Watercooler Conversations: OpenUp
In our ‘Watercooler conversations’ articles, we casually chat with key people working in different departments of companies similar to Clay. They build SaaS, are based in the Netherlands, and company culture is important to them. Expect conversations about technology, company culture, mental health at work, expat tips, and more.
This time around we chat with Isa from OpenUp, the mental health platform that is making waves in corporate health. We are proud to have been working with the platform and the team for a while now and have seen improvements which we are very happy with.
Isa, tell us, what does your role exactly entail?
I work as a Marketing Specialist at OpenUp, meaning I support Sales and Customer success in our commercial team. I’m responsible for our LinkedIn channel, and I make sure that all content that we create is created and published in all the markets where we are active. These can be one-pagers, sales decks, flyers, but also masterclasses, blogs, video content, or LinkedIn posts for the marketing, sales, and customer success team.
How would you describe OpenUp’s company culture in one word?
Open, as the company name suggests ;) It is the essence of our mission to be Open with one another and to share learnings, setbacks win, and challenges in a transparent manner with our team.
How do you ensure all colleagues are working on the same mission and are passionate about that mission?
Naturally, the people that are part of our teams are passionate about mental well-being. Every month, there is a strategy meeting with the whole company where new updates and progress are shared. With everything we do we try to keep our end goal - making mental health accessible for all - in mind. Therefore we also introduced OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) to the company and different teams. That way we ensure all employees work towards the same goals and missions. Next to that, we organize lots of team events (this is even one of the OKRs in our commercial team!
How did you distill your core values as a company?
First of all, the recruitment process plays a major role here. In every step of the recruitment process, we try to find people that match our core values, and we try to include different people and roles within the process.
Next to that, we check in occasionally. For example, our HR department has quarterly interviews with people throughout the entire organization on the values to check in on them. How do you experience these values? Do you feel them? What can we do differently? What works for you or not? What is unclear?
The leadership team also talks about these values every ‘off-site’. To ensure that the values are the same within all teams. We encourage colleagues to speak up or share their thoughts whenever they want, not just during those interviews.
How do you encourage mental health at work as a mental health ambassador?
A benefit of working at OpenUp is that you also have unlimited access to OpenUp services anytime, anywhere (also during office hours), because mental health comes first. You are completely free to decide whether this is something you feel comfortable with because our psychologists are our colleagues. However, many psychologists work from home or abroad. This makes the threshold a bit lower as you won’t run into each other in the office as often.
Do you feel mental health is an often overlooked aspect of modern-day work life?
Yes. We try hard to practice what we preach, but I think I speak for most people when I say that sometimes you don’t even realize you’ve been on auto-pilot for too long. We are living in this ‘always-on’ society and if we overlook mental health for too long, our bodies will alert us to slow down a bit.
I try to join a 25-minute mindfulness session every Thursday around lunchtime. It’s super accessible, a group of people joins together but there’s no need to turn on the camera. You just listen to the psychologist and follow along. I sometimes feel like i'm too busy to be doing this but it makes me feel much lighter afterward and that increases my productivity in the afternoon.
How do you feel companies can overcome this and offer a healthy work ambiance?
Creating space for your mental well-being is like creating a new habit. It helps to create this space together and integrate mental health into your company culture. This starts by opening the conversation on the work floor and breaking the taboo. That is easier said than done, therefore it’s also important to discover the needs of your employees and act on them.
How do you make sure you keep the team spirit when times get tough, such as we have experienced the last two years?
By not shoving things under the rug. Talking about difficult topics can feel uncomfortable, but sharing these thoughts with someone else, like a colleague, usually makes room in your mind to allow more positive thoughts to come in. When you share your thoughts, you might be surprised to find out how many people relate.
How do you celebrate different individualities at OpenUp?
We believe that different perspectives and backgrounds can help an organization grow. This results in richer conversations and quicker innovation. During the recruitment process we make sure to hire talented individuals that bring something of themselves into the mix, for example: wear whatever you’re comfortable in, work the hours where you feel most productive, from the location of your choice. Inform us about your needs and we’ll try to adjust (wherever possible), instead of the other way around.
Do you also use the OpenUp platform as a team and do you improve the software based on your feedback?
Yes, definitely! Our product team has a space where they gather all feedback from colleagues and new product updates are announced before implementation. The platform should be user-friendly, both for clients and psychologists.
With what software do you work on the platform and why?
Our web application is built using React which is one of the world's most popular technologies for web applications. This calls an ASP.Net core REST API which in turn persists data to a Microsoft SQL Server database. These are mature stable performant technologies and a natural choice since we use Azure for our cloud hosting.
Are you all back in the office now, and do you see an effect on the mental health of colleagues?
At OpenUp you are free to decide when you work from home or the office. Most people choose to be in the office 3-4 days a week. However, we also have a lot of colleagues working from other locations in Europe. As we find it important to keep employees engaged by incentivizing them to come to the Amsterdam office once a month by setting team events or making them part of the onboarding of new employees.
When people work from home more than from the office, it is important to check in with them regularly. If you do so, you can mostly detect mental health challenges at an early stage and act upon them.
Thank you, Isa, for taking the time to chat with us! We are very proud to present you guys on our blog and help to shine more light on what important things you are working on at OpenUp!
Interested in offering OpenUp as a company? Check out their website! Struggling with anxiety at work? Read this article to learn what you could do to feel better in your job right now.
Until we meet again, at the water cooler! 👋
Clay Solutions - A SALTO Group company is the daughter company of SALTO Systems. A lock hardware manufacturer based in Oiartzun Spain. While Clay builds the cloud-based software that allows users to tap their locks open with their phone, SALTO provides the hardware, the locks that are enabled to communicate with the software. This website functions as a platform to showcase our company culture in our office in Amsterdam, the way we build our software, and why and who the Bricks are. Feel free to browse around, head over to SALTO to find more about the hardware, or apply if you see a job you think you are just perfect for.