Investing in the greatest asset: Bitvavo partners with BetterUp for all of their people

As one of Europe's leading crypto exchanges, Bitvavo is on a mission to make digital assets accessible to everyone. Located in Amsterdam, Europe's third most valuable tech ecosystem and home to almost 4K startups and scaleups, the city's innovation is mirrored in the company's culture. Bitvavo is breaking new ground in how people learn about, buy, and sell crypto. 

Growing into an industry leader doesn't come easy. The environment is fast-paced, challenges are ambiguous, and priorities often shift. To help the people at Bitvavo build resilience, well-being, and thrive as a team, Bitvavo's Chief People Officer, Michael Stewart, invested in BetterUp for everyone.

BetterUp spoke with Stewart to learn more about the company's approach to employee development and wellness and his vision for the future.

BU: There is a nature of volatility in cryptocurrency. This can make some uncertain about investing, especially during the current economic climate. Why do you feel now is the right time to invest in BetterUp for everyone at Bitvavo?

Stewart: Right now, other companies are slowing down or letting people go, but fortunately for us at Bitvavo, we are still growing. This presents a great opportunity to accelerate our growth by investing in our own people. Offering BetterUp to all employees will help us build strong employee value propositions, which will enable us to attract, retain, and grow the best talent.

BU: Why coaching? What makes coaching the best solution for your leader's growth and development?

Stewart: Our leaders have a lot of demands on them every day, but often leaders are the last people to take care of themselves. However, to be efficient and effective, leaders must be at their best.

I was inspired by the Netflix series, “The Playbook,” featuring Serena Willams. Her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, helped her build a winning mindset, and this took her performance to new heights. She is one of the greatest tennis players of all time, and her coach was key to achieving this. The highest performers in the world have a coach to help them reach their full potential.

We like to take what works well in the sporting world and bring this into the workplace. Providing our employees access to a coach will help drive and increase individual and team performance.

BU: What sets BetterUp apart from other players in the human transformation space and makes you excited to start this journey?

Stewart: Four things really stood out about BetterUp. First, the product is simple and easy to use like ours. Second, the coaches are high-quality and available in many languages. We are an international organisation, so the fact that our employees can work with a coach in their own language is super nice.

Third, BetterUp is a data-driven platform that lets you see the ROI on the investment. It also gives you a lot of insights into employees and how they are doing. The data will enable us to be a proactive people department which can help us build a great workplace where people can reach their full potential. Lastly, the product is scalable, and it allows each employee to drive their own growth when and how they want to.

BU: You're also offering all employees BetterUp Care. Tell me more about why Bitvavo is making this company-wide investment. What goals will Care help you achieve?

Stewart: Our people team’s mission is to build a world-class culture that inspires Vavos to unlock their full potential so that Bitvavo can achieve sustainable growth and be the leader in our industry. And we believe BetterUp can help us achieve our goal to be the number one player in Europe.

Working at a scaleup in tech can be a very demanding, highly ambiguous, fast-paced, and constantly changing environment. All of this can take its toll on you as a person. If you are not proactive in taking care of yourself and making time to grow, this can wear on you and impact your performance.

At Bitvavo, we want to take a proactive approach to look after employees' well-being and performance. We see employees from a whole person perspective which is the same belief that BetterUp has. Ultimately, having a healthy and happy employee will translate into better performance at work and better business outcomes.

BU: The company has grown rapidly with people from 33 nationalities. How do you approach employee development and well-being when so many cultures are in the mix?

Stewart: At Bitvavo, we believe in investing in tools that we know will help drive high-performing teams. This is what’s great about personalised coaching. Each employee can focus on the development areas and challenges they want to navigate. When each person thrives individually, you get teams that are more innovative and productive.

We also give employees the freedom to choose what is best for them when it comes to some of our benefits. For example, we have a well-being allowance for employees to choose what they would like to invest in via YourCampus.

Discovery insights is another initiative that we have for team development. It helps employees gain a better understanding of self and how to connect and be aware of similarities and differences with colleagues.

All of these tools enable people to connect across different cultures and help people feel like they belong. We still have a way to go on this topic and will be looking to do more inclusion and diversity work as we mature as a company.

BU: What are you most excited about for the future, and how do you think the combination of BetterUp Lead and Care will help Bitvavo reach its mission?

Stewart: Leadership is the most important factor in the company's success. We believe that if we can hire, retain, and grow the best leaders, this will give us a competitive advantage.

The fact that we offer all employees access to a coaching program will help us drive high performance while our people live happy and healthy lives, and this will accelerate our plans to be the number one crypto exchange platform in Europe.