Albane Bruyas, COO of the French cloud infrastructure provider Scaleway, acknowledged that there is no single, definitive answer to the challenges presented by hybrid work and scalability. During her appearance at Web Summit 2022, Bruyas spoke to Works about Scaleway’s success in navigating the COVID crisis.
Permit your staff to develop unique hybrid strategies for success
Scaleway is a remote-first organization, however, they understand that this is not a suitable approach for all. As a core principle, they maintain offices in Paris and Lille to support their younger staff. Attendance at the office is no longer mandatory, giving employees the autonomy to determine when and how frequently they visit.
Scaleway experimented with various approaches to ensure team productivity during lockdown, ultimately settling on a focus on quality over quantity. Albane highlighted the importance of providing clear instructions on how to benefit from the tools available: “It’s important to find the right methods of collaboration that work for everyone, so make sure you provide clear guidelines and access to the right tools.
If you want to expand quickly, hire people from all over the world
Scaleway has recently implemented remote processes, enabling increased scalability. This opens up the possibility of attracting workers from across the globe, while also providing them with equal opportunities and excellent training. As Albane explains, “There’s only so much talent in France. When you force everyone to be in the workplace, you reduce your ability to recruit.” We are aiming to triple our workforce size in the next two years and would appreciate any assistance you can offer.
Better leaders may be forged in the fires of adversity
Scaleway discovered that the onset of COVID-19 led managers to develop new approaches to managing groups of employees. Albane highlighted that businesses could become more effective by allowing all staff to work from home. This “encourages managers to become better leaders and to excel in uniting remote teams”. Upper management made it a priority to communicate expectations and ensure employees were aware of the direction of their work, utilising effective collaboration technologies.
Albane and her colleagues worked hard to ensure that all team members were aware of their roles and felt satisfied and purposeful in their remote working environment, while still adhering to the company’s objectives during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Albane believes that Web Summit is an ideal platform for businesses to showcase their projects, establish connections with potential clients, and recruit new staff. She values the sheer volume of attendees and the invaluable exchange of knowledge that takes place across the globe.
