Daniela Binatti, Co-Founder and CTO at Pismo, was a featured speaker on Women of Fintech, a podcast held by London-based fintech recruitment company Harrington Starr.
Daniela interacted with Nadia Edwards-Dashti, Chief Customer Officer at Harrington Starr. They talked about the importance of setting a solid culture in the workplace and establishing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) initiatives so that companies can thrive.
Culture at the forefront
Daniela explained how Pismo expanded its services around the globe in the last two years. She said there were many challenges in growing the team and guaranteeing that Pismo replicated the same service whenever it operated.
However, to make it possible, Daniela said it was essential to reinforce the company’s culture: “You have to guarantee that people are following the same principles, that we are all Pismo no matter where we are sitting. It’s not only about providing the same service whenever we are, but also keeping the culture at the forefront”.
Mental health matters
Our Co-Founder and CTO said that Pismo cares a lot about its employee’s well-being. And she used her personal experience to talk about how companies should take care of their workforce. She said they must build a place where people feel safe to talk about their struggles.
“Ten years ago, I started struggling with panic attacks and anxiety disorder. At that time, I was working for another company, and it was so hard for me. I could spend the whole night panicking with anxiety and by 9:00, I had to be at work as if nothing had happened during the night”.
To Daniela, it’s impossible to separate personal from professional life. And she confirmed her thoughts during the pandemic – when Pismo hired more than 200 people to work remotely around the globe.
“We are doing it right by openly talking about things like these. Our People Management team is prepared and ready to help and support people. And I think our employees are grateful because of the healthy environment they find at the company”, she explains.
DE&I – more than putting a team in place
Pismo values diversity, equity, and inclusion in its work environment. 50% of the company founders are women. In addition, the DE&I team is focused not only on taking care of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives but also on being close to every department.
“They talk to us all the time and teach us so that we can pay attention to unconscious bias and things like these. We have to be aware of things going on”, Daniela says.
She also gave a call to action for business leaders about DE&I issues. Daniela explained that it’s not enough just to put in place a DE&I team to show people a company has such a department.
“We make unconscious decisions sometimes. We have to pay attention to our actions and be open to talking and learning. We have to be open to changing our behaviours to make a difference in the company and the world”.
Listen to the podcast:
