Author: Viliana Staneva

At SiteGround, we always strive to help our communities and work for a better environment and future for us and our children. We try to organize regular volunteer cleaning or planting events, and it won’t be an exaggeration to say we have our own sustainable and conscious living way. 

As an extension of that philosophy and part of our socially responsible actions, we also regularly support communities and organizations that promote a sustainable way of living and environment preservation. That’s why it’s not a surprise to anyone that on World Cleanup Day, we decided to clean and fence three children’s centers in Sofia, Plovdiv, and Stara Zagora – our main cities where we have offices in Bulgaria.

More than 100+ of our colleagues and their families took part and together we collected over 1000 liters of trash, revitalized the outdoor spaces, and helped with cleaning, flooring, painting, and repairs to transform the children’s centers and playgrounds.

Stara Zagora

On that Saturday, September 16, the SiteGround Stara Zagora team rolled up our sleeves. Together with our families and kids, we fixed up and repaired part of the 1st floor in a center for children with special needs in our town.

We started the day by getting ready for an exciting project at the children’s center. Then, we painted all the walls in the facility, which was over 200 square meters, in less than 3 hours – quite a challenge! Our amazing colleagues also pitched in to clean up the area around the house.

Plovdiv 

A group of our dedicated colleagues gathered to paint the fence and change the flooring of the playground at a family-type children’s home, and the results were nothing short of incredible.

Through our collective efforts, we not only transformed the facility’s physical environment but, more importantly, we hope we managed to make the everyday lives of these children a bit better. The smiles on their faces were a testament to the positive impact we made by improving their living space.

Sofia

Even though World CleanUp Day went to be a very cloudy and rainy one in Sofia (it has been raining very hard since the morning), more than 50 people from the Sofia team and their families showed up to help and did not give up despite the bad weather. 

We managed to clean up the entire yard of For our Children Foundation, and to paint a balcony fence – all with a smile and real dedication! And the most devoted were the little ones – our kids – who came to help and support an important mission – having a better environment for all! 

It was a day filled with big smiles, lots of energy, and a ton of positivity. We want to say a big THANK YOU to all the volunteers who joined us for this special day! 💚

At SiteGround, we’ve always supported, fostered, and cared for the active lifestyle of our team. After office hours, you’d see us skiing, snowboarding on the mountain slopes, windsurfing during summer team buildings, and competing in the Legion Run or with one another during our own Get Fit challenge. As part of our socially-responsible actions, we also regularly support communities and organizations that promote outdoor activities and safety. 

We support several Bulgarian Mountain Huts with live cameras and Internet, and the Bulgarian Mountain Rescue Service (MRS) with three avalanche rescue tools. Now, we decided to extend our support for the rescue service with 4 high-tech rescue drones, crucial for the timely discovery of lost people in difficult mountain terrain.

How the New Rescue Tools Will Help

The specialized drones are equipped with thermal-vision cameras, an advanced zoom, and premium performance for precise search and rescue operations of mountaineers in trouble. The drones are a DJI Mavic 3T model and their total value is nearly BGN 50,000. The four devices will cover the territory of the main and busiest mountain ranges in our country – southern Central Balkan, Rila, as well as south-western Pirin, Slavyanka, and Belasitsa, which are all preferred destinations for mountain tourism.

The new equipment will help mountain rescuers locate people in need in hard-to-reach terrains more quickly and easily. The drones will allow them to be much more effective in complex and severe rescue operations during extreme weather conditions too.

Over the past year, the bold Mountain Rescue team helped more than 2,500 people and conducted nearly 170 rescue operations in the high mountain. “Our activities are always performed with increased risk and in difficult weather conditions. Thanks to SiteGround’s donation, we will be able to find people injured in the mountains faster and provide them with timely and adequate help, while we save the strength and health of the mountain rescuers themselves by exposing them to smaller risks. We are beyond grateful to SiteGround for its social strategy, for understanding the problems in the mountains, and for the invaluable help”, said Emil Neshev, Director of the Mountain Rescue Service.

We are happy to make the crucial work of mountain rescuers safer, more efficient, and convenient. If you love to spend time in the mountains, like many people on the SiteGround team, don’t miss to take a look and download on your phone our mountain safety guide that can help anyone prepare for their hike. 

