What was once an idea hatched by two friends now makes waves in the outsourcing industry with its ridiculously refreshing philosophies on the modern workspace
Amongst a variety of accolades to celebrate, TaskUs welcomes its 13th anniversary this September 2021 after becoming a publicly-listed company last June. With such a stellar ride, we found it compelling to take a look at the youthful outsourcing brand’s humble beginnings in 2008, the unique rationale behind its #RidiculouslyRefreshing culture, as well as what’s on the horizon for the global trademark.
Related Read: Work and Play: TaskUs on Its Creative and Inspiring Workplace
Humble beginnings
Like most entrepreneurial pursuits, TaskUs was born to fill a great necessity. For friends Bryce Maddock and Jaspar Weir, this meant developing a task-based company that helped fellow startups in growing and realizing their individual potential. Upon materializing the concept in 2008, the two entrepreneurs did not start things easy. Both friends admitted that they needed to shell out a portion of their own savings in order to give their fledgling idea a fair start.
More than a decade later, the intangible figment that lived within Bryce and Jaspar’s imaginations now lives and breathes as a publicly listed multinational outsourcing giant with over 31,500 employees practicing the tried-and-tested TaskUs mantra of excellence, empathy, and resourcefulness everyday.
Enter #RidiculouslyRefreshing
All professionals are aware of the typical kafkaesque setup that the corporate world is infamous for. Many even dread it. Luckily enough, Bryce and Jaspar were also aware of the negative effects that a drab atmosphere inflicts on an employee’s morale. The duo knew to completely steer away from it from the very beginning in coming up with the slogan: “Ridiculously refreshing.” How can such a seemingly whacky slogan translate to a healthy company culture and an efficient corporate system?
TaskUs believes in the power of having fun, being youthful, and straying away from the path always taken—consistently asking itself the question: “Why not?” From the bottom up, the company champions the concept that excellent, game-changing innovations often start from the crazy ideas that spring from one’s mind out of nowhere. Of course, this doesn’t mean that the entire company’s stream of ideas are never filtered or given further thought or purpose; it just means that they are willing to go beyond the box to achieve their goals and veer away from mundane conventions.
Such an interesting thought process is inculcated in every facet of TaskUs’s structure, from its award-winning customer experience, right to its progressive management strategies. Perhaps the most striking manifestation of the “why not” culture can be seen in the company’s very own workspaces, each site of which sports its own unique theme and name.
For example, the TaskUs site in Bohol was named “Lizzy’s Playground” for its bright and colorful workspace, while the upcoming site in Batangas will be called “Lizzy’s Lagoon” for its underwater Atlantis theme. The “Fort Excellence” site of Bulacan celebrates the emotion of joy, while the “House Teamwork” site in Pampanga mesmerizes both visitors and employees with its modern kaleidoscope inspirations. For some, going to great lengths to prioritize atmosphere in the design of workspaces may seem unnecessary, but TaskUs has shown that such a risk can pay off. The company reports that employees and applicants themselves have testified that TaskUs’s out-of-the-box interior designs have empowered them to work with excellence and engage all operations with camaraderie.
Beyond the quirky office themes, TaskUs reinforced its commitment of being a #PeopleBeforeProfits company with the internal adjustments it made in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. TaskUs was one of the first companies to convert to a remote work setup at the beginning of the global health crisis.
This “people-first” mentality clearly goes hand-in-hand with the company’s primary objective of providing only world-class customer care and experience, and digital services to the world’s leading brands. Staying true to their mantra, TaskUs helps its people thrive in the digital space with the advancements and breakthroughs that make the brand completely stand out from the rest. TaskUs’s systems allow multiple interactions concurrently through the automation of a great portion of its operations, as well as with the help of support staff from offshore markets.
In offering such a futuristic service, TaskUs recognizes the new class of hypergrowth digital disruptors that have changed and redefined the world’s lifestyles. Seeing themselves cut from the same cloth of young innovators, TaskUs founders Bryce and Jaspar aim to support these upcoming global brands in facing their operational challenges—all while building tools that maximize efficiency, enable rapid scaling, and ensure measurable success.
In establishing dozens of offices across India, the United States, Colombia, Mexico, Greece, Ireland, and Taiwan apart from the Philippines, as well as recently going public on the American stock exchange NASDAQ last June, the progressive formula of TaskUs has proven its merits within the outsourcing industry to be not only viable, but sustainable for success. With many young professionals eager to become a part of the team, the winning brand’s continuous growth can be described to be exciting at the very least. Such a steady rise can be attributed to many factors, but a major contributor to it may just be the brand’s unrelenting commitment to its tested “people-first” principles, as well as its vision of making a positive impact on the best brands in the world and the overall global community.
Visit TaskUs at their official website for further information and follow them at their official Facebook page for the latest updates.
Photos courtesy of Ed Simon
