The seismic shocks from the pandemic have caused people to reprioritize life and work and many have selected life – and the quality of life – over work. Simply put, we need to fit work into life, versus fitting life into work.
For decades most companies have been using outdated compensation models, partly basing employee compensation on geographic location. Higher compensation for employees living in tech hubs like San Francisco and New York and lower compensation for areas inside the coasts like Omaha, Birmingham and Pittsburgh.
Remove geography from talent equation
However, we believe geography should not be a limiting factor for talent and no matter where you live in the U.S., we believe the salary for similar roles should be consistent.
As a remote-first company we decided to make a bet on our people and change the outdated models of compensation by taking a progressive and human focused approach, recently announcing a United States wide salary band. So no matter where you live, the compensation is based on the role, not the location.
Our first core value is: We are Human.
For so long, companies have been trying to figure out how to fit life into work. We are flipping the script and putting humans first by betting on our people. We want our people to put life first. Yes, the upfront investment is more but we are committed to this – there is no greater asset than our people and we are playing the long game.
We also took a step back and looked at diversity in a whole new light. Now, we can hire the best talent across the globe with the focus of a diverse, well-rounded team. The big resignation is upon many global companies but we know that if we can help people be the best version of themselves – then they will show up at work and be amazing.
In fact, we actually asked our employees what they wanted and this is what we heard:
1. Flexibility and options : Keep the focus on employees as humans first because work is not a one-size-fits all endeavor. We also recognize as humans, different people have different needs as it relates to where they best work. This is why offering workplace flexibility to our employees was a top priority for us.
We understand that not everyone thrives in a fully remote or in-office setting so for those who want the option of both, we have invested in hubs at WeWork locations in San Francisco, London, Warsaw and Berlin. We’ve also invested in global WeWork access for all employees so they can work from any WeWork location of their choosing.
As a Chief People Officer, I am committed to creating strategies that fit the organization and are appealing to our workforce and their unique needs.
2. Freedom to be who we truly are: It’s up to the individual to decide where to live for their best life. With freedom comes choice, this immediately opens our talent pool to a much wider net and more importantly, gives our existing talent more freedom. We focus on performance and output – the talent creates the lifestyle and structure that works for them. This inspires creativity, loyalty and peak performance.
3. Ensure access: We strive to remove barriers to allow people to work the best for their unique needs. Tech has struggled to recruit and retain female talent; the pandemic exacerbated this problem. By making accommodations upfront, the talent pool becomes more diverse because location, childcare, elder care, and traditional work hours can all be structured to attract and retain candidates who were previously shut out of the talent pool.
4. Offer super competitive compensation and benefits: If your company pays better, has a better culture and benefits than the competition, candidates will flock to you and stay as their needs are met.
Mental Health Focus
Another initiative that came out of listening this past year was how much we needed to invest in mental health in order to get the best out of our people. We created a multi-pronged strategy to quickly meet the demand of mental health.
We invested in access to resources, healthy and realistic work-life balances, and creating a culture where people could openly talk about mental health. We’ve also started measuring this and will be rolling out our first ever fully internal inclusion survey that will help us build a roadmap on how to further engage and meet our company goals. We’d be delighted to share more on this initiative with you as well.
In addition, we supplied all our employees with 27 days of paid time off along with four mental health days. We also ensured every employee access to Aaptiv (on-demand fitness app), Carrot (fertility care), and Ginger (health coaching, therapy, and psychiatry). In addition, we established Four Employee Resource Groups 1. LGBTQ+ 2. Women 3 People of Color and 4. Parents — to give our employees a safe place to be vulnerable while promoting unity and inclusion. The feedback from our employee base has been extremely positive.
We are mindful to create a healthy working culture and give our employee’s the assistance that they need to do their best work. We will continue to differentiate ourselves by driving a people-first culture and put employee well-being at the forefront of the decisions that we make.
Recently, we asked some of our newest hires why they chose us. Here are just a few of the responses:
“I’ve found that many companies talk about building a great culture, focusing on organizational health, and putting employees first, but in reality, it’s primarily lip-service. I joined Codility because I wanted to be part of a company that actively created a better way to work and live. Nothing highlights their commitment and innovation towards this goal, like the new US salary band policy. Setting wages at the highest-comparable cities in the country, regardless of where employees live, is proof that Codility is leading the charge for a better way to work and live. I couldn’t be prouder to be part of this team.”
– Andrew Varley, Vice President, Product Management
“In addition to the product and amazing team, Codility’s flexibility was a huge factor in choosing the company as the next step in my career. Being able to work from anywhere in the U.S. allows me to strictly focus on contributions rather than worrying about getting to a desk through an NYC commute on time. It’s also given me the ability to think about my future plans of moving to the suburbs and starting a family with nothing but great support.”
– Brett Kohan, Senior Account Executive
We are proud of our efforts to put our people first and want to continue to lead by example. Nothing is more important than your people and we are thrilled to make the investment into our people. The repercussions of the pandemic have shocked the world into a more equitable and balanced workplace that is a far better fit for the future of the workplace.
