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Happy Pride! This month as we do every June, we proudly join communities across the world to recognize the contributions and impact 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals have had on history and present time. As we learn more about 2SLGBTQIA+ history and celebrate diversity, we push ourselves to consider how we can continuously uplift 2SLGBTQIA+ voices even further and contribute to creating a more inclusive society—in and outside of Vena. This year, we’re making a little history of our own by announcing the formation of our 2SLGBTQIA+ Vena Resource Group (VRG), Spectrum. “Our vision was to create and nurture a safe community for 2SLGBTQIA+ members at Vena,” said Tiffany Barron, Team Lead, Project Management at Vena and Spectrum Co-chair. “We plan to do that through bolstering visibility of 2SLGBTQIA+ Venanites, fostering allyship and sharing 2SLGBTQIA+ content on advocacy, current issues and history. We hope that as a VRG, we can do our part to make Vena a more diverse and inclusive workplace.” Spectrum Co-chair Tiffany Barron Through networking events, outreach work, educational resources, support channels and more, our Spectrum VRG will strive to create a safe space for 2SLGBTQIA+ employees. They also remain committed to highlighting current workplace and social issues that affect members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. Throughout June, Spectrum will be kicking off Pride festivities by hosting a Pride Happy Hour and Queer Trivia event. They’re also hosting a Guest Speaker event with Sonali (Alyy) Patel, a world-renowned LGBTQ+ activist, scholar and trailblazer who has made monumental strides for queer South Asian women in the diaspora. “We understand the importance of building and maintaining an inclusive work environment at Vena,” said Shada McShannon, Director, People Partners & DEI at Vena. “We’re proud to support our Spectrum VRG who are taking active steps in making 2SLGBTQIA+ equality and inclusion a priority in our workplace all year round.” Whether an employee is a proud member of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, an ally or someone who is interested in learning more, all Venanites are welcome to join our Spectrum VRG. Vena Consultant Rod Chavez Theo 🥰 How can you celebrate Pride at work all year long? Find out in this blog. Did you know? Vena one a Comparably Award for Best Company for Diversity last year and was named one of Canada’s 2022 Top Small and Medium Employers. For the full list of Comparably awards Vena won in 2021, click here. Come Grow With Us Vena is hiring. We are a hybrid remote-office workplace with offices in Toronto, Canada and London, United Kingdom. Visit our newly launched Careers site for current job openings and to learn more about life at Vena.  

Here at Vena, we realize that adding a member to your family is a big change—to both your home and work life. The journey from parental leave to working parenthood affects everyone differently and that’s why it’s important for us to create a culture of inclusion and equitable support around parental leave. "When we were looking to revise our parental leave policy, promoting diversity and inclusion, which is reflective of our workplace culture, was top of mind,” says Monica Illiopoulos, Senior Total Rewards Manager at Vena. “We wanted to take a gender-neutral approach and factor in family diversity, realizing that all parents, whether birthing or not, should equally be entitled to paid time off. We also asked our current and exiting employees what mattered to them and made adjustments based on what they told us.” Some of this feedback was received through company surveys. Others provided feedback during exit surveys, while others offered their experiences upon return from parental leave.  As a result of this direct feedback, we identified a need to improve the inclusivity for all family structures in our programming so that regardless of how a dependent comes into your life, (e.g through birth, adoption, surrogacy, etc.), all Vena parents are able to enjoy the flexibility needed in our program. Our employees also told us that more education and resources were needed to support parents upon their return to work and that more options to decide when and how they return to work would be beneficial.   In order to best support new parents and to continue honoring the needs of working parents, we were driven to make enhancements to our Parental Leave Program which put inclusivity, equity and flexibility front and center in our policy. Vena’s New Parental Leave Program We’ve taken action on all the feedback we received and have made the following changes to our Parental Leave Policy at Vena: Top-Up Program: Our Top-Up Program applies to ALL parents equally, whether birthing or not, regardless of gender All parents receive 20 weeks of top-up pay at 80% of salary Alternative: 10 paid Parental Days if not participating in top-up pay ​​ The choice to opt-in for: Gradual return to work flexibility Leveraging accrued vacation days before/after leave Staying in touch on Vena updates while on leave  Resources for Parents: What To Expect Guide: resources by country; details on leave planning Family Essentials Spend: monetary gift from Vena Wellness Spending Account for dependant-related expenses Headspace App for parents/dependents Access to an internal Vena Parents Slack community Regardless of how our employees are choosing to grow their families, we remain committed to supporting them in creating a career and family strategy—with paid leave, flexibility and job security—that works for them. Did you know? Vena was named one of Canada’s 2022 Top Small and Medium Employers? And last year, Vena won Comparably Awards for Best Company Culture, Best Company for Diversity, Best Company for Women, Best CEO and more. For the full list of Comparably awards Vena won in 2021, click here. Come Grow With Us Vena is hiring. We are a hybrid remote-office workplace with offices in Toronto, Canada and London, United Kingdom. Visit our newly launched Careers site for current job openings and to learn more about life at Vena.  

