As the dreary funding winter continues to soar, at e27, we are kickstarting a new article series Line of Hire to understand an organisation’s culture and hiring philosophies to empower tech workers with the right growth tools and enable business owners to attract talent.
Stephanie Ping is Co-Founder and CEO of WORQ, a hyper-localised community workspace bringing new opportunities to businesses and entrepreneurs by fostering meaningful connections for its members and the surrounding community.
Ping graduated from Stanford University with a BA in Economics and MS in Management Science and Engineering. Her experience with Stanford’s entrepreneurship community significantly shaped her vision for WORQ’s entrepreneurial community.
Ping is the recipient of the Malaysian Venture Capital Association’s Outstanding Female Entrepreneur of 2019.
Ping discusses her company’s culture and hiring philosophies in this candid interview.
What personality traits/qualities do you look for in potential employees?
We look for passion and grit. We love teammates who are community-minded and are driven to foster connections.
How do they fit into your company culture? Tell us a little more about your company culture.
WORQ is a collaborative community, and we operate on a flat structure that drives high mobility in a fast-growing organisation to embrace the community mindset. At the same time, we strive to have quick feedback turnaround and execution across departments and reporting lines.
At WORQ, our community, which comprises MNCs, freelancers, startups and SMEs from different backgrounds and ethnicities, is at the heart of what we do. Our mission is to create a world where people prosper by working together.
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The design of our co-working space has been carefully thought out to foster collaboration and creativity while providing flexibility in working arrangements, from the layout of the hot desking areas to the private rooms, common areas, pantry and even meeting rooms.
How do you foster transparency and encourage achievement in the workplace?
It is crucial to have a robust work environment with the effectiveness to scale, accountability to progress and adaptability to change to foster a team.
Whether it’s people, process or technology related, identifying and bestowing the necessary resources, policies and tools for our teams is essential to encouraging achievement. Other than planning and setting goals to provide that clarity that our teams need, we encourage everyone to share learnings, celebrate successes and even reflect on failures, which is a crucial process for growth as an absolute unit.
To achieve that, we must allow everyone to share their voices through an open platform (through employee engagements or an open communication channel that provides access to information and ease of communication and feedback).
More importantly, we also found that involving our employees in decision-making creates that creative space and instils the confidence they need to grow.
Do you have a mental health policy?
We provide safe and open channels for our employees to reach out to us whenever they encounter any challenges. Our co-working spaces are designed with quiet areas and even sleeping pods for the community to recharge and get much-needed peace of mind throughout the day.
WFH or WFO, or hybrid?
Hybrid, hybrid, hybrid.
At WORQ, we believe in the hybrid work model that provides flexible working arrangements and work-life balance. All our outlets are strategically located near public transportation, with high connectivity to major highways and easily accessible to multiple service providers and various food choices.
We understand the need for working parents to be closer to home. We support working mothers by providing mother-friendly facilities (mother’s room) for nursing mothers, a shower room and napping pods.
How should a tech worker prepare for the funding winter?
Profitable scalability. Profitability isn’t the opposite of growth. In fact, it is synonymous with scaling.
Every new site we open makes us more money to grow, and that’s how tech companies should think. Things catch up, and if one isn’t disciplined to withstand the pressure not to be unsustainable, then it is tough to be successful.
Also Read: Innovation, teamwork, open communication are valued in our culture: Farida Charania of Empauwer
Every winter, there is an opportunity. As WORQ was working on sustainability through COVID-19, it emerged as a stronger player. Winters are when the wheat separates from the shaft. Tech companies should prepare well in advance and anticipate winter to use these opportunities to surge ahead, which was WORQ’s strategy.
How do you measure the performance of your employees?
We must ensure that our company goals always reflect our vision to be the best co-working space, which is then translated into key results and action plans across divisions to be measured routinely. We run our appraisal exercise quarterly to provide an active platform where both appraisers and appraisees can tackle challenges, celebrate achievements and grow effectively as a team.
At WORQ, our core values are deeply rooted and embedded in our working culture to promote accountability, customer and entrepreneurial mindset. On a day-to-day basis, we encourage collaborative behaviour among team members where they can send their colleagues Qarma Points for any support received, which will be showcased and translated into rewards.
Will you consider a moderately skilled person with great honesty or a highly skilled person with less honesty when hiring?
Yes. Skill is secondary, and we will 100 per cent hire someone who doesn’t have the right skills yet, as long as they have the right attitude.
We do not require a college degree. We can work with anyone as long as they can demonstrate a willingness to learn, curiosity, honesty and integrity! Skills can be acquired, and we are here to help our amazing team acquire them.
Do you encourage ‘intrapreneurship’ in your organisation?
Yes absolutely. We work in a community work style and practice design thinking in how we operate. We encourage our employees to think out of the box to resolve challenges and lead change to improve the current workflow. We have an ‘innovation box’ where employees can submit their ideas anonymously too. At WORQ, every idea is worth exploring.
How do you support upskilling for your employees?
We have crafted a Career Progression Plan (CPP) for all roles to allow all team members to align fairly and have ownership over their career goals, competencies, and timeline. CPP showcases the vertical career ladder each employee can progress into and allows our team to explore various portfolios based on their interests and capabilities.
At WORQ, we are also committed to building practical training and development programs to continuously enhance our team members’ knowledge, skills, leadership and standards. From technical topics like system functional training to soft skill topics like customer relationship management and leadership training, we aim to gradually build up over 15 syllabi of topics under our Centre of Excellence programme.
We provide monthly learning recommendations to our team to promote self-learning from our readily available and easy-to-access platforms, such as Masterclass, SoftBank Operator School and TedTalk.
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