Melanie Oberman
March 1, 20234 min read
Heap was named a Glassdoor Best Place to Work for 2023! Below our EVP People, Melanie Oberman, explains some of the reasons why, and talks about what we did to win the award.
Being recognized as one of Glassdoor's Best Places to Work means you’re doing something right, since this award is based entirely on employee feedback! That's why we were excited and grateful to be named a Best Place to Work for 2023.
At Heap, our cultural foundation is balancing accountability with empathy. How exactly have we done that? In this post, we'll delve into some of the key initiatives that have made Heap such a great place to work.
Hiring with Heart: Values Driven
At Heap, hiring is an all-company effort. Every team member is involved in finding the best candidates. To ensure an equitable process, we have inclusive hiring guidelines that specify that hiring committees must reflect the diversity of our workforce. These guidelines are followed, regardless of the role we’re hiring for! Our goal is threefold: 1) they limit bias in the hiring process, 2) they maintain a rewarding candidate experience, and 3) they help increase the number of underrepresented candidates in our pipeline.
In addition, interviewees go through a values interview, which helps assess whether the candidate's traits and values align with what will make them successful at Heap. Our core values, which balance empathy and accountability, guide everything we do at Heap. They are:
"Tasting the Soup" by trying our product, practices, and processes ourselves to build empathy and understanding
"Practicing Respectful Candor" as a foundation of our culture for safe and honest conversations
"Being Owners" by taking responsibility for our decisions and results
"Focusing on the Outcome" by prioritizing impactful actions
"Having a Growth Mindset" by embracing challenges as learning opportunities.
The questions we ask focus on workplace failures, success stories and for people managers, the challenges and successes of growing a team. Including this values-driven component in our interviews helps us find individuals who share our passion for our work and our culture, and make it more likely that employees will be happy once they join us.
Listening and Acting: Responding to Feedback
In upholding our value of respectful candor, we are committed to being a company that listens to its employees. We want to ensure that everyone feels safe candidly sharing at any level. To accomplish this, we have numerous forums for employees to share feedback.
For example, we have a very active Ask Me Anything (AMA) slack channel that gives Heaple the opportunity to share their thoughts and concerns with leadership on any topic. We encourage our employees to ask questions. If they prefer, they have an option to ask questions anonymously. It is common for employees of all levels to ask hard questions of the executive team. And when they do, the expectation is that the executive team will answer truthfully!(Which we do.)
When we launch company-wide initiatives, we don't just figure them out and roll them out. We actively solicit company-wide feedback, and respond to it. Recently, we used feedback from across the company to inform our 2023 Employee Handbook. If certain ideas couldn’t be included in the handbook, we explained why.
After our engagement surveys, we review feedback and made sure we create team and company level action plans to address what our employees shared.
Encouraging Balance: Work Hard and Recharge
To help our Heaple thrive, we’ve created a number of initiatives that foster a supportive and healthy work culture. For example, our Treat Yo Self stipend allows employees to take a day a year to indulge, and our sabbatical program allows employees to take a fully paid leave of absence after five years of service.Every month, we give the entire company a Mental Escape day, which functions like a holiday day but is meant to give people the space to unplug and disconnect.
Fostering a supportive environment also means creating opportunities for our Heaple to connect outside of day-to-day work needs. Our Culture Committee is made up of individuals from teams across the company who provide the people team with feedback on people and culture trends. They help launch some of our events including the Heappy games, a series of cross-functional events, activities, and holiday festivities with a sprinkle of competition, Halloween trivia, and more.
Empowering Growth: Supporting our Heaple
Heap’s success starts with our people’s success. Numerous initiatives support continuous learning and growth. Every employee receives a yearly L&D stipend which enables team members to pursue learning opportunities that are important to them.
On top of that, we provide numerous internal training opportunities, such as our Crucial Conversations series, which equips employees with the skills for communicating effectively and handling difficult situations. Manager roundtables provide an opportunity for our leaders to connect with their peers and share best practices. Our engineering mentorship program provides opportunities for skill development, and we are also in the process of launching an URG mentorship program to support underrepresented groups at Heap.
DEI: Fostering Inclusivity and Equality
At Heap, we are intentional about our DEI priorities and initiatives. This year we launched 5 new Employee Resource Groups to foster a sense of community and support for underrepresented groups.
Our Courageous Conversation series focuses on discussing DEI topics that may be challenging to discuss in the workplace, providing a space for open and honest dialogue. These initiatives are just the beginning, and we are committed to continuously improving and creating a diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplace.
Our events have centered around some of the celebrations that we want to honor including Diwali, Lunar New Year, Women’s History Month, Black History Month, and more.
Learn more about DEI at Heap.
Happy Heaple: The Key to Success
Being named a Glassdoor Best Place to Work in 2023 is a testament to the hard work and dedication of everyone at Heap. We are proud to have a culture that prioritizes employee satisfaction and growth, and we believe that this is what sets us apart as a great place to work.
We are always looking for talented individuals to join our team! To learn more about working at Heap and our company culture and values, visit https://www.heap.io/careers.
