Article: #8 PayPal: The Spirit of Togetherness

Employee Engagement

#8 PayPal: The Spirit of Togetherness

A company where the culture is so infused with the spirit of business that it is hard to experience a day when business is not in the forefront
 

Our employees are the most valuable assets we have, the passion with which they work has been the foremost causeof our success

 

Our people believe in fundamentally contributing in making the world to be a better place

 

The Indian journey for PayPal, the global leader for online payment solutions, began five years ago, when the organization decided to expand its global footprint and setup a Research and Development centre in Chennai. Pleased by the early success of the PayPal Chennai Development centre, eBay, the world’s largest online marketplace also joined its subsidiary in Chennai and set up the eBay India Product Centre, three years back. Their common vision was to find a model that blended local expertise with the PayPal intrinsic experience in product delivery, leadership and customer excitement. PayPal is the kind of company where the culture is so infused with the spirit of business that it’s hard to experience a day when the business is not in the forefront. The employees view their work as ‘fun’ and ‘a truly pleasurable experience’. PayPal believes that the success of an organisation stems from the spirit of togetherness, a strong meritocratic culture and an empowered and capable workforce. To PayPal, which is ranked #8 in the Great Place to Work® Institute’s Study, ‘Inclusiveness’ means recognizing that all people contribute to the well being of the organization, breaking the normal lines of hierarchy and placing tremendous value on talent, diversity, creativity and individuality. Many organisations might speak of an empowered workforce but at PayPal, it is based on a simple ideology which is “we walk the talk.” To gain an insight into this ideology, People Matters speaks to Rajesh Natarajan, Senior Director, GM PayPal Chennai and Jayanthi Vaidyanathan, Director, HR.

In a globally spread organization like yours, how do you create and maintain a uniformity of spirit amongst your employees?

Rajesh Natarajan: Our uniformity of spirit is based on our common goal to be the faster, safer way to pay and shop the world, which is instilled in each of our employees. Our people believe in fundamentally contributing in making the world to be a better place. I would safely say that if you visit any of our offices, be it India or overseas, you will find that this common goal will come across very strongly, which certifies a familiar spirit amongst all our employees.

What makes PayPal a great workplace?

Rajesh Natarajan: Our focus on people as an organization is the primary reason for us to be an employer of choice. Our employees are the most valuable assets we have, the passion with which they work has been the foremost cause of our success. Also, we realize that not only are we changing the world of payments but giving many people an opportunity of doing business by offering them a faster, safer way to transact, without which their ventures would not have been successful. The feeling of providing a livelihood to such people generates great satisfaction in our employees. In a nutshell, employees, passion and zeal to do things better makes us a great workplace.

How do you engage current employees in the hiring process?

Jayanthi Vaidyanathan: While skills and experience continue to be important, we believe organisational fit and particularly culture fit is a key differentiator in the selection process. We place strong emphasis on talent, intelligence, diversity, creativity, individuality and idealism when we hire people. We believe that our existing people are our best ambassadors and who better than them to assess the synergy with respect to the culture fit of our prospective candidates. We have a defined hiring governance framework that engages the respective functional teams and a certified and trained hiring panel to help bring in the right fit for us. In the last six months, at least 80 of our people have been involved in various stages of our hiring process, which does not include those who have referred or sourced candidates for us.
 

Read full story

Topics: Employee Engagement, Culture, #BestPractices

Did you find this story helpful?

Author

QUICK POLL

How do you envision AI transforming your work?