A flexible work schedule might seem like a common perk in tech, but it’s no small thing for companies like Eastwall.
Chuck Martin, Eastwall co-founder and VP of business development and partnerships, shared the example of how having a flexible work schedule allowed a small company like Eastwall to support Muslim employees during Ramadan, offering them an adjusted schedule so they can attend to their personal and familial obligations.
“Equitable behaviors and policies are core to our firm, and recognizing the richness that diverse backgrounds and beliefs brings to our team is important,” said Martin. “With adjusted working hours, employees are enabled to observe their religious practices without compromising on productivity or well-being.”
Eastwall is a fully remote, “born in the cloud,” Microsoft-dedicated Azure consulting firm. The company — at the time of this article — has 12 employees, but is making a specific effort to bring on new teammates. In particular, the team is eager to work with recent graduates.
Martin went on to note that flexibility, along with competitive pay and mentorship, are just a few of the perks that go a long way to demonstrate the company’s commitment to its people.
All three are important factors that recent graduates take into consideration before applying to a role. SHRM reported that almost 50 percent of 2024 graduates said they are more likely to apply to a role that has “upskilling” resources. SHRM also noted that two-thirds of graduates stated that a flexible schedule and their student loan debt will influence where they apply.
Built In spoke with Martin about how Eastwall is building a workplace culture that offers key value propositions for recent graduates.
Eastwall is a fully remote, “born in the cloud,” Microsoft-dedicated Azure consulting firm.
What does skill-building look like at Eastwall for recent graduates?
It starts with quality mentorship from a senior consultant, engineer or architect on our team. We call this the Career Sponsorship Model. As a new employee, your career sponsor may not be your direct manager, but they are responsible for your growth and success at the firm. Every individual contributor at Eastwall gets a career sponsor.
“Every individual contributor at Eastwall gets a career sponsor who is responsible for their growth and success at the firm.”
Think of this like your ‘buddy system’ in the office. We provide our career sponsors with annual training on mentorship and leadership. Career sponsorship is a great way for budding leaders to also promote themselves into future managers. Our career sponsors work alongside a targeted training-certification path for sponsorees to ensure that an individual’s knowledge is constantly being updated every quarter.
How do you stay competitive with your salary and benefit offerings?
The best way to stay competitive in the market is to offer top-of-band salary and bonuses for the job roles. We benchmark our consultant salaries against industry norms for top-tier consulting firms. We don’t benchmark against geography, but rather try to incentivize competitive pay regardless of the location.
We’ve also changed our recent bonus structures to pay out quarterly rather than annually. This way, we can benchmark performance of the organization more regularly and distribute those dividends amongst staff more rapidly, incentivizing customer success in the immediate quarter.
As part of employee feedback we are always evaluating our perks, and as such are moving to a larger employer contribution amount for insurance premiums. Additionally, as a fully remote organization, many staff miss out on the in-person events that occur when doing hybrid or in-office work. We’ve begun offering expensed meals on certain days to allow our staff a chance to step out of their home office for a midday break or order in their favorite DoorDash spot.
