People are Amber's key asset - not a resource, not capital, but an asset. Therefore, we assimilate Humanism as a key company value, a constant commitment we make to our people. We believe we must show loyalty to expect loyalty in return. If the company demands dedication, passion, and selflessness from its staff, it must demonstrate its commitment in times of plenty and hardship. This principle applies to all aspects of our business, the responsibility for our people being a main factor in Amber's decisions.
Being People First also means that we aim to build industry-leading learning and career development plans (outpacing companies many times our size with seemingly unlimited resources). Our managers are hired and promoted based on how well they demonstrate this value and how well they mentor, grow and care for their staff.
Amber doesn't have a traditional “Human Resources” department. In our company, it's called “People Ops,” and the primary mission of the respective team is not to enforce corporate policies but to look after our talent and our culture. All the new hires are interviewed by the people who will be working with them. This ensures that we're hiring the right people for the team and for the right reasons. People Ops have a key role in the onboarding process by leading the journey of the new hires in the company and providing a great understanding of the Amber culture.
So, who are the people of Amber? In the following sections, we will take an in-depth look at the people of Amber and present demographic breakdown, as well as an analysis on gender equity and representation.
As of December 31st, 2022, Amber had 1,003 employees, a 28% increase compared to January 1st, 2022. Most of Amber's employees are full-time, with less than 3% of the team being part-time. 95% of all employees' contracts as of the end of 2022 were working contracts for an indefinite period.
The split of the employees per location is presented below, with the company's HQ in Bucharest hosting over half of the company's staff as of December 31st, 2022.
As regards the split per gender, 78% of Amber's employees as of the end of 2022 were men, with the company hiring a total of 219 women. At the level of people managers, women amounted to 21% of the total 190 managers, while at the executive level, 16% of the employees were women.
In terms of nationality, Amber's people consist primarily of Romanians, with 607 employees, respectively 61% of the total staff, being Romanian, followed by Mexicans (25%) and Canadians (2%). Besides the main locations mentioned above, Amber's global talent pool also includes American, French, Polish, Brazilian, Moldavian, British, Chinese, Iraqi, Israeli, Italian, Japanese, Maltese, Malaysian, Korean, Russian, Filipino, Taiwanese, Singaporean, and Spanish employees.
When it comes to People Managers, the share of Romanian managers was the largest, with 56% of the total. This was followed by Mexican colleagues, who accounted for 20% of all managers, Canadians (7%), and Americans (7%). Amber had in 2022 four Taiwanese managers, three Filipinos and French, and one British, Israeli, Italian, Korean, Malaysian, Polish, Singaporean, Spanish, and Ukrainian manager.
Amber people primarily consist of Millennials and Gen-Z'ers, with 50% of staff being under 30 years old and 47% being between 30 and 50 years old. 3% of our team, thus 27 persons, are above 50 years old.
63% of Amber employees, so 637 persons, had, as of December 31st, 2022, a university degree, with 37% of teams not holding a degree or currently finalizing their university studies.
Salary Ratio
Amber strives to provide an equal playing field for both men and women, which must be based on equal pay. The ratio of salary and remuneration of women to men in Amber for 2022 for employees (excluding the executive team) across all markets of activity was 0,99 in 2022 versus 0,97 in 2021. Therefore, the gender pay gap in 2022 at Amber was just 1%, well below the EU and USA average of gender pay gap, that amount to approximately 13%, respectively 16%.
The average salary ratio for Amber was built using the wages for several levels of seniority - Intern, Associate, Advanced, Senior, and Team Leader, as well as a separate calculation for the leadership.
The average for the leadership was calculated for Directors Level 2, meaning a director who does not report directly to CEO, but is considered an executive. These directors were based in 2022 in Romania and US. There were no female Directors Level 1 in 2022 thus the calculation is only for Level 2 (to note, one female Director Level 1 has been hired in January 2023). The leadership ratio of 1,17 registered in 2022 (versus 1,01 in 2021) is not included in the average salary ratio.
Per country, in 2022, the ratio of salary of women to men in Romania was 0,99 (versus 0,97 in 2021), therefore almost completely equalizing the salaries, and 0,97 in Mexico (versus 0,9 in 2021).
Benefits
The benefits provided to employees vary across the markets and take into consideration the legal provisions applicable for each location, as well as the best practices in the industry. The benefits offered to employees come in addition to the public, obligatory medical insurance, or annual leave according to the law, as well as other legally regulated provisions such as prima vacacional or prima dominical as provided in Mexico.
Depending on the best practices applicable to each location, benefits offered to employees may include meal tickets, psychologist sessions, private medical insurance, a retirement saving plan, extra days of salary at the end of the year, mortgage credit, seniority bonus, life insurance, and 401(k) plan.
Key special benefits offered by the company across all locations (subject to certain tenure or seniority criteria) include an annual bonus based on the financial performance of the company, an “Unlimited Days Off” policy which allows employees to take additional paid leave on top of the national standard number of paid days off, and - starting with 2022 - an Employee Share Ownership Plan.
Equity incentive programs have become popular in the last few years, especially in the technology sector. As part of our People First commitment, we wanted to make the employees part of our success story. For this, Amber launched in 2022 its first Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP), giving employees the possibility of owning a portion of the company they work for. In the first ESOP round, approximately 300 employees across all Amber locations received equity grants (subject to a customary vesting period), with other ESOP rounds to follow.
This piece is part of a series of articles related to Sustainability at Amber; previous articles in the series can be found at these links: Sustainability Framework; Key Initiatives; Community.