All through the first week of every month, Magicpin’s head office at Gurugram registers significantly more footfall than it does during the rest of the month. Not only that, even the pre-pandemic attendance pales by comparison, as associates from other cities are flown in, for “a week of collaboration”.
For those from other cities who cannot make the trip to the head office, other touchpoints are created. “These are both formal and casual connections,” says Brij Bhushan, co-founder and COO, Magicpin.
CACTUS follows an added approach, providing employees with co-working spaces in various cities — to undertake collaborative and team-building exercises.
Welcome to the world of remote-first companies, which allow their employees to work from any location of their choice, but maintain a physical office or offices that can be used by these employees at any point of time. Sometimes, these companies have to tweak regular processes real hard to make this arrangement work. That is particularly true of “cultural onboarding” of new hires.
“Integrating new hires into our culture does not depend on how often they visit the company’s premises. The process begins from the time a candidate accepts the offer of employment. All new employees receive a welcome kit, which includes a book The Cactus Way that outlines our core values. A virtual orientation on our culture and values follows. The values are reiterated through mentoring sessions with their supervisors and meet-and-greet sessions with team members. The onboarding process includes sessions with senior leaders,” says Yashmi Pujara, CHRO, CACTUS.
At Magicpin, each new hire is assigned a “buddy”, one who is expected to demonstrate the organisation’s culture.
“You make an employee value the culture by the way you interact with them and conduct yourself in their presence. It starts with how you prioritise things for them. It also starts with the way you run a meeting and the kind of questions employees ask,” says Brij.
Recruitment challenges
In the last two years, Magicpin has recruited more than 100 employees through virtual platforms. When the pandemic was at its height, this process was fraught with challenges.
Brij notes that in-person assessment of candidates is any day better; and the fact that the world is opening up is a comfort.
Continuous feedback
“After trying out fully-remote and hybrid models, we decided to go in for the remote-first arrangement,” says Brij, opining that it is particularly suited for small-sized organisation. His organisation has more than 500 employees.
It takes continuous feedback to gauge the effectiveness of the model. One of CACTUS’ early employee surveys revealed that 38% of the employees preferred a fully-remote work model.
Yashmi notes that leaders who successfully manage their careers remotely have been an inspiration for employees to adopt this model wholeheartedly, without any reservations.
