Andriani Dwirahmanda, known as Winda, joined RevoU in 2020 as a Finance & Operations Executive. Despite having no background in finance, she took a leap of faith, leveraging her transferable skills in stakeholder management and team coordination.

From her initial role as the sole member of the Finance & Operations team, Winda has since become the Finance and People Operations Manager. She has brought her vision of making RevoU the best and happiest place to work to life.

For Winda, the heart of the People Operations team lies in supporting other teams and simplifying their work and life.

They strive to provide the best experience for RevoU teams by fostering innovation and welcoming feedback. They maintain high team engagement, even in a remote work environment.

So, how do Winda and her team continue to innovate the RevoU teams’ experience and make RevoU the best and happiest place to work?

Let’s delve deeper into the workings of RevoU’s People team!

Winda’s Career Journey with RevoU

Before becoming the Finance and People Operations Manager at RevoU, Winda graduated with a degree in Urban and Regional Planning. Most of her peers pursued careers in government, and she initially followed suit, working as Technical Support Staff for the Regional Development Senior Advisor at the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia. However, after two years, she felt her work lacked direct impact and left her unfulfilled.

When she discovered a job posting for an Admission Counselor position at RevoU, a startup with a small but passionate team, she was intrigued. She resonated with the vision and mission articulated in an article by Matteo and decided to apply.

During her interview, Matteo suggested she consider a role in Finance Operations. Despite her lack of finance background, Matteo convinced her that her skills in stakeholder management and team coordination were transferable.

Encouraged, she took another leap of faith and joined RevoU as a Finance & Operations Executive.

People Team Contribution in RevoU

When asked to describe the People team in one sentence, Winda said, “The core of the People Operations team is to support other teams and make their work-life easier.”

To achieve these goals, the People team innovates various strategies to gather feedback from RevoU employees, increase team engagement, and simplify their work-life.

They also ensure that RevoU values are embedded in every initiative, breaking away from HR misconceptions about lack of transparency and responsiveness.

Evolution of RevoU People Team

When Winda joined RevoU in 2020, she was the first person in Finance at RevoU, and there was no People Team yet.

“The first three months at RevoU were very challenging, but they were also the best learning phase of my entire career. Working with Matteo as my manager and mentor was fun and helped me grow exponentially as a person and a professional,” she said.

As RevoU grew—from 10 to 100+ employees, from 5 to 500 industry experts as stakeholders—Winda’s role and responsibilities also expanded. Over time, she needed to grow her team and develop the People Team to manage employee growth and engagement.

One thing she has consistently done since 2020 is to accommodate feedback and aspirations from her direct reports and other RevoU employees.

This comes from her experience with Matteo as a manager, who is open to his direct reports’ feedback. He would ask simple questions like, “What do you enjoy doing?” and provide room for growth within RevoU, even if it meant internal movement or promotion.

The Approach to Maintaining Employee’s Engagement High

Starting with fewer than 10 employees, RevoU now has 100+ employees and 500+ stakeholders who work remotely.

This presents a challenge for Winda to lead her team in maintaining employee engagement.

She has 5 approaches to maintaining employee engagement:

#1 Embed RevoU values in every People Team member and every initiative‍

"We value kindness, candor, highest standards, and passion while interacting with each RevoU employee. This minimizes the risk of conflict between teams,” Winda said.

#2 Understand employee needs

Winda believes that each RevoU employee has different needs, and she can understand their needs by simply asking, “How are you?” and letting the conversation flow.

#3 Experiment‍

Winda encourages her team to keep innovating and not be afraid to experiment as long as the goal is to enhance employee engagement.

Some experiments that work to increase employee engagement are RevoU sharing sessions, GoWork Day (work offline together), doing sports together, etc.

#4 Be open to feedback‍

"We are open to any feedback, insight, recommendation, and initiative from RevoU teams. We communicate this to RevoU management while giving recommendations based on research and benchmarking from other companies and our values.

From each feedback, we can decide which initiative works and which needs improvement,” Winda said.

#5 Stay inspired!‍

To keep experimenting with various initiatives, Winda and her team must stay inspired. She usually gets inspired by talking with RevoU teams, researching on Google, networking with People teams from other companies, watching YouTube videos or films, reading newsletters, etc.

The Approach to Supporting RevoU Team’s Development

To grow the company, employee growth & development are crucial. In supporting RevoU Team’s development, the People Team considers two perspectives:

#1 From the company to the employee‍

RevoU provides many training & sharing sessions. One is Managerial Training which helps first-time managers manage direct reports, seek and give feedback, learn hiring methods, and conduct performance reviews.

#2 From the employee to themselves
RevoU also provides a self-development allowance for each employee to spend on books, courses, mental health counseling, productivity apps, and work equipment.

People Team’s Culture

As the Finance and People Operations Manager, Winda optimizes weekly/monthly 1:1 sessions with her direct reports to exercise RevoU values.

In these sessions, she acts as a reminder and an advisor.

• As a reminder, she ensures each team member understands that the People Team’s goal is to help and support RevoU teams.
• As an advisor, she challenges team members to sharpen their critical and strategic thinking before proposing an action or initiative plan. Winda believes these challenges can help her team members make better and faster decisions.

Approach to Excel People Team’s Performance

#1 Hire the top talent

Before hiring, Winda always assesses the team's performance first. If the performance is slower, she analyzes the cause. If hiring is needed, Winda needs to clearly define the role, task, and skills needed.

When hiring talents, she prioritizes cultural fit with the team and not only the skills. To do this, she usually do talent sourcing by asking for referrals from her network

“I think talents’ skills can be trained, but it’s harder to shape their values,” Winda said.

#2 Be a great manager

According to Winda, being a great manager means being a great listener. Being close to the team, having empathy, and using a personal approach to each team member can guide the team to grow and overcome crises.

Once she understands the issue of the team member, she will give recommendations or projects unrelated to the problem as their new focus to excite them more!

#3 Recommend resources for team’s growth
These are some resources that help Winda’s growth as a manager and are often recommended to her team:

• Work Rules!
• People Ops Weekly Newsletter
• Networking with other People Team from other companies

Those are 3 approaches from Winda to excel the People team’s performance that will contribute to RevoU’s growth!

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If you want to work with Winda in our People team, you can apply by clicking here or the "Explore Roles" button below.