Here at Xero we take our culture and more importantly our people very seriously. Which is why we are beyond thrilled to announce that Xero has been named the Asia Pacific winner of Linkedin’s ‘Bring Your Employer Brand to Life’ award.
It’s widely known that what makes Xero so different is our people. Our CEO Rod Drury with the help of the human resources team (which we appropriately refer to as PX or People Experience, rather than HR) have specifically moulded a unique environment to work. From early on it was recognized that in order to attract the best talent we needed to have a clearly articulated employer brand that was able to stand out from the crowd. This is particularly the case in the tech sector. As its a fast paced and ever evolving industry it’s often difficult to attract talent with a niche set of skills particularly when they’re in such high demand.
We are constantly putting emphasis on how necessary it is to attract the best people at speed to keep up with this hyper growth. In the past 12 months alone we have placed 675 new people in roles throughout the globe, that figure alone highlights why the strength of our employee brand is crucial. We also have an award-winning Graduate Program in each of the markets we operate.
Last year we produced a recruitment video to give people an insight into what it’s like to work at Xero.
We keep the drumbeat with social media outreach and constantly tell the stories of our people, our customers and our partners. Celebrating the #human element with authenticity, whilst showcasing individual’s ‘best selves’ is what resonates with our various stakeholder audiences. Our focus is on our people, the partners we work with and the customers we develop #beautiful software for. Each of these audiences are equally important to us and our purpose and programs support this vision.
Like all tech companies we know having great perks is important and we offer these as well as an employee share program, however we also know that top talent are motivated and engaged by more than just the extrinsic factors. Ultimately, people want:
- to work for a company that has a strong sense of purpose – #champion. Ours is having impact on the world by growing small business.
- to have autonomy in their role – #ownership & #human touch. Flexibility to work anywhere at anytime and a clear strategy that enables people to leverage their strengths and decide how best to achieve their objectives.
- to feel valued and that they are making a difference – #challenge & #beautiful. Rewiring the global economy connecting millions of business.
So it’s essential that our internal values and employer brand reflects the unique value proposition Xero displays.
We also have a strong focus on attracting more female talent and giving them the platform to show leadership in the tech sector. We are active supporters of events and initiatives which facilitate this such as Code Like A Girl, Tech Girls Movement and Diverse City Careers. Our latest initiative sees us now offering a lot more part-time roles across the business and development programs for people looking to change careers. Ultimately we look at strengths and aspirations of individuals as opposed to viewing career history to ensure that we match people to roles.
Something that makes us different is our global approach to flexible working initiatives that have been specifically developed, communicated and successfully implemented both internally and externally. These approaches and more will continue to enable Xero to attract the best people to do the best work of their lives, globally.
