Vince — Growing with Sprout (Sprout Rockstar of the Month)

Vince is Sprout Solutions’ Product Manager. In this month’s Sprout Rockstar of the Month, he shares his journey of growth with Sprout as the company expanded through the years.

 

Before Sprout

“Before I found Sprout I was looking for a variety of jobs— I studied computer science major in software engineering but I looked at sales opportunities as well. I was actually set on working abroad, so whatever position I found, I didn’t plan on staying long.

When I applied for Sprout I came in with the intention of leaving pretty soon, but little did I know… I was there for the long haul.”

The Adjustment from Corporate to Startup

“Sprout was the first ever startup I worked for; so even though I had work experience, I felt that I was learning how to work again.

I used to work in medium to large corporations, but in Sprout, I was employee number 20. It was a big adjustment, but definitely for the better: before I moved, I felt that I was an underachiever in that outside of “The 8-5,” I did not give work a second thought.

I would go through the motions of the company, which was usually well-established since they were corporate. At Sprout, there was no solid structure yet— I was a part of the pioneer team so I felt pressured and responsible for contributing and establishing methods to grow the company.
The vibe was different from what I was used to. When there was work to be done, I had to do it. I was the only QA, so there was no one else to pick up any slack.”

Growing with Sprout

“As Sprout expanded, I had to take on more roles and I was usually the first to do them.

I was initially hired as Sprout’s first Quality Assurance Engineer: I tested the two products at the time, Payroll Pie (now Sprout Payroll) and HR Hub (now Sprout HR). The workload was heavy since I was doing all the testing myself: I would come in at 8 am I’d leave at 2 am. But come back 8 am the next day again… Needless to say, I no longer felt like an underachiever.
After a few months, I decided I needed help so I started a QA team, which gave me more bandwidth to oversee other things.

I was assigned more tasks outside of my QA role— I started handling the whole engineering team. After working close to that team, they made me the engineering manager. I handled 11 people, a mix of developers and QAs.

While I was Engineering Manager, a lot of Customer Success Managers would involve me with meetings with clients because I knew the product well (since I tested it) and how to explain some issues to the client.
From that, I got to know the problems that clients would encounter with the software, so I would be in charge of coming up with solutions for them. This is when Alex made me a Product Manager. This role had me coordinate with all departments of Sprout: from HR, marketing to sales and CS.”

Finding Balance

“Being Product Manager has made me busier now more than ever— we used to only have 2 products but now there are six: HR, Payroll, Insight, Recruit, Perks, and Mobile app, 4 of which I’m handling.

But now that there are more people involved and we have several teams working on different aspects, it’s easier to make solutions into product features to further solve the problems of our customers. And now, my work hours are more regular, from 10am-7pm, leaving me extra time for my personal hobbies.”

Outside of Sprout

“Before Sprout, I was a triathlete, skater, hiker, and adrenaline junkie. But now that my priorities are different, I have no time for those activities but I do still like to stay active.

I join the free Muay Thai lessons we have at Sprout and the most recent hobby that I’m enjoying is yoga every morning before work.”

Plans for the Future

“I’m here to stay with Sprout and see it grow towards its goals… and into a unicorn company (a startup valued over $1 billion).

I saw this company grow and I want to keep on looking for problems to solve in the HR industry in the Philippines, then eventually to countries abroad.”

 

The post Vince — Growing with Sprout (Sprout Rockstar of the Month) appeared first on Sprout.

source https://sprout.ph/blog/vince-sprout-rockstar-month/

Innovate: The Modern HR Recap

Early last week (and the months before that!) everyone at Sprout HQ was bustling in preparation for our last client event of the year, Innovate: The Modern HR.

We invited clients to come celebrate our partnerships with them in 2018 as well as welcome in all the exciting projects we had in store for 2019.

Here’s a recap of what we did last Thursday at the event:

We invited Flip Ruby, HR Director of Zalora Philippines and Entrego Fulfillment Solutions to talk about his knowledge of the newest in the HR industry. He showed us how mobile usage and the development of technology has affected employee experiences. With that, he encouraged the use of data-driven analytics to aid in the development of employee experiences in their company.

We also had Marie Ampeloquio, Chief People Officer at SPi Global, speak about the importance of future-proofing your employees. The concept of upskilling employees to prepare them for the digital age should start as early as now through tried-and-tested programs that help employees grow in both a professional and personal level.

After, we had Bernice Locsin, Head of Customer Success at Sprout Solutions, lead a fun activity where she asked the audience to write down their best takeaway from our speaker’s talks and post them on a board. This way, the audience is able to share what they learn to each other.

After, our CEO and Cofounder, Patrick Gentry announced the latest developments at Sprout Solutions.

It was an exciting afternoon as we comemorated Sprout’s journey through 2018 and into the next year. We are so grateful to have such wonderful clients to continue to grow with and work towards our goal of improving business in the Philippines!

The post Innovate: The Modern HR Recap appeared first on Sprout.

source https://sprout.ph/blog/innovate-modern-hr-recap/