LearnUpon’s Head of Marketing says hybrid and flexible work is key to hiring and retaining great teams and explains how leaders can build a positive work environment with global hybrid teams.

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Mark Hatton became an early leader of international marketing teams at organizations like LinkedIn, Pluralsight, and Quantcast, serving as the “on the ground” Dublin-based EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) marketing expert for many years. After joining LearnUpon, a SaaS LMS platform based in Ireland, in 2019, Mark’s team has grown by 150%, and they’ve gone from primarily in-office to totally flexible work. 

As the current Head of Marketing at LearnUpon, Hatton says that employees work best when they can choose how, where, and when they work. It’s helped with team productivity, and hiring and retention efforts for the company.

“Giving the marketing team flexibility in where they work and live has helped us to attract and retain talent, which has been hugely helpful,” Mark says. 

Hatton believes that the key to building hybrid teams across countries and cultures is finding common ground, committing to “scheduled fun,” and giving team members the freedom to work how they want. That said, he also stresses the importance of understanding different cultures, personalities, and work preferences to work successfully with global teams.

Dublin — Europe’s Silicon Valley

When Hatton first started at LinkedIn in Dublin around ten years ago, it was still the early stages of the Dublin tech scene. “You had LinkedIn, Facebook, Google, Twitter, and all the big names here, then they started to grow and expand. It’s been an interesting journey,” Mark adds. “It was the European tech hub. People started coming from all over to work here, all different languages and nationalities coming together.”

Joining the LearnUpon team was an exciting challenge that took Hatton’s experience growing Europe-based marketing teams to a company based in Dublin. “There was a bit of national pride there, to bring my knowledge to an Irish startup and see if I could help make an impact,” Mark shares. 

When the pandemic hit, Dublin, like all major cities, experienced a shift. “People want flexibility and to avoid rent prices in the city,” he says, noting that many team members wanted to work from their home country, or areas outside of Dublin. 

How LearnUpon went from 95%+ in-office to a fully flexible team

The LearnUpon team was already hybrid pre-pandemic since one of their founders is based in  Belgrade, but they were a primarily in-office team. 

Then, once COVID-19 hit, the team started working from home, and many folks decided to move away from Dublin, choosing to come into the office when it worked for them. “The default used to be the office. Now, it’s whatever works best for an individual on any given day. We’re totally flexible,” Mark adds.  

When asked about any technology or furniture recommendations that have helped him adjust to hybrid and flexible work, Mark didn’t hesitate for a second.

“My standing desk. I love it. I haven’t sat down in about a year. It’s a game on my team now to catch me sitting,” he jokes.

The practical side of going fully hybrid and flexible

Taking a team from being based in one city or country, and being in-office, and opening it up to hybrid or flexible work where employees can work from anywhere in the world requires HR, legal, people operations, leadership, and a lot of transparency. It also requires new policies, a company culture shift, and changes to legal and tax structures, depending on each employee’s individual circumstances. 

“All of the practical stuff that’s involved in hiring international teams and taking your company remote or flexible is worth it. We work with Remote.com to manage contracts, legislation, and all of the other aspects that come along with international hiring. It’s streamlined our process and given us the flexibility to look anywhere for new team members,” Mark says.

As teams grow and expand, and go from fully in-person to hybrid and flexible, they need to lean on technology to support employees. Hatton says some of the platforms that have helped his team adapt have been Miro to map out ideas and virtually whiteboard them, Slack (of course), Asana, Google Suite, and Zoom. 

How remote and hybrid work impacted LearnUpon’s company culture

Making the switch to a hybrid work model has positively impacted LearnUpon in a number of areas. With a wider talent pool, their team has grown significantly in the past few years, and remote and hybrid technology has empowered LearnUpon to become more inclusive, more accessible, and more connected.

When access to talent expanded with remote work, Mark’s team grew by 150%

A silver lining of having to pivot to a hybrid organization was expanding their hiring pool. The marketing team at LearnUpon grew from a team of six to a team of fifteen during the pandemic. 

“We now have the ability to hire great people wherever they are. This has helped us find and hire team members who may not have been available from a location perspective when we were in the office,” Mark adds.

Video conferencing has increased inclusivity and accessibility

After experiencing both sides of being the only remote employee, as both that employee, and the manager or leader of that employee, Hatton knows the importance of intentional inclusivity in the hybrid workplace. When everyone is on Zoom, it levels the playing field, and encourages better participation and collaboration across countries, teams, and time zones. It can be hard to be the only employee tuning in virtually to be heard and to keep up with the pace of in-person conversations. But with the right tools and leadership, you can help create a better environment for all employees.

“Zoom and video conferencing has helped us ensure we’re always thinking about our colleagues, and whether they’re able to participate fully.” 

The company is more connected than ever

LearnUpon hosts a monthly company meeting, where team members join via Zoom or in-person. It streams live from their CEO’s kitchen table (where LearnUpon was actually started!) and has helped to connect every team member, near and far. 

Hybrid teambuilding lessons from Mark

• Deliberately build trust and camaraderie

Spend time with your team, whether that’s getting work done or having informal conversations about what you watched on Netflix last night. Be deliberate about building trust and camaraderie. “My leadership style hasn’t necessarily changed — I trust my team, that they’re going to do their work as best as they can. It’s my communication style and effort to build relationships that have changed,” Hatton adds.

• Learn by osmosis however you can

As offices open up and people begin collaborating in new and different ways, learn by osmosis from other individuals or teams. If the marketing team finds out that a group of BDRs will be in-office, they can come in and listen in. “One of the biggest challenges on a distributed marketing team is you’re removed from learning by osmosis. Those side conversations and sales calls can help guide marketing strategy and improve cross team collaboration.”

• Don’t work all the time, set working hours

“When you’re working with teams in different time zones, it’s easy to work all the time. Set your working hours with the people you work with most in those time zones and don’t be afraid to advocate for yourself and your work-life balance.”

• Lean in to “old school scheduled fun”

Break the ice by adopting “old school scheduled fun,” like a Zoom quiz, regular team standups where you share highlights from work or personal life, or spontaneous coffee chats. Get creative with virtual teambuilding and don’t ignore it because it feels corny.

Leading successful hybrid teams requires creativity, diversity, inclusivity, and connectivity

Companies are rethinking the workplace. The office is no longer a place to go to work, it’s a place to collaborate, plan, solve problems and connect with your team and colleagues.

When people have the flexibility to do their work where and when works best for them, the workplace becomes a hub for creativity.

“In the hybrid world, we also benefit from diversity of thought. Idea generation isn’t confined to those who are in the room. This helps to build a stronger culture of inclusivity and connectivity. And will ultimately drive better business outcomes,” adds Mark.

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