How we work together – our awesome team

The Carson team consists of many different individuals, from across the world. Our dedicated employees span across 24 time zones and speak over 12 languages! Each of us brings a unique perspective and personality to the team, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Posted 4 years ago by Tatiana Dudin

As the digital work landscape changes, remote teams become more and more commonplace. Through trials and experimentation, Carson has come to understand how to face the challenges and reap the benefits of working remotely. We pride ourselves on having created an awesome work culture without physical presence. So how do we make it all work?

The Interview and Onboarding Process

A remote position has many of the same processes and protocols that regular office jobs have. Just like any other company, we have an on-boarding process for new employees. When hiring someone new, we check their references and do all the due diligence that a company must do with a new hire. We may have them do a test assignment to verify their skills and go through several rounds of interviewing.

Sure, the interviews are done through Skype calls, but each new employee gets a digital handbook, signs a contract and goes through a training process specific to their position just like they would in any other role. All documents are signed digitally, of course, and we have to navigate time zones to align schedules.

How We Communicate?

Slack is our virtual “office” and how we talk to each other on a day to day basis. We have a general channel where we say good morning and good night, send images and talk about both work and non-work related things. Announcements, memes and questions that relate to the whole team can all be posted here. Teams form their own private channels related to their field. For example, we have marketing and design channels where we chat and share files related to those fields.

Sometimes though, we need to speak using our voices instead of keyboards. That’s where team calls come in. While each team sets their own rules, we also have weekly lead calls and quarterly calls for the whole team where we share our work results and set future goals. We usually use Zoom for whole team calls and Slack or other applications for calls with less people.

We try to emphasize the fact that our team leads are accessible and are there to talk and support their team members.

Fun Fact: Sometime we refer to ourselves as ‘Carsonites’!

Employee Benefits

While working remotely is a benefit all on its own (you are free to work in your pajamas!), we also realize that a great job is more than just a paycheck – it’s being valued as a human being. We at Carson realize this, and just like companies with physical offices we offer perks like paid vacation, as well as an equipment and medical funds. We also have a parental leave policy in place, because we understand the importance of family.

Development and growing within the company are also part of working at Carson. We recognize each other’s efforts, and if someone wants to move up the ladder, we try to make it happen.

To make our employees feel special, we celebrate birthdays with virtual postcards and real presents delivered to their door.

How We Connect with Eachother?

Online

While we communicate on Slack, we have an awesome HR team that nurtures a team culture that connects us despite our geographical distance. We have a nifty little extension on Slack called HeyTaco. Whenever you want to recognize a team member, you give them a taco! A simple, but powerful gesture because, who doesn’t love tacos even if they’re virtual?

To understand and get feedback from our workforce, we use anonymous surveys that ask questions like “Do you feel like your work environment reflects your organizational culture?” and “Are you motivated by your organization’s values?” 

Sometimes, manually prepared surveys that are based on actual day-to-day situations can be powerful tools to help hear the voices of our co-workers and collect their feedback.

Offline

One of the challenges of remote work is the difficulty of ‘feeling’ you co-workers. Many of the social cues we rely on to understand one another, like body language, intonation, and facial expressions, are missing. We realized that the only way to alleviate this lack of feeling was to have live team meetings!

Team members who live relatively close to each other would sometimes meet for coffee or a few drinks, and in 2019 (as well as in 2018 and 2017) a few of us got together at the Shopify Unite conference. However, ultimately we decided it was imperative to have the whole team together in one place. That’s how our team building meeting in Montenegro came to be.

It was a blast, and it proved once again that there is a Carson team’s type of personality. It’s an amazing feeling to meet colleagues who you had been working with for a couple of years already for the first time, and realize that you all are aligned – in energy, in views, in goals.

Team Work Makes the Dream Work

Our team is what makes us who we are. The work, the banter and the willingness to go the extra mile have helped us succeed as a business. Whatever tomorrow brings, we are confident that our people and work culture will play a big part of our success.

Want to work with us? Check out our job openings below.