How to get the most out of working face to face?

At Boldare, we enjoy meeting each other in person. Alone and bored in front of the computer? Not us! We make sure we regularly get together in real life and get to know each other better. And we want this time to be fun! Why do we care about face-to-face meetings instead of focusing on working virtually? Because, most of all, we are people, not avatars.

But working face-to-face has evolved. We’ve entered another dimension of online, comfortable work from home. We know that, and we also like home-working (we don’t put any limits on it at all). Nonetheless, we also want to have something more than “just a job”. Building strong bonds with our teammates is important for Boldare people, enabling us to build relationships and friendships at work.

The truth is, it’s much more difficult to take care of the team spirit in the new, remote reality. Hence, we’ve found in ourselves the desire to develop a non-standard approach to office working. It is important for us not to impose ways of integrating on our people, but instead create the right environment for them to create and implement their own team building solutions. We are a self-organizing company, therefore we strongly believe in individual initiatives. We listen to our people and let them develop the reality of work in the direction that is most relevant to their current needs. That’s why most of the alternative forms of face-to-face work at Boldare are grassroots activities that originated and came from the workforce. Would you like to meet them? Keep on reading!

Alternative teamwork ideas #1: Creative workshops, retreats, and planning

When thinking about the smartest and simplest ways to merge work and fun onsite, creative product discovery workshops and retreats come to mind. Retreats allow a whole Scrum team to talk face-to-face about the results they’ve already achieved. Members share their insights and give honest feedback to each other. It boosts members’ skills and helps them to come up with fresh business ideas. It also makes people feel that their work is meaningful. Overall, it strengthens teamwork.

During workshops, a team can work out truly crazy ideas and plan some prudent strategies. But! A space for socializing and getting to know each other better is a must. An offline workshop is the perfect time to have some fun after hours with your team, and discover beautiful locations as well.

I love participating in face-to-face workshops with the team. I feel like we have more time to understand each other better. Every meeting with the team gives us a lot of new energy that we can use during remote work!— says Karla Sutil, Process Guide.

Alternative teamwork ideas #2: International trips to clients

Meeting our partners in real life is an essential element of Boldare life. It’s a chance to spend some valuable time together, understand each other better, boost relationships, and set out together on the path to growth. What is more, these visits are a genuinely fun experience – it’s a perfect occasion to engage with other cultures and taste the local food.

We regularly visit our international clients face-to-face to boost our relationship and get to know each other better. It’s the perfect occasion to engage with other cultures and taste the local cuisine. There are always pleasant coffee breaks, bike tours, and time to share your hobby with teammates. — says Maciej Król, Java Developer.

Alternative teamwork ideas #3: Workation!

What is the best thing about workation? It allows you to relax and unwind while you work. We think this is a very good thing! In the days when we all sat together in the office, these moments of relaxation came naturally (shared lunches, coffees, etc.). Nowadays, working from home, the productivity of employees increases, but they miss the social dimension of work and relaxation. And these are the things that improve well-being and strengthen the bonds within the organization. It’s worth allowing yourself to work slowly on workation and focus not only on tasks but also on relations with your teammates.

At Boldare, most of the workation ideas are grassroots initiatives that are covered entirely by the employees. The advantage is that we reconcile work and leisure in this way and do not lose a single day from the pool of available vacation time. What we have noticed so far is that during the workation the morale of the team increases. There is more enthusiasm and motivation for joint action, and people just like to communicate with each other after returning to normal work mode.

The idea of a workation is well-known at Boldare - our teams have used it for several years. We enjoy the sun and beaches in Spain or Portugal (without spending vacation leave!) and hang out together. It strengthens our teamwork, boosts motivation, and works as a vitamin shot. — says Mateusz Grzesiukiewicz, JavaScript Developer.

Alternative teamwork ideas #4: Internal and external events

We also believe in the power of the company-wide meetings that our people can always join. Some of them are about integration, others focus on development in a specific area of specialization. General internal events dedicated to all employees include official integrations and regular celebrations of employees’ birthdays and anniversaries. Our technical initiatives include thematic conferences and slots, Delivery Talks, or internal hackathons (also designathons and scrumathons).

We also organize a series of external meetups for backend enthusiasts (but not just for them!) called No Exceptions. In the near future, we plan to return to the on-site version of this event (stay tuned and follow NoE to join us next time!).

How about the good old office?

At Boldare, people can work wherever they want, and online work isn’t limited. You can choose home, the beach, or your favorite park in the city — but still, you can also join us at our comfortable offices. We keep them open for all those who want to work directly with their teammates. Boldare people can select from six locations (Warszawa, Gliwice, Kraków, Wrocław, Hamburg, and Amsterdam) and visit our offices to talk about work and more.

Each of our locations has already developed its own unique community. It’s natural for us to go out together after work to indulge in our hobbies. We also visit each other in different locations — after all, a change of environment fosters creativity (the company covers the travel costs). Likewise, we’ve made sure that our office spaces encourage creative thinking and allow us to work with an Agile spirit. What’s more, the offices were designed by us! We took care to make them more attractive (we have shisha, foosball, PlayStation, a shared space with sofas, bookcases, a large, ergonomic kitchen, and even a cider tap). What else can you find in a Boldare office? For sure, a friendly atmosphere, which we cultivate with shared meals and coffees. We are also open to pets – you can come to our offices with your dog, and in Gliwice we even have our own parrot! His name is Bolo.

And… How do we stay human in an online world?

Although we truly care about meeting in real life, the truth is that most of the time Boldare employees work remotely. So, what do we do to make this virtual world as friendly and human as possible?

• Cameras on! If we have an online meeting, we make sure that we see each other – literally. We don’t want a group of avatars, just real people. It’s important for us to see each other’s reactions and relate to them.
• Personal small talk. During meeting check-ins, we talk about our personal, non-work interests. In this way, we share our enthusiasms, which allows us to get to know each other better. We choose chit-chat with coffee instead of stiff business meetings.
• Themed channels on Slack, thanks to which people with similar interests can find each other and arrange some time together after work in the real world.
• Open calendars, which means that anyone can join a meeting of another team at any time and share ideas or improvements with them. These initiatives are always warmly welcomed. They allow teams at Boldare to learn from each other.
• Common working hours. We make sure that working hours mesh with the availability of other team members. Each of us is free to choose flexible working hours, but we also talk to the team at least once a day about daily challenges. This allows us to effectively support and help each other.

Face-to-face work boosts team morale

To sum things up, we believe that alternative forms of face-to-face work boost team morale because people (when they know and like each other) are more likely to brainstorm and consult on various topics, which translates into personal well-being and increased efficiency. Through various meeting initiatives, we also build an internal community, which is very important in any company. It’s also a way to boost team spirit and create a sense of belonging in the organization.

Would you like to learn more about working at Boldare? Nothing easier! Take a look at our career page.