Vena's Complete Planning platform scores “top rated” for ranking in the top tier of all three categories  We're thrilled to share the news that Vena has been recognized by TrustRadius with three 2022 Top Rated Awards in the Corporate Performance Management (CPM), Budgeting and Forecasting and Financial Close categories. Based entirely on customer feedback, TrustRadius Top Rated Awards have become the industry standard for unbiased recognition of B2B technology products.  Second Consecutive Win for Vena CPM TrustRadius issues Top Rated badges to products in the top tier of their categories. This is the second consecutive Top Rated win for Vena in the CPM category. In 2021, Vena also earned Best of Customer Support and Best of Feature Set for its corporate performance management. Interested to know how much verified users value Vena? Click here to read their reviews. The Most Complete Excel-Based Budgeting and Forecasting Software Vena won a Top Rated award for Budgeting and Forecasting based on excellent customer satisfaction ratings. Vena’s Complete Excel-based Budgeting and Forecasting Software can scale to thousands of users with consistent performance to meet the demand of customers—now and in the future. With its familiar Excel interface, data integrations with various source systems and endless capabilities, Vena’s budgeting and forecasting software can be counted on to cut cycle times with its intelligent budgeting and forecasting tools. Looking to share your own feedback? Please leave a review here.   Finance Teams Close Faster With Vena The high rankings Vena customers gave Vena’s Financial Close Management Software for its reliability to build trust in numbers, shorten time to close and improve everyone’s confidence in the numbers teams are reporting led us to receive our third Top Rated win. “At Vena, we’re always so grateful for the positive feedback and trust our customers put in our Complete Planning platform,” said Vena CEO Hunter Madeley. “We’re always looking at feedback from our customers to guide us in better serving them. To receive top ratings from our user community in all three categories inspires us to continue growing and investing in innovation with our partners. We will always strive to be better in serving our mission to power our customers’ Plan To Grow™.”  Go here to learn how the world’s biggest brands are powering their growth with Vena. About TrustRadius TrustRadius is the most trusted research and review platform for business leaders to find and select the right software for their needs. Decision-makers across industries rely on verified, peer-based guidance and research from TrustRadius. Vendors engage and convert high-intent buyers by telling their unique stories through rich reviews. Over 12 million visitors a year create and engage with high-quality review content and data on Trustradius.com. Headquartered in Austin, TX, TrustRadius was founded by successful entrepreneurs and is backed by Mayfield Fund, LiveOak Venture Partners, and Next Coast Ventures.  

