in Latvia. For them, “It keeps things interesting, creates great conversation and puts a smile on everyone’s face, and is indicative of the vast differences in time and space between us, distances we overcome every day to work together and move forward!”
Careers at Vero & the Remote-how Advisory
If you’d like to find out more about Vero and possible job opportunities, then you can check out their Careers page for positions and more information on the kind of people they’re looking for. The team currently has 17 members, but Vero will be hiring for a few more roles later this year. Even if they don’t have roles open – Vero is always excited to hear from talented, curious, and humble people that can add to their team skill set and culture.
Feeling inspired? For more information, tips, tricks, and guidance in realizing your remote work dream, you can sign up to our Remote-how Advisory here.
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