HubSpot Focus on Flexible Benefits
What would your manager say to you if you came up with the idea
of traveling with Justin Timberlake on tour for an entire year?
This would not just be a work from home agreement but an actual out
of office plan for one full-year sabbatical. That is exactly what
happened at HubSpot when Rosalia Cefalu had a crazy idea that
actually got approved.
HubSpot, a global inbound marketing company, has approximately
19,000 customers in over 90 countries and 1,960 employees,
stretching from Cambridge, MA, to Sydney, Australia.
“We don’t think that culture is about free beer and ping-pong
and dogs in the office, it’s about what you believe, why you do
what you do, and who you choose to work with,” states CTO and
cofounder Dharmesh Shah. Although HubSpot has plenty of free snacks
on hand for their employees to enjoy, other flexible benefits
HubSpotters enjoy are unlimited vacation time, tuition
reimbursement, flexible hours, and an overall environment that
balances freedom with accountability.
At HubSpot it goes deeper than just the perks. The focus from
the top down instills pride and passion within its employees, which
then translates into happy customers.
Although flexible benefits are a big perk of working at the
third-best tech company to work for, according to Glassdoor’s
annual Employee Choice awards, the culture isn’t for everyone. The
company practices a sense of understanding, knowing that employees
will move on and do not need to stay to be loyal and that sometimes
someone is no longer needed—either because of performance, or
changes in the company’s needs. This isn’t taken personally, and
HubSpot is able to grow and continue to grow because it objectively
sees the performance of its employees and what is best for the
company and employee.
Questions:
1. How does HubSpot’s focus on culture affect employee
performance?
2. What concerns would you have regarding giving employees
countless flexible benefits such as HubSpot does; for example, a
yearly sabbatical?
Sources: S. Leibowitz. “What it's like to work at HubSpot, one
of the best workplaces of 2018.” Business Insider, January
21, 2018,
https://www.businessinsider.com/hubs...-states-2018-1; K. M.
Newman. “Inside the Company Culture of Hubspot.” Tech.co,
April 5, 2013, tech.co/company-culture-of- hubspot-2013-04;
InHerSight. “Company Profile: Hubspot.” The Motley Fool,
October 5, 2016,
https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/...t-hubspot.aspx.