Green is the color of our logo, but we like to think that it is also becoming the color of our business. Thinking green comes naturally to many of us here at Vena. In fact, Vena’s workplace environment offers many opportunities for our employees to think, act and go green at work every day. Greg Jones, Director of Facilities at Vena, is passionate about implementing green initiatives at Vena. “We’re always looking for ways to take corrective action and to drive collective action throughout our organization,” he says. “Being aware of our environmental responsibility—individually and together—requires us to re-imagine how we run our business and to inspire our employees, customers, partners and communities to consider green-based alternatives and opportunities for growth.” So what are some of the ways we’re going green at Vena? From tracking our carbon emissions and making strides to reduce them, to embracing more natural light, opting for environmentally friendly office products, buying locally, recycling materials and more, let’s explore some of our ongoing initiatives and efforts that are making our workplace space more eco-friendly, efficient and healthier. Our Biophilic Design and Environment We take the well-being of our employees seriously at Vena and that’s why we’re constantly striving to create a workplace environment where they feel comfortable, safe and encouraged to work, concentrate, collaborate and recharge effectively. One of the ways we’re doing this is by bringing the outdoors indoors and implementing more biophilic elements in our design and work environments. Many of our meeting, workplace and quiet spaces have been designed specifically with the purpose of creating more access to natural light and views of the outdoors. Wherever we can, we have incorporated natural materials and colors, views of nature and other experiences of the natural world into our modern work environment. Plants in search of office homes at Vena Our Forest Plot room, for example, is a quiet room meant for reflection, self-care, revitalization and most importantly, no work. “We’re experimenting with using different scents and sounds, adding a forest mural and having an array of plants available in the space,” says Greg. Some employees use this room for meditation, relaxation, prayer, yoga, lactation or personal calls. Vena’s Forest Plot room Whenever we can and weather permitting, we often encourage our employees to go outdoors and use our rooftop space—Vena’s Sky Deck—for work, meetings, breaks or new this year, to take part in planting, maintaining or enjoying our communal garden. Plans are in the works to include five planter boxes on the deck to plant flowers and to harvest vegetables and herbs for Venanites to enjoy (in the office and to take home) as well as to distribute to local food banks and soup kitchens.  Vena’s Sky Deck And let’s not forget our furry friends. We have bird and squirrel feeders situated around the perimeter of our building and have our own resident squirrel we’ve named “Venny.” Venny the Squirrel Reduce, Recycle, Reuse We’re always looking for ways to reduce landfill waste and to amp up our recycling efforts at Vena. Aside from situating recycling centers in prominent locations in our office, encouraging our staff to go paperless, reusing packing materials and boxes, opting for more recyclable and biodegradable office supplies and reducing food waste, below are some other ways Venanites are employing the 3 Rs of waste management at work. Electronics Recycling Drive From time to time, we have collections for large e-waste items and encourage our employees to bring in their unwanted monitors, desktops and any other large computer or electronic equipment. For Earth Week this year, we worked with our landlord who contracted ADL Process Electronic Recycling to provide us with onsite bins for these items. ADL determines which of the working components can be reused to build working computers for donation and then recycle the balance of the material at certified recycling centers.  Batteries Ever wonder what to do with batteries? Regular alkaline, manganese and carbon-zinc batteries are not hazardous and can be disposed of in ordinary trash. But other single-use or rechargeable batteries are not. At Vena, we tell our employees to bring in all of their batteries and we’ll take care of the rest. It’s another item we’re happy to divert from landfills. Foil Packaging Another item we try to divert from landfills is foil packaging. Whether employees use foil packaging in our office or in their homes, we have special recycling bins for it at Vena and encourage everyone to bring in their packaging from home.  