Throughout the pandemic, stories of unique and impactful ways employers have supported working parents have varied widely, but they’ve all circled the same core value. Put people first.
Many companies have fully embraced the integration of work and life, offering more flexible work hours than ever, adjusting meeting times to give parents gaps between calls, providing wellness benefits that support the mental health of employees and their families, and championing other new initiatives that support their workforce.
VTS is no exception. A commercial leading leasing and asset management platform, VTS has kept people at the heart of their mission since the company’s inception. That’s why Employer Responsiveness (effective channels for elevating issues and concerns) and The People You Work With are among their top metrics. This company prioritizes people well. And during the pandemic? Parents have reaped those benefits.
Learn from one working mom at VTS how the company has supported her during her career and while juggling child care during the pandemic. Plus, find out the secret for acing an interview with this company—because, yes, they’re hiring.
Harlie Levine
Director of Engineering at VTS for three years
Her top three must-haves at work:
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Learning Opportunities
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Salary Satisfaction
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The People You Work With
Tell us about your career at VTS. How did you get started, what do you do now, and what makes you excited to work for VTS every day?
I joined VTS as an engineering manager on our Leasing platform three years ago. I started off managing one small team. I wasn’t hired to be hands on, but I jumped in to help code as needed. As our team has grown, I’ve stopped coding, and I’ve had opportunities to help launch the team in our Toronto office, start an apprenticeship program, and grow as a manager of multiple teams. I recently switched teams at VTS, moving from our Leasing product to Rise, where I’m helping to scale the product engineering team and its processes after an acquisition last year.
With a company that is growing as quickly as we are, there are constantly changes and new challenges, but the thing that I am most excited about is the people with whom I get to solve them.
You’re a working mom, too. What about VTS’s culture do you find to be most supportive of working parents?
Our engineering team crafted a set of values several years ago, and the first one is “We are people first.” It’s my favorite, and there’s a reason it’s the first value. We really do encourage people to bring their full selves to work. My full self happens to include a toddler. My child has been welcomed on team outings and countless Zoom meetings. I think it’s helpful that several of our founders and executive team are parents. Pre-pandemic, we had an amazing bring-your-kids-to-work day and family-inclusive company events. While in the pandemic, when we started offering virtual wellness events (like yoga and HIIT classes) for our team, we also started doing Zoom story times and other events for our kids. Our Parent ERG (Employee Resource Group) meets monthly to support each other with advice, venting, whatever we need, and we also have a fairly active Slack channel between meetups.
Leasing and asset management platform VTS aims to be commercial real estate’s modern operating system, and they’re looking for curious, driven, and customer-obsessed employees to help them reach that goal. Rated most highly for Paid Time Off, Employer Responsiveness, and The People You Work With, VTS has benefits like flexible PTO, 16 weeks paid leave for primary caregivers, and allowances for external learning opportunities. Click to learn more about the company and to explore their open positions!
What about hard policies? Which ones do you think are most appealing to working parents and even working moms specifically?
VTS has a generous family leave policy with 16 weeks for primary caregivers, six weeks for secondary. While I’ve not had a need for these myself (my child was born before I joined VTS), I’ve seen several of my colleagues, fathers as well as mothers, take full advantage of the primary caregiver leave and have the time they need to bond with their child.
VTS also has an education budget for each employee. Pre-pandemic, this was most often used for attending conferences. As the pandemic hit, that budget was reassessed and the policy changed to allow us to allocate half of our budget to wellness activities or equipment. Child care was included in the list of approved spends.
VTS has exceptional scores on InHerSight for Employer Responsiveness, which we consider to be a “listening” metric. It measures how an employer responds to employee needs or concerns. As a parent, employee, or both, what are some ways VTS has listened to your needs during the pandemic and followed through?
My partner and I both work full time. Before the pandemic started, our 2 year old child (now 4) was in daycare. The day VTS did its work from home “trial,” my partner and I realized we were going to need to pull our child from daycare. My child was going to be home for the foreseeable future, and my partner and I were supposed to be working. So my partner and I sat down and made a spreadsheet mapping out the hours of the day and who would be working and who would be on kid duty each hour. The following Monday, I had a one-on-one with my manager where I said something like, “This is the schedule I need to keep. I’m sorry the hours are shorter than they used to be. I can check in and respond to things after bedtime at 8 p.m.” Without skipping a beat his response was, “Make sure you take time for lunch with your family, you don’t need to work after 8.” Thankfully, my child was able to go back to daycare five months later, and while those five months were hardly stress-free, having that response off the bat was a huge load off my shoulders.
What advice would you give women interested in joining VTS?
Apply! VTS is growing incredibly fast. We’re hiring in pretty much every department, and there is a ton of opportunity to have a big impact on the company and for your own personal career growth. When you interview, Be Curious—don’t be shy about asking questions—the questions you ask us tell us a lot about what you value, and we love talking about our values.
