Behind every great company is a great human resources team—or, what we refer to as our People & Culture team. And we didn’t just call ’em that because it’s cute.
The MatchCraft People & Culture team is the core driver of how we live out MatchCraft’s values in our everyday work lives. Insiders and outsiders alike may be surprised at just how much goes in it.
The team is more like a fabulous duo. Alisa and Nicole drive our entire people management system. This accounts for everything: employee relations, people evaluations, hiring, recruiting and on-boarding, systems, payroll, and benefits. They also handle ping pong disputes, general employee feedback and happy hours. One of their biggest responsibilities is handling MatchCraft’s global compliance.
With three international offices and an ever-growing number of employees, compliance can be tricky (but they’re up to the challenge!).
And right behind compliance is systems management: ensuring that the team has the right systems in place to conduct payroll and benefits, talent acquisition, and annual performance appraisals is an immensely tedious, thoughtful process.
It’s all about the happiness.
Yes, People & Culture can be a bit of a thankless job. Yet, Nicole and Alisa truly enjoy what they do.
At MatchCraft, they’re tasked with continually driving innovation into these underlying processes which run the company. And it allows them to truly give back. For example, they take employee feedback to heart.
“We really believe in an open-door environment, and we mean it,” said Nicole. “We want to show appreciation to employees and drive as much change as possible, when needed, so employees feel they are heard.”
And so, the team really strives to drive home a culture where feedback is not only valued, it’s encouraged. This means a legit open-door policy and a constant review of guidelines and policy.
Case in point: MatchCraft performs a quarterly employee happiness survey to gauge team member satisfaction.
Speaking of retaining talent…
It’s a tough market out there. But Alisa and Nicole point out that MatchCraft offers something that other companies don’t.
For one, the company has stood the test of time (20 years!). They find that this point alone inspires people to roll up their sleeves and stick it out for the wild ride. Proven innovation can translate into big value when it comes to employee satisfaction.
Second, MatchCraft offers a nice balance between chill startup vibes—teams can really make things happen here—and stability. It’s a leader in a well-defined niche, and well, we’re not going anywhere any time soon.
The quirks that come with the gig
We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention some of the fun(nier) quirks that pop up in People & Culture’s day-to-day. Like when bear claws are suggested as appropriate vending machine products time and time again, and same with hot Cheetos. Turns out, not all of Los Angeles is obsessed with health food.
Plus, our quarterly recess and happy hour is an ongoing debate. Not whether to have it or not, but where, what time, and so forth. It’s all in the details, right?
And then there are the folks who apply for a job here and think they are signing up to come on board a dating website. Now, that’s a sign of the times!
Outside of the office
Outside of work, Alisa loves to whip up a batch of her signature ragu sauce—it takes three hours to make and is worth every single bite. She works it off in her athletic forays—she used to be hardcore into soccer throughout high school and college.
And, Nicole is quite the traveler; one of her favorite trips ever was to El Salvador. She admits that she has a slight obsession with Latin America. She also loves to make art – paintings, jewelry, you name it.