Tech company takes staff on exotic team-building junkets

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This article was published 16/01/2015 (4265 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

We’ve all heard about workplace perks — free snacks, on-site massage therapists and game rooms — to lure people with hard-to-find IT skills in Silicon Valley and elsewhere.

But the Canadian wireless retail point-of-sale specialists, iQmetrix, has a whole other proposition — how about four days in rural Nicaragua digging trenches and building schools.

For several years, iQmetrix has been taking its staff — not just a chosen few, but its entire workforce who’ve had at least one year on the job — on getaway trips to places such as the Mexican Riviera for team building and some collective fun in the sun. In the past, they’ve had groups as large as 300.

This year’s trip will be a little different. At the end of the month, about 200 of them will head off to Granada, Nicaragua, a small city southeast of Managua. And rather than bond by the pool at an all-inclusive resort they’ll spend quality time building additions to a couple of schools and laying pipe for a water service in a small village nearby.

The company has more than 200 employees, including more than 50 people in Winnipeg.

Thu Tran, director of iQmetrix’ operations in Winnipeg, said that about 70 per cent of the Winnipeg staff will be participating in the excursion.

“We’re all very excited,” he said. “I don’t think anyone is apprehensive about the work – everyone is excited about getting their hands dirty and making a difference.”

iQmetrix was founded by Christopher Krywulak in Regina in 1999. It has about 120 people in Regina and about 85 in Vancouver where its head office is now located, as well as a couple of offices in the U.S and one in Australia. Prior to becoming president of the University of Manitoba, David Barnard was the chief operating officer of the company for three years.

It is one of the fastest-growing IT companies in the country and it’s now the North American leader for point-of-sale software for wireless providers.

The company is moving its Winnipeg office from a heritage Exchange District building to the much higher rent of the soon to open CentrePoint building across from the MTS Centre, a strong indication of its confidence in its future.

Krystal Ho, the manager of corporate relations, organizes these annual trips from the company’s Vancouver head office.

“For the past seven years we’ve been fortunate enough to take all our staff on an all-inclusive getaway,” Ho said.

In an email exchange with Krywulak, he said, “The reason we first introduced the iQ-getaway trip was to reward our employees for their year’s contributions, sort of like a Christmas bonus. However, we wanted it to be participatory as opposed to monetary, and of course, to offer a team-building aspect to the experience. Eventually, we wanted it to incorporate our employees’ families as well as our corporate values — one of the most important of which is ‘community.’ This is where the idea of iQ-giveback came from.”

The company has always had a strong philanthropic bent led by Krywulak. iQmetrix donates about $200,000 per year to various charities in addition to the company trip.

Two years ago at one of their Mexican getaways the company arranged for the entire group to spend a day in a village two hours from the resort installing stoves in homes the company had purchased in advance in co-ordination with an aid agency.

“That was just a little taste for our whole company and everyone wanted to do more,” said Ho. “People were saying we could do so much more… we were only there for a day. So after seven years of going to resorts we decided to take a total shift.”

‘I don’t think anyone is apprehensive about the work — everyone is excited about getting their hands dirty and making a difference’

Ho spent the better part of the year organizing the trip. The company has ties to Habitat for Humanity and Free the Children. Originally they were going to go to El Salvador, but housing so many people and getting them to the work site was too challenging.

She found some connections in Nicaragua and has been back and forth three times since. She has four hotels booked in the town, connections on the ground to plan the work flow and the company has spent about $50,000 on building materials. (Staffers are also donating a day’s pay.)

Recruiting and human resource specialists use all sorts of strategies to get the most out of their people and attract the best and brightest.

The iQmetrix people are up front about the team building side of things. But there is no sense that anything is contrived just inspired.

Barbara Bowes, president of Legacy Bowes, a Winnipeg firm specializing in recruitment, retention and HR strategy services, said companies have to be careful with perks. She said there are examples of shareholders pushing back claiming the perks are extravagant and employees feeling entitled and then becoming belligerent during belt-tightening times when the perks need to be dialed back.

But Ho said that the message is very clear that the getaways are not guaranteed. And she said there is no judging of people who aren’t going to Nicaragua.

In fact, community volunteer work has been planned for one day in the home cities for those not travelling to Central America.

Bowes said this type of off-campus activity is not common.

“I know of some senior managers with a religious bent who will go and volunteer but they are certainly not taking all their staff,” said Bowes. “Corporations want to have the impression in the public that they have a social conscience if you want to put it that way. Also I think by doing this it gives employees appreciation of how others live and how well they live and how well off they are in Winnipeg or wherever.”

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca