Inside Ubiq's Culture

A Rapid-Fire Interview with Our Head of People.

In today's insightful interview, Liv, our Head of People will answer 3 questions that will help you to explore the inner workings of Ubiq, that's not just building a product but also fostering a community.

1. To break the ice, let's kick things off with a fun question: If our company were a person, who do you think it would be?

If Ubiq were a person, it would be Pippi Longstocking (Pippi Langstrumpf) a Swedish fictional character - a curious, creative, playful, unconventional, kind, caring, compassionate and unstoppable force of nature. We approach challenges with curiosity, as something new to learn from, not as obstacles that cannot be tackled. Whatever we do, we do that with a purpose and with caring about ourselves, our clients and mankind.

A person who thrives at Ubiq is someone who is curious about the world, cooperative, interested in feedback and self-improvement, a hard-worker who doesn’t take themselves too seriously, a kind person who offers support.

2. Continuing our conversation on self-improvement, could you share how professional development is nurtured and encouraged within the culture of Ubiq?

Professional development is a topic on its own. Most people imagine sitting in a class room training and that’s it. That’s not how it works at Ubiq. We have a very holistic approach to personal and professional development. Most of learning happens by doing and we absolutely support cooperation and collaboration among the teams. We believe in taking the lead - you see something that needs to be done? Is it outside of your comfort zone or regular scope but you want to do it? Then go ahead and do it! We value proactiveness and creativity.

If you need professional help along the way, we are ready to support you by providing you with training or a course. We also do some fun learning throughout the year where we play, create and have fun but with a huge learning experience. I am super proud to see how far we’ve come since we started with these playful team events last year in October. Most of these fun events are available for our remote team members too!

3. Frequently, it's said that leading a company with remote team members can be challenging. What, in your opinion, contributes to the exceptional internal collaboration and teamwork we experience here at Ubiq?

Communication is key and especially if you have team members in various locations / time zones with different backgrounds. We have some fixed meetings and ad hoc meetings and we try to tailor it to the needs of each. We have a biweekly Town hall meeting where we always find out something new about ourselves, we focus on business and our achievements and we have a kudos section. What always makes me happy is to see people give each other love and appreciation even for actions that we may take for granted.

We also have regular leadership team meetings and workshops, team meetings and 1 on 1 sessions and alignments. We keep in touch on Slack in various channels, via Google Meet, virtual coffee meetings, regular in person All team events, you name it.

I’m pretty sure a question pops in your mind - so if people are remote or working from home, how do you keep the creative juices flowing? To facilitate creativity, we also use Miro and it’s worked great for us.

We are a climate-tech scale up and we look for our talent internationally. If people are in or want to move to Austria - great, if they prefer to stay in the country where they are - great too. For us, physical proximity is not the most important factor. It’s nice to have but not a must. Why limit our talent pool to just one country or one place when we can get the best from anywhere? Most of the time, the tools that we use are efficient enough to foster the teams’ collaboration and effort.

Twice per year we meet each other for our All team events and we are also happy to welcome our remote team members in the office whenever needed. Our Vienna-based team members also benefit from flexible workplace and work-time arrangements. Some people prefer to work almost fully from the office - we have an awesome office close to Naschmarkt in Vienna. Some people prefer to work almost exclusively from home - that works for us well. Most people, however, enjoy a flexible arrangement allowing them to work from home and from the office.

Personally, I’m always excited when I come to the office and it’s lively with people. I enjoy our lunches and coffee breaks together.

We understand that not everyone wants to or can work full-time and this can change at various stages in one’s life. Therefore, we have several team members working part-time. It would be a pity to lose out on amazing talent because we as an organization are not flexible.

Thanks Liv, If I didn't work here, I'd be checking out the open positions at Ubiq right now! :) From the imaginative persona of Pippi Longstocking to the holistic approach to professional growth, it's evident that Ubiq is a place where curiosity, innovation, and collaboration reign supreme.

The insights you shared today remind us that a company's culture can be a driving force of success. Ubiq's commitment to flexibility and inclusivity serves as a model for businesses seeking to harness the power of diverse talent, regardless of geographical boundaries, which is awesome and makes Ubiq an exceptional workplace.