Foil packaging bins at Vena Segregating Paper Towel Waste Paper towels are one of those surprise items you can compost in your green bin. Yes, even the paper towels employees use to clean up food or drink stains. To ensure our employees are disposing of paper towels properly, we also have green compost bins available in our washrooms for paper towels only. Donating Items to Employees, Charities or Not-for-Profit Organizations We often offer office furniture, supplies or items to employees before donating them to charities and not-for-profits, but sometimes these two align. For instance, we donated reams of paper to a not-for-profit youth organization, The Royal Canadian Air Cadets, where one of our employees does volunteer work. We were delighted to donate over 30 reams (15,000 sheets) to our employee and her Squadron. The organization used it to print online applications for new registrations along with many other needs. Upcycling Before recycling anything, our aim is to always reuse it, whether that's by us, our employees or through donations. One of the fun ways we’ve taken recycling to a whole new level is by upcycling used plastic gift cards into guitar picks for Venanites and their families.   Upcycling plastic gift cards into guitar picks Supporting Green Vendors Ashton Mugabe, Facilities Project Manager at Vena, is always looking into vendors to learn more about their sustainability efforts to see if their vision aligns with ours in terms of environmental impact. One area of particular interest is working with companies that are mitigating the use of fossil fuels. Reducing Fossil Fuel Use One such partnership we formed is with a local shredding company, Carbon Neutral Shredding. The company performs all shredding, trucking, heating and power generation processes in a carbon-neutral manner. All of their processes rely on the use of waste vegetable oil (WVO). No oil that might otherwise be used for human consumption is burned. What does Carbon Neutral mean? Sun-Powered Shredding bins at Vena Coffee Cup Recycling Trial  We are also working with Carbon Neutral Shredding to trial their innovative coffee cup recycling program, StackitNow. Cups are shredded and co-mingled with confidential office waste. The result is a satisfactory product that paper mills have no difficulty recycling into tissue products. All Venanites have to do when recycling their coffee cups is remove the plastic lids and stack their used and rinsed paper cups without food or other garbage. Coffee cup stacker at Vena Buy Fresh, Buy Local One of the ways we can encourage our employees to make better choices and empower them to take better care of themselves while at work includes offering them a healthy selection of foods and drinks. The mandate for our food program at Vena is to buy fresh, to buy local and to buy from people who are passionate about making food in our community. We offer a variety of alternative foods, provide all-natural pump additives to flavor water and cater to different dietary requirements such as vegan, celiac, low carb, dairy free and halal. Get Involved Thinking, acting and going green at Vena also means going outside of our workplace and realizing that a sustainable future also involves supporting environmental and social initiatives within our communities. Some examples include helping out wildlife and protecting public lands. Employees who choose to do so can use their paid volunteer day to lend a hand. We’ve held company-wide walking challenges to get our employees to spend time outdoors and have made donations to organizations such as WWF-Canada.  Making Green Thinking and Doing an Everyday Part of Vena’s Company Culture Encouraging environmentally conscious practices at Vena helps our employees feel healthier, happier and more driven to thrive at work and in their personal lives as they extend these practices into their own homes. We are committed to including our employees in our green vision, asking them for their input and encouraging them to get engaged and involved. This has led to the formation of our Green Team, a group of dedicated individuals who work tirelessly to promote sustainable and environmentally responsible habits at Vena and beyond. Their efforts have led to making more eco-friendly choices within our office and encouraging employees to make more sustainable lifestyle choices at home. Their ongoing dialogue, awareness campaigns, challenges and sharing of resources and tips are showing us how small steps really do make big changes. Did you know? Vena was named one of Canada’s 2022 Top Small and Medium Employers? And last year, Vena won Comparably Awards for Best Company Culture, Best Company for Diversity, Best Company for Women, Best CEO and more. For the full list of Comparably awards Vena won in 2021, click here. Come Grow With Us Vena is hiring. We are a hybrid remote-office workplace with offices in Toronto, Canada and London, United Kingdom. Visit our newly launched Careers site for current job openings and to learn more about life at Vena.  

