Tech companies you'll love to work for: Garena
Nap rooms? Massage services? A fully-stocked pantry? Garena's got it all. After hearing so much about it, we knew we just had to head down to check the place out for ourselves.
This is a four part mini-series about the cool tech companies we’ve visited. To read about other tech workplaces we’ve seen, click here.
Connecting the Dots
Every inch of Garena's office reflects its motto of connecting the dots.
This is a four part mini-series about the cool tech companies we’ve visited. To read about other tech workplaces we’ve visited, click here.
When it comes to offices that have it all, Garena is up there with the best of them. Perhaps best known for its Garena+ gaming platform, the company has also ventured into a wide range of communication and e-commerce services that speak to its growing ambitions and reach. In fact, it shifted from its Murray Terrace office to its current home at the Galaxis Building to accommodate its rapid growth, which saw its headcount double year-on-year over the past three years.
Forget about being stuck in windowless rooms with whitewashed walls and bone-chilling air-conditioning. Spread over two floors, Garena’s new 7,500 square-meter office was literally designed to provide its employees with the most conducive and comfortable environment possible.
What’s cool about this office?
You wouldn’t notice it at first, but a whole lot of thought and planning went into every aspect of the office’s design. Garena’s motto of connecting the dots has influenced everything from the carpeting – it’s a single, connected piece – to workspaces like strategically placed collaboration clusters and breakout rooms.
As a company that concerns itself with building bridges between and among communities and its audience, Garena has worked to foster a space where various creative and collaborative forces can blossom. In addition to its dedicated meeting rooms, a host of collaboration areas are scattered throughout the office for spontaneous discussions to take place.
And if you’ve got the nibbles, you can just head down to a sprawling pantry that you’ll wish was your kitchen. It is stocked shelf to shelf with chocolate bars, ice cream cones, and other delectables, and the fridges are packed with milk, fruit, and other things to satisfy your cravings.
The sprawling pantry looks as good a place to relax as any.
We also weren’t surprised to find an entertainment corner at the end of the pantry, complete with an air hockey table, a pool table, and a foosball table for Garenians to engage in some friendly competition or just to destress. After all, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
Furthermore, this is one of those companies that recognizes that a food coma is actually a thing. Sleeping pods are located right next to the huge open offices for employees to catch some shuteye (and indulge in some postprandial somnolence). But in all seriousness, Garenians work hard, and the company knows that even the most dedicated workers need time to recharge.
Sound-proof phone booths (left) are strategically located to give employees the privacy to take phone calls. On the right, nap rooms let your yawning neighbor catch some shuteye.
What you probably weren’t expecting was the inclusion of massage rooms, where Garenians can check in to have someone limber up those sore muscles. Yes, at work. Of course, there’s a limit on this and employees can only indulge in 30-minute sessions, twice a month. Still, that sounds like a pretty good deal to us.
This place is best for...
Here's where you would go to grab a cup of coffee...
In our conversations with Garenians, we quickly picked up on a few common refrains. Fast-paced, passionate, and transparent. Those were the words that came up the most often, regardless of whether we were speaking to someone in software development or game operations. Things move fast at Garena, and it’s not long before an idea floated in a brainstorming session becomes an actual product.
This isn’t one of those companies where there’s a lot of soaring dialog but little action. Zed Zhang, a Business Development Manager, highlighted the huge focus on execution, which means that Garenians are able to quickly see tangible gains from their contributions – a big part of the rewarding experience that they all talked about.
Above all, we got a strong sense of the camaraderie that exists at all levels of the company. The open offices feel almost homely, and it really seemed as if Garenians were working among friends. In fact, the transparent and open culture at Garena is perhaps one of the most compelling aspects of the company, and it’s something that’s borne out in the details of the office design that we talked so much about. The floor-to-ceiling windows let in plenty of the natural light, and managers aren’t sequestered behind imposing opaque doors and oaken desks. Glass panels are the order of the day here, a physical manifestation of the dialog and communication that takes place across the board.
Then there are the frequent activities organized by Garenians, for Garenians. With interest groups in sports and other areas, there are plenty of opportunities for employees to bond with like-minded folks outside of work.
This is a fun and vibrant workplace for those who are serious about making concrete contributions in areas as diverse as gaming, e-commerce, and software development. Garena invests a lot in its people, but this isn’t a company for sluggish workers. Adaptable, dynamic, and agile – those are the qualities that the company embodies, and those are the same ones that Garenians must possess.
This is a four part mini-series about the cool tech companies we’ve visited. To read about other tech workplaces we’ve seen, click here.
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