Mercado Libre is the largest unicorn company in Argentina, with a value of close to US$45 billion.
Due to its high performance, the technology company has achieved great expansion at the regional level. Twenty-three years after its creation, the online buying and selling platform is present in 18 Latin American countries.
His arrival in Uruguay was in 2012. At that time, the company of businessman Marcos Galperin entered the market with a small team of developers. Currently, it employs more than a thousand people who are distributed in two offices: Aguada Park and World Trade Center.
In a highly dynamic industry, one of the challenges in the face of breakneck growth was keeping the company culture alive. However, Mercado Libre managed to maintain its core: “Our work culture is summed up in that people are happy with what they do, that it is not just a job,” said Mercado Libre’s Human Resources manager for Uruguay, Soledad Delfante, in an interview with The Observer in 2020.
For this, the e-commerce platform has been at the top of the ranking of the best companies to work for years made by the global firm people analytics and consulting, Great Place to Work (GPTW). In the 2022 report —with data collected during 2021—, Mercado Libre is positioned as the best company to work for in the category that brings together organizations with more than 150 employees.
Now in conversation with Coffee & BusinessDelfante assured that Mercado Libre is a great company for workers because they share the same purpose: to have a good impact on the society in which they operate. “It is an important commitment and connection factor,” said the head of Human Resources.
The highlights of Mercado Libre
Asked about the characteristics that differentiate Mercado Libre from other companies, Delfante said that the main quality at the regional level and, also at the local level, is the design and implementation of practices that aim to offer experiences that make up the company’s value proposition: a flexible, diverse and inclusive workplace.
The way decisions are made is one of the hallmarks of their culture. The company is managed according to the 90-10 scheme: “It means that in 90% of cases employees are fully empowered to make their own decisions. This provides great agility and execution speed. In the remaining 10%, which are decisions whose reversibility cost is very significant, we take them in a collegiate manner, analyzing all the implications in depth in a collaborative manner”, explained Delfante.
Leadership is always participative, involved and inspiring; and is highly valued by the workers. At the same time, the company carries out a leadership development program with the presence of experts from Stanford University and the firm’s own executive team, which aims to strengthen the impact of leaders in the business. “The bet is to multiply our entrepreneurial DNA,” said Delfante.
In this program, Mercado Libre’s 700 senior leaders develop their skills to achieve sustainable results, strengthening a long-term view and seeking simplicity when designing and building new business initiatives. They also enhance their agility by making decisions assertively, empowering people and teams, and focusing on collective intelligence to achieve the best version of talent.
On the other hand, Mercado Libre highlights its recruitment model and growth opportunities that “ensure meritocracy and equal opportunities.” In this way they manage to neutralize unconscious biases that could favor certain profiles over others.
Maintaining culture during the pandemic
The covid-19 pandemic was a challenge, but at the same time a great opportunity to test the corporate culture in a company that never stopped growing.
To maintain the level of what they consider to be one of their main competitive advantages, Mercado Libre worked with speed and agility to respond in an unprecedented context.
“The well-being of our teams was, and continues to be, our priority,” said Delfante. So, the focus was on preserving the physical and emotional health of the teamsupport users and lastly, ensure continuity of operations.
From Mercado Libre they designed and implemented a series of initiatives from different welfare perspectives.
For physical health care, on-demand actions were made available, from functional and yoga classes to spaces with specialists to receive recommendations on nutrition and a virtual medicine service.
For greater emotional well-being —which, they estimate, could have been affected by the isolation situation caused by the sanitary measures—, implemented actions such as personalized psychological support, daily mindfulness sessions, learning spaces on emotion management and recommendations from specialists on various topics such as: sleep, resilience, parenting, stress and anxiety management.
Also, during 2020 and 2021 carried out an emotional health mapping. With this tool, all the people who were part of Mercado Libre had the opportunity to learn more about their emotional state by answering a questionnaire through virtual assistant technology, and then schedule a return with their results.
An incentive to continue on the same path
In conclusion, Delfante highlighted that Mercado Libre has a culture totally focused on employees, which, in his opinion, is the main reason why GPTW awarded him first place among the best companies with more than 150 employees to work for in Uruguay.
“It is a consequence of the way we have chosen to lead the business focused on our purpose: to democratize trade and financial services to transform the lives of millions of people in Latin America,” he said.
Furthermore, he added: “This recognition once again reinforces the path we have been traveling in creating an excellent place to develop ourselves, generate quality jobs and contribute to society.”