Taking place May 9–13, the virtual live and on-demand conference experience features 50+speakers, 50+ sessions and 25+ hours of CPE/CPD conversations, training and workshops  We're gearing up to host our third annual virtual conference experience for finance and operations professionals and business leaders and have so much exciting news to share about it. From May 9–13, Excelerate =SUM(it), formerly known as Vena Nation week, will bring more than just a fresh new look. Celebrating strategic and operational excellence in agile business planning and a shared passion for the grid we know and love, Microsoft Excel, the summit is also doubling down on learning with more live and on-demand conversations, workshops, instructor-led training and product demonstrations. Attendees can develop their skills with over 50 speakers and 25+ hours of CPE/CPD-eligible learning, including best practices for agile budgeting, forecasting, scenario modeling, workforce planning and more.  “Our ongoing commitment is to create intentional moments of connection that enable FP&A, accounting and operations professionals and business leaders to grow and thrive together anytime, anywhere in this increasingly virtual world,” said Allison Munro, Chief Marketing Office, Vena. “Our third annual virtual conference will once again be free and deliver more opportunities for accredited education, skills development, in-depth conversations and technical workshops live and on demand—all within a connected and content-rich community at Plantgrow.com.” Three incredible guest keynote speakers are set to take the virtual stage at this year’s summit:  World-renowned psychologist and bestselling author, Robert Cialdini, will discuss how to build credibility, develop trusted relationships and break down barriers to growth in “The Science of Ethical Influence.”  Strategic advisor and acclaimed author, Priya Parker, will provide practical guidance on navigating hybrid work environments in “The Art of Gathering.” Former FBI hostage negotiator and CEO of The Black Swan Group, Chris Voss, will reveal how to improve communication and collaboration in “The Art of Negotiation.” Attendees can also look forward to insights from Vena keynote speakers, with sessions that have been designed to educate and inspire them to drive growth, resilience and agility within their organization: Vena Chief Solutions Architect Rishi Grover will explore the evolution of finance as a strategic business partner through the power of people, processes and technology in “The Complete Planning Advantage.” Vena Chief Technology Officer Hugh Cumming will share how technology is empowering the strategic office of finance in “The Future of Planning Technology.” Vena Chief People Person Tracey Mikita will discuss proven best practices for building successful teams in “Hiring for the New World of Work.” Excelerate =SUM(it)’s jam-packed agenda also includes multiple opportunities to learn, connect and grow with Vena CEO Hunter Madeley, FP&A experts, Microsoft MVPs and Excel and Power BI aficionados who will all be on hand to help attendees power their personal, professional and business growth—all while virtually networking in a diverse community of professionals.  Get your free virtual ticket for Excelerate =SUM(it) 2022 today by registering at exceleratesumit.com. We hope to see you there!  

Vena’s agile pandemic response, new permanent hybrid workplace model and Total Rewards package were among the reasons for selection We're delighted to announce that Vena has been named one of Canada’s Top Small and Medium Employers (2022) by Mediacorp Canada Inc., organizers of the annual Canada’s Top 100 Employers competition. Now in its 9th year, the award competition recognizes the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that offer the nation's best workplaces and forward-thinking human resources policies.  Mediacorp recognized the nation’s award-winning employers as adapting quickly to the pandemic and continuing to use the same agility to overcome the challenges of a tightening labor market. “Small and medium employers have the advantage of adaptability,” says Kristina Leung, Senior Editor at Mediacorp. “They are independent and have always served as a ‘laboratory’ for the kinds of best practices we eventually see at larger employers.” Adapting to Change and Embracing the New World of Work Vena’s pandemic response, new permanent hybrid workplace model and Total Rewards package (retirement savings match program, employee stock option plan and paid time offering) were among the reasons why Vena was selected. “What a great honor it is to be recognized as one of Greater Toronto’s Top Employers and one of Canada’s Top Small & Medium Employers,” said Tracey Mikita, Vena’s Chief People Person.  “We’re always thinking of new ways to provide a positive and supportive work experience for our team members where they can grow and build meaningful careers at Vena. These achievements tell us that we are achieving our goals. They also celebrate our inclusive, collaborative and fun workplace culture, highlight our One Team spirit and encourage us to continue to evolve our employee experience and create even stronger bonds as we build our future together.”  Building on Vena’s Award-Winning Culture in 2022 (and Beyond) Vena was also the recipient of two recent Comparably Awards for Best Company Outlook and Best Marketing Teams. Vena wrapped up 2021 with Comparably Awards for Best Company Happiness, Best Company Compensation and Best Company Perks & Benefits and a 2021 Tech Cares Award from TrustRadius. Check out the full list of Comparably awards Vena won in 2021. Last year, Vena also announced that it raised $300 million in Series C funding led by Vista Equity Partners (“Vista”), a leading global investment firm that exclusively invests in enterprise software, data and technology-enabled businesses.  In recent months, Vena introduced more health and wellness initiatives, celebrated the formation of Vena’s new Black Employee Resource Group, Melanite, and has grown to 500+ employees—including the recent appointment of Hugh Cumming as Chief Technology Officer to power scale and industry-leading growth—and serves more than 1,000 customers worldwide. Come Grow With Us. We are a hybrid remote-office workplace with offices in Toronto, Canada and London, United Kingdom. Visit our newly launched Careers site for current job openings and to learn more about life at Vena. About Canada’s Top 100 Employers Competition Canada’s Top 100 Employers is an editorial competition that recognizes the organizations that lead the nation in creating exceptional places to work. For over 20 years, the project has recognized employers that lead their peers with progressive HR programs and policies.    

