One of our key values here at Cobloom is to always be learning. As the company grows, we want our team to grow and develop with it. And we know that the success of the company is closely linked to the success of the people who are building it.
That is why we are working to build a culture that values making time for learning and personal growth. Today I’m sharing with you four ways we help our team grow.
1) Free Books
Will once asked me why I applied for a job at Cobloom, and I told him it was because the job description said they offered free books. He thinks I was joking, but I’m completely serious: this seemingly small perk says a lot about the company. It highlighted for me that Cobloom is a company that wants to build an ambitious, curious and passionate team – and that was the sort of company I wanted to work for, and the sort of people I wanted to work with.
We do monthly book orders from the company Amazon account, and have a well-stocked library in the office. If there’s a book any of us wants, we just have to request it via Slack, and it’ll get added to the list for next month’s order.
2) Learning Time
As well as encouraging everyone to read a lot, we also encourage everyone in the team to dedicate some of their time in the office each week to reading and learning. With our SaaS specialism this is super important – there’s always new tech or new tools that can help us do a better job for our customers, so we need to keep up-to-date.
For me, I try and spend the first 30 minutes of my day learning – whether that’s reading a book, listening to a podcast or something different entirely. I’m normally the first person in the office in the morning, so I try and take full advantage of the quiet time, before I start my ‘real’ work.
3) Travel
Cobloom is a Hubspot partner, and as such we have the opportunity to attend regular Hubspot events. In May I was lucky enough to attend Hubspot Partner Day in Dublin with Will, and in November Will, Ryan and myself will be attending Inbound 2016 in Boston, MA.
When I started I had no idea I’d have so many fantastic opportunities available to me: I learned so much in Dublin about how other, successful Hubspot partners were growing their agencies, and about specific skills I wanted to develop personally.
As well as Hubspot-hosted events, we pay a lot of attention to the growing number of SaaS-specific events. We’re planning to go to SaaStr next year, and there are plenty of meetups in London and Europe that we’re interested in.
4) Regular Goal Reviews
When I joined Cobloom, and the team grew beyond the three co-founders, we decided that it would be beneficial for everyone if we created an ongoing review process, to help us develop our skills and learn from each other. As such, we all have fortnightly 1-on-1 meetings with Will to discuss our day-to-day work.
Additionally, we have recently introduced an extra monthly meeting to discuss our long-term goals and priorities. This helps all of us focus on what we want to achieve, and what steps we need to take in order to meet our goals, and also means that Will – and the rest of the team – are able to provide support and guidance where needed.
