Culture Matters: Formstack’s New HQ

A tech company previously headquartered in Indianapolis recently made a move to Fishers in an effort to grow in a space that better reflects its mission. Our Culture Matters segment this month features Fishers-based Formstack, a Software-as-a-Service company that focuses on data capture and workflows. Paul Ashley, managing director at FirstPerson in Indianapolis, says because Formstack helps entrepreneurs with their product, the company felt it needed to be in a place that has more of an entrepreneurial spirit.

Formstack’s previous office on the northeast side of Indy was more oriented toward professional services and didn’t reflect what the company was, according to Ashley. He says the new Fishers headquarters, located in the Four Day Ray building near I-69, fits the more modern feel the company was looking for.

"It’s very open and certainly more collaborative, which is a more modern feel to how spaces like this are designed," said Ashley. "The managers and leaders do have offices but purposefully, all those offices are glass and so it forces them to be present and transparent, literally and figuratively."

Ashley says Formstack has taken a more unusual approach to attracting talent to its growing workforce. He says, in addition to hiring people to come to central Indiana, they’ve also hired people remotely, allowing them to live and work where they are, which includes all over the U.S., as well as Canada, Argentina and eastern Europe.

Formstack, Ashley says, also uses unique efforts to keep their employees engaged, both on-site and remotely. The company has partnered with a third-party company called Remote Year to allow employees to travel to different cities and countries each month and work remotely. Formstack has also instituted a points system in which employees can work hard to earn points and cash them in for fun prizes, such as being CEO for a day.

Ashley says these types of incentive offerings are starting to become more commonplace.

"I think the key perk that employees of all generations are looking for is flexibility. If you think about the ability to work remote, the ability to go on trips, the ability to earn incentives and be rewarded in a way that means something to you, that’s about flexibility and meeting your colleagues where they are and letting them be a culture of uniqueness. That’s one thing that we’re impressed by with Formstack."