Here at Vena, we’re proud of the company culture that our employees have built with us. That’s why we’re extremely thankful to them for their feedback and happy to announce that we’ve been named to Comparably’s 2022 lists for Best Company Outlook and Best Marketing Teams. Comparably is a leading workplace culture and corporate brand reputation platform. Rankings for Best Company Outlook in 2022 (segmented by Top 100 large and Top 100 small businesses) were derived from sentiment ratings provided by employees about how confident they felt about the future success of their company and how likely they were to recommend working there to a friend. Gathered over the past 12 months, these lists are especially relevant for job seekers looking to find their next workplace during The Great Resignation. “We’re so grateful that our employees feel positive about our workplace and confident in the direction we’re heading,” says Vena CEO Hunter Madeley. “This is a true testament to our One Team culture. Every day, we work together to do great work in the service of customers and are committed to ensuring our employees feel valued, heard and appreciated. Their feedback guides our company and culture and drives the better, better, never best journey we are on.” Did you know that Vena wrapped up 2021 with Comparably Awards for Best Company Culture, Best Company for Diversity, Best Company for Women and Best CEO? Read about it here. Our One Team spirit is felt across all departments, so placing on Comparably’s Best Marketing Teams list—our first-ever Marketing award—is a company-wide win and builds on our momentum as we plan to grow together. Our employees in our Marketing department are champions of our cross-team, collaborative work environment. As a result of the top scores they gave us for leadership, co-workers, compensation, work-life balance, professional development opportunities and perks and benefits, Vena has been recognized as having one of the Top Marketing teams during this era of The Great Resignation. “Our extremely dedicated, passionate and talented marketers are a dream team, always looking for innovative ways to create more opportunities for finance, operations and business leaders to gain new perspectives on professional growth and learn industry best practices to plan with confidence,” says Vena CMO Allison Munro. “They truly embody Vena’s core values in everything they do, prioritize cross-team collaboration as we work together on our mission of powering our customers’ Plan To Grow™ and help make Vena an exceptional place to work.” Vena was named one of Greater Toronto’s Top Employers in 2021. Come Grow With Us Vena is hiring! We are a hybrid remote-office workplace with offices in Toronto, Canada and  London, England. Visit our newly launched Careers site for current job openings and follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter or Facebook to learn more about life at Vena. For the full list of Comparably awards Vena won in 2021, click here. Comparably is a leading workplace culture and corporate brand reputation platform with over 15 million anonymous ratings on 70,000 companies. With the most comprehensive data on large and SMB organizations in nearly 20 different workplace categories—based on gender, ethnicity, age, experience, title, industry, location, and education—it is one of the most used SaaS platforms for employer branding and a trusted third-party site for workplace culture and compensation data. For more information on Comparably and its annual Best Places to Work, Best CEOs and Best Brands series, visit www.comparably.com.

