Netcentric & Holacracy: Every employee has a voice
What makes a company a great place to work? Recently, we caught up with Katharina Schweighart, Head of Delivery at Netcentric, and Hansjürg Hürzeler, Senior Director and Holacracy Coach at Netcentric to discuss how the combination of our core set of operating values, principles, and most importantly, holacracy, provides a great home for some of the most agile and dynamic minds in the industry.
https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/6CSvroBYMo1Rq6jAjS40SE?utm\\_source=generator
Holacracy: What is it, and what are its main benefits in the workplace?
According to Katharina, holacracy is “An agile mindset and framework that helps us to structure and organize ourselves and always reminds us to inspect and adapt.”
In place of a traditional hierarchical structure, holacracy is an operating system where the emphasis is put on the work that needs to be done rather than on the people who do it. In fact, Katharina states that holacracy is the cornerstone of Netcentric’s working culture, giving every employee the power to make changes within the organization.
This form of self-management, rather than conventional layers of micromanagement, is the key to empowering employees to make more meaningful decisions and drive meaningful change exactly when and where it’s needed.
Hansjürg agrees, comparing Netcentric’s holacratic structure to other conventional hierarchical structures, that “every company says that they only hire the best and the brightest, but then they hire them and tell them exactly how things are done and provide them with the playing field.”
“With holacracy, if employees don't like something, then they have the freedom to change it,” Hansjürg says. “This is what holacracy is: Recognizing what’s not in the state that it could be, should be, and having the ability to initiate changes on the spot.”
What are some misconceptions about holacracy?
Holacracy is neither a hierarchy nor a flat organizational structure. Hansjürg goes on to say, “with holacracy, you have the complexity and the hierarchy that is required at that very moment in time. In two months, it might look different. But there is a hierarchy and leadership because we don't want chaos. It's a very different type of leading, guiding, and way of processing tensions.”
In fact, he believes that this type of structure makes Netcentric unique. “We are set up to process feedback and ideas, to learn and to share,” he says. “Compared to every other company I've worked for, we actually applaud somebody for challenging the way we do things.”
Holacracy is also the reason why people who once left return to Netcentric -- in fact, Hansjürg remembers one particular employee who credited the freedom within Netcentric’s holacratic system as one of the main reasons he returned.
Holacracy and Netcentric’s core values
Holacracy aligns with who we are as an organization and empowers us to make the right decisions at the right time.
The following Netcentric core values are intrinsic to holacracy as a philosophy:
- Cultivate respect
- Give and accept feedback
- Never let the customer down
- Share, discuss and bring ideas to life
- Don’t take success for granted
- Exceed the highest standards and achieve results we are proud of
- Never let your team down
- Make Netcentric a fun place to work
Why join the Netcentric team?
Katharina is passionate about not only welcoming new employees but embracing the experiences they bring, too. She says, “I always ask new joiners to let us know what they’ve learned so we can learn from them. Sharing our knowledge helps us to improve on all sides and that for me is very important.”
Netcentric is always looking for new talent to join our agile, forward-thinking team. If you’re looking for your next opportunity in a workplace where you’re encouraged to focus on purpose-driven initiatives and have your unique voice heard, check out our careers page for our latest openings.