Our new Emergn office in Porto: an exciting chapter for the team
There’s a lot to be proud of this year at Emergn. New milestones achieved, exciting projects completed, iconic clients we have worked with, and most importantly, the way we have kept growing and becoming stronger as a team.
As we move towards the end of another successful year, we celebrate another exciting milestone: the opening of our new office in the city of Porto, Portugal, this Friday, October 28th.
In 2020, we decided to strengthen our capability, initially in Experience Design, and open a new location by looking at countries with dedicated and specialized tech talent. We already had offices and teams working from more than a dozen countries, like Latvia, the UK, and the US – and we wanted Portugal to be the next on this list. In October of that year, we welcomed our first Portuguese employee to the team, and from there, we have flourished. As we approach the opening of our new office in Porto, we now have a fast-growing team of talented professionals.
To mark the opening of our new office and explore the possibilities of this new chapter, we interviewed Margarida Carvalho, our Portugal Location Lead.
What motivated Emergn to open an office in Porto?
Portugal has a very interesting entrepreneurial and innovative ecosystem, and the culture of the people and access to the right types of talent is a big match with our company’s strategy. Portugal also aligns well with both the technical and product focus that Emergn has in the digital business services and transformation market.
Since we already have a considerable number of Portuguese people on the team, we can see daily the impact these professionals have on our projects.
The choice of Porto was also quite natural for us due to the conditions it offers for business growth and delivering results. We are also fortunate to work in partnership with the Porto Tech Hub, enabling us to be a better-known brand here in Portugal.
How do you foster local belonging?
The feeling of local belonging was very organic from the start and keeps growing as the team spends more time together.
One of the things we started here in Portugal is a virtual location onboarding – a Microsoft Teams call with new joiners. This is an opportunity for them to get together, share their first impressions and perceptions about the company, and understand how it works.
We also have weekly Coffee Breaks, which are informal calls where the team gets together to talk about a variety of different subjects and connect in a relaxed environment. Spending time together talking about things outside of work, laughing, and discussing things we like or day-to-day matters, makes us truly enjoy spending time together – the feeling of belonging in the team has grown naturally.
We organize team events, such as virtual games (cultural quizzes, Pictionary, etc.), outdoor activities, and casual dinners. These informal meet-ups help us get to know each other better, leading to working together better too – building trust, collaboration, and reaching out for support when needed.
How do you think the office opening will impact the local team?
The Portugal team is very excited about the opening of this new office. We’ve been working from home for a while and this will be a significant shift in how we collaborate with the people who live closer to the office and feel comfortable making this change.
It will allow us to spend more face-to-face time together, sharing moments as a team. Although we’re equipped with the right tools for virtual collaboration, in-person brainstorming meetings or moments when people get to share their ideas in a more informal environment will truly impact how we collaborate. It will also enable more cross-pollination, where employees can share their knowledge across multi-disciplinary teams more often.
With the new office, we also expect to build more connections and partnerships with other communities and companies in Porto by organizing meet-ups, knowledge-sharing sessions, networking events, and other activities that might make sense.
It will also mean a new place where we can welcome our colleagues and teams from other locations and even our international clients.
What will be the keys to the success of the new office? How will you overcome challenges along the way?
The key to the success of this office will be creating a strong and inclusive employee engagement plan. We need to make sure we seize the opportunities this new space will give us, so we must define a plan for regular activities, events, social gatherings, and meet-ups.
Continuing rituals and team traditions and creating new ones will be the key for our team to keep coming to the office and connecting with the people from the location.
An important factor to keep in mind is that not everyone will be able or want to come to the office in Porto. We have people working from the whole country, and it’s important that, as we set out this new plan and activities, we are inclusive and make sure everyone feels involved and heard.
What are the plans for the future at a national level?
We are growing in Portugal, and we want to keep investing in the team.
The Porto office is a strategic location for us. In the near future, we plan to continue investing in growing the team. We are looking for people who are passionate about technology and willing to help some of the world’s most respected businesses develop their most promising ideas into valuable digital products and customer experiences, faster.
Candidates joining our team in Portugal can count on transparent and company-wide communications, continuous learning and investment in your growth, friendly global teams collaborating and sharing knowledge, and exciting new challenges. Getting to work with a global team and international clients, and the learning opportunities available are some things our Portugal team praises the most.
If you enjoyed this reading and you feel like Emergn might be the right fit for the new opportunity you are looking for, explore the Portugal openings on our Careers Page.
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