We're celebrating #LifeatFundapps!
Recently it was announced that FundApps is a winner of the 2018 Lotus Awards for Company Culture. This is the first culture or people-focused award we have entered into and the process itself was a great opportunity to reflect on our culture, #LifeatFundApps and what makes us unique and special as a company.
We recently invited a bunch of FundAppers to a kick-off session for a project and asked them to share why they joined FundApps. Admittedly, I usually struggle with icebreaker activities but this ended up being quite an intimate and insightful activity. There were some very common themes, such as:
- Wanting to be part of creating and growing something special
- Breaking away from the bureaucracy and slow pace of large companies
- Joining a diverse and forward-thinking team
- Having the opportunity to do something completely different
Onboarding
Day 1 - you can expect a warm welcome into the team and a very chilled start to your journey at FundApps. We’ll introduce you to the team, meet your buddy, get you set up with your equipment and some swag, and you’ll spend some time with your Manager learning more about your role.
Week 1 - you will have a chance to learn more about what each of our teams do, the history and values of FundApps and spend some time with Andrew (our CEO) over a coffee. By the end of your first week you might even remember a few people’s names too!
Month 1 - you will be building your industry, product and business knowledge. You’ll have a FundApps Masterclass with Andrew to see our product in action and understand more about our vision as a company, and where you fit into that.
100 Days - Congratulations! By this stage you have got to know the team, built good relationships and developed your understanding of what we do here at FundApps and the role you play. Now it’s your turn to take flight - onwards and upwards!
Feedback
Every week we check the pulse of our team. We want to know how people are going in their roles, brutally honest feedback on things we need to improve and ideas on how we do that.
We’re not perfect. We treat each day as a chance to improve and rely on this feedback to guide our actions and test the effectiveness of new initiatives.
Our team are full of great ideas. Here’s a sample of initiatives that have been introduced in as a direct result of feedback/ideas from the team:
- Changed our All-Hands Meetings to have an OKR focus, instead of a team focus, and shortened the meeting.
- Clarified our vision to help guide business decisions - "We help investment managers harness the power of community & technology to automate regulatory compliance"
- A more transparent bonus process linked to revenue growth
- Bi-annual salary review processes and external benchmarking
- Interview and unconscious bias training for all team members involved in recruitment
- Increased our US health plan contributions and gym discounts
- Using micro-bonuses through Bonusly to cash in for rewards or donations
- Implemented learning platform and £1,000 personal learning budget with no approvals.
We’re currently working on building mental health awareness, how we get better at development planning, creating a world-class onboarding experience and our first FundApps Leadership Programme - watch this space!
Wellbeing
Our approach to wellbeing has been based on providing options for all employees that best suit their circumstances. There are still plenty of areas we can improve, but here’s a sneak peak through the curtains for what you can expect as a FundApper:
- Unlimited sick leave
- 25 days vacation leave, and if you use it all you get 26 the next year. We want people to use their leave and take regular breaks to recharge
- Birthday Off - no-one seriously wants to work on their birthday!
- Healthy snacks and fruit boxes delivered every week
- Gym membership discounts
- Regular team fitness challenges, including Strava club
- Monthly social events
- Career sabbaticals to pursue study and travel opportunities
- Flexible working - Over 80% of our team work from home regularly or have flexible hours. We trust our people and value output over hours
B-Corp
In 2018, FundApps has set a goal to become a certified B Corporation. B Corps meet higher standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency. We’re proud of this aspiration, and we have a long way to go, but we’ll get there!
So far in 2018, we’ve made some good steps towards becoming a B Corp:
- 260+ volunteer hours, including two days of company volunteering at a local care home (lots of painting and gardening!) and support of a number of local youth, education and aid organisations
- 1200+ hours invested in learning
- Reduced our gender pay gap from 28% to 16%. We have equal pay already in comparable roles
- Donating a percentage of our profits
To learn more about our goal to become a B Corp, check out our blog post.
Diversity
Our diversity makes us who we are, and we’re proud of that.
Here is our team in a snapshot (what we measure):
- 65% Male / 35% Female
- 23 nationalities and >20 languages
- 16-25 (13%), 26-35 (56%), 36-50 (31%)
- >30 industries
We have flags from each of our people around our office, cultural food picnics and the self-titled Laydeez Who Lunch group. In 2018, we are planning a series of diversity fireside chats to break down diversity stereotypes in the workplace and tech industry.
Recognition
When people join FundApps, it is often a pleasant surprise when they get access to Bonusly - a platform we use to give micro-bonuses (dino-dollars) as part of peer feedback and share the love across FundApps. We integrate with our Slack #props channel and our office tv to make this public, and call out our monthly superstars as part of our all-hands meeting.
Learning
In our values document, we call out learning specifically as a trait we like. Curiosity is powerful, and a shared trait amongst FundAppers. We tickle this curiosity using self-directed learning through Sunlight - a platform that allows us to allocate £1,000 annually to all of our people, access to any learning content in the world (from books and online learning to training courses and subscriptions), and best of all… no approvals!
Since January 2018, we’ve invested over 1200 hours in learning activities. FundAppers are learning new languages, reading more, taking evening classes, joining professional bodies and attending conferences. This People Ops chap is even learning to code (albeit slowly!).
We use our shared Slack channel #learning to share content and events with the rest of the team, and some team members will run Brown Bag Lunches on areas of interest to them. Past topics have been one of our developers giving us an FX Trading masterclass, a Client Services team member schooling us on Finance 101, and each year Andrew runs his productivity ninja session on ‘Getting to Inbox Zero’.
Want to be part of FundApps?
As a growing company we are always on the look-out for the next generation of FundAppers to join the team. A successful FundApper is more than experience and qualifications on a CV - it’s someone with courage, a relentless focus on our clients, transparency, focus and a lean mindset. If that sounds like you, head to our careers page to check out our roles!
