Here’s why business-first means people-first.

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In this blog, Chronosphere’s Global Head of People & Talent shares our take on what people-first really means.

Gabriela Serret-Campos Global Head of People & Talent | Chronosphere

Gabriela directs Global Talent and People Operations at Chronosphere, marrying people strategy with business goals to drive impactful outcomes. As SVP of People Operations at Drizly, her leadership was pivotal in the company’s exponential growth and strategic navigation through the pandemic, culminating in a successful $1.2B acquisition. Gabriela’s influence also permeates her board and advisory roles, notably with the People Ops Society, where she champions workplace culture evolution and the advancement of women in leadership. Beyond work, Gabriela loves to explore Boston’s culinary and bar scene, enjoy live music, and travel with her two remarkable children.

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The recent tumultuous cycle of layoffs and uncertainty for tech companies over the last six months has driven home one particular point: for People teams across the industry, the success of the business correlates to the wellbeing of people on the team.

While the pre-pandemic trend was focusing on lavish perks to stand out from the crowd, in today’s climate,  operational efficiency is more important than ever (by the way, cutting costs — for observability — just happens to be Chronosphere’s thing). At Chronosphere, we’re aware that the health of our business correlates to the health of our team. Being sustainable with our internal practices and offerings is what has allowed us to cultivate a truthful, fulfilling workplace experience (and win some awards along the way.)

It’s not about chasing after those lavish perks and benefits (although we do have some pretty neat ones) and throwing up the “people-first” flag. It’s about continuously finding ways to support the business, and in turn our team members, in a way that feels authentic, sustainable, and forward-thinking. We like to think about it as a routine health check — not just a one-time thing.

What do we have to show for the success of our approach? Just earlier this month, Chronosphere was recognized for 5 new Comparably awards:

🏆 Best Company Outlook

🏆Best Places to Work in New York

🏆Best Product & Design Teams

🏆Best Marketing Teams

🏆Best HR Teams

Let’s take a dive into what each of these awards mean, in connection with how we think about our workplace.

Best Company Outlook

Chronosphere was recognized on this year’s Best Company Outlook awards list for small/midsize companies. According to Comparably, this list recognizes companies with the brightest futures. Using sentiment rankings by current employees, the award speaks to how excited our team members are about going into work each day, and how they feel about the future success of Chronosphere.

“Overall, I’m very happy at Chronosphere. Great company with a strong and real culture, a great leadership team, and an even better outlook for the future.” – Anonymous Chronospherian, Marketing team

In such a tumultuous time, we feel grateful to be able to slow down, be responsible with our growth, and make sure our teams can work well together. We’ve already built a team of highly-skilled and determined individuals, alongside a value-driven company and now we’re focused on optimizing and supporting what we have.

Best Places to Work: New York Metropolitan Area

Shout out to our New York Chronosphereians! For this award, employees anonymously ranked ~20 different workplace culture categories from compensation and leadership, to work-life balance, professional development opportunities, and more.

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Although Chronosphere is a remote-first organization, the biggest of our three hubs is located in SoHo, Manhattan. This combination of a remote-first model and available offices means that Chronosphereians are supported to work where they prefer, but can also enjoy monthly hub events with their teammates. We like to think of this option as a great way for folks to show up every day in a way that works for them.

Best Product & Design Teams

Comparably’s Best Product and Design Teams award is derived from anonymous employee ratings over the past 12 months in both the product and design teams – and Chronosphere made it to top 10 on the list.

If we’re going to talk about product and design, it only feels right to bring up the baked goods analogy.

Shortly after Chronosphere was born in 2019, our Head of Product at Chronosphere, Jeff Cobb, created the best analogy for how we think of our purpose-built solution and product. Like a baked good, there has to be a quality foundation (the cake) that can be built out into a delightful outcome (the frosting and decorations.) In a way, it’s how we think about our team, too!

Our product and design teams go above-and-beyond in innovating and collaborating to create a meaningful and exciting customer experience.

Best Marketing Teams

For the Best Marketing Teams award, Chronosphere made it onto the list of 50 companies that are recognized by their employees for an outstanding team experience.

Just last year, you could count our small-yet-mighty Marketing team on just ten fingers. Today, the team has tripled in size, and quadrupled in creativity — as they continuously look for new ways to establish Chronosphere’s presence as the leader in cloud native observability.

Best HR Teams

Finally, let’s talk about this Human Resources award. As mentioned in the introduction of this blog — a big part of what makes Chronosphere so successful is how we treat our outstanding team — with the right benefits, opportunities, compensation, and balance.

To be receiving this award by our anonymous HR experts, who have worked together to craft Chronosphere’s experience, just goes to show how much we believe in our own mission.

To wrap it up

Sometimes, tough times call for gratitude. Although we’re just a few months into the year, we’re already thinking about how we can make it the best one yet — for our business, back down to the individuals that collectively make up this great company.

In the meantime, stay up to date on all of the exciting things happening in Chronosphere’s world.

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