What does the future of work look like for HubSpot? - Kate Moran

Kate is HubSpot’s EMEA Culture Manager, managing a Culture Team across European offices in Dublin, Berlin, Paris, and Ghent to create a remarkable remote 1st employee experience. The Culture team is on a mission to inspire people to do their best work, how, when, and where they work best.

Kate is also one of HubSpot’s Global ‘Energy Project’ facilitators where each quarter, she helps teach employees how to make the most of their time and energy at home and work. In the last ten years, she has established four successful businesses in property, leisure, childcare, and coworking.

Adapting employee engagement practices to the work from home environment

Kate thinks things have changed at HubSpot in terms of employee engagement. There are no more opportunities for office conversations or water cooler talks where people could get the feedback they needed in a quick, informal manner. With the new remote work environment, there needs to be a lot more intention behind how people get their information. 

There are no in-person events planned at HubSpot for the foreseeable future. Therefore Kate and her team are learning how to create new experiences, build communities online, and change the way their employees communicate. 

HubSpot’s smooth transition to remote work

As an innovative tech company, HubSpot had quite a smooth transition period. Even before COVID, their employees were never expected to always be in the office. Working from home was supported among all teams; therefore, the transition to full-time remote work worked out pretty well.

Kate tells us that at HubSpot results matter more than the hours people spend working. The more challenging part has been social interactions and opportunities for people to come together and have in team conversations. That is where their employees needed more support. 

From an organisational perspective, it has been an excellent year for the company in terms of sales and productivity. 

HubSpot values flexibility, autonomy, and a results-focused culture

In saying that HubSpot is a results-focused company, this does not mean they want their people to overwork and disregard their health. One of the things Kate’s team focuses on is helping people identify how they can work well and be productive. 

“If you want to work well, you have to give yourself a break; you have to give yourself a bit of time to rest and recharge,” Kate says. 

There are no procedures around tracking or monitoring people’s hours, but more around reinforcing the message that taking a break and resting is essential for personal health and overall productivity. Kate is one of the facilitators of the Energy Project. The main scope of the project is to deliver training courses and workshops for employees on matters like identifying their best working time, productivity, the importance of taking time to recharge, and more. The facilitators also want to help people understand when they need to stop working and not push any further to avoid burnout. 

There is a lot of focus at HubSpot on respecting employees’ personal time. Kate herself, adds her family time to her work calendar. That way, people automatically know she is not available for meetings during those hours.  

The management’s involvement in employee engagement at HubSpot

Looking at the last couple of months, Kate does not feel like they have been doing anything new, but instead, they managed to continue some excellent engagement practices they had already established.

One of the practices they continued during the pandemic is the AMA (ask me anything) event series. During these events, employees can engage with their executives by asking live questions or submitting their curiosities before the event. 

Halloween has also been an excellent opportunity for employees and management to engage over Slack. They shared pictures of themselves, their families, kids, decorated houses, and it was a friendly and accessible way for the community to engage. 

“It was inclusive, it was an excellent reminder that we could do a lot more online,” Kate tells us. 

What does the future of work look like for HubSpot?

“The conversations we’re having at the moment is that there will be a different future of work, I don’t think work will ever, ever be the same again. I don’t think our office will ever be the same again.”

Kate talks about this change in a very positive manner. HubSpot employees have already been asked to think about what their ideal future of work would look like. They have been offered the option of full remote positions but also a flex option where office hours can be combined with remote hours. 

Looking at her own working habits and how things have changed, Kate thinks people will come into the office when they plan on having a more intense working day. 

“It’s going to be different. It’s not going to be the same as before. That is not a bad thing, either.”

Want to find out more about Kate Moran’s initiatives at HubSpot? Follow her on LinkedIn and take a look at hubspot.com. Their careers page talks about the different programmes they are running and their diversity and inclusion initiatives. It’s a great, great place for resources and information.

Are you interested in learning more about workplace wellbeing and educating yourself in this area? Head on over to www.workwellinstitute.org, where I'm launching my online education programmes. You can learn all about my 8-step framework for developing a workplace wellness programme that lasts.

If you have any suggestions for future topics you'd like to hear on the show, email me directly, brian@workwellpodcast.com