Imagine working on your dream project in a contactless work environment. As much as working from home is the top perk priority in the tech world, it doesn’t mean we don’t need to be in touch with our team and don’t want to be heard and appreciated.

Every company has its own culture and ways. At Ideaware, our culture is a set of values, ideas, efforts and methods of making people feel valued and cozy in their routines. 

And YESSS, how your team feels reflects in their productivity and decision-making! We are more creative and productive when we are happy in our work environment. Think about all those times when you haven’t felt comfortable at work. You will notice that your productivity has gone down and you feel worn out.

Let’s start with the obvious!

You need to hire the right experts for the job like any other product. The team who determines your culture needs to be aligned with your beliefs and have an energy that matches the company’s. They need to go above and beyond and be resourceful and creative because keeping more than 100 people happy is not an easy task, but it is a fantastic daily challenge.

Culture as our internal product

It’s not all about planning what we are going to do and the perks we will give to the team, but also hearing their feelings and thoughts.

1. Remind your team that your doors are always open for them, and they are just a Slack message away.
2. Create conversational spaces like Coffee Breaks, and you will get to know each person in a more deeply personal way.
3. Send a cake on their birthday and ask them their favorite flavor when onboarding them. This will make them feel appreciated not only for their work performance.
4. Foster in-person and virtual events, the team needs to feel known and comfortable with the persons they work with. 
5. Host games and cocktail hours. Teams are usually competitive and they will have fun while getting to know each other.
6. Empathize and make the effort to understand other people’s feelings, priorities and beliefs. What might not seem important to you, might mean the world to someone else.

You will be surprised by the ideas they will come up with during these spaces. They will help you understand that each person is unique and that not everyone has the exact same needs to feel comfortable in a work environment. 

Your team members are your customers, and like any company, you need to hear out your target and study what they are into and how they feel about the product you are providing. If your customer is happy, they will keep coming to your business, and this is where retention comes in the tech world.

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In a world full of continuous disruption, the IT business is one of the fastest-growing and most competitive markets. When candidates have to decide which software company is the best fit for them, they consider competitive salaries and who offers the best cultural environment.

Over the years, we have learned that a company’s culture is essential to attract and retain top talent, and it starts in the recruiting process.

“Culture is what motivates and retains talented employees.”  – Betty Thompson 

We consider it essential to share our values and perks and give them a sense of what working with us would feel. We want them to feel comfortable and supported from the beginning. It’s also beneficial to keep them in the loop throughout the whole process; it gives them a sense of belonging.

Employees want to know they are working in a company that cares and values them as professionals and human beings. It’s not all about hard work; keeping the mind and spirit happy will motivate them to deliver outstanding results.

“Culture isn’t just one aspect of the game -it is the game. In the end, an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value.” – Lou Gerstner

Culture, Communication & Fun

Before the pandemic, playing video games and having an occasional beer was part of our office culture. Since we are all working remotely now, our cultural approach had to adapt to the circumstances. As the Marketing and Happiness officer at Ideaware, I believe we have found the perfect balance between taking care of our team’s energy (from a safe distance) and do what we love the most: develop products.

Let me tell you how!

• We keep our team informed: Monthly town halls and newspapers keep everyone in the loop. We know what we are working on, what’s happening with the company and in our co worker’s life.

• Strong relationships: On day one, our new members meet the team. Creating a solid connection is essential; we want everyone to feel welcome and part of this big family, and most importantly, we are here to collaborate.

• Time to unwind: We have multiple 30-minute events throughout the week to connect, learn and have fun together. These spaces are essential after a long workday. They keep us bonded even though we are working from our own houses, plus who doesn’t like to have a good laugh and a beer/cup of coffee with the team after a busy day?

• Open communication: Whenever our team has a question or an idea, we have an open doors policy. We are ready to listen and support them to reach their goals.
  
  The team also has multiple slack channels where they stay in touch and share work and non-work-related stuff. It’s all about balance.

“Create the kind of workplace and company culture that will attract great talent. If you hire brilliant people, they will make work feel more like play. “ – Richard Branson

Company culture needs to constantly evolve in order to improve, especially in the IT industry. Listen to your team, provide spaces to relax and have fun, encourage them to keep learning, communicate often, and share a good beer. These are key to attract and retain top talent.

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Remote work hasn’t been an impediment to celebrating our favorite holidays with the team. This time we had the opportunity to celebrate Friendship Day by learning how to make homemade coffee and bread through Zoom. 

We knew we wanted to do something special for the team and with the help of a local bakery called Pan y Café, we sent them a package full of goodies which included the ingredients, a mug, and a freshly baked banana and chocolate bread.

From the moment they received the package, everyone started to share pictures of it on Slack and social media. At that point, we had the feeling the event was going to be a success. We were right!

On the day of the event, we started the Zoom meeting with music while we waited for everyone to join. The baker of Pan y Café started explaining to us why each ingredient was important and the role they had in the recipe, and then (our favorite part) he started to teach us how to make delicious bread.

While we were waiting for the dough to rise, we learned how to make Tinto (strong Colombian coffee) using a cloth filter. If you haven’t tried our coffee, we highly recommend you order some right now. Colombia is known for its delicious and tasty coffee.

These were the results of the experience; freshly baked bread, and a happy team! Activities like this are what help us build a stronger relationship, and keep us happy during these difficult times.

We are extremely thankful for everyone who made this possible, and we hope we can keep celebrating moments like this together, even if they have to be via zoom for now.

