What would your manager say to you if you came up with the idea of traveling with Justin Timberlake on tour for an entire year? This would not just be a work from home agreement but an actual out of office plan for one full-year sabbatical. That is exactly what happened at HubSpot when Rosalia Cefalu had a crazy idea that actually got approved.

HubSpot, a global inbound marketing company, has approximately 19,000 customers in over 90 countries and 1,960 employees, stretching from Cambridge, MA, to Sydney, Australia.

“We don’t think that culture is about free beer and ping-pong and dogs in the office, it’s about what you believe, why you do what you do, and who you choose to work with,” states CTO and cofounder Dharmesh Shah. Although HubSpot has plenty of free snacks on hand for their employees to enjoy, other flexible benefits HubSpotters enjoy are unlimited vacation time, tuition reimbursement, flexible hours, and an overall environment that balances freedom with accountability.

At HubSpot it goes deeper than just the perks. The focus from the top down instills pride and passion within its employees, which then translates into happy customers.

Although flexible benefits are a big perk of working at the third-best tech company to work for, according to Glassdoor’s annual Employee Choice awards, the culture isn’t for everyone. The company practices a sense of understanding, knowing that employees will move on and do not need to stay to be loyal and that sometimes someone is no longer needed—either because of performance, or changes in the company’s needs. This isn’t taken personally, and HubSpot is able to grow and continue to grow because it objectively sees the performance of its employees and what is best for the company and employee.

Questions:

1. How does HubSpot’s focus on culture affect employee performance?

2. What concerns would you have regarding giving employees countless flexible benefits such as HubSpot does; for example, a yearly sabbatical?