In the tech industry, “product-market fit” describes the successful stage when a product or service meets and delivers on the needs of a specific market. We founded Iterable with this concept in mind, knowing that our platform, which delivers personalized customer experiences at unprecedented speed and scale, fits the needs of both marketers and customers. Our mission is to connect people with the products that bring them joy, and we are equally committed to connecting our employees with careers that bring them joy and a sense of purpose.
As we explored the future of work at Iterable, we used the “product-market fit” framework to focus on finding a “people-workplace fit” that meets and delivers on the needs of each and every employee, who we refer to as Iterators.
We have been very fortunate to scale our organization over the past 18 months, adding over 200 incredible people to our Iterable community. Embracing our values—Growth Mindset, Trust, Humility and Balance—proved to be a major driver of our success during these often turbulent times. Sometimes our values were tested; in turn, we embraced them even more fervently in order to thrive as a people-first organization.
This dedication to being people-first has led us to adopt a hybrid work model, where employees can choose to work from the office, their home, or a combination of the two. As we enter this new chapter of work at Iterable, I want to share what this means for our current and future employees.
Listening to and Learning From Our Team
The Iterable community guided our decision to move to a hybrid environment. We listened to our community through surveys, workshops, and town halls. The themes that underpin this model are community, enablement, and equity. These foundations serve as our anchors in the transformation to a fully hybrid model that enables wellbeing, collaboration, and productivity for all employees.
Gartner Research found that 25% of the global knowledge workforce will choose their home as the primary workplace by 2022. In our latest employee survey, more than 40% of our over 500 employees have expressed interest in staying remote. We currently have Iterators based in 33 states within the US as well as the UK. Many of our team members — in fact, the majority — are looking forward to in-office collaboration in our San Francisco, Denver, New York City, and London offices. About 57% of employees have expressed interest in returning to an office for part of or a majority of the workweek.
Starting in 2022, employees will choose among three work modes:
- Office: Come to an office for the majority of the workweek
- Flex: Come to an office 1-2 days per week
- Remote: Come to an office hub quarterly or less
These three work modes are available to 97% of Iterable roles. Iterators who would like to choose a new work mode or location can start the process immediately, with the expectation that all employees will request their work mode preference by January 2022.
Knowing that work mode preferences can change, we are integrating a level of flexibility into our design, allowing employees to request a change to work modes on an annual basis.
Putting Employees and Equity First
We believe building a team with diverse ideas and backgrounds helps everyone make the best decisions, and makes technology and marketing campaigns more equitable and impactful.
Continuing to create fair and equitable experiences for all employees with equal opportunities for advancement, no matter how they choose to work, is essential. I’m excited that Markita Jack, our new Head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), has joined Iterable to help keep us all accountable to our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. Based in Memphis, Tennessee, Markita is helping us build a more connected, intentional, and community-oriented culture that meets the needs of everyone, wherever they are located.
With our employees in distributed locations, we are prioritizing equal compensation no matter where you live, or, as we call it, geoneutral pay.
We implemented geoneutral pay—a single geographical compensation band for our employees, anchored at the most competitive market in each respective country (the San Francisco Bay Area market for the US, London for the UK). This means that when Iterable employees move within the US or UK, they’ll keep their pay regardless of location.
Geoneutral pay is also enhancing our ability to attract and retain talent across diverse markets and expanding opportunities in traditionally underserved locations.
Benefiting All Through Our Benefits
We believe our business succeeds when our employees are healthy, happy, and supported. That’s why we’re committed to the belief that work and your life should be in balance. Our employee benefits reflect this belief, by supporting the holistic health and wellbeing of our workforce. Alongside geoneutral pay, I’m especially proud that we offer:
- Balance Day: Company-wide holiday on the first Friday of every month to encourage employees to spend time finding balance outside of work.
- Personal and Professional Development Stipend: Employees are given a quarterly allowance to spend on classes, conferences, networking events, educational focused memberships, and books to enhance their development.
- Work From Home Equipment Allowance: All new hires can expense an allocated budget for work from home equipment to ensure they have a comfortable working setup. This allowance is separate from the laptop, monitor, and accessories provided by Iterable.
- Fertility and Adoption Assistance: Eligible employees have access to fertility reimbursement, adoption assistance, and surrogacy benefits, including financial reimbursement and adoption leave.
- Allyship Training: Interactive workshops to teach managers practical techniques to build allyship within the organization.
- DE&I Office Hours and Focus Groups: Regularly scheduled office hours and focus groups to gather feedback from employees to inform the company’s DE&I strategy.
Reimagining the Workplace
Our future work planning isn’t done. We’ll continue to iterate and improve upon our hybrid approach. And, to navigate this new era of Iterable successfully, we’ll rely on our learnings as well as employee feedback.
By approaching the future of work with empathy and flexibility, we can help pave the way for more equity and equality in tech.
As we step into this hybrid work model, we’ll continue to embrace our values to empower us to achieve our best:
- Our Growth Mindset helps us as we, together, navigate this new way of working.
- Balance ensures that all Iterators, no matter how they will work in the future, have access to the same opportunities.
- Humility means that we know we’ll make mistakes along the way, and we’ll learn from them.
- We Trust that we have our employees’ best interests at heart as we navigate uncharted waters.
We have something special here at Iterable—an environment where we live our values and take care of each other, and our wellbeing.
Onwards,
Andrew Boni
Co-Founder & CEO of Iterable
