Binance's Work Culture Explained
Main takeaways:
Binance has a unique culture that is grounded in our employees being passionate about our mission and intrinsically motivated.
Flashy perks and fancy offices do little to attract great employees; instead, it’s our values that appeal to them.
Flexible hours, remote work, and a ban on excessive corporate jargon – those are just a few of the attributes that set Binance’s work culture apart.
Game rooms, unlimited food buffets, massage chairs and all those gimmicks were so 2010’s.
Sure, it has been fun for a while, but soon enough, we started seeing more and more reports and news articles about how these incentives don’t accomplish their goal. No matter how many fancy perks there are, unless there’s a strong mission and an enticing model of work in an organization, flashy offices lose their appeal really fast.
Binance has never put much stock in superior office comfort as a means of attracting and retaining top talent. Don’t get us wrong - our offices offer some of these perks as well, but they’re never the main reason employees want to stay with us. That’s why our mission, and enabling employee growth, are the biggest motivators for our workforce. Binance takes a different approach when it comes to our working model - we always talk about how we need the right people with the right cultural fit and how most people might not fit in.
Instead of offering over-the-top incentives, the idea is that our employees must have intrinsic motivation to rally behind Binance’s mission. If someone doesn’t feel strongly about our goal of bringing the freedom of money to billions across the world, then that person will most likely not thrive in Binance. Having an office movie theater will do little to fix this.
So, the question is: what is Binance’s model of work?
There are a few attributes that we look at closely when we think about our fully remote organization of thousands of employees across the globe. These ideas help us stay efficient and keep our mission top of mind.
Intrinsic Motivation & Alignment With Our Mission
When recruiting for new roles at Binance, we prioritize candidates who share our mission and passion. As the world's largest crypto exchange whose reason to be is increasing global financial freedom, we have the potential to impact billions of lives. Our employees are deeply committed to this mission from day one.
With almost 1.4 billion unbanked people around the world, our work at Binance has never been more important. From offering transparency and traceability of funds’ movement to enabling smoother and more efficient cross-border transfers, we’re at the heart of bringing about the freedom of money globally. Every single employee in Binance must be focused on bringing this mission to life. Candidates who grasp the significance of our work are more likely to excel at Binance. While financial benefits matter, we've observed that those who align with our vision from the outset tend to perform best and stay the longest. At Binance, we don't offer extravagant perks or flashy benefits, as we seek talent that genuinely fits our organization's core mission and fast-paced environment. Intrinsic motivation is essential for thriving in our dynamic setting.
Remote Work: Employee Perspective
The pandemic forced most companies into a remote working environment. Now that things are going back to normal, we can see many companies encouraging their employees to return to the office. Binance, however, has always been a fully remote organization, encouraging employees to utilize the benefits this brings. We call for our employees to work from home in a way that ensures workplace comfort, brings opportunities to find time for family and friends, and enables employees to choose their own hours*. This has been a standard for our organization since the beginning and one that employees enjoy. It allows them flexibility, enables them to save time and money on commuting, and allows them to plan their days in a way that works best for them.
Remote Work: Binance’s Perspective
Remote work is the preferred choice for our employees for sure, but there’s a lot in it for Binance as well. Remote work eliminates wasted time from commuting, leading to less fatigue and increased productivity. As a results-driven organization laser-focused on our users, we treasure any opportunity to save our employees’ productive time and track outcomes as closely as possible. In addition to giving our people more time and flexibility, our remote working environment enables us to better identify which teams are performing well and which need support.
Autonomy & Flexibility
Binance is a global 24/7 organization with thousands of employees around the world, and the best way to help employees thrive in this environment is offering them as much flexibility as possible. Most employees can choose their own hours*, which means that teams across different time zones can connect when they need to. Our staff can take breaks in the middle of the day to recharge, pick up their kids from school or take some time to help out their parents. Treating our staff like responsible grown-ups who are intrinsically motivated and know how to manage their time ends up benefiting Binance significantly.
*Majority of employees can choose their own hours, except for those who work in specific shifts
PowerPoint Is Banned – Efficiency Is King
At Binance, efficiency and output are our top priorities. That’s why employees don’t waste time on things like fancy presentations. Meetings are kept short (15 to 30 mins max), and staff are encouraged to keep documents in bullet points. These policies enable us to save time and cut through the jargon-heavy communications and wasteful meetings that we see in most corporate environments. Substance over style is the norm. There’s no option to hide behind excessive corporate speak or flashy presentations, and the only option is to actually deliver superior performance.
Growing & Upskilling Is Mandatory
At Binance, if you’re not growing, you’re falling behind. In such a fast-paced organization that serves an industry where the norms, policies, and technologies change every hour, keeping sharp and expanding one’s skill set is a must. That’s why we always encourage our employees to learn new things and incorporate them into their work.
These are just a few of the ways that Binance maintains its signature focus on our users while ensuring we grow and retain the best talent in the world. High performers and those aligned with our vision end up sticking with us for the long haul. As mentioned earlier, there’s one common factor when we look at the best talent and successful employees – and that is alignment with our mission. This intrinsic motivation enables us to keep building products that our users will find valuable and helps us create a better world by advancing the freedom of money.