We’ve welcomed our 500th employee here at Global Shares – a huge milestone in our 16-year history. We’ve now got employees of 25 different nationalities across 16 global locations. And 125 staff have joined us in the past year alone and were hired and onboarded fully remotely.
We can’t wait to meet all our new recruits face to face!
As we reflect on our 500th employee milestone, we can’t help but reflect on the ah-ha moment that got us here and the rollercoaster of a journey we’ve been on.
We guess you could say that Global Shares has been launched twice.
We were founded in 2005 in Clonakilty, West Cork, as an equity services company. Within a few years, we realised the business model wasn’t working.
We were juggling eight different software platforms to service our international client base, margins were low, and we were facing competition from multi-billion-dollar global financial services corporations. We had to pivot to survive.
The odds were against us but there were two key factors in our favour: there was a gap in the market for a truly global software platform and we had an amazing team of 20 people. That was our ‘do or die’ moment: reinvent or close the business.
Our team forensically knew the equity plan market, and, knowing what customers were demanding from a next-generation software platform, we set to work.
Fast forward to 2015 and Global Shares was re-launched.
Growing pains
In attracting development talent to build a new software platform from scratch, our HR team turned the perceived weakness of a headquarters in a regional rural location on the southwest coast of Ireland into an upfront recruitment attraction.
We were an exciting new business, with tangible global prospects, providing clear advancement opportunities coupled with a unique work-life balance.
Diversity
People moved to the seaside town of Clonakilty from all over the world to work for Global Shares – Portugal, Brazil, India, the Philippines, Spain, Germany, the US, the UK – and our multi-cultural foundation was set.
With no development legacy, developers were enabled to craft a platform without constraint.
Diversity, empowerment and entrepreneurship were fundamental pillars at every level of the team’s exciting culture and a ‘Clonakilty versus the World’ challenge was set.
It wasn’t easy
The development of the platform took twice as long and cost twice as much as forecast.
Certain initial strategies, including a stint outsourcing to India, were subsequently shelved, as management of the core product required centralised development alongside the knowledgeable Global Shares operations team in Ireland.
Lessons were learned
With hunger and ambition, we dived in and quickly learned we had to pace ourselves. We could not run before we could crawl.
Project management software was introduced to manage increasingly complex IT development.
Expert technical & industry knowledge was hired to lead our teams forward.
Offices were opened all over the world to accommodate varying time zones and language barriers.
Core company values were crafted to create a framework for us to build open and honest relationships and collaborate across boundaries.
Change is constant
The tempo at a high-growth tech company is fast. While there is a lot of excitement in adding new system capabilities, winning new business, and growing a team, it can be disruptive and time-consuming.
The company restructured regularly to reflect the changing business needs, but reporting lines remained flat and the CEO’s door stayed open.
People are what matter
Sure, numbers matter. Technology matters. But they don’t matter nearly as much as people do.
We developed an employee wellbeing brand called ‘Global Cares’ to support our employees’ wellbeing.
From online quizzes to mood-boosting food tips, parenting webinars, care packs, yoga, HIIT classes and a confidential Employee Assistance Programme, our employees are at the heart of who we are and what we do to service our client’s needs.
The environment & social responsibility
Beyond business, the company is uber-conscious of our social role to help make the world a better place, and we are ever more active in this area, from donating used laptops to local schools and charities, to our carbon-neutral commitment, and marking events like Earth Day, World Cancer Day, International Women’s Day.
As part of our 2021 CSR strategy, we’re proud to have partnered with Treedom and planted a ‘global forest’ consisting of 200 trees in farming communities in Kenya, Tanzania, Ecuador, and Columbia.
It feels great to be able to give back.
What we look like today
For anyone who doesn’t know Global Shares, we would describe ourselves as a forward-thinking, vibrant, friendly, multi-cultural, tech and service-orientated company, with 500+ great people at its core.
As for what a day in the office is like – we’re a hugely diverse company, with lots of great characters and an appreciation that playing pool or chatting over a coffee is an important way to communicate and get away from the computer screen for a while.
What’s next
Great Place to Work® certification and being ranked as one of Ireland’s Best Workplaces™ in 2021. This is a testament to our hard-working and passionate HR & talent acquisition teams.
We are still learning, still growing, and very excited about what the future holds. We’ve got big plans to fill another 500 high-skilled roles in our offices all around the world over the next few years.
To find out more about Global Shares’ open roles please visit our jobs page.
Please Note: This publication contains general information only and J.P. Morgan Workplace Solutions is not, through this article, issuing any advice, be it legal, financial, tax-related, business-related, professional or other. J.P. Morgan Workplace Solutions’ Insights is not a substitute for professional advice and should not be used as such. J.P. Morgan Workplace Solutions does not assume any liability for reliance on the information provided herein.
