Phase One: Start Broadcasting Initiatives and Office Perks
First, Esme came up with initiatives that she felt people would benefit from. She wanted to make them consider attending the office when they previously hadn’t planned to.
“We’re never going to be a business that insists our employees come in on X amount of days each week, it’s just not a direction we want to go in.
“We want to build a culture where people choose to come in. So, we have Fruity Tuesday, where we supply fruit for the team all day, we have monthly Thursday brunches, we host barbecues and team drinks…
“...You name it, we’ve probably hosted it at one of our offices.”
With a fluctuating number of people coming and going from the office, Esme has to make sure anything that needs ordering accurately reflects the number of people attending.
“All I ask is that if they plan to attend one of the events, they book in via Officely so I can see who will be there at the start of each week and order accordingly.”
CloudTalk has set up Officely to broadcast what’s happening the following week each Friday.
That way, everybody has the opportunity to view the week’s events, see who’s booked in, and decide what they do and don’t want to attend.
But it’s not just the events themselves that people come in for.
“The number one thing I’ve realized is that it’s so much more than just the events themselves, it’s ‘Who is in the office that I want to meet up with?’.
“People come into the office to catch up with their friends, to head out for post-work wine… the initiatives are a great way to encourage attendance, but it’s the people themselves that make it work.
“The social aspect really does transform team culture and morale. It’s amazing to see people being so collaborative, and building relationships beyond CloudTalk.”
By recognizing the impact increasing attendance has on performance and team morale, Esme decided to create an event schedule in-line with the most popular office days.
