As our team continues to grow, it is more important than ever to keep our quarterly events ongoing. Sure, it is much easier with a smaller team—especially considering activities are faster to plan with more venue options that can accommodate 40 people vs. 130. There was actually a time when StackAdapt was small enough for people to walk through the office, shaking hands and saying “good morning” as they arrived. Now, there are so many hands to shake and people to say “good morning” to, this ritual would take an entire hour every morning—not exactly as feasible as it once was.
And so, with a team of 130 people (and counting), it is less likely that everyone gets to interact with one another. Our quarterly events provide members of different teams an opportunity to socialize. We have engineering folks teaming up with the partnerships team and business development intermingling with finance—it’s a fun shuffle!
And it is always an exciting and creative challenge for the People and Culture team to come up with an initiative that is going to keep everyone engaged. For Q2, we hit it out of the park and perhaps set ourselves a very high benchmark—but it was extremely satisfying to receive the positive kudos our Hunt through the City concluded.
We split the company up into 20 teams (the fun shuffle) and with phones in hand, sent them on a hunt through the city to do a few acts of kindness while locating landmarks of significance in and around our office. The entire team had to be present and take a selfie at each location and the whole hunt had to be completed in two hours—while walking!
Our goal was three-fold:
- Have cross-functional teams work out a game plan to determine how to go east and west while crossing the finish line right in the middle. This was going to be a challenge and individuals mastering their directional and communication skills along the way.
- Get everyone out of the office into the fresh air for an entire afternoon—with plenty of exercise.
- Celebrate their team and everyone’s achievements at the end of the hunt.
There was one team that completed the entire hunt in two hours but at the end of the day, everyone came out a winner!
It was an intense start:
There is a lot of fun along the way:
Need to scrutinize those results:
Celebrate the win:
And the event:
All in all, it was a successful outing, and the People and Culture team are excited to start planning the next one!
Cheers!
Meredith
People and Culture Coordinator
