Grammarly opened a hub in Berlin and introduced an extra weekend. What else has changed in the company since the beginning of the war

At the beginning of the war, the Ukrainian Grammarly team was insured by Canadian and American colleagues. However, now the company, which employs more than 700 people, is opening a new hub in Berlin and is looking for more than 100 specialists. DOU found out what has changed in Grammarly since February 24.

How the Hub Works in Berlin and why it works there

On June 1, Grammarly opened a new permanent hub in Berlin. It became the fifth on Grammarly's list. The company already has hubs in Kiev, San Francisco, New York and Vancouver. Since opening its fourth in Canada in 2019, Grammarly has been considering options to expand its presence in Europe. These processes were accelerated after the start of a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

And Berlin was chosen "because of its developed technological landscape: this city has already become the home of many well-known IT companies," says Erica Alioto, Global Head of people at Grammarly. In the EU, the company will support work from Ukraine, Germany, Poland and Portugal. Members of the engineering, product and design teams in the EU will meet at the hub in Berlin, while colleagues from other teams will meet in the workspace in Krakow, which will be rented for such meetings. They can work remotely, and meet in hubs once a quarter to work together for several weeks.

Grammarly also maintains its two-story hub in Kiev for almost 300 jobs, but it remains closed for security reasons.

What specialists are they looking for in the Berlin hub

The company starts hiring specialists in Europe. The Ukrainian diaspora and Ukrainians who temporarily left Ukraine due to the war are invited to apply for vacancies in Germany, Poland and Portugal.

"EPD specialists (Engineering, Product, Design) will be concentrated in the Berlin hub. The first vacancies can already be viewed on our website. In Ukraine, Grammarly continues to hire specialists for engineering and non — technical positions (Sales and Support)," explained Erica Alioto.

The company also continues to actively hire specialists in Ukraine for engineering and non-technical roles, in particular Support and Sales, and North America. Today, Grammarly already employs more than 700 people, and the business continues to expand its global team in all locations. Now more than 100 vacancies are relevant.

New initiative: additional paid break from work

The company decided to support its employees not only financially and logistically. If one of the Grammarly team members needs an extra day off to volunteer or take care of their family or their own well-being, they can take an additional paid break from work.

"We have also expanded our mental health program: the company pays for 12 sessions of psychotherapy. In addition, we conducted two workshops for the team with a psychotherapist on the topic of war trauma, because it is now important for people to understand what stages the psyche is going through and how to help themselves cope with it. A similar training was conducted separately for managers to give them an understanding of how to support their teams now and maintain productivity," said Anatoly Visikirsky, team manager at People Operations and Ukraine site Lead in Grammarly.

"Income" from Russia and Belarus-for the needs of Ukraine

After a large-scale Russian invasion, the company blocked access to its products and services in Russia and Belarus. I also decided to transfer.5 million to organizations and foundations that support the defenders of Ukraine and Ukrainians affected by the war. This amount is equivalent to Grammarly's income in Russia and Belarus since 2014. All funds have already been distributed.

"Among the initiatives to which we have sent assistance are the "come back alive", Razom, Nova Ukraine, KOLO, "Your Support" Funds, special NBU accounts for raising funds to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine and humanitarian purposes, and others. Many volunteer initiatives are also led by our colleagues personally, " said Dmitry Lider, co-founder and head of Language Technologies at Grammarly.

In addition, non-governmental organizations and media outlets will continue to use Grammarly Business free of charge. The initiative will remain active until at least the end of 2022.