The Great Resignation is not just a phrase we’re hearing or reading about — it’s happening all around us. Across the country, employees are feeling burnt out and, as a result, are going in search of more meaningful roles that will add value to their professional lives without sacrificing their personal ones.
For some, there is a need to remain working from home. Operating with a remote-first mentality is no easy feat, but it’s been a focus at greentech software provider Sense over the last 18 months. Now that the company is open to hiring across the country, co-founder and VP of engineering, Ryan Houlette, wants to ensure that their remote employees are as supported and involved as those working in person. The great news is that joining the team at Sense offers a level of added stability, as there are internal opportunities for growth. “We believe in developing talent from within the company wherever possible,” Houlette said.
Other employees just want to feel supported and heard, which is why Lose It! is directing its attention to employee satisfaction. “We have had a lot of growth this year and our focus on continuously improving the employee experience has led us to where we are today,” said Nichole Thompson. The company’s leadership not only values the voices and needs of their employees — but they listen. So far, they’ve implemented flexibility through hybrid work schedules, celebrated wellness with a week off in September and created an employee engagement team. What’s next could be up to you.
Top talent is a top priority for these local tech companies — and they want to be in it for the long haul with you. Built In Boston sat down with two local professionals to learn what their teams are doing — and offering — to stand out in the tech landscape. These leaders from Lose It! and Sense shared the company values that continue to attract talent, and explained how their teams have adapted to meeting the needs of staff during the pandemic.
What are some things you and your team do to attract great talent and stand out from other potential employers?
We want people to choose Lose It! not only because we offer something different from the market, but because candidates connect with our mission and the work we do, and are excited about the product we create.
Getting to know our values means getting to know us and how we work. The first thing to know is that we are purpose-driven — it’s not just about the paycheck for us. We are connected to our mission and want to make the world healthier. We are also humble, which means we are willing to learn, inclusive in our welcome and transparent in our work. We are all owners, and like our users, are results oriented.
We have had a lot of growth this year and our focus on continuously improving the employee experience has led us to where we are today. We recently started asking newly hired employees, “You chose us: Are we everything we said we were?” The answer consistently has been, “Yes,” which is affirmation that we are delivering on our offer. Is there more work to do? Always. But it’s work worth doing, because a happy place to work is a great place to work.
We are committed to continuing to prioritize employee engagement so that our talent chooses us as the place to invest their time.”
What are a couple of your key strategies and offerings that help you retain talent?
We offer a balanced approach to work and life, and have a “take time off when you need it” philosophy. We don’t just say this — we do this. We have an open PTO policy, drop our workweek down to four days during the summer, and take employees and their families on a multi-week international retreat. With a little planning and preparation, we are able to successfully balance both our need for time off and the needs of the business.
By design, we offer benefits that rival — if not beat — what is found in the marketplace, including 100 percent paid monthly insurance premiums for health, dental and vision care; zero co-pay for prescriptions; bonus and profit sharing; wellness reimbursement; commuter subsidization; and a home office and data reimbursement stipend.
Our benefits are hard to leave, but that’s not why people stay. The perception may be that career growth can be limited at a small company. We are proud that 81 percent of our employees with two or more years of service have been promoted while working at Lose It!, including 63 percent who were promoted two or more times into higher-level roles. We welcomed seven new employees this year and look forward to more growth in 2022.
The pandemic has led many professionals to reconsider what they want from a job, and where and how they want to work. How has your company adapted to this shift, and what steps have you taken to create a workplace that meets those needs?
We started our work in mid-2020 by asking employees what they like about working at Lose It! and what would make coming to work every day even better. We listened and got to work. These are some of the outcomes:
First, we transitioned to a hybrid, two-day-a-week in-person working schedule to offer more flexibility for our employees, with exceptions provided upon request based on personal health needs. We also celebrated Emotional Wellness Month early and gave employees a week off in September to unplug. Then we updated our bonus program to include all of our part- and full-time employees.
From there, we created an employee engagement team in addition to our DEI resource group, and increased two-way communication with employees and leaders both through conversation and our employee engagement survey. In fall 2021, we scheduled a November retreat for our employees and their families to head to Austin, Texas, for a couple of weeks to work, play and be together.
Looking ahead to 2022, we are committed to continuing to prioritize employee engagement so that our talent chooses us as the place to invest their time and deliver a great product to our users.
What do you and your team do to attract great talent and stand out from other potential employers?
Sense is a mission-driven company. Our goal is to have a significant positive impact on climate change by empowering residential users to reduce their homes’ carbon footprints. This commitment is woven into our day-to-day work, and is a passionate interest for much of our team.
Our machine learning technology provides users with a unique, detailed, real-time view into energy consumption and activity in their homes. We have strategic partnerships with top global energy infrastructure companies, and by deeply integrating Sense into their next-generation products, we are on a path to scale our customer base exponentially over the next few years.
At the same time, we’re tackling the challenge of expanding our product to a much broader set of users as we move into the mass market and build the next generation of Sense: an artificial intelligence and automation platform for home infrastructure. Along the way, we get to solve a wide range of tough problems, from product and engineering to marketing and business development. Whether you’re interested in energy, greentech, technical challenges or you want to make a big impact at a fast-growing startup, Sense has something for you!
What are a couple of the key strategies and offerings that help you retain talent?
The culture at Sense is often cited as one of the things that people enjoy the most. It comes across even during the interview process, and candidates regularly tell us that our company seems like a great place to work. If I had to sum it up, I’d say that the culture at Sense is team first, inclusive and collaborative. We’re a group of people who love solving hard problems together and empower each other to do our best work. We’re thoughtful, pragmatic, engaged and empathetic, and we care deeply about nurturing and strengthening these values as we grow. We also have an active diversity, equity and inclusion employee resource group with executive-level support.
All employees get a free Sense monitor, of course, as well as friends-and-family discounts and opportunities to participate in our beta programs to provide early feedback on the product.
On the engineering side, we run a structured onboarding program that includes mentorship. We have a variety of opportunities for technical leadership, and as we grow, we’re continuing to build out our career paths on both the management and technical side.
We’re thoughtful, pragmatic, engaged and empathetic, and we care deeply about nurturing and strengthening these values as we grow.”
The pandemic has led many professionals to reconsider what they want from a job, and where and how they want to work. How has your company adapted to this shift and what steps have you taken to create a workplace that meets those needs?
Over the last 18 months, we’ve put a lot of thought and effort into adapting to a new remote-first way of working — making sure we have the right digital collaboration tools, figuring out the new cadences of working and meetings, and learning new etiquette around virtual communication.
Though our Cambridge headquarters technically reopened in July 2021, we have remained a remote-first organization, and I expect we’ll continue on that course. Employees in the Boston area have the option to come into the office as much or as little as they choose. For those who don’t live near Boston — and this is a growing group now that we are completely open to hiring anywhere in the country — the goal is to provide parity in working experiences with equal access to communication, equal ability to contribute to projects and company initiatives, and equal opportunities for social activity with teammates.
Our ministry of happiness organizes virtual events, ranging from weekly “Lunch Lotteries” — a subsidized lunch over video with a random small group of coworkers — to themed coffee chats to book clubs to lunch and learns.
