There are many reasons why HubSpot is the place to go work for. A lot of tech companies use frills like very attractive perks and benefits (modern designed offices, unlimited vacation, great insurance coverages, parents benefits and many more, we get the drift) and dangle in your face. I think that's besides the point why.
People leave a workplace (no matter how nice everything else is) if they do not feel secure, have a poor manager, or does not believe in the management of the company.
Let me illustrate how HubSpot has well thought out systems and teams to protect against that disenchantment that attrition is real if none of the above is met.
1. Feeling secure
The day that you join HubSpot, regardless of team / role / title, you go through an onboarding program that is world-class. Everyone will learn about the product, and everyone needs to do an intensive project that will put one in a potential customer's shoes - learning how to actually use HubSpot's platform. Having gone through 3 months of onboarding led by the Learning and Development team, you basically are left with very little chance of failing in your role. Learning doesn't stop when onboarding ends. HubSpot really believes in investing in employee development, because if you do a quick search, you'd come to the realisation (as did we) that the cost of hiring a replacement and re-training far outweighs the cost of ensuring that employees are able to adapt and keep themselves upskilled for tomorrow's job. Everytime there is a new significant product change / launch, every customer-facing team (Sales, Services, Support) undergoes training to ensure we know how to talk about it, sell it, and teach customers to use it. Besides internal trainings that are required, HubSpot also believes that when you are upskilled, you also become a more valuable employee to the company. We have a very generous annual tuition grant of S$6750/year for accredited courses, and a discretionary budget for any employee development course, as long as you know that this will help you get ahead in your career. I've since used the budget to take online courses from Harvard Business, Stanford Centre of Professional Development, and other SEO-related courses to enhance my knowledge. We also have our internal Learning Management System called Learn@HubSpot, and these are all FREE to take. There are particularly interesting ones like "Communicating Effectively With Executives", "Why Is Internal Mobility", "Working from Home Etiquette" to job-specific skills like "Intro to API", "Google Ads Advanced Training" etc. With so many resources available to ensure that you are successful, if anyone complains that they feel they are not progressing, it's really on them to take the initiative to grow, and not just grow, but grow better. I know that all these don't just benefit my role today at HubSpot, but also prepares me for any future endeavours I wish to pursue in the future. If anything, HubSpot allows me to feel like I've stood on the shoulders of giants to accomplish what I have.
2. Great managers
It is not possible to have perfect managers at any company. The realistic and pragmatic expectation is how best we manage a poor-performing manager, and ensure that others have the chance to grow and become a great manager. I am an individual contributor, and I have seen my fair share, and worked with amazing managers at HubSpot. These are individuals who care greatly about the success of their team and solve for their team. Everyone at HubSpot lives by the motto of "Solving for the Customer", now, our managers live by the motto of "Solving for the team". Their main job is to remove any obstacles that prevents individual contributors from performing and excelling, and then let them do their magic. Of course, not all managers are amazing, but there are feedback channels available to surface this to management. It is on the management to ensure that poor managers are trained, and if not, let go, in order to not harm the entire team. I've seen senior managers in very highly visible positions get let go because their performance is just not up to par. It sends a huge message that when the team is not performing, it's usually because the manager isn't managing well, and we are not afraid to make hard decisions when needed.
Usually such decisions are made in the HQ, because these are also the managers who have the greatest impact to either hurt progress, or forge progress.
3. Believing in the management of HubSpot
This is my number one reason aside from the rest why I think working in HubSpot beats going for any MBA program. The executive leadership team is highly transparent. We are talking about 80 pages business strategy memos written by senior leaders that are shared to everyone in the company. There are HELMs (HubSpot Executive Leadership Meetings) and various board meeting decks being shared. Essentially, if anyone who has poor judgement and wants to screw HubSpot over with divulging such information, can. But most don't, and won't. When you are given a lot of information and responsibility to protect HubSpot's future, you tend to act in the best interest of the company. I think this is something that many tech companies say they are transparent, but don't act as they do. All our leaders are also available through Slack, and you can literally just reach out to any senior leaders and ask them anything. I recall having to get some information from our CPO (Chief People Officer) Katie Burke, and she responded to me within a couple hours. I'm based in Singapore, and I have access to our top management in the US, in such proximity. Imagine how powerful that can be in a 2,600 strong company. For the most part, when we say we want to do something, and set it as a company goal, we usually do it, and make bets on it. I've seen how my own role has transformed since the last 1.5 years because of the nature of the development of HubSpot. As we started from a Marketing software company, we have now grown into a platform company. My KPIs have evolved to align with the progress of the business, and everyone is very agile in ensuring that we keep acting and delivering to evolve the company. Our COO strongly believes in HubSpot being big and fast, and I think we are getting there.
