A small dog dodges a live birch tree before brushing by a pair of vintage skis perched against a wood-panelled lodge. The owner follows as they take a walk.
The pair is not admiring the alpine scene at Sun Peaks or Fernie; they’re strolling through the indoor offices at Hootsuite’s newest Vancouver site, which opened to employees in late spring.
“The whole theme of this HQ is to leverage on our West Coast background,” CEO and founder Ryan Holmes told reporters and bloggers touring the new “HQ2” facility.
“This is the ski hill in the summer.”
About 90% of Hootsuite’s 600-person global workforce is based out of Vancouver.
The company hires, on average, 10 people a week and expects to add more than 150 employees in the next three months.
This rapid growth made an expanded presence in Mount Pleasant a necessity.
“Mount Pleasant in general is a fantastic place for startups. Start
ups need low-cost rent. Keeping your expenses low as a starving startup is hugely important,” Holmes said, sitting on a beanbag chair in an HQ2 gathering room complete with a fireplace, moose head and an antler chandelier.
The other Mount Pleasant office – HQ1 – is just a few blocks away. Employees walk back and forth, carrying their laptops with them to set up at a communal desk and meet face to face with co-workers assigned to the other office.
Instead of cubicles, personnel at HQ2 work on an open floor and duck into one of the many meeting spaces if they need some quiet time.
On any given day, workers bring in as many as 40 pets to roam about the floor at either office.
The company plans to showcase all those accoutrements – including the kitchen’s beer and wine tap – at an August 27 talent fair aimed at shoring up its talent pool.
“I talk to a lot of heads [of] HR at companies that are trying to grow, trying to scale, and there isn’t enough senior talent or they feel they have to poach from each other,” said Ambrosia Humphrey, the social media management company’s vice-president of talent.
“For us, the bigger we grow, the better we all do.”
