There are many types of companies: some are big, some are small, some are profit-oriented, and others focus on social change. Then, there is Innovecs – a global digital tech transformation company where people come first. “Why build a company if I can build a community instead,” the founder and CEO of Innovecs, Alex Lutskiy, thought over a decade ago. The thought soon materialized into a company operating across nine countries with 850 employees based all around the world. Innovecs, a company that grasps the opportunity of nurturing new tech hubs and enriching teams with fresh talent, has entered the Georgian market and is opening both its physical and online doors to members of the Georgian tech community.
Innovecs is a tech company that grew quickly but never turned its back on its people-centric approach. It has always been at the core of Innovecs’ business. For Innovecs, corporate culture is not about a fancy office space or pricey coffee machines but human relationships. For Lutskiy, the mission and philosophy of an organization must be conveyed through empathy: every large or small success must be shared between employees. This creates a collaborative vibe. In cooperation, communication is king, even in a tech company. “A story that unveils success through the power of communication is something I think everyone wants to share or be involved in,” claims Lutskiy.
At Innovecs, a community-driven corporate culture is the pinnacle of success. For Lutskiy and his team, professional success comes from the extensive well-being of the employees. At Innovecs, work is not just about writing code for several hours a day – work is about happiness, self-worth, and self-realization. “Innovecs lives and works by the three core values that are reflected in the company’s DNA: innovate; inspire; care. Everyone has a chance to suggest innovative ideas, inspire teammates with outstanding achievements, and get care for physical and mental health. Thereby, our people develop professionally and personally,” says Lutskiy.
Interestingly, this community-driven approach is not just a motto but a way of life at Innovecs. Community is often perceived as a modern buzzword, overused and commonly undervalued. But here, the company is living its values. “Innovecs is a community-driven ecosystem – that is, our people can create and become a leader of a community or club in the company, and Innovecs will support them and invest in their passion,” states Lutskiy. Alex is talking about InnoClub, and I must say that it is something special.
Let facts speak for themselves: they currently have more than 10 communities. One of them is a running community, in which teammates take part in various challenges, running tournaments, and charitable marathons. There are ambitious football and ice hockey teams with a coach and systematic training. Then, there is a mindfulness community that focuses not only on emotional learning but also on mental health. The investment community helps inspire positive financial habits, while the public speaking community members hone their communication and leadership skills. “The corporate culture constantly evolves, and everyone can enrich it and initiate a new twist. This is exactly the culture we want to bring and nurture in our Georgian offices right from day one,” says Alex Lutskiy.
At Innovecs, just coding is not an option – the company’s executives understand that people strive to create something valuable with their lives. Innovecs is a tech company that believes that engineering leadership promotes global digital transformation. That is why InnoHub was launched – empowering collaborative growth and building a community of engineering leaders. “At Innovecs, every team member can not only grow in a particular area and climb the career ladder but also change professions and domains. We have cases when employees grew from mentees to mentors and deepened their communication and managerial skills, or when a travel manager shifted to being a project coordinator, and afterwards a project manager. All credit goes to a spectrum of educational programs, masterclasses, workshops, and learning tracks,” Lutskiy claims.
Then, there is InnoCamp – an educational ecosystem through which Innovecs educates not only its employees but also the public at large. It is a relatively new program launched in 2019. For three years, Innovecs’ brightest minds have conducted QA Manual, QA Automation, Frontend (JS, React), Unity, Talent Sourcing, and other learning tracks. With the pandemic, the ecosystem became digital – today, at InnoCamp, people enrol as interns, juniors, as well as mentors and get experience while working on real-life projects.
At Innovecs, employees’ personal and professional happiness comes first and it will always be like that, no matter how many new cross-border operations the company launches.
“Thanks to InnoHub, InnoClub, and InnoCamp, our Georgian colleagues will have an opportunity to attend professional and lifestyle events, have free lifetime access to our corporate knowledge base, and enrol in certified educational programs. Our goal is not just to create career opportunities for them, but also to impact the development of the engineering community in Georgia as a whole,” Lutskiy says.
For Innovecs, launching a business in Georgia is a new and ambitious venture. For Alex Lutskiy, Georgia is a strategic regional hub for research and development. Why Georgia you might ask? Alex would respond that it is an actively developing tech-savvy economy. Georgia ranks above average on key international rankings for entrepreneurship, innovation, and technology. It’s a country where freelancing is widespread. Moreover, ever since the creation of Georgia’s Innovation and Technology Agency (GITA) in 2014, there have been significant efforts to develop the country’s vibrant digital ecosystem.
When it comes to launching its business in Georgia, Innovecs has a concrete goal – to implement a large-scale hiring operation offering the choice of working in newly refurbished offices by the end of 2022 or remotely. Innovecs plans to hire fifty professionals mainly from Tbilisi and Batumi, but people could join remotely from anywhere within the country. Compensation is competitive and regardless of the offices’ location, employees are given access to the universal benefits system, equal motivation frameworks, and incentives.
While talking to Alex Lutskiy about his experience founding Innovecs, various leadership approaches, numerous corporate cultures, and listening to the enthusiastic praise of his employees, a thought kept coming up. I think of Innovecs and see a company that values its employees more than anything. In peaceful times, the company supports the professional and personal endeavours of their employees; and in times of war, it safeguards their safety and security. Sadly, this characteristic of the company was highlighted by the full-scale war in Ukraine. Apart from being a global company headquartered in the United States, Innovecs has a substantial presence in the large Eastern European nation. New offices are soon to open in Poland and Hungary, while Ukraine remains one of their biggest markets. With the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Innovecs activated its business continuity plan to ensure that the company was fully operational to continue supporting clients. But the most important part of it all was to ensure the safety of the employees.
“I was in Ukraine on February 24th and felt exactly what people felt when the full-scale war began. The company got together the very same day. The main question was: “What can we do to support our employees?” The first thing was relocation. We tried to help people relocate to the west of Ukraine – the safest part of the country, or abroad. We came up with various financial and personal support lines for our employees, including relocation packages. We are helping our Ukrainian employees to this day”, – states Lutskiy.
Many companies would do just that, but for Innovecs it was not enough. Innovecs created the Employee Relief Fund to support employees and their families if they lose a house or need to seek medical attention. For employees joining the army, Innovecs introduced a military policy. All of this was crucial, and it worked. Today, most people still live in the western part of the country, but many returned to Kyiv, where the office just re-opened.
“When I presented financial results for the first quarter to the board, I put up a single bullet point and said that our main goal was for every single employee to be safe. We call it a ‘life check’. We must know where every member of staff is and whether they are in trouble or not. This way, we can always reach out to them, and they can request support from the management. We achieved that,” – Alex says proudly.
In moments like this, real leaders are born. In moments like this, an organization shows its true face and corporate culture. At Innovecs, employees’ personal and professional happiness comes first, and it will always be like that, no matter how many new cross-border operations the company launches.
