How We Thrive As an International Team

Our talented team comes to Carson from over a dozen nations, and counting! It’s more than just a country of origin that makes our team international, though. We build global diversity into all aspects of our work.

Posted 4 years ago by Michele Laarman

Where Do Carsonites Live?

Our team is made up of contractors from all over the world. We have team members from Canada, Russia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Italy, the Philippines, India, Nepal, Venezuela, Egypt, and the United States—plus some who reside in South Africa, Peru, Spain, and Italy. Whew!

So many different home bases means everyone is on a different schedule. When someone starts their shift, they may say “good morning” to some of their teammates and “good night” to others. Instead of a mass exodus from the office at 5:00 pm, our staff is logging on and off around the clock.

Origin and Core Values

Carson was born in Bali, Indonesia. Digital nomads—people whose work is not tied to a specific location—are drawn to Bali partially for the same reasons as other travelers: to nurture the mind and body through immersion in nature, amazing healthy food, and unparalleled opportunities to surf and practice yoga. However, digital nomads from around the world also come to Bali to find inspiration, build partnerships, and cultivate work-life balance.

This multicultural environment has shaped Carson from day one. Every member of the team is valued for their unique personality and contributions. Another tenet of Bali’s digital nomad community, the balance between work and play, is one of our six Core Values:

1. Work-life balance: Boosting job satisfaction and sustainability
2. Integrity: Building trust through respect and accountability
3. Resourcefulness: A can-do attitude towards challenges
4. Commitment to excellence: Growing by dedication to quality and detail
5. Impact: Making a difference in the industry
6. Professionalism: Top-notch work ethic and communication style.

Hiring Practices

In an industry as competitive as eCommerce, each development company needs to find their niche. Ours is providing small task services at super affordable prices. While we do serve many large, well-known brands, most of our customers are still on the road up to big online sales, and want to make their stores stand out on a budget.

So how do we offer high-quality, fast services with such a small price tag? In short, by seeking out a talented team living outside of Western economies. Some are North Americans or Western Europeans living abroad, but Carson also provides opportunities to motivated people from all over who have used the Internet to build up strong tech skills.

This way, we can offer competitive local salaries for our team and competitive pricing for our customers. Plus, our global staff directory means Carson paychecks are sent all over the world, boosting many different local economies.

No Such Thing as “After Hours”

By nature, online stores don’t operate on a 9-to-5 business day, and neither do their web needs. This means Carson receives task requests around the clock. Instead of running a “graveyard shift,” we make an effort to hire from time zones that match the workflow.

This boosts productivity, minimizes errors, and greatly improves morale. It’s been proven that a happy team also does the best work. Thus hiring from around the globe improves satisfaction not only for the team, but also for our clients, who get faster and better results.

Creating Opportunities Worldwide

To say eCommerce is growing fast is an understatement. Globally, it’s a great industry to get into, but not all countries offer the same opportunities for those who are talented in tech. Some places simply don’t have a market for digital services, or they may lag behind other parts of the world.

In the past, talented developers and other industry professionals had to move abroad in order to keep up with the ever-changing technologies. Now, companies like Carson offer a way for them to be at the forefront of the tech world without leaving their homes and families.

Another advantage of working remotely is that it’s easier to quickly adapt to change. In a rapidly changing environment like eCommerce, this is crucial. The COVID-19 pandemic has made it even clearer that working from home is the direction of the future.

Cultural Diversity

International teams like Carson’s have the chance to witness cultural differences in action. Cultural environments, as well as social and personal histories, help create different mindsets among our team members.

Such diverse backgrounds and approaches are a huge asset when solving problems for our customers, and they also help us think outside the box about how to strengthen Carson itself. Without many hearty discussions and diverging opinions, we’d never have gotten where we are today.

A Natural Progression

Following the herd is just not in Carson’s DNA. Instead of getting blueprints from business coaching books or other companies’ blogs, we forge our own path. The times when our experiments don’t work out as planned are just as important as when they do – we take everything as a learning opportunity going forward. 

This “trial and error” approach is how the Carson team naturally grew to be so international. It’s also how we settled into our current model of offering opportunities to talented developers and other tech-savvy people who might not have them where they live, while guaranteeing very affordable high-quality services for our customers. 

You won’t catch us standing still, though. We always have an eye on the future and how we can make an even bigger impact. By now, our team has delivered thousands of hours of web development, and we’re able to confidently take on more challenging tasks. We’re making plans right now to expand the services we offer!

Striking the Right Balance

Balance is woven into Carson’s very foundation. For starters, work-life balance is one of our core values. We found our niche in the balance between offering great value to our clients and great opportunities to our team. Now, we’re looking at the best way to maintain the balance between our team’s ever-growing skills and our customers’ needs. After all, life is all about balance.