This group shot shows destroyed Russian armored vehicles in the town of Bucha, west of Kyiv, on March 4, 2022.
Aris Messinis | AFP | Getty Images
When BigCommerce executives held their global meeting on Thursday, they didn’t expect any of the company’s 106 Ukrainian employees to appear on screen. Most of the staff there were busy simply trying to find safety as Russia stepped up its attacks on its smaller neighbour.
Two days earlier, Russian soldiers blew up a TV station in Kyiv, half a mile from the BigCommerce office, killing at least five people. Employees of the company by that time were evacuated.
But from a darkroom in an unknown location, a BigCommerce product manager entered the video chat. She was responsible for what CEO Brent Bellm called the most significant launch in the company’s 13-year history.
“There was no dry eye at the meeting,” Bellm said in an interview late Thursday night. “The rest of us were so incredibly inspired to have her there and such a strong voice and leader.”
In the company’s quarterly earnings report Monday, Bellm spent several minutes briefing investors on the situation, noting that some employees have “joined the military and taken up arms to defend their country” and “some are reported to be in places where they not safe either in Kyiv or outside of it.”
Ukraine has become an outstanding region for technical talent and has become one of the largest IT outsourcing markets in the world. In multiple earnings reports this week, American tech companies have added a Russian invasion of Ukraine as a risk factor for their business. Cloud software vendors Snowflake, Box and Veeva noted the risk, and HP Inc. and alternative energy provider Plug Power.
Most companies, such as Box, stated in formulaic language that factors such as “the Covid-19 pandemic or the Russian invasion of Ukraine” could affect the results.
The situation with BigCommerce is much more extreme. The Austin, Texas-based company opened an engineering center in Kyiv in 2019 and employs about 8% of its employees. On its job page, BigCommerce lists 20 jobs in Kyiv, compared to 52 in Austin, 26 in London and 24 in Sydney.
“Ukraine has one of the most experienced and talented e-commerce engineers in the world and our team is incredible in many ways,” said Bellm.
Despite the chaos on the ground, Bellm said the employee who called the meeting wanted to provide the company with an update on multiple storefronts, a product that allows merchants to create and manage multiple storefronts from a single BigCommerce site.
BigCommerce office in Kyiv, Ukraine
BigCommerce
“She didn’t tell us about her personal experience of moving or where she is, she just told us about the product launch,” Bellm said. “This is the biggest product launch in the history of the company, and they played a central role in it, and she is the product manager. And so her live appearance on screen and demonstrating the greatness of what went into this product was very inspiring.”
Nevertheless, her colleagues knew that she and her colleagues in Ukraine were living a nightmare.
Last week, Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine, hitting key cities. President Vladimir Putin’s troops are facing stiff Ukrainian resistance, but the deadly shelling continues. Over a million people have left the country.
“We can’t create peace, we can’t wrap our arms around them on the ground,” Bellm said of his staff in Ukraine. “But one of the most important things we can do is let them know that no matter what they do, their jobs are safe and the company will do everything it can to support them until they get back to safety. a place”.
Distraction from TV
According to Bellm, more than half of the company’s employees in Ukraine work several hours a day, and some work full-time, mostly for distraction. But no one is expected or asked to work.
“They may not have a government to take care of them anymore, but they have an employer that will,” Bellm said. “In many cases, they say they don’t want to watch TV all day and panic and be distracted from the crisis.”
Sherry Manning, director of human resources at BigCommerce, said the main thing Ukrainian employees want from the company is regular contact. Two HR representatives in Ukraine check employees via Slack or by phone. They also conducted daily security checks, contacting neighbors and relatives to ensure team members were safe and under control.
The Ukrainian government announced at the start of the invasion that men between the ages of 18 and 60 must remain in the country. Most BigCommerce employees in this demographic moved to the western part of Ukraine, away from Russia to the east. Kyiv, the capital and largest city of Ukraine, is located closer to the center of the country.
Manning said 15 of the 106 employees were still in Kyiv at the end of the day on Friday. Some slipped into neighboring Poland. Most of them described themselves as “safe” and two said they were “not safe,” Manning said, adding that the situation could change on a daily basis.
Some are preparing in case they are called to fight for their country, and some have already taken up arms to join the defense.
Manning said employees around the world support their colleagues with donations. Employees in Australia and other countries offer their homes.
“We tell them every morning that you are not alone and we will not forget you,” Manning said. “We tell them that we are doing our best to reach you.”
Bellm is also considering ways to find a more sustainable solution.
“I could imagine that in the future we will open an office in Poland,” he said. “We just tell them that we want to do our best to stay in touch and support you financially and in other ways.”
“The most innocent and beautiful thing”
Bellm said the invasion came as a shock to his Ukrainian team. He meets with them every month and said he asked them in early February why they weren’t worried, as reports circulated in the US intelligence news that a Putin attack might be imminent.
Bellm recalled employees saying that the intrusion was just a pose. Many of them have Russian relatives and they stressed that the two countries have been coexisting for years.
“It was the most innocent and beautiful thing,” Bellm said of the staff’s reaction. “They just kept saying, ‘We don’t think they will attack, we are a peaceful people.’
Bellm is now trying to reckon with reality.
“They are innocent,” he said. “They did nothing to provoke it. These people have been attacked, they have been displaced, and right now they are in danger of life. We are doing our best and we are praying for the world and we are praying for their lives. It’s all the emotion you can imagine.”
In terms of maintaining cash flow, some problems have arisen as banking and payment systems have been disrupted in the region. But Manning said the company had created contingencies.
“There was a short period when we paid in US dollars, but banks were not allowed to convert them into local currency,” she said. “And then, even when employees received their money in local currency, they could usually convert it back to US dollars, but they couldn’t.”
Since then, they have been able to get the dollars, Manning said, adding that the company also offered early payroll access and provided interest-free loans if people needed extra money.
“They are investing in one of the most valuable assets they have in this world, which is a lifetime of education, work experience, passion and talent,” Bellm said. “In return, we have a responsibility to make sure that we do our best to make their time with us worthwhile for them.”
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