For years we have been talking, writing and reading about burnouts. How to build responsible HR? As it happens, preventing burnout and supporting healthy self leadership is a core part of the Wannado business idea. We make it easier for professionals to take on projects with different employers, without risking their health and relationships. At the same time we provide better and more flexible service to companies who do not want to commit to a full time resource.
One person cannot do everything, but you can get it all from one desk
Wannado was founded 12 years ago, when cofounders Anna and Irina were both self-employed and over-worked selling their time. After some quick storming they realized they were in need of a service that did not exist yet. The idea for an easy-access, ultra flexible service for growth companies was born to serve the cofounders own needs as entrepreneurs, but they also knew their existing customers would buy this kind of new service. Customers wanted Anna and Irina to handle everything. Nobody can do that alone – yes, you can coordinate and do the tasks you know best, but you need a team behind you when it gets too busy or more complex.
Occasional or part-time work for many clients, but only one employer
There was also another aspect behind the Wannado business idea. Before their journey to entrepreneurship, Irina and Anna were students who needed money. They needed work, and they worked hard. During that time in Finland, when one was looking for office jobs, two rules occurred: majority of the jobs were part-time and hired by the staffing companies. It underlined to Irina and Anna that the need for Wannado service was really there: companies need part-time, occasional, quality-proofed help and can’t always make the commitment to hire themselves. But this sucks when you are the one looking for the job.
For one person, it’s hard to combine two or more part-time jobs if they are from different employers. The work usually doesn’t scale like we want, or without jargon: customers always need you at the same time. The more you need to tell them that you can’t take on a project or go somewhere because you have something else, eventually your working time will drop or you get replaced. Or then you just stretch and stretch until you snap. This is the exact case with self-employed people, too. It was the first thing we needed to fix on the HR side.
Remote first is also people first
Wannado is a remote first company, and one of our values is Freedom. When we recruit, we don’t use any exact bullet list of skills a person needs to have. We point out what kind of skills our team is lacking, and after that it’s the job seekers turn to tell us if there is something they can do and learn, how much they are willing to do, when is the best time for them to do the job (we have some people who are actual night owls, and that’s fine), where they are located (we always try to find the ways for people to work from wherever they desire) and where they want to be in the future (yes, we also hire juniors and let them grow). So, occasionally it happens that we were looking for one full-timer but happened to find three part-timers, or vice versa.
Wannado is not yet another freelancer platform
Here is another thing: we want to hire. We have been starting new local companies so that we can hire people from different countries, even if we don’t have any business market in the area. We truly believe that someday it will pay back, and this has actually already happened. So, we continue to invest in Freedom. Yes, we also have contractors, but that is always the employees wish, not our demand. Hiring people instead of launching another platform of freelancers has its benefits, and for us, those are crucial. We are a growth company, and we can’t grow without our people. If we are not investing and engaging with our people, they are not doing that for us, either. And, it happens to solve the problem of balancing between many employers, as we provide the buffer for our people and prevent them from snapping.
Mixing inhouse development work with client work
To grow and be successful, we need people who are riding only one carriage, instead of worrying where their own business is going. We love our contractors too, and they do good quality work for our customers. We do everything inhouse: marketing, bookkeeping, digital development, recruiting, HR, customer service etc – our people are working for the customers, but also for Wannado. Actually, there is not a single person in this company, who would only work in our own administration, as everyone is also participating in customer work. This is very important, as we don’t need anyone who is alienated from daily operations or our clients’ reality. We truly believe that when people can participate in our journey, they feel more purpose in their work. We do quite exciting stuff, after all!
We are fully aware of the fact that nowadays we should choose words like People Operations or Happy Unicorn Manager to describe our HR department, but we don’t use those terms. That is because we are proud of what we do and where we base our employee success and wellbeing. We are the opposite of that wine that needs a pretty bottle to cover up the bad quality. We call it Human Resources, because with that name everyone knows what we are talking about.
