The role of culture and employee empowerment in the Software Services Industry

Software Development, Q&A Testing, Devops, Mobile Development, System Engineering… Practically every Industry nowadays uses Technology, and this has ramped up the importance of Engineers and people that can properly understand Technology operations.

Engineers have become a scarce resource and they have become very valuable as well. Not only because they are scarce, but mostly because they are the ones who understand, create and execute the Technology that allows resources to be optimized in almost all aspects of life.

Any company working in the Software Services Industry knows this and Cleverti is not an exception, if you have good Engineers in your team, the odds of them receiving offers from other companies are clear, 100%.

For this matter, if you want to retain your team you must keep them satisfied and allow them to develop themselves, technically and as a person. At Cleverti, we are proud in knowing that our employee annual rotation rate is of 5%, a number way below Industry average.

 

Here is where Culture and Employee empowerment appear.

 

At Cleverti, we have 10 years of experience and we have had the pleasure of working with brilliant Engineers, developing them and contributing for their career.

Having a great culture is essential to bring employees closer! That’s why we behave at Cleverti pretty much like a family – we are very inclusive, and you just get the feeling of a “good vibe” at the office. Of course, this is a result of the sum of our staff’s personality. However, we try to share the desired behavior and “vibe” from the moment we are interviewing our candidates.

I could tell you the secret for our culture and for being considered one of the Best companies to work in Portugal is in our ping-pong room, but I really don’t believe that’s the case. I believe the secret is in some small but important aspects:

a) The way we receive people, making them part of this family;

b) The fact that everyone has a voice and can share their opinion;

c) The fun and happiness we share every day.

It’s hard to work if you don’t feel joy and joy is something we nurture naturally. I would also say our hierarchy helps, it is pretty much flat. Carlos, our CEO, keeps an open-door policy and within the company, everyone is equal, especially when it comes to sharing opinions and discussing topics, as we do often in our Talks on Friday or in every day mingle, everyone is invited to participate and express.

But of course, for sure Tomás Santos, our Nearshore Sales Director, gives his special touch to the “office vibe”!

Let’s talk about Employee Empowerment, another important area to work in for promoting Employee retention and satisfaction.

The state of art of Technology is evolving at an incredible pace and Engineers want to keep up. They usually look daily into ways for doing so and that’s why as a company you should facilitate by providing the tools, the feedback and counselling for improvement.

You can do this by providing access to Online classes and other Workshops. However, the best way to achieve this is by promoting the share of experiences between professionals and we have been doing so recently with more fuel, with our own methodology called Cleverti Care.

One of the processes included within Cleverti Care are regular sessions where employees interact and share their experiences. This naturally creates awareness of what each person is doing, and it create synergies between people, ex: some engineers might be experiencing the same problem is different projects; someone might have had a problem before and can share insight on how to solve.

Mostly, we have noticed that the outcome of this meetings usually translates into the daily lives of our Employees and you start to see them discussing and sharing knowledge regarding common issues and experiences. Furthermore, professor-student relationships are also boosted, which develop both persons in the relationship.

For the last 10 years we have become very aware of the importance of Culture and Employee Empowerment. These are important and sensible aspects that require continuous effort and a continuous improvement philosophy in order to succeed. In 2019, we were awarded with the recognition of being in the top 100 Best companies to work in Portugal, additionally we are very well classified in Portals such as Glassdoor (https://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-Cleverti-EI_IE1665427.11,19.htm). This proves we are doing things right and following the correct path. But the work does not stop here, it’s a never-ending road of continuous improvement. Luckily, it’s a pleasure walking this road at Cleverti…

 

Written by João Coelho / Business Manager at Cleverti