Have a happy upcoming winter season, but remember to stay safe in the mountains!  💚

This August, I had the pleasure of having my children attend the SiteGround Kids Summer Academy, a week-long event for the kids of all SiteGround employees in all our office locations. The academy takes place for a second year in a row, and it was packed with activities that were both fun and educational for a total of over 100 children, all in different age groups.

Kids in the office? Mission possible 

The idea behind the academy every year is to help the parents on our team during the Summer months when most of the children are off from school. We try to craft a unique “Summer camp in the office” experience, tailored to the interests of every age group so that it’s at the same time fun, useful, and inspiring for the little ones. If you’re a parent, it really means the world not having to stress about your kids’ Summer activities for at least a week, and it really helps you feel more relaxed, happier, and productive at work. And as for the kids – they are having the time of their lives. 

They had a very well-structured schedule for every day, with professional guides, instructors, and caregivers managing the different age groups at all times. Even better –  the Academy was built with great care for the people working in the office as well so that it does not affect our work process – thankfully we have plenty of spaces in and around the SiteGround offices to accommodate both work and fun for everyone! So while the kids were having a blast, me and my co-workers were able to focus on work, knowing that our children were in good hands. In addition to sports, educational labs, and workshops, all SiteGround kids enjoyed healthy meals in our office restaurants, with plenty of time to make new friends – even some of the grown-ups were sneaking in for some ice cream and treats in the afternoon breaks with the kids.

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Our Shared Values 

One of the things that makes SiteGround Kids Summer Academy so special is it is driven by the inherent values of our team. This year we took this further, and dedicated each day of the Kids week to one of SiteGround’s core values:

• Work with purpose: we teach kids how to set goals and work hard to achieve them.
• Respect yourself and others: we stress on the importance of treating everyone with respect, regardless of their race, religion, ethnicity, age, gender, or else.
• Challenge yourself: we encourage kids to try new things and step outside of their comfort zones.
• Do everything with care: we promote care for the environment and everything around us in everything we do;
• Innovate through technology: we provoke the kids’ interest in new technological advancements and how they can be used to solve problems.

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Learn and Have Fun

In addition to learning and applying the SiteGround values, the kids also have the opportunity to develop new skills and talents. They participated in sports, learned about robotics, took part in space training, recycling workshops and much more.

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SiteGround Kids Summer Academy is a truly unique and valuable experience for both the kids and the parents. There are many factors that contribute to one’s sense of engagement and commitment to their team and company. However, I believe that the key element is community, care, and shared values. When we feel like we are part of a real community, where we can share values, build together, invent, have fun, support each other, and take care of each other with respect and a smile, the magic happens. As a SiteGround employee, I’m proud to say that our company is committed to include families in that as well.

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SiteGround is now a 4-time Stevie Award Winner for Customer Service Excellence

SiteGround was named the winner of one Gold and one Bronze Stevie® Award in the Corporate & Community – Green Event and Customer Service Department of the Year categories in The 20th Annual International Business Awards®.

The Stevie Awards are the world’s top honors for customer service, contact center, business development and sales professionals. This year’s awards had more than 3,700 nominations from organizations in 61 nations and territories and Stevie Award winners were determined by the average scores of more than 230 executives worldwide who participated in the judging process in June and July.

SiteGround won a Gold Stevie® Award for supporting The Shackleton Mission and promoting the cause of adding over 4,000,000 km2 in the Southern Ocean as protected areas. “We believe that success lies only outside the comfort zone, that the courage to follow a dream, even if everyone tells you it’s impossible, makes you a true adventurer and a true entrepreneur. This similarity is at the heart of our support for this mission. We are glad that it was not only successfully completed, and ended up with 8 Guinness World Records, but more importantly, that it raises an alarm about the protection of the oceans and the protection of nature in general: a cause that we hold very dear and find close to our company values”, shared Tenko Nikolov, CEO and Ivo Tzenov, founder of SiteGround.

SiteGround’s Bronze Stevie® Award is presented for the excellent work shown by the company Customer Care team and their exceptional results, also underlined in the honorable Jury evaluation: “I was impressed by how the team consistently increased the chat satisfaction ratio from 96.04% in 2020 to 98.57% in 2022.” At SiteGround we have always taken pride in the level of customer service that we provide. What sets us apart is precisely the care for our customers, the attention to every detail, the responsibility to provide the best assistance and that helped us to grow and to develop and become a leader in the international technology market.