At Vena, we know how important it is to keep our home and work life separate. But we also know how quickly our work-life balance can overlap and become unbalanced, especially as many of us continue to work remotely or differently throughout the pandemic. Throughout these challenging times, as we all face new, unexpected or ongoing challenges, we knew we had to do more to ensure our employees felt supported, less stressed, healthier and happier in both their work and home life. This led us to revise our health benefits package and to make changes that reflected immediate access, more paid time allowance, child and senior care benefits, expanded mental health support and more. We also introduced more health and wellness initiatives in our workplace. Creating Stability and Providing Support in Times of Uncertainty “At the start of the pandemic, with so much uncertainty in the air mixed with concerns about the effects of the virus on our health, the last thing we wanted for our new employees to experience was waiting for the activation of their health benefits,” explains Melissa Udvari, Senior Director, People Operations & Programs at Vena.  One of the first measures Vena took to improve our health and wellness benefits offering was waiving the three-month waiting period for benefits. To this day, all new employees continue to enjoy immediate activation of their total health benefits program upon their start date. Another big change we made was launching an RRSP matching program. We also increased life insurance maximums and survivor benefits for employees and offered optional life insurance for dependents. We were also aware that employees needed to take time off for many different reasons, including the care of children and seniors, and to encourage them to do so, we increased their paid time allowance to 25 days and up. We changed sick days to wellness days, offered our employees more personal days and added milestone days at their fifth- and 10th-anniversary dates. ​​ At a minimum, this means new hires are entitled to 15 days of vacation, five wellness days, four personal days and one volunteer day. An Extended Dose of Vitamin D for All Venanites Last year, we introduced Summer Fridays from July 2 through September 3 where we encouraged all Venenaties to take advantage of wrapping up their workdays early on Friday afternoons to get a headstart on their weekends. Many of our employees used this extra time off to recharge and relax, to enjoy the outdoors and their favorite summertime activities, or to spend additional time with their family and friends. Based on the success of Summer Fridays last year, we’ll be continuing to offer our employees early starts to their weekends again this summer. Did you know that we developed a hybrid remote-office model at Vena based on what our employees told us works best for them? Read about Vena’s hybrid approach to work here. Making Mental Health and Wellness a Priority for All New this year, we’re excited to offer our employees a subscription to Headspace. “In searching for new ways to help our employees receive more personalized support, guidance, tools and access to mental health and wellness resources, this digital mindfulness program offers it all,’ says Monica Iliopoulos, Senior Total Rewards Manager at Vena. “Their content focuses on meditation, mindfulness and sleep, all healthy practices we feel can help our employees focus on their health and well-being every day.”   Monica explains that Headspace also provides support for parents/caregivers and their children, whether they are managing their workload from home or the office. Keeping little ones healthy and happy can be challenging at the best of times, let alone throughout the working week. For those tough times when kids get restless, bored, have trouble with bedtime or sharing their feelings, Headspace provides recommended mindful exercises and games for kids. Also, new this year, employees can take advantage of new health and wellness spending accounts. With the health spending account, employees will have access to additional funds they could use toward their existing health and wellness benefits, such as psychotherapy, for example. They could also use these funds for any additional support they would require for the care of children or seniors. Creating a Safe Place To Work Through Compassion, Education and Empathy Throughout the working week, there’s always something going on to promote the health and wellness of Vena employees. Our yoga and mediation sessions, led by Vena experts, continue to be offered in a virtual format. We held a successful step challenge last year. We regularly curate resources on topics such as child and elder care and share them company-wide. We’ve hosted mental health workshops on topics such as impostor syndrome, active listening, grief counseling and empathy.  Many of our mental health initiatives are also driven by our Mental Health employee resource group (what we call our Mental Health VRG). They help create a safe space for all Vena employees to openly share mental health resources and to connect with one another for support. Many of their ongoing initiatives include offering mental health first aid training for leaders and employees. They also organize ongoing mindfulness and meditation activities as well as learning labs and workshops with health professionals. Vena wrapped up 2021 with Comparably Awards for Best Company Culture, Best Company for Diversity, Best Company for Women and Best CEO.  Learn more. For the full list of Comparably awards Vena won in 2021, click here. Come Grow With Us Vena is hiring! We have offices in Toronto, Canada and in London, England. Visit our Careers page for current job openings or follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter or Facebook to learn more about life at Vena.  

