Employees are the lifeblood of any company, yet in today’s remote-first world it’s become more difficult for companies to create an engaging work culture where employees thrive, grow professionally and feel like they’re a part of a high-energy team. In its 20 year history, Max Borges Agency has always been known for its lively, family-like community, so naturally, when the agency started transitioning to the new remote-first world, we were determined to keep our work culture and spirit alive.
Faced with similar challenges as many companies in 2020, the agency rapidly had to change pace from a predominantly in-person environment to an entirely remote environment. With this, the agency’s leadership was tasked with the difficult task of recreating our in-office environment and community in a digital world. Fast-forward to today, where we have staff located across the country and the majority of our staff working remotely, you’ll find that by talking to our other team members, Max Borges Agency has continued its reputation of a highly desirable work culture. In fact, it’s one of the things that draws many to apply to the agency. To provide a glimpse into what makes this possible, here are some of the factors that give us an edge:
A lively online collaboration space that’s constantly moving: Max Borges Agency uses Facebook Workplace for its online collaboration software amongst employees, and while the use of this tool alone is not unique by any means, we’ve put a great deal of thought into making this space a lively community for people to communicate with one another, shout out to fellow employees for their great work and even share their personal experiences, such as pictures from recent trips, new additions to the family and more. Our online community workspace flows with a variety of posts on a daily basis and is filled with the faces and personalities of our team members across the country.
Seminars and workshops for employees to grow, both personally and professionally: Our monthly “Mindful Talks with Modern OM” series has been a huge hit with our team who are able to learn about practical ways to maintain calm and reduce stress from experts in the field. We also work with the outside experts from BetterUp to help our team members with one on one sessions to consult them on professional development, resilience and a range of other topics to support our team members both personally and professionally. MBA is constantly assessing and reevaluating ways it can provide added value to its team members from the outside, so we’re always learning and growing.
Time set-aside for casual video chats on a weekly basis: Every Friday, our team hosts a virtual lunch where team members join to chat and eat a free lunch of their choice. There’s no agenda or work involved, just an open platform for our team members to talk about their personal interests, vacations and any other topic that comes up. Within this chat, our team members get to know one another on a personal level and take a break from work talk.
Team group chats, account team chats & more: Skype is our agency’s go-to platform for collaborating across teams throughout the day. With a variety of groups created for everything from account team member chats to the “Mom’s group” to the Bachelor fans chat, our team members are able to keep communication going throughout the day on both the day-to-day work side of things as well as the casual chats that once filled the hallways of our office in between calls and meetings.
In-person outings and experiences: While it’s true that much of our collaboration is now online, that doesn’t stop us from setting aside time for in-person gatherings. We aim to make this possible throughout the year, planning in advance and flying our team members in from their respective states to get together in-person. With our 20th anniversary in early 2022, the agency hosted a week-long event where the team gathered in the office during the workday, with activities throughout the day and night ranging from axe-throwing to cooking classes. On an ongoing basis, our team members are also encouraged to arrange time to meet one another in-person, where we sponsor team lunches, happy hours and more for smaller groups looking to spend time together offline.
While these are just a few of the things that help support the agency’s work culture, they’ve been essential to keeping the agency spirit alive and thriving in this new digital world. The key for us is making sure we’re always listening and open to new ideas to keep people connected. We’re constantly evolving our approach to make work an enjoyable experience for all of our team members, from coast to coast.
