This Argentine company, founded in 1999, started as a “Latino eBay.” After 20 years, MercadoLibre is not only an auction site with a broad user base and an own payment system. It is also the 3rd best place to work in Latin America and the 7th in the world, according to Fortune.
“It’s a disruptive company in every sense of the word. The difference makes us stay. The physical environment, plus the work environment contribute to make it a very pleasant place for work. You learn, and you challenge yourself every day. You work with autonomy. We have thousands of benefits, ” said one employee.
These recognitions contrast with the press releases that made Amazon an ill reputation as an employer. Here there are no stories of employees crying at your desk, but of a company that seeks to maintain the startup spirit despite the years.
Sebastián Fernández Silva, Senior Vice President of People at MercadoLibre, recently spoke about one of the secrets of MercadoLibre to be a company loved by its employees.
Fernández Silva joined the company in 2004 when he had 80 employees. Today there are 7,300 workers in 18 countries in Latin America.
Smells Like Startup Spirit
For MercadoLibre, it was difficult to maintain an entrepreneurial spirit at first. To achieve this, eight years ago the team decided to adopt a technological platform to improve personnel management.
The human resources area opted for SuccessFactors. This platform based on the cloud offered different advantages, such as avoiding having multiple databases separated from each other, providing an all-in-one solution and having a mobile version.
Also, when hiring new personnel, they have focused on the ability of people to learn and adapt to diverse cultural environments. This philosophy has led them to remain in the technological bubble as one of the leading companies worldwide. Fernández Silva says that “in 2017, we entered another top 100 list, replacing Yahoo. When we started, we believed that Yahoo would be bigger than Google. “
Sustainable growth has been key to achieving these achievements. The company also cares about providing opportunities for mothers, as well as offering support to disadvantaged youth and developing communities.
“I think technology, consistency, culture and a structure for growth is all you need. But if you want to build a world-class organization, you need insights. ”