Meet the PRISMAtes and get to know our team! In this series, our employees tell us a little about themselves and their journey to PRISMA. Let's start and meet Victoria!
Victoria mentally counts and taps her fingers while whispering names. "Three," she says. "At the end of 2018, there were only three employees in the engineering department. In total, we had about 25 permanent employees and a handful of working students back then."
During that time, Victoria sat down with all the future team leads at PRISMA to figure out the positions they needed. She then initiated the actual recruiting process, introduced Greenhouse as the ATS (application tracking system), worked with headhunters, posted jobs on various platforms, and also conducted active sourcing herself.
"Referrals from existing PRISMAtes were a great help, of course. Tom advised me to contact Uwe, and that turned out to be spot-on."
Even back then, Uwe Schäfer was a senior developer and head of engineering. He became one of Victoria's first successful hires. The same freedom that attracted Victoria - building, shaping, and forming a completely new team - also enticed Uwe. He became the Coding Architect and Lead Engineer at PRISMA, a role he still holds to this day.
“And the craziest thing: He didn't come alone!" Three more engineers from Uwe's previous company also joined PRISMA, completely independently of one another. Benjamin Otto, Jörg Adler, and Philipp Zins found job postings for PRISMA online - all on different platforms - and applied.
"And I received the most beautiful application from Philipp that I have ever reviewed," Victoria declares with a broad smile. "At that time, he was just about to become a father for the third time and in his application letter, he also introduced his family with a picture. It was truly enchanting. And three weeks before he joined, the baby was born.”
Of course, their skills and competencies were also a perfect match. "However, when it came to fine technical details, it was really challenging during the hiring process because we didn't have an expert at PRISMA whom we could involve. It took a lot of time for preparation. But we also focused on discussing how we wanted to work together." The concept worked. By the end of 2019, the engineering team at PRISMA consisted of nine people.
Every two weeks, there is an All Hands meeting where all PRISMAtes participate, and everyone and every team can report on current status or future plans. Questions are always welcome. "It helps to not feel isolated but rather part of the whole," Victoria adds. Immediately after that, the Open Space follows - a meeting without an agenda, unless PRISMAtes bring their own. „That means anyone can suggest a topic for a session they want to lead, and anyone who wants to can participate. It could be about calculating the carbon footprint, as well as mental health methods or insights into a new AI tool that someone wants to share," Victoria explains.
Another means to achieve more cohesion and belonging: a buddy program, whereby each newcomer is paired with a more experienced PRISMAte. "The first few days can always be somewhat intimidating," explains Victoria, adding, "From day one, we want to create the feeling: you are not alone here. We will help you settle in."
Puzzling for team building! A small glimpse into the PRISMA offsite at Landgut Stober.
It took over a year for the PRISMAtes to finally meet in person again - at the Offsite event at Landgut Stober in Brandenburg. It was an event that not only focused on discussing topics on a company level, but also aimed to create an inspiring team atmosphere where they could recharge their batteries.
In 2022, a series of events were also revived: "Uniting PRISMAtes" is the name of the internal chat where suggestions occasionally come in regarding activities that PRISMAtes can do together outside of work: from bike tours to concert visits, game nights, or going to a bar, anything is possible. So, is everything back to how it used to be at PRISMA?
Not entirely, according to Victoria. "The pandemic has left significant traces. More of us now work remotely more frequently, because it has proven effective. However, this doesn't undermine our culture. We have found our way to nurture it nonetheless."
PRISMA is a hybrid company. Some of our employees work onsite, some remote and some just mix it up.
It's not just about flexibility. It's also about mobility packages, company bicycles, further education, workplace massages, and so on and so forth. PRISMA offers a diverse range of benefits. These are constantly reviewed for relevance and attractiveness.
Victoria knows that PRISMA will continue to grow, and is actively seeking new employees worldwide. However, anyone who chooses PRISMA must have a residence in Germany.
"Therefore, PRISMA also assists with relocation, visa applications, and so on," Victoria explains. She adds that the effort is naturally greater in such cases, but "it has always paid off so far."
For Victoria, this is also a result of the recruiting strategy, which meticulously focuses on who is hired. As a result, PRISMA is growing slower than the company could. "When I worked in Berlin, we once hired 200 people for a company in three months. It was crazy and far from sustainable. Those who proceed in this way guarantee that half of the people will leave after the probation period." This is something that Victoria and her team at PRISMA clearly want to avoid.
„Our engineering team is supposed to grow - we want to, and we will expand. But in a sustainable way, with the right people who also fit our company culture and vice versa. Because PRISMA doesn't just emphasize this in our own company values. We take our principle seriously: people are at the core of PRISMA. And we intend to keep it that way.