This is the second time SiteGround’s customer support team has been recognized for its excellence by the The International Business Awards. In 2020 the company was awarded the People’s Choice Stevie^® Award for Favorite Customer Service and the Silver Stevie^®Award for Customer Service Department of the Year in the Computer Hardware & Services category.

“For us, optimizing our customer experience is a never-ending process, and we are committed to going above and beyond, thanks to the extreme dedication of our team and the priceless support of our loyal clients,” said Reneta Tsankova, Chief Operations Officer, SiteGround. “Being recognized at the Stevie Awards in this way inspires us to keep building the best customer experience we can.”

Details about The International Business Awards and the lists of Stevie Award 2023 winners are available at www.StevieAwards.com/IBA.

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SiteGround has been certified as the best employer in Bulgaria for 2022 by ARS Bulgaria, which conducted the survey with the exclusive partnership of the global company Kincentric. Kincentric is an organization with over 50 years of experience in employee engagement research. This is SiteGround’s fourth certification under this methodology. This year, 32 companies competed, and only four received the certificate.

The Kincentric Best Employer program honors the best employers in the world based on the evaluation of their employees, as reported by an independent internal survey. It measures the four factors that decades of data collection show distinguish successful companies from the rest. These are employee engagement, business adaptability to innovation and customer needs, top and middle management and good people development practices. Over the past five years, 4,000 organizations worldwide have examined their HR practices using this methodology.

“For us, as an employer, the most important recognition is the evaluation of our team, the people of SiteGround, because they are the basis of everything we do and achieve as a business,” said Valentina Kozhouharova, HR Manager of SiteGround.

According to the results of the survey, employee engagement at SiteGround is 88%, which is above the average for the IT industry in Bulgaria. Nearly 91%, say the company’s work environment encourages diversity of talent and different ways of thinking.

“We congratulate SiteGround for their certification as The best employer in Bulgaria,” said Rumyana Boseva, CEO of ARS Bulgaria, Kincentric’s exclusive partner for Bulgaria. “The Kincentric methodology represents organizations’ outstanding achievements in creating a good work environment, positive culture and sustainable business results. SiteGround stands out from the rest with its strong employee and senior management commitment and focus on developing talent.”

SiteGround has three offices in Sofia, Plovdiv and Stara Zagora. They employ 500 people, and the company continuously invests in the development of their expert skills and professional competences, as well as in creating a positive and motivating work environment in which people feel free to develop their full potential. During the last year – from the beginning of 2022 until now, nearly 16% of our employees were promoted to higher positions.

SiteGround also offers many benefits, including “Short Fridays”, its own restaurant and barista, its own gym, additional health insurance, annual medical check-ups, psychologist, massages, sports cards, unique office environment, and various traditional initiatives to support the physical, emotional, personal and professional development of the employees.

SiteGround received four awards for its employer branding and HR management at b2b Media’s annual Employer Branding Awards. The company was awarded in the categories “Innovation in talent management”, “Employer branding video”, “Excellence in stress management” and “Excellence in Office Space”.

The annual awards of b2b Media distinguish businesses and individuals for achievements in the field of building and strengthening the image and popularity of the employer brand – for innovations in talent management, for new successful strategies in HR. In the contested competition, more than 120 projects of 60 companies were evaluated by the independent jury.

“SiteGround is not just a workplace, but a community you belong to – with values ​​and example. What all four awards we won have in common is our team, the amazing people who work with us. The success of our employer brand is a natural continuation of our philosophy, which is based on caring for employees and investing in their development”, says Valentina Kozuharova, Human Resources Manager at the company.

SiteGround has three offices in Sofia, Plovdiv and Stara Zagora. They employ 500 employees, and the company continuously invests in the development of their expert skills and professional competences.

SiteGround also offers many benefits, including reduced hours on Fridays, own restaurant and barista, own gym, additional health insurance, annual medical check-ups, psychologist, massages, sports cards, unique office environment, and various traditional initiatives to support the physical, emotional, personal and professional development of employees.

The Bulgarian Stefan Ivanov took part in the venture, the main sponsor of which was SiteGround

The world’s first rowing boat expedition from the Antarctic through the Southern Ocean was successfully completed on January 17, 2023, and brought six Guinness records.

