Congrats team! Seattle Business’ Washington’s 100 Best Companies to Work For has recognized Heptio as #5 in its 2018 list of great workplaces. This vote came directly from our employees and I am so incredibly proud to be a part of this amazing team.
At Heptio, we’re working hard to build a culture with intention. In hand with our technical expertise, our team and values have been a growth accelerant. Even as we quadrupled headcount to support our customers’ journeys, we’ve been careful to cultivate a culture that we believe is helping us grow the right way — starting from our values. (1) Carry the fire, (2) Honest technology and (3) We before me
These values permeate everything we do, including a couple of areas where we believe Heptio stands apart:
Attract diverse perspectives [We before me]. We place a huge emphasis on fostering diversity inside and outside our company. Our founders built diversity into the foundation of this company and it has been a focus from the beginning. We take equal pay seriously and built our compensation bands early in the company lifecycle to ensure we enforce equal pay for equal work. We think fostering a diverse community is also important so have sponsored diversity panels at conferences and had Heptonians talk about what it means to them. For KubeCon Austin 2017, our own Kris Nova fundraised trips for 100 diversity attendees. And for each download of our Gartner Cool Vendor report, we make a donation to Black Girls Code.
Obsess over communication [Honest technology]. Our CEO, Craig McLuckie, sends an email to all Heptionians every Sunday. We hold an all-hands every second Monday where we talk about everything going well and things we need to work on. We also make sure to talk about how we are spending our money, everyone is an owner so it is important we all understand how we are doing. Each Wednesday, the team, including remote folks, gathers in-person and via conferencing for an hour-long water cooler break where we shoot the breeze. When we do a breakfast celebration at HQ, we send coffee gift cards to remote Heptionians so they can toast with us. We’re not perfect, but we obsess over communication to create a strong connection with all employees.
Have a purpose [Carry the fire]. Heptionians have a purpose and are motivated to drive change. We donate ideas and projects to keep Kubernetes open source because we believe this model best serves the user community. We draw inspiration from our rapid growth ‒ facilitated by partners and customers who value our approach. Our collaborations with Amazon and Microsoft underscore the appeal of open source Kubernetes even to tech titans who have deep resources to build proprietary alternatives. And our customers share incredible feedback on the tools, training, services and support we bring to unlock the full potential of Kubernetes.
A key to shaping our culture is working with others who can be themselves. Given our values we have attracted some amazing, outspoken people, and so we work together to create an environment where we can engage others and advocate for the causes that matter in our lives. We’re growing fast and we need more people who care deeply about their work and life. If you are interested in joining us on our mission, please take a look at our openings.
Ok, in true Heptio fashion, that’s enough time celebrating … we’ve got more work to do.