Unless you’ve been living under a proverbial rock, you’ve most likely heard of Buffer. Besides being one of the most successful social media management platforms out there, Buffer is also a fully distributed company and one of the most vocal proponents of remote work.
At edition #8 of More Beach Meetings Podcast, we sat down for an interview with Stephanie Lee, the Team Experience Manager at Buffer, and discussed remote work and Buffer's company culture.
Her role is to make Buffer’s employees feel great so they can do better work. She makes this happen through specific tools and communication with employees and groups. Overall, her goal is to attentively listen and get feedback from the team at Buffer and make decisions that benefit the entire company. Take a listen ?
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Transparency as a Core Value at Buffer
If you’ve ever been to the Buffer website (which we strongly suggest), they have a page called Transparency. There you can see intricate details about the company, such as:
- Salaries
- Revenue
- Equité
- … and pretty much all the data that very few companies out there disclose publicly.
Similarly, everyone in the company has all the internal information available at all times. One team can check up on another team’s progress and there are no secrets within the company. As Stephanie says, transparency helps everyone in the team do their best and the benefits of transparency far outweigh the worries.
Working at Buffer: From User to Fan and Employee
Stephanie taught philosophy for a few years and used Buffer as tool for her work. After learning more about Buffer on their blog, she became a huge fan of the company and their beliefs. Coincidentally, a role opened up and she applied. She had the most unique onboarding – her first day at work was the last day of Buffer’s Hawaii retreat.
For anyone looking to get hired at Buffer, Stephanie says that the company primarily looks at how well someone can communicate when making a hiring decision. The second factor that really matters is empathy, which she states is crucial for company values and remote work in general.
Most importantly, the employee should align with Buffer’s company values, which you can also read about on their website.
Retreats and on-sites as company meetings
There’s two ways the team at Buffer meets throughout the year:
- Remote retreats
- On-sites
Why two events per year? Because the team feels rejuvenated after each meet and the sense of isolation is reduced.
You can read more about how they set them up on the Buffer blog. Unlike other companies, the Buffer team invites entire families to the retreats, which makes it a unique chance to meet everyone on the team in a more relaxed atmosphere. On the other hand, on-sites are more work-focused.
If you want to find out how someone with a background in philosophy landed a job in a tech giant such as Buffer, as well as what activities she learns from the most, make sure to listen to the full episode.
Want to find out how other innovative companies think about culture and how they set up their retreats? Make sure to subscribe to More Beach Meetings to get the latest episodes as soon as they’re out!
