How unicorn, Pleo, embraces a more sustainable remote-first culture

When Denmark-based spending solution Pleo had just ten team members, the startup made its first move towards a hybrid team by hiring engineers in Canada. Today, with 820 employees spread across 30 countries, Pleo understands the importance of face-to-face connection, even with its remote workers.

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“Wherever possible, we like to put flexibility into our employees' hands and let them make a decision on what works for them when it comes to a work setup,” says Jessie Danyi, Belonging and Impact Lead at Pleo. “As a result of this, around a third of the company is fully remote, with others located in our eight offices in Europe and Canada. 

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“For some roles, however, we believe that being co-located helps to foster a learning environment, especially for our entry-level sales roles. Though we allow flexibility for when and how often they come into the office, we believe that being co-located together fast-tracks their career progression.”

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Pleo chose to create a hybrid working structure to help the startup attract the very best talent and have great minds solving problems for its customers. 

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The company made the deliberate choice to rework the way it operates to ensure that its remote workers felt included and could work alongside the team, regardless of different time zones. This approach has also helped Pleo to build a more diverse team, from South Africa to Argentina and everywhere in between.

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“We have always emphasised the importance of meeting up physically together in order to build community,” says Danyi.

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“In the early days, this was in the form of company-wide team camps, where we would go to a location and sit together for a couple of days to talk strategy, pitch new concepts, and get to know one another. We have found that this has improved team collaboration, and has also made work much more fun.

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“As we’ve scaled, this has become an annual company-wide team camp where we all come together,” adds Danyi. “As we progress and become more mindful of our footprint and of the environment, we have encouraged employees to come together more often as teams instead of frequent company-wide events so that they can foster belonging and ensure that they build relationships with those who they know and work alongside, but rarely see in a face-to-face setup.”

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This interview was conducted as part of the 'ways of working' interviews with Techspace members exclusively for The Scaleup Culture Report 2023.

Get your copy of the report by Techspace here > https://www.techspace.co/scaleup-report

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