We’re thrilled to announce that out of thousands of contenders, G2 customers have chosen Vena as one of the best, landing us a G2 2022 Best Software Award. More than 60 million software buyers look to G2 as the definitive online destination to discover, review and manage the technology that businesses need to reach their potential. Its annual Best Software List ranks the world’s best software companies and products based on authentic, timely reviews from real users.  Click here to read reviews of Vena from G2 customers.  In an announcement naming this year’s winners, Godard Abel, co-founder and CEO, G2 said, “Our annual Best Software List aims to guide buyers on their purchasing decisions, knowing they can trust in the credibility and objectivity of our scoring algorithms. We applaud those companies named to our  2022 list, as they’ve earned the satisfaction among their customers as well as an impressive market presence.” Only software that provides exceptional value, creates a close-knit community and receives top-notch reviews climbs the Best Software ranks.  This is Vena’s first time appearing on one of G2’s Best Software lists. We earned 13th place on the Top 50 Accounting & Finance Products list. “It’s a great honor to be recognized as one of the world’s best accounting and finance products based on the feedback of our customers and community,” said Hunter Madeley, CEO at Vena. “This recognition fuels us to do even more for our customers, helping them build agility and resilience into their financial and operational planning processes. It also strengthens our ongoing commitment to product innovation that puts the needs of our customers first.” Are you a Vena customer interested in reviewing Vena on G2? You can leave your reviews here.   To learn more, view G2’s 2022 Best Software List and discover more about G2’s methodology. About G2 G2 is the world's largest and most trusted software marketplace, helping more than 60 million people every year make smarter software decisions based on authentic peer reviews. Thousands of companies partner with G2 to build their reputation, manage their software spend, and grow their business—including Salesforce, Hubspot, Zoom, Adobe and more. For more information, visit www.g2.com or follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.  

This February at Vena, we are celebrating Black History Month as well as the formation of our new Black Employee Resource Group.  Our employee-run resource groups, what we call Vena Resource Groups (VRGs) in our organization, highlight Vena’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Our DEI policies and efforts aim to create the space and freedom for our employees to be themselves and to celebrate and value our differences. Through our various VRGs, employees are encouraged to bring together their diverse perspectives, experiences and ideals, and are given a platform to join the important conversations happening internally and externally. Vena’s new Black VRG is open to all employees looking to learn, grow and contribute to a diverse, inclusive and supportive work environment.   Siobhan Mondesire, Senior Director, Digital Strategy at Vena, knew it was the right time to initiate the formation of Vena’s new Black Employee Resource Group. “In the spirit of building a more inclusive work environment, we recognized the need to support Black employees throughout the organization and community. Our Black VRG is the space where we can normalize conversations around the Black lived experience—both inside and outside of work—and engrain it in Vena’s culture beyond the month of February,” she says. While Vena’s Black VRG is helping to advance our inclusive culture, it’s also raising awareness of the importance of driving change, especially in our recruitment efforts, and improving the experiences for Black professionals at Vena. As Shada McShannon, Director, People Partners & DEI at Vena explains, “Our new Black VRG will create a community and support our efforts and commitment as an organization to attract, retain and grow Black talent at Vena.” Vena, together with its new Black VRG, will be celebrating Black History Month through three key pillars: Internal Education, Community Impact and Celebration. Internally, we’ll be highlighting Black excellence through shared stories across the organization and hosting a roundtable learning on microaggressions and impacts on mental health. We’ll also be sharing learning resources for employees and their families and looking for opportunities to support Black communities and organizations.  On our social channels, look out for spotlights on the career journeys of our Black employees in finance and tech. Beyond February. Vena’s Black VRG is dedicated to sustaining impact all year long. Did you know? Last year, Vena won Comparably Awards for Best Company Culture, Best Company for Diversity, Best Company for Women, Best CEO and more. For the full list of Comparably awards Vena won in 2021, click here. Come grow with us! Vena is hiring. We have offices in Toronto, Canada and in London, England. Visit our Careers page for current job openings or follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter or Facebook to learn more about life at Vena.