Perks and Programs

We asked Metabiota, Inc. to share a few programs they feel really capture what's unique about their workplace. Here is what they had to say.

• Tuition Reimbursement Program and Veterinarian Loan Repayment Assistance: ‘Cultivating Brightness’ directly supports our vision of fostering innovative and creative minds as employees are reimbursed for expenses (up to $5250 annually) related to continued education and degree programs. Our Veterinarian Loan Repayment Assistance Program provides reimbursement for employees who have received their Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) from an accredited educational institution in the United States $1,000 every month for 5 years for a total of up to $60,000.
• Social Program: Thirsty Thursday, Weekly Lunches and Office Fun: While socializing is something that comes natural with our open-office concept, we don’t just stop at that! Aside from our weekly site lunches and bi-monthly Thursday get-togethers at “Thirsty Thursday” where beer and wine (and the occasional margarita) is served, we let the employees tell us what they want. Whether it’s an after lunch ice cream social, a roof top happy hour, or mid-day meditation, spontaneous team building events are common. Our in-house putting green and dart board spark our competitive spirit and provide entertainment for the rest of the site given our open office concept.
• Commuter Stipend: Since most of our employees do not live in the city where our office is located, helping our employees travel to the office as easily and cost-effectively as possible is important to us. Our commuter program provides a monthly employer subsidy of $130 in the form of parking, transit or bike. Employees can supplement the company’s funds with their own pre-tax dollars with the added convenience of all funds being deposited into their accounts on the first of the month. We encourage our part-time employees to come and visit us in the office by issuing them a monthly $83 stipend. Teamwork and spontaneous white boarding sessions are common occurrences in the office, so we encourage this by facilitating a program to spur more innovative ideas.
• No Label Performance Management, GoalSpan: To emphasize our philosophy that performance conversations and the associated rewards should be feedback-oriented and centered around organizational impact, we do not believe in ratings or rankings. Our belief is that it is an employee AND employer-driven process that holds both accountable to action-oriented feedback and meaningful conversations without the distraction of ratings. Managerial discretion and gathering peer feedback throughout our matrix organization play pivotal roles in this process, with the underlying theme that transparency is key and performance discussions should not happen once a year. We utilize GoalSpan as our goal setting and performance management tool, and with a clearer link between performance and rewards, employee motivation soars.
• Employee Communication Initiatives: With an international footprint of operations in over 30 countries, we ease some of the difficulties associated with communicating across the globe by utilizing our own private social network, ‘Metabiota Going Viral.’ It provides a mechanism for storing and communicating company announcements and events, training resources, onboarding documents, a picture directory, and department-specific monthly highlights from a group leaders. Instead of just communicating in writing, every month we feature a few ‘News Around Town’ employee videos providing visibility into the discussions and activities in which they participate. Our monthly ‘Day in the Life Of’ profiles highlight two employees and provide information regarding their educational and work backgrounds, current objectives, and some fun facts about their lives outside of work.
• Recognition--You Rock: Referred to as ‘FLASH CASH’ by our CEO, our recognition program provides the ability for managers to request bonuses for any employee in the organization, an important part of our teamwork-oriented culture. Recognition bonuses are requested in a timely fashion and delivered to employees (in private or in some cases in a public setting) following the completion of an important project, delighting the customer, or any other tasks that goes above and beyond normal job duties and responsibilities. Recognition Bonus amounts vary by activity up to $6000 USD and in the last 12 months we distributed 27 bonuses—just about 20% of our employee population! ‘Metabiota Going Viral’ also houses ‘You Rock!’, our peer-to-peer Recognition Program, as it facilitates a way for employees to publicly recognize their co-workers for their contributions and successes.
• Creating Transparency: In the spirit of open and honest communication, our Monthly All Hands Calls start with a CEO Update and continue on to include more granularity around financing and cash burn. Sharing Monthly Org charts and job openings ensure that everyone is in the know on important changes. To ensure that all around the world can still tune in and get the latest information, all video recordings from the calls and org charts are shared on our company intranet portal.
• Community Service--Give Back: Channeling our Metabiota value of ‘Give Back’, we recently partnered with non-profit Family Giving Tree to provide backpacks and school supplies for children in the local community. Employees donated backpacks, we provided the school supplies, and then we took advantage of our Thirsty Thursday happy hour to package up the backpacks and get them ready for distribution. In a few weeks we will exercise our creativity by making superhero capes and donating them to local children. In November we will join together with our insurance industry colleagues and participate in the IICF Week of Giving.
• More Predictable Performance Cycles: In an effort to provide more opportunities for evaluating, recognizing and developing talent, we introduced a bi-annual promotion process which criteria includes business justification as well as Metabiota culture/value benchmarks. We ask our managers to complete the form with sufficient details, peer feedback and concrete examples of their individual contributions feedback to ensure that the bar for promotion is high and that we continue to drive success. By simultaneously creating Department Career Ladders, job titles have been standardized and employees and managers can have more meaningful conversations regarding career development.
• Wellness Stipend and Challenge: We celebrate many differences, including the fact that wellness often varies from person to person. Our $100 monthly wellness stipend grants employees the opportunity to participate in their wellness activities of choice without requesting receipts for reimbursement. Whether it is a gym membership, massage, new running shoes, a chiropractor visit or fresh fruits and vegetables, the stipend supports a wide variety of physical and mental health activities. In addition, for the first time this year we are participating in Virgin Pulses’ Global Challenge. Teams of 7 from Metabiota will get their competitive spirit flowing and compete in a step challenge against internal and external teams. A visit at a local CrossFit gym and trampoline dodgeball are scheduled, so stay tuned.

How to Get Hired

We asked Metabiota, Inc. for some inside information on how to get hired at the organization. Here is what they had to say.

What key characteristics tell you a prospective employee will be a great fit for your company?

In addition to meeting the qualifications for education and work experience, Metabiota also believes that cultural fit is especially important. We use our values as a blueprint to guide our way. We look for the following characteristics-  bright, driven, creative, customer-focused, teamwork oriented, entrepreneurial, pioneering and someone who is connected to the vision of the Company. 

What can prospective employees do to get your attention?

Show through past experiences that they can contribute positively to both the external value of the Company as well as internally to the culture. We are attracted to candidates that are able to articulate their successes in the face of challenges, as well as give examples of ways they personally contributed to building a positive culture for their colleagues

Are there any positions or types of candidates you are particularly focused on hiring in this coming year?

We are always hiring great talent in the areas of Engineering, Product Management, Computational Modeling, Data Analytics, Project Management, Epidemiology, Virology, Veterinary Science, Behavioral Anthropology, and Public Health. If you are interested and inspired to solve a really hard problem and contribute to a vision of "make[ing] the world more resilient to epidemics" we are eager to talk to you!

What should interested candidates do to find out more and get started?

Interested candidates should visit our website at www.metabiota.com/careers to apply to any open positions which they are qualified. Candidates may also apply to "Future Consideration" if they do not find a current position that is a close match for their skills and experience.