A message for the team

We are blessed to have such an amazing and talented team. This year has been a challenge for everyone but you are rocking it and we are very proud. Thank you for always being there for us. Happy Friendship Day!

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I believe 2020 will always be remembered as the year COVID-19 forced companies to change their corporate culture. The pandemic negatively impacted everyone’s lives but it also brought innovation and positive effects into our routines and work life. 

At Ideaware we like to see this challenge as an opportunity to transform, grow, and make positive changes in our office culture, which it’s now called: work-from-home culture. We decided to make the best of it and a positive mind has been our biggest ally to help us stay focused, productive and happy.

Remote work is not something new for us, even before the quarantine our nearshore/outsourced development teams used to work remotely at least once a week as a perk, but since the pandemic started, our team has fully transitioned to this work model. We have also adopted other important changes that have made this transition easier, keeping our team cheerful, healthy and safe.

Work-from-home updates

During the last months, our family life has merged with our work life. Now we can enjoy all the benefits of working from home with our families close by. In light of this shift, here’s how we’ve kept our team culture and remained connected:

• Virtual Learning Activities: We host a weekly event called Homespace where any team member can talk and teach about any subject they want. We love to learn and keep ourselves updated!
• Town Halls: A time to chat, share news/updates and have a drink with the team. Cheers!
• Coffee Breaks: Every Tuesday we meet with the team to catch up, introduce our pets, talk about our favorite books/movies or share our favorite restaurants & food recipes. Conversations are a great way to foster team building.
• Weekly Challenges: Our team loves to compete for prizes (who doesn’t?). We organize a weekly contest with activities that allow the whole team to participate, such as: Where is Waldo?, recreate a childhood photo, most creative video and scavengers hunts, to name a few. It is fun and cheers everyone up!
• Game Tournaments: Last month we hosted our first Mario Kart tournament! Our team would meet at zoom to watch the competitors while they were playing in the mobile app version. It was a great experience and the team loved it!
• Welcome to the Team Meetings: to introduce new team members, we organize a zoom meeting where we all say hi and talk about who we are and our hobbies. It’s a great way to meet the team & makes the onboarding process easier!
• Birthday Celebrations: We used to celebrate birthdays with the whole team at the office but now that we are working remotely we send a yummy cake to the birthday boy/girl and wish them a happy birthday first thing in the morning.

Aside from having perks, we also make sure everyone in the team has everything they need to get their best work done from home:

• Internet Bonus: the dynamic of working remotely revolves around video conferences, emails, slack conversations, sending and receiving large files, among others. To be able to keep up with the flow and provide a fast response to our clients, which is one of our top priorities, our team must have an excellent internet connection. This is why every month we give them an extra bonus to ensure the quality of their service.
• Office Supplies: some of us were not prepared to move our office space to our homes. Having an appropriate work environment is important to feel productive and focused. For this reason we provided our team with chairs, desks and extra monitors to help them feel as comfortable as possible while working from home.
• Healthcare Benefits: The well-being of our team is important to us, and with that in mind we have expanded our health benefits. During this time of crisis it is more important than ever to have access to great healthcare.

“It goes way further than just having the right tools in place, it is about creating culture and a feeling of belonging.” Andres Max, CEO at Ideaware.

Messages from the team

Rebeca, Talent Acquisition Manager:
“Being home, 100% of the time, has been a significant change for all of us, but keeping us safe means that we care about our close ones and the community. In this new normality, we have stayed very united as a group; the key has been having fun activities, coffee breaks, and getting the opportunity to know each other in a more personal way by introducing our children, pets, and family. We are delighted to continue welcoming new members to Ideaware, and it has been gratifying to know that even at a distance, they have felt an essential part of the team.”

Andres Max, CEO:
“One moment we were working together at the office, the next we were forced to stay at home and take care of our families and community. Aside from how we do business development, our biggest shift has been how to keep our team culture, remain close and most importantly: take care of our mental health. We have changed many of our policies and perks to our new reality. We now enjoy online get togethers, fun contests, group learning and sharing activities. We aim to keep finding new ways not only to get our best work done but also to stay focused on what matters and happy.”

Gabriella, UX/UI Designer:
“We’re all living through challenging times. Our routines have shifted dramatically in just six months while we stay safe at home. Shout out to our office that has really helped us by giving us all the necessary support and tools in order to feel comfortable working from home. Personally, it has given me the flexibility to spend quality time with my family, while my productivity and work-life balance has improved. A definite win for me has been diminishing eating takeout food and improving my cooking skills. On top of this, I have created a daily workout routine that helps me start each day with great energy. – So there’s that – We need to embrace changes and learn how to adapt by staying positive and most importantly staying safe.”

Filiberto, Backend Developer:
“We are living a worldwide phenomenon never before seen in our lifetimes during the 21st century. We must all agree that it has not been an easy task for anybody to adapt to our new lifestyle. Sadly a lot of people lost their jobs as a consequence of the low income in multiple economic sectors. However there were companies that were able to adapt to this crisis and I feel lucky to be a part of one of them. I feel very fortunate to be able to continue doing my job-related tasks from home, knowing that Ideaware has provided me with everything I need to keep my work up to date for my clients. Not only have we been able to keep our projects ongoing but have also come closer to our teammates and the company has done a great job by keeping us in constant communication with fun at-home activities. During these past 6 months I had to adapt to a new set of activities and challenges in order to improve as a person. Even though I have been staying inside of my house I haven’t stopped making progress and the idea of pursuing my goals has pushed me to embrace our situation and make the best of it.”

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