Meet our Culture Champions: Creating a culture of belonging at ServiceNow Dublin

Jane Irwin is a Culture Champion in Dublin. When she interviewed for her current role at ServiceNow, the recruiter talked a lot about the company culture and the relatively new Dublin office. Jane says, "I took it all with a pinch of salt. He was selling me the job after all and nowhere could be as good as it was sounding. On my first day as Senior Tax Analyst, I realized that he was spot on and the culture here in Dublin is really as good as he described.”

The Culture Champion team is a community of employees who are passionate about delivering local initiatives that strengthen ServiceNow’s company values and culture. “If you get it right,” explains Maeve Carmody, another Culture Champion and Office Manager on the Dublin team, “work becomes a pleasure and not a chore.”

The Culture Champion teams are empowered to drive grassroots action that create belonging moments and build a sense of community. From yoga classes, running clubs, holiday-themed celebrations, monthly socials, giving back days, and bring your kids to work, they create a culture where everyone feels they belong and are part of a bigger team. “Belonging is the piece of the puzzle that makes people happy,” shares Jane. “There is space for everyone to be their authentic selves.” This even goes as far as when someone joins the Dublin office, Maeve puts a lot of thought into where they will sit in the office, especially if their team works in another global ServiceNow office. It’s a very welcoming culture in which people take the time to get to know new starters and one another. 

Creating this type of culture is important given how quickly the site is expanding. In just over a year, the Dublin office has grown over four times in size from 23 to 110 employees. As an international technology hub within Europe, we’re attracting the best tech talent across a variety of new roles within Sales, Solution Consulting, Engineering, Internationalization, Finance, Legal, Marketing, and other functions. Every month, the Dublin office welcomes six to seven new starters from over 25 different nationalities, across a broad age range (from mid-20s to mid-60s), into a variety of functions. “Each time a new person joins the team, it brings something new and dynamic to the office,” shares Maeve. “Although numbers are growing, we still want to create that strong cultural feel.”

A focus area for the Culture Champion team this year has been how to continue to strengthen the culture in our COVID-19 world where all our employees are currently working from home and our newest employees have never met their colleagues face-to-face. “It’s in our DNA to create a culture of belonging,” explains Maeve. “So instead of stopping us, COVID-19 has made us stronger by encouraging us to find new ways to stay connected.” The monthly face-to-face socials have turned into virtual coffee mornings and the very competitive “Quarantine Quiz.” Our weekly yoga and fitness classes are now online, and we still bring kids to work by inviting them to join in on our virtual magician shows for the whole family. Additionally, Dublin is also active in our Global Impact work, recently joining forces with colleagues in the UK to create ServiceNow’s first virtual Giving at Now week. Through employee donations, which were matched by ServiceNow, we raised $10,000 in one week for four charities in the UK and Ireland including Focus Ireland and the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre. “We are still the same company and team, we’ve just found new ways of keeping connected. No matter how much we grow and what challenges we may face in the future.”

Want to join our team at ServiceNow? We’re hiring!