How did Bloomberg communicate with his team?

A Human Resources department did not exist initially, as Bloomberg felt that if the employees were to have any ideas, concerns or complaints they should not bring them to the HR department but rather, Bloomberg himself. Efficiency is increased when the decision-makers are close to the situation as this allows the company to be more responsive to the fast-changing environment. Yet, after tremendous growth in the organization, the company had to create their own HR department.

Bloomberg tracks and makes public all information concerning an employee’s professional life in order to supervise and monitor individual employee activity personally; this instills transparency and strengthens lines of communication. All Bloomberg employees are expected to wear ID badges not just for security reasons, but for observation. Records of “badge ins” and “badge outs” of employees along with time and location is displayed on the their personal profile page, available to all Bloombergers around the world. In a way, this restricts and prevents employees from idling, lazing off and returning home as and when they like, as they are aware that these records will not only be seen by all Bloombergers around the world, but Bloomberg himself.

Instead of ID badges being a tracker of employee activity, it can be a way to make all employees approachable. In addition to personal webpages, employees have access to a dedicated communication system that consists of chat networks, and video conferencing services that allows face-to-face conference call with anyone, domestically or globally without leaving their seats. Yet the two most unique features are the calendar function and the slide shows. The calendar function allows all employees to access each other’s monthly schedule of meeting and appointment. The slide shows display upcoming or recent employee birthdays, anniversaries, notable community service efforts, promotions and pictures—encouraging camaraderie as a whole.