From the very beginning of Mediatoolkit, the desire for constant progress has been what guided the development of the company, products, but also every individual who was or still is part of our story. It is from this that one of our five core values, progress, has emerged, which for us represents much more than just reaching magic numbers or advancing to a new position.
So, what exactly does progress mean to us?
Today’s best should be tomorrow’s worst
As we provide clients with a tool that allows them to keep up with the latest relevant information in real time, we ourselves strive to diligently follow news and trends that help us improve existing processes.
Fortunately, there are many such opportunities, but they also mean that the moment we overcome one challenge, the next one is already at the door.
What we consider a huge success today may become the standard of business in a week, which we want to surpass again.
At the same time, the fact that the SaaS industry we work in is constantly changing and becoming more competitive also makes our business exciting as it encourages us to push our own boundaries and step out of our comfort zone.
Although such changes are sometimes difficult, they are extremely rewarding.
For example, we continuously conduct anonymous job satisfaction surveys in Mediatoolkit. All employees (including students) thus have the opportunity to give completely honest feedback on all aspects of the work, on the basis of which we then create concrete action plans with the aim of improving existing challenges.
As our Head of Engineering Paško explained:
We simply learned from our mistakes. You have to fail fast enough to get to what works for you.
Paško
Our Marketing team is guided by the ‘fail faster’ philosophy, too, and tests a large number of new tools and opportunities on a daily basis. It is often a trial and error process, but in the end, every failure leads us to a better and more efficient solution – that is the essence of progress.
What does progress within Mediatoolkit look like in practice?
In order to provide each employee with the maximum number of opportunities for growth and development within Mediatoolkit, we have structured a framework for progress which includes:
- Various education and educational budget
- Mentorship
- Internship
- Leadership Academy
- Creating your own career path
Here’s how it works in practice.
Various education and educational budget
Partly due to the specifics of our industry, partly due to the belief that knowledge is true power, we constantly learn in Mediatoolkit.
Primarily, on a daily basis inside and outside our team, we communicate about everything we find interesting to share. From classic office discussions on a break to a dedicated #edu Slack channel, we like to discuss (more or less) instructive topics. Whether it is a challenge to be solved or a discussion about the latest tool on the market, there is always a collocutor.
But sometimes the topics mentioned reflect the many interests and rich experiences of our employees who make Mediatoolkit’s culture so special.
For example, if you want to comment on the latest social trends, Irma will gladly share her piece of mind (and convince you that sociology, indeed, is a science). If you need advice on raising children, we recommend Dalija, who, in addition to being an amazing salesperson, is guaranteed to have the most unique parenting style.
In addition to less formal forms of learning, we are proud of the large number of organized trainings that are held at the company level on a weekly and monthly basis.
We will dedicate a separate blog to various editions of our Talks, so we will only briefly mention here that every Thursday leading experts from all over the world visit us virtually or in person, and once a month all interested can participate in Sales Showcase, Product Talks, and People Talks.
On the other hand, trainings at the team (or teams) level are held in accordance with specific needs and goals.
For example, our Customer Success and Sales teams worked together to improve their communication skills with the help of Ivana Stojaković from Quantum. By continuously monitoring the daily work with clients, they identified room for improvement, and the results showed very soon. Such educations are an excellent example of both business and personal growth based on the acceptance of constructive feedback.
Additionally, all Mediatoolkit employees have an annual training budget at their disposal that they can use to independently deepen existing knowledge or discover some new interests.
Mentorship
Trainings are also the basis for the quality integration of new members into existing teams within Mediatoolkit. Each new employee, therefore, attends numerous trainings and workshops during the six-month onboarding program, which help them get acquainted with all the processes and tools we use, as well as to gain insight into the work of all teams.
At the same time, new employees are assisted daily by a mentor and onboarding buddy, in order to make the new beginning as pleasant as possible.
The purpose of the mentorship is to enable the fastest and highest quality transfer of knowledge to a new person and to maximize not only the new employee’s skills but also the skills of the mentor.
To ensure such two-way progress, we are currently working on specialized mentoring workshops for all employees who have already or have yet to take on this role, all with the aim of achieving the highest standard of onboarding quality.
Internship
Besides full-time employees, the students employed in Mediatoolkit (Interns), also undergo the onboarding process.
The internship is a great opportunity to gain your first work experience for a number of reasons. We’ll single out the ones that make the internship in Mediatoolkit specific.
Primarily, our interns are completely equal to full-time employees. This implies the same level of involvement in all business processes and decision-making, the same benefits as the rest of the company, but also the flexibility of working hours in order to be able to fulfill all college obligations on time, which are, of course, a priority.
However, what is extremely important to emphasize about the student program is that it represents the starting point for a long-term career in Mediatoolkit. It is not defined in time or limited, but upon completion of studies, our Interns receive an indefinite contract, and the number of opportunities for further growth and development within the company grows exponentially.
The best proof of this is the fact that 30% of all permanent employees in Mediatoolkit started their careers in their student days, and another fun fact is that our COO, Ivor Bihar, started out in Mediatoolkit as an Intern.
Leadership Academy
Speaking of team leads, we are proud of the progress we have made in the past year in terms of developing leadership competencies.
First of all, we defined the internal framework of leadership competencies. Their development includes individual and group work and various methods such as education, training, workshops, mentoring, coaching, etc. Based on this, in collaboration with Ivana and Andrijana from Quantum, we created a six-month intensive bootcamp for our team leads called Leadership Academy.
The reason why we invest so much time and effort in our team leads is the fact that management is usually the driving force of every company, especially ours. Therefore, the development of our team leads and their leadership skills is a key part of our business strategy.
Creating your own career path
One of the things we especially like to point out is the fact that every Mediatoolkit employee has control over their own career path and future at all times.
It is natural for each of us to develop new interests over time, whether they are related to further specialization within the existing role in the company or imply a transition to another team. In addition to an unlimited number of opportunities for horizontal and vertical advancement, we all have the power to create a whole new profession within existing teams or to create a whole new team.
Thus, our Lucija Košković started her career as a Customer Support Intern in the Customer Success team, and thanks to her innate analytical skills, she built a completely new position of Customer Success Analyst within a year. She later joined our Product team as a Junior Data Analyst. Likewise, Lucija’s colleagues who joined the Customer Success team less than a year ago as Interns showed great potential for identifying customer needs, and with the proactive engagement, they quickly formed a new Account Management team within CSM.
As a company, Mediatoolkit is in a phase of constant growth, and thus our departments are growing and space is opening for new, maybe still non-existent positions. That is why we hold employee development conversations every six months.
It is an opportunity for each employee to express their satisfaction with the work, receive and provide feedback on their work and identify the desired career development path within Mediatoolkit. Based on this, concrete action steps are defined that often include taking on new responsibilities in the spirit of our ownership value, and we believe that everyone can find their place within Mediatoolkit according to their skills and the direction in which they want to develop.
Read: Transparency: the Importance of Open Communication
All in all…
Progress existed within Mediatoolkit long before we jointly defined it as a value during one teambuilding, introduced numerous trainings and training budgets as a benefit to each employee, or documented our mentorship and internship program.
When hiring every new employee, the desire for continuous learning and development is one of the most important things we look for in a person because that is exactly the foundation that makes our team successful. We look for and test opportunities to improve our role on a daily basis, and the challenges that come with that can sometimes be unexpected or even a little daunting.
However, even in situations where the results of our work may seem discouraging, it is important that we recognize opportunities for advancement and use them to achieve both business and personal growth. We believe that progress is not a matter of choice, but a value that we all have intrinsically, and which we further nurture and develop at Mediatoolkit.