7y
This was a very interesting feedback. Honest feedback, this is not fake. Pls allow me to respond.
Yes, we have launched an HR dept with a person fully dedicated to writing down our principles, Company Handbook, organising training, procedures, policies, etc. We invested in a software (Bamboo) that has helped us to improve internal communication. With offices in many cities, time zones and languages it was challenging. So you are right and I honestly think we are much better now (but still we are not perfect)
Now, when I took over in Nov 2016 I was hired to change completely the GRI business model. With good results elsewhere I was told to bring the changes to London and I did it. That means the GRI is a 20 years old company but with a spirit of a startup. And like any startup you must be agile, change and adapt to survive. Solutions that we implemented in Mexico, Brazil, India, Colombia not necessarily would work in Europe. So we did change to respond and adapt. We launched a new CRM, new products, services… it was quite a journey (and it has been but now we are steady)
I respect and understand this kind of environment with constant changes are not for everyone. Some can work for a startup, some prefer a more stable and traditional place.
I apologise if during the interview process I was not clear about our "startup spirit". Based on what I read you meant well but ended up frustrated here. Very sorry to hear that. But we had to be fast and adapt. That is what brought us the stability and market growth we can see now. I would invite you to join us for a coffee to see how things are now. You are right, the people are super nice here, the small disagreements you mentioned are truly over and we are proud of our products as you said indeed.
One side note: yes, we asked people to work from their desks. The reason was that we have a nice private office and our team of 36 people were working from different places/floors. With a need for us to build a team spirit, we decided to go "old fashion" and ask people to work at least during a good part of their day from inside of the office. That has actually helped a lot for people to connect, get closer and build friendships. Office environment got much better. Before they would see each other very little during the working day.
Sorry to hear that it didn't feel right to you. Maybe we didn't communicate enough the reason why we asked the teams to do that? Apologies. We live and learn.
Gustavo Favaron - CEO