1. First expedition from Antarctic
2. First expedition in the Southern Ocean from south to north
3. First Scotia Sea Expedition
4. Southernmost starting point of an ocean rowing expedition
5. Fastest rowing expedition in the Southern Ocean
6. Fastest polar rowing expedition

The expedition was carried out under the flag of the renowned “The Explorers Club”, founded in 1904, and under whose flags the first expeditions to the South and North Pole, Everest, the Moon and others were carried out.

The Bulgarian IT company SiteGround, which is one of the world leaders in the hosting industry, supported the venture as the main sponsor.

The leader of the expedition was the Icelander Fian Paul – he is the explorer with the most Guinness records in the world, after the current expedition their number exceeds 40. Fian says: “It was by far the most difficult expedition I have done, logistically and weather wise. I still have pain in my hands.” Bulgaria has its own representative in the expedition – Stefan Ivanov, a banker and adventurer, who in 2020, together with his son Maxim, crossed the Atlantic in a rowing boat. Stefan shares about his new experience in the Antarctic expedition: “This rowing expedition in the Southern Ocean took me the furthest from my comfort zone, but it brought me endless satisfaction. We battled gusty winds, huge waves, biting cold and wetness. On the other hand, we were like in an ice fairy tale – surrounded by icebergs and occasionally visited by whales, penguins, seals and albatrosses. We realized once again how imperative it is that we all get involved in protecting the ecological balance of the planet.”

The other members of the expedition were Jamie Douglas-Hamilton from the UK, Lisa Farthofer from Austria, Mike Matson and Brian Krauskpf from the USA – all experienced ocean and/or competitive rowers and sailors.

One of the main objectives of the expedition is to help declare new protected areas of over 4,000,000 km2 in the Southern Ocean. Considering that more than 90% of the big fish in the oceans have already been gone, the organizers are calling on anyone who wants to give their voice to the special petition: www.change.org/SouthernOcean.

“We believe that success lies only outside the comfort zone, that the courage to follow a dream, even if everyone tells you it’s impossible, makes you a true adventurer and a true entrepreneur. This similarity is at the heart of our support for Stefan and this mission. We are glad that it ended successfully and brought six Guinness Records, which we Bulgarians can be proud of, it is unique that we had our own representative in something so significant. More importantly, however, the mission raises the alarm about the protection of the oceans and the protection of nature in general: a cause that we also protect and find close to our values”, shared Tenko Nikolov, CEO and Ivo Tzenov, founder of SiteGround.

SiteGround is excited to support the Bulgarian Freeride ski and snowboard team for a second year in a row! The 2022 – 2023 winter season is starting strong for the young professionals. Despite the lack of snow in her homeland and, therefore, the impossibility of preliminary training, the young snowboard star Teodora Ilieva has already won one silver and one bronze medal at the first starts of the season in Chamonix and Avoriaz, France.

In general, the Bulgarian team made a good start, but the competition is extremely tough , and most competitors have a head start in the preliminary field practices due to the better winter weather conditions in their home countries.

“We are happy with this start in France, and we hope for more podium finishes until the end of the season. We are in high spirits.”, commented Simona Kamberova, the team’s manager.

The full standings for the two starts in France are as follows:

Chamonix:

• Teodora Ilieva – 2nd place, snowboard
• Iliana Mihovska – 4th place, snowboard
• Simeon Pavlov – 5th place, skiing
• Tina Bliznakova – 7th place, skiing
• Boryana Angelova – 10th place, skiing
• Daniel Uzunov – 23rd place, skiing
• Valentin Balov – 30th place, skiing
• Martin Roshkov – 31st place, skiing

Avoriaz:

• Teodora Ilieva – 3rd place, snowboard
• Iliana Mihovska – 6th place, snowboard
• Tina Bliznakova – 8th place, skiing
• Martin Roshkov – 22nd place, skiing
• Simeon Pavlov – 24th place, skiing
• Daniel Uzunov – 27th place, skiing

There are nine athletes representing Bulgaria this season at eleven starts in five locations worldwide. Three of the boys’ and girls’ team members move on to the “big league.” They are Tina Bliznakova (ski), Teodora Ilieva (snowboard) and Martin Roshkov (ski). Eagerly-awaited is the prestigious competition with the rank of “3 stars”, which will be held on the freeriders’ favorite slope under Mount Todorka, in Bansko, Bulgaria on March 17-19, 2023; and at its last year’s edition, our team won two podium finishes. Keeping our fingers crossed for an even more successful race this year!

