No Boss? No Problem. 🤷‍♂️

Why we invest so much in our culture and values

We? That's smartive. We stand for digital solutions and a bizli different corporate culture.

It says so on our website. And we want to create a place where we not only work, but also live friendship and freedom. With space for different personalities, interests and developments.

It says that too.

Personally, I believe that we are different from other companies: These (belief) propositions are not only written on a strategy paper and on our website, but we also live them.

But the big difference for me is that we don't have a boss. And no boss. It's actually just us. So completely egalitarian.

Because, and this is extremely important to us, we want to be - and remain - the best possible employer for our employees. And we really do a lot to achieve this.

How we do it

A few days ago, I had an inspiration in the shower. It actually happens to me quite often. And then it has to come out somehow. Anyways. Suddenly and in one fell swoop, I realized that our entire New Work philosophy is actually based on three pillars. We have carefully cultivated and nurtured these three pillars over the past few years without realizing that they would become our foundation. Without ever having planned it so explicitly.

And yet I would say that we can reduce New Work to these three pillars.

Full transparency for employees

As a company, we have no secrets from our employees. So, only a few, and these few know everyone. Logical, isn't it?

In any case, the fact is that all information should be freely available to all employees. No matter what information employees need or want, they should be able to obtain it.

Dismantling hierarchies

Do you need your boss's permission to travel to the conference in Berlin? Your line manager is there if you don't get on with your customers? That's not what we want. Responsibility is assumed and borne - regardless of whether you've been with us for three months or 10 years. There are no hierarchies.

Empowerment of employees

Self-organization - a wonderful and oh-so-complex word. For a self-organized system to work, all employees must be empowered to make decisions themselves - and be able to make them. This goes hand in hand with the dismantling of hierarchies. All employees can bring about change independently without "okay from above" if they want to.

What we do

New Work means many things. And buzzwords are being thrown around. Working from home? Yes, we do that. And not in a limited way, but in the way that suits everyone best. Part-time work? No problem at all. Flexible working hours? Of course, it just has to work for your team. Your ideal work tool? Of course: you know best what you need. We could use all these nice buzzwords, because they are all possible with us. But it's just not fundamental.

Full transparency for employees

As a company, we have no secrets from our employees. Every single person, including our interns, knows exactly how much money is in our account down to the last franc. The weekly personal pulse check (How am I doing? How was my week? Am I overworked or underworked?) is not visible to everyone. Only the employees themselves see this, and their Buddy.

But this also includes our wages. These are based on a value-driven and transparent Wage systemwhich also means that all wages are openly visible.

Structures, not hierarchies

We have completely abolished our management. Well, almost. Not all employees are entered in the commercial register as authorized signatories. But all those who want to are. Instead, we rely fully and consistently on structures.

In our case, structures mean roles. For example, at the time of this blog post, I occupy the roles of All Hands Navigator, Branding, Buddy, Conference Relations, First Contact, Hiring, Influencer (yes yes), Sales and Strategist. Each of these roles has a purpose, a responsibility and a domain. This clearly describes the expectations. Each role can make decisions independently or in collaboration with other roles.

Empowerment of employees

This is where my favorite tool comes into play: the Advice Process 🌈🦄

We've already written and talked a lot about this, so we'll just give you a brief summary here.

If employees want to bring about a change, they formulate their intention, obtain feedback from those affected and make a decision based on this.

That's it!

And now?

All of this "just happened". So without a roadmap. But with agile, lean processes. With the empowerment of employees to initiate every possible change in the company. In this way, we create a foundation that allows all employees to play a full part in the organization. Identify with it and want to transform the company so that it is the ideal employer for everyone. If we're not there yet, we're well on our way.