We have a small team working on this at Birch: Eva, Elina, Vanya, and I. They call us the People Team. Together, we make Birch a good place to work for everyone. And the People Team is one-fifth of the company! Yes, we have a big team comparable to a development or customer success team. At Birch, we not only have the luxury of being able to do that, but we consider a strong People Team one of the most critical factors for a company's success.
Nine out of 10 of our employees think Birch's culture is the most important thing at the company!
Together, we create and develop a corporate culture. I don't like the word “corporate” here because Birch is still a small company, more like a startup. But we have things in our company that employees of corporations might envy. You can adopt many things in your company to make your work and colleagues' lives more comfortable and to make hiring and keeping employees easier.
A few facts about us to make it easier for you to imagine what we're talking about.
- The company now has just over 30 employees.
- Birch has an office hub in Barcelona, but team members can work remotely from anywhere worldwide.
- The average Birch employee works at a company for 3 years or longer.
Office
Usually, in companies like ours, the office is a boring place to work: rooms with desks and monitors where people come to spend a significant part of the day.
That's how it used to be, but the office has been transformed. We work in a small two-floor building in Barcelona with a courtyard, and we gave the first floor to an informal environment. We even started calling the office a hub where you can talk to colleagues in an informal setting and have lunch together. On the first floor, we have a large hall where we organize movie screenings, play musical instruments, and record video podcasts.
You can work from home and visit the office to hang out with your colleagues. For example, you can argue in the kitchen or catch someone by the hand and discuss whatever you want. It's the kind of wardroom on a ship where everyone who is not on watch comes down.
To work effectively (whether in the office or not), we don't have to sit in front of our computers from morning to evening.
It's an office in reverse. Some Birch employees work from home in the morning and come to the office in the afternoon and evening to spend time with colleagues and friends. You can stay in the office until late at night, listen to music, and do whatever you want.
An essential addition—our office has a second floor. This place is more like a traditional office. You can always go up to the second floor for a quiet atmosphere.
Hire
But to be effective (not just in the office, but in general too), we hire responsible people.
Our CEO, Mike, describes the company as a rock band. However, unless the band comprises professional musicians, it will only play at school concerts.
Birch only hires middle—and senior-level professionals, with no junior specialists or interns.
First of all, we can't afford it. BĂŻrch is a small company focused on growth. We take each specialist to solve a complex problem, often unclear and new to us. We don't have the resources to divert these people to help juniors, and we don't have tasks for newcomers. This may change, but for now, it is like this. It is expensive to hire strong specialists, but building a growth system for newcomers in a startup is more costly at that moment.
Our office hub and culture can only exist in an environment where colleagues control their efficiency and productivity. You could work however you want, but show the expected results.
This is what our hiring system looks like now:
- Once a year, we draw up a hiring plan based on the company's development plans.
- I prepare a detailed description for each role with the hiring managers. We also involve team members with whom our future colleague will be working to help describe the vacancy.
- We have stopped posting our vacancies on LinkedIn Jobs, as we mainly receive irrelevant responses. However, we continue to share vacancies on our LinkedIn page.
We look for specialists on a point-by-point basis through small communities and recommendations from colleagues. It is better to get five good responses than 1,000 irrelevant ones.
Our primary hiring strategy right now is targeted headhunting. I identify specific profiles with the right experience and skills, look for such specialists (including through LinkedIn), and personally invite them to apply.
We're constantly tuning up the hiring process. For example, we are improving the onboarding process right now. We have found that the more thoroughly we introduce a new colleague to the company, product, and processes, the quicker they start to work effectively.
Bonuses
We invest in benefits to support our team's well-being, personal and professional development. I'll start with the financial bonuses.
Travel bonus. We provide each employee with a yearly $2,000 travel budget—whenever they want to go. Bonuses can be used to pay for tickets and hotels. They are renewed at the beginning of each year and can be spent without restrictions, even all at once.
Educational bonus. We give out $2,000 for conferences, courses, and educational activities. You can learn anything you want, even Python or how to make cheesecakes.
Bonus for visiting the office. Another $2,000 can be spent flying to Barcelona and working with colleagues. You can come at any time.
Of course, we provide each team member with a laptop and health insurance in their country of residence. We've also extended the essential employee benefits with flexible bank holiday planning, parental support, relocation to Barcelona, and flexible working hours.
The offsites and onsitesÂ
Once a year, we all gather to spend time offline together, as true friends often do.
In 2024, we spent a week in Barcelona, and almost every colleague from Brazil to Ireland joined us. Every day, teams prepared lectures for colleagues, filmed our commercials, and organized a karting championship.
We have been hosting our on-sites for eight years—an important tradition at our company. But now, in addition to on-sites, we also hold working weeks together.
We are experimenting with this format and will hold a similar event in the spring of 2025: Work Week. During work weeks, we gather at the office and work together without the usual entertainment.