Our commitment to the team as an official sponsor for the forthcoming year continues our dedication to the development and promotion of sports and a healthy lifestyle. Over the past three years (2020, 2021 and 2022), SiteGround’s management team has supported social causes with nearly 900,000 BGN, including the Mountain Rescue Service at BRC-Bulgaria, the Organization of Observation Lodges in Bulgaria, hospitals, non-governmental organizations, and other institutions of public importance in the country. Thanks to its large-scale commitment and investment,  SiteGround is the recipient of more than 20 awards in 2022 as an employer and a socially responsible company.

December 2022 was magical, full of joy, gratitude, happiness, and fun.

• The month started with an amusing Movember contest at the office accompanied by laughter and pizza. During “No Shave November” some colleagues grew and groomed nice mustaches and beards for a full month supporting the cause of raising awareness about men’s health.

• We joined forces with the Freeride Team BG to celebrate the official season opening before the holidays. For the second year in a row, SiteGround supports them, this time as an official sponsor.

• We gladly announced our support for the World’s first expedition by rowing a boat from Antarctica across the Southern Ocean, in the face of our Bulgarian representative Stefan Ivanov, whom you might know from Neverest Ocean Row. The expedition is planned to begin in January 2023 and is set to accomplish six Guinness World Records. You may follow the expedition in real time via this tracker.

• Our country manager for Spain José Ramón Padrón and Joan Boluda met for the monthly Uptime Podcast to review the latest news in digital business, web hosting, and technology.

• Santa Claus and Snow Maiden came to our offices to bring presents and make our employees’ kids happy. We gathered a total of 152 children who were playing and dancing. It was a magical event!

• We’ve enjoyed a Secret Santa gift exchange with our colleagues. All presents came along with many happy faces and excitement! 

• And last but not least, right before the holidays, we organized our company’s End-of-Year event and annual internal presentation in which we wrapped up the previous 12 months. Afterward, we ended the day perfectly with a Top Gun-themed party to pay homage to the sequel of the legendary movie released this year – with lots of music and dancing together.  

It’s the beginning of a new year, and our team is ready to take on even more significant challenges and adventures! We are so looking forward to seeing what 2023 holds!

November brought Black Friday, Thanksgiving, great employee events, and more awards.

• November 01 is National Revival Leaders Day. At SiteGround welcomed 60+ of our employees’ children to our offices in Sofia and Plovdiv. On this important Bulgarian holiday, our little awakeners took part in a series of educational fun games and interactive workshops, thanks to which they discovered the activity of the Bulgarian leaders of the National Revival in history, as well as modern ones, and learned a lot of new things.
• Plamen Petrov, one of our full-stack developers, gave a talk on ZagoraDev in Stara Zagora.
• SiteGround Founder, Ivo Tzenov, and CEO, Tenko Nikolov, spoke about the DNA of Success by Forbes Bulgaria.
• We took part in Plovdiv Game Jam and supported the event.
• On World Records’ Day, Stefan came to SiteGround to tell the story of Neverest, that broke two Guinness records.
• We helped 25 children from low-income families get a personal laptop from SiteGround. This will allow the kids to learn and develop more easily, receive information and knowledge faster and to work comfortably with modern technology, and be better prepared to face the challenges of the world today and tomorrow!
• Have you seen our latest awesome product videos? In our recap you can also take a quick peak behind the scenes.
• As part of the WordPress community, we again hosted the WordPress meetup in Plovdiv and took part in WordCamp Griñón in Madrid, Sevilla, and San Jose (Costa Rica).
• We supported and saw the Marketing Challenge at American University in Bulgaria.
• We received Jamba’s award for First Place of Agent of Change for our CSR efforts.
• Of course, we celebrated Thanksgiving: in our offices and also by supporting the American Chamber of Commerce Annual Thanksgivings Charity Dinner.
• Keeping a good mind in a good body is very important for SiteGround, and we took part in probably the last running event for the year: Big Tech Run.
• Our GM for Spain Jose Ramón Padrón presented at EMMS about making a content marketing strategy.
• Back in April, SiteGround pledged $ 6.5 M to AI institute INSAIT and in November we welcomed the first PhD students at the Presidents’ office.

What a great month November was! Can’t wait for December and the excitement of Year-end. If you want to learn more about life at SiteGround and our open positions, check careers.siteground.com.