Our core values and what they mean to our people

Ask any of us how do we live our values and we will all have countless examples to share from our day to day collaboration as well as from how we run ourselves as an organisation.

We have a strong company culture that stands out as being open, collaborative, friendly and most importantly transparent. What laid the foundation of our culture? Our core values! They are the set of principles introduced in 2018. They guide us across the company when we hire new team members, we make decisions, we evaluate our performance and reward, and in our daily life when working on our product. Our values are at the core of everything we do and how we do it while we all contribute to making Vio.com a fun and interesting workplace.

Our core values go beyond being plain words, they translate into behaviours, both at a company and an individual level. They stand at the basis of our internal collaboration as well as at the basis of the relationship we want to maintain with our customers, the passionate travellers who use our product.

Here are our six core values, how we translate them into behaviours and what they mean to our people.

Deliver Results 

Accomplishing amounts of important work where and when it counts, showing resilience despite setbacks, rising to the occasion and never settling. We take smart risks, avoid analysis-paralysis and learn from failures and we are also resourceful and frugal in the way we deliver results.

Luis (Engineering Lead) — For me ‘deliver results’ is one of the core values I have more connection with. Our work in a product team involves a certain level of uncertainty. Sometimes we even found ourselves blocked, but we cultivate the ability to take smart risks and to avoid analysis-paralysis. We are aware that we will not succeed on every product feature we try, but from my perspective the failure is always an opportunity to learn and make it better next time.

Take Ownership

We take full responsibility of our commitments and objectives but also hold ourselves and others accountable. We proactively take ownership and care about the results.

“Take ownership means to me a trait of a person who thinks of the company as if it was his own. This person does not do things because someone asked to, but because he/she knows that is for the best of the company.”

Bruno (Data Science Lead)

Reeve (DevOps Engineer)- Taking ownership means that I take the the initiative to bring about a positive change. It entails that I am proactive in order to complete a task or achieve a goal. Most importantly, taking ownership means being accountable for the results that you produce whether good or bad.

Be a team player

Encourages us to seek to understand and value how others are/think different(ly), to prioritise team goals over personal objectives. We aim to provide candid, timely feedback to colleagues and we care more about others than we demand for ourselves.

Pedro (Engineering Manager)- Being a team-player to me is one of the most important skills a person can have, and it is harder than it sounds like. A real team player understands that the success of the team is the ultimate goal, meaning that sometimes individuals have to compromise in their ideas or what they think is the best for them as individuals and commit to what the team believes is the best. After all the success of the team is also the success of each individual in this team. A team player aims to create a psychologically safe environment for their teammates, giving the freedom to people to take risks and make mistakes. This doesn’t mean that a low-quality outcome is acceptable but a team player will assume a mentor position and help teammates to improve when needed. A team player will also help teammates identify the root cause instead of pointing fingers when mistakes are made so the same will not happen again. A team player understands their limitations and is humble enough to ask for help when they don’t know something or is blocked, as well as he/she is humble enough to own any mistake when it happens. Above all, a team player is respectful, understands that everyone is different in their own way and that these differences are what makes teams stronger, not the opposite.

Jop (Engineering Manager)- Working for the same company for longer than a few years is (unfortunately) a rarity in the tech industry. When asked why I still work for Vio.com after 5+ years, the first thing I mention is the company’s mission and the team that executes towards it. I believe team work is the best — and most fun! — way to achieve our common goal of getting every traveller the best deal to spend a good time. It is a true honour to work with such brilliantly smart people from many different parts of the world. There are no egos at Vio.com — except for in our games room where we can’t hide our competitive spirit and grit :). My colleagues are always collaborative, transparent, helpful and we all direct our focus towards delivering value for our customers.

Build Trust

Translates by empowering others by actively trusting them, by being humble, listening attentively, speaking candidly, and treating others respectfully. We are able to be vulnerable in search of truth even when doing so is embarrassing. We are known for honesty, transparency, and being non-political and we share information openly and proactively.

Oz (CEO) — There are many ways to build trust within a relationship and it is the key to a successful & enduring relationship in any setting. I personally like to tell it like it is, admit mistakes & weaknesses and take responsibility when things go wrong. The combination of the above makes it easier for others to do the same and feel that they can trust me with their challenges. As a manager I assume that someone is trustworthy unless proven otherwise and try and empower them to take more responsibilities themselves rather than assume that their past experience or role boundary should limit them. Beyond that, our communication style in the company is default to transparency and access to both the core information and the thought process behind decisions or goals, which helps team members gather the underlying facts on their own.

Alessandro (Head of Customer Support) — For me building trust in a professional environment does not differ from its meaning in personal life. It does not differ if you change the subjects at play: you build trust with a customer, with a peer, with a manager, with a team member. Trust is what bonds people together, creates relationships and finally communities. As opposed to fear, trust happens when we know that the other cares about our own success and/or well being. After working for many years at the side of the customers, I have learnt that the solution you give does not matter as much as their perception that you are working for their happiness and you tried your best for them. But this perception of trustworthiness should be built, and this is a challenging process that requires day to day focus and effort. The main ingredients for this magic recipe are: sincerity, honourability, discipline, respect, assertiveness, being a living example of your values, keep your promises and finally self control in difficult situations.
It seems a lot of things but they are worth it, as, when trust is build, together you can achieve the impossible.

Raise the bar

We thrive on change, pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone; that we keep learning and improving ourselves to better contribute to our goals. We are curious and open-minded in search of the best ideas and best practices. We challenge the status-quo, suggest alternatives & are appreciative of others who do so.

Tom (Tribe Lead) — “Raise the Bar” means to me to continuously become and make the people around you better in what you do and keep pushing standards above. “Bar raisers” realize there is always room to grow and utilize their curiosity, the challenges they face, their failures and success, and the people around for achieving it.

Kostia (Head of Customer Acquisition)- When I think of the value“Raise the bar”, I think of always looking for a way to improve current solutions, to increase intelligence of our systems; I also think of introducing better practices / technologies, as well as hiring people which are smarter than us.

Focus on the customer

Translates into the desire to deeply understand customers and invent on their behalf, into paying attention to competitors and the market. We live by our mission of getting every customer the best deal and we work hard to earn the customers’ trust.

Soheyla (UX Research Lead) — To me, focus on the customer is where all the other core values come together. Because in the end, our company and our teams would not exist if we weren’t successfully catering to customers’ needs. We make a conscious effort to remind ourselves that behind every interaction with our website and our customer service, there’s a living breathing human being who has the right to be happy and travel care-free. Luckily, we are travelers ourselves. That makes it easy for us to empathise with the problems and needs of our customers and motivates us to give them our best effort.

If you resonate with our core values and want to join an organization that stays true to its set of principles, have a look at our openings and get in touch!