Highlights
- Seventy per cent of the employees at Eventbrite work remotely, and the firm also does not mandate a camera-on policy.
- The company provides a monthly flexible working reimbursement for its employees. The amount starts from Rs 1.2 lakh per annum and it varies on the basis of job roles and geographies.
- The organisation further provides annual wellness and fitness reimbursement starting from Rs 2.2 lakh per year for all the employees.
- The ‘BriteBreak Fridays’ policy allows the employees to take off on the first Friday of every month to recharge and relax.
- Eventbrite plans to scale its 85-employee team in India by hiring about 120 tech talents by the end of this year. The company has about 800 employees globally.
When the biggest virtual networking platform like Zoom is calling back employees to the office and almost all major MNCs are sending disciplinary emails to their employees mandating a strict work-from-office policy, Eventbrite, a global events marketplace, is giving its employees the autonomy to choose their work model. Yeh! Employees at Eventbrite can decide what works best for them, be it office, home, remote, or a combination of all these.
Eventbrite has a staff strength of about 800 employees globally. In India, it employs 85 people, and continues hiring more. Out of the total employees, both globally and in India, two-thirds of them (about 70 per cent) work fully remotely, and the rest 30 per cent prefer hybrid work. Headquartered in San Francisco, US, the firm has offices across the US, the UK, Spain, Ireland, Argentina, Australia, and Hyderabad in India.
Maisha Gray-Diggs, Vice President – Talent Acquisition & Inclusion, Eventbrite, says, “As a global organisation with employees distributed across multiple countries and time zones, we are mindful of when and how we work to create an equitable employee experience. Even before the pandemic and the shift to a remote-forward working environment, we have offered employees tools to help them navigate their personal and professional lives.”
“As a remote-forward company, we are united behind our mission, not our office space. We want to enable our people to make an impact from anywhere in the world, and help them build a career around their lifestyle, priorities and wellbeing. It comes down to trust, communication, and company-wide support of shared goals through tools, technologies, flexibility, and an employee-first culture. It is a win-win,” Gray-Diggs adds.
The remote-friendly benefits are extended throughout all levels of the company. Even the facilities manager or the person responsible for managing the co-working spaces are encouraged to take advantage of the flexible working model!
Also, while most companies are taking away ‘flexible working’ reimbursements after the pandemic, Eventbrite still continues that! The company provides a monthly flexible working reimbursement for its employees. The amount starts from Rs 1.2 lakh per annum and it varies on the basis of job roles and geographies. The amount would be included in their paycheck so that the employees can make sure their home supports the office work. People can avail of this benefit for getting chairs, ergonomic work-station and also a high-speed internet connection. In addition to this, the company also gives all its employees a MacBook to work!
On a personal note, Gray-Diggs says, “I am a part of the ‘sandwich generation,’ who is taking care of both old and young dependents. Remote working allows me to take care of my 13-year-old twins and my mom, who has not been well this year. These days, when most companies are mandating a full return back to the office, I really appreciate the flexibility given by Eventbrite. It helps me not only to be a great leader who’s there for everyone, but also to be a great mom and a great daughter!”
Technological intervention to assist remote work
Eventbrite also does not mandate a camera-on policy in virtual meetings. “It’s easy to become a face in a box or a voice on the screen. We follow a Slack-intensive culture. This allows more real-time communication necessarily than email,” Gray-Diggs points out.
Beyond Slack, the following are some of the other tools deployed by the organisation to foster seamless collaboration during remote work –
Simpplr: An intranet platform that helps to connect, align and engage the workforce, no matter where they work from or how they work.
Donut: A tool encourages team members to engage in authentic conversations and recreate ‘watercooler moments’ while strengthening company culture.
WorkTango: This employee experience platform helps employees to reward each other. Through the application, peers can give points to colleagues, which they can use to exchange for goods and services. Products that can be bought through WorkTango include mobile phones, suitcases, watches, kitchen appliances, etc.
Productivity and collaboration
The absence of in-person collaborations, and the lack of networking and connectivity are some of the issues cited by companies that are mandating work from the office or at least hybrid work. Talking about managing employee productivity in remote work, Gray-Diggs says, “The measurement of productivity means different for each company. Some firms monitor the time spent in the office building and some track productivity on the basis of their stock price trends. At Eventbrite, periodic operating reviews monitor productivity based on achieving specific goals by a given time. In other words, the focus is on measuring results rather than the hours spent at a computer.”
To assess its remote employees’ productivity, Eventbrite uses regular one-on-one meetings (at least bi-weekly) for focused syncs on goals, performance and development. The HR tech platform ‘Workday,’ is used for the written portion of the peer feedback, self-reflections and performance reviews. Instead of waiting until the end of the year for one big daunting review, the company has established several touchpoints throughout the year to elevate the conversation more formally and include the opportunity to be recognised with compensation and/or promotion.
The productivity of product engineers is measured based on their capabilities to innovate, ideate, define, execute and launch user-centric products whereas assessing front-end engineers is linked to factors such as the intuitiveness of the web pages and applications built. Talent acquisition teams are accountable for the quality of hire, diversity hire and sourcing channel effectiveness, and sales teams are measured based on their expertise in generating events and products, and their ability to smash quotas and continually raise the bar.
“Eventually, all of these performance indicators ladder up to the overall performance of the company, which is measured very closely. Remote work is super productive for our company. Some of our employees have done incredible work from exotic ‘workations’ too. We have launched our Ad platform and generative AI to our system from a remote working environment and the comfort of our homes,” Gray-Diggs says.
To foster in-person collaboration, the company hosts networking events, conferences, panel talks and fireside chats with the goal of empowering diverse talent. The physical meetings and in-person brainstorming sessions are decided on a team level whenever there is a need. “We are intentional about creating the moments of networking and connectivity. I am just back from a visit in Hyderabad, where I hosted a public panel discussion along with other leaders on ‘Building software products for a global audience,’ and an internal mentoring session for ‘Women in Tech in India,’” Gray-Diggs says.
Policies to foster employee wellness
The ‘BriteBreak Fridays’ policy at Eventbrite allows the employees to take off on the first Friday of every month to recharge and relax. BriteBreak Fridays are in addition to the weekly rest days and holidays.
The organisation further provides annual wellness and fitness reimbursement starting from Rs 2.2 lakh per year for all the employees. Commenting on that Gray-Diggs says, “Employees working from home have less movement and walk less. This would make them lethargic. The benefit reimbursements will encourage people to work on their health and fitness.”
The organisation also doesn’t want its employees to live inside little boxes. “As confining oneself to home takes a toll on people differently, we make sure that we have services that people can tap into as per their needs. The company offers mental health services that people can take advantage of not only for professional development coaching, but also for just talking to someone when they feel lonely or want to be heard,” Gray-Diggs says.
To foster diversity and inclusion, the company has ‘Brite Belonging Groups’ for women, the pride community, and the parents to network and discuss their shared experiences on navigating work-life balance and flexibility. Also, to meet the needs of the working parents, the organisation has Creche and Childcare reimbursement of up to Rs 10,000 per month. Besides this, Eventbrite also extends real-life support and caring for the employees’ close relations through Grayce, a service provider that helps families navigate the needs of ageing, ill and vulnerable loved ones.
To expand the team in India
Eventbrite continues to scale its team in India by hiring about 120 tech talents by the end of the year across roles such as engineering, data, product management, and product design, along with people from HR and finance domains to support the techies in the region.
“Our employee-first and remote-forward work culture gives us the edge over companies that force people back into offices. We have seen a spike in the number of applicants in the last six months compared to last year,” Gray-Diggs points out.
