Transform:able - How to Design a Meaningful Company Onsite in a Remote-First World

Who plans an onsite in frigid February in NYC? We do! Here’s why, and what transpired at our first-ever post pandemic company-onsite.

Timing

Why February in New York? We wanted to kick off Q1 fully aligned to our mission and kickstart the year with a clear plan on how to execute, connect more deeply with our team members and cross-functional colleagues (many of whom have not ever met in person, ever!), and be inspired by our creators. And, after a few weeks of reflection, I think we did just that! Both anecdotal feedback and survey data show that our team felt connected, energized, proud, and productive!

While I think many of us were anxious about what three days together might feel like (how do you go from interacting with your immediate family daily to about 200 people in three jam-packed days?!), I think we came out feeling very inspired and dare I say, even more human.

When planning your own company event, time the event so that people are available to join. For instance, we wanted to make sure to avoid the holidays but still bring everyone together as early in the year as possible. For many of our team members, mid-February school breaks would mean parents were home with their children or on vacation, so early February worked best for us to maximize attendance and target as early as possible in Q1. We even lucked out with unseasonably warmer temperatures. 

Design for the Whole Experience

For those considering such an event for your teams, think about the whole experience. We thoughtfully designed each detail and included the voices from team members and employee resource groups from the entire company—from a conduct and etiquette guide/FAQ with both cheeky and practical information, an awesome swag bag to commemorate the event, name tags with pronouns and departments, accessibility best practices such as a color-coded lanyard system to indicate one’s comfort level with socializing, gender neutral bathrooms including sharps containers and menstrual products, a mother’s room, closed captioning in each session, a quiet room, a delicious menu to appeal to all dietary needs, massage breaks, meditation mornings, smaller group dinner reservations designed to connect you with your team and others you might not always work closely with, to a celebratory closing party—we wanted every Teachaneer to feel appreciated, supported, and inspired. We wanted to make sure the experience included not just important work discussion, but also wellness, camaraderie, and inspiration as well. 

Details matter and organizers should consider their work population and what is meaningful to them, what the company values, and how to include an agenda tied to work and performance as well as overall well-being and fun! Designing an experience that touches on all aspects of our multifaceted employees can be a real differentiating factor in why someone chooses your company and your brand to be a part of. You’re asking everyone to show up, so it’s important for leaders and the Company to show up and to show they care at these events, too. 

Co-Create A Meaningful Agenda

The event consisted of an opening icebreaker/group activity that took us out of our comfort zone, connected us 1:1, and pushed us to listen deeper to one another. We then heard keynote messages from the founder of Hotmart (our parent company) and our GM talking about the future of the creator economy and our role in defining that path. We dedicated department-only time for teams to collaborate and work together side-by-side, listened to a Creator Panel featuring some of our amazing customers who shared their passion and stories, an Idea Storm that lead to no fewer than 30 amazing ideas to transform our business, and spent time together discussing cross functional challenges and opportunities that will better position us to achieve our goals. We even took some amazing headshots! 

At the core of the agenda is the overall storyline: why are we hosting this event and making this investment, what do we need to get out of this time together, how can we work better together. Working remotely, internal communications and operating rituals matter even more. Thus, we made sure that the purpose of the event and what we expected of attendees was made clear to employees weeks in advance, and continued to repeat these themes leading up to the onsite. 

Something I learned in supporting this event (and in a very tight timeline) is that you need to embrace everyone’s talents. There was no one lead because this effort involved so many people designing and redesigning agendas, workshops, and mini-moments. In this way, embracing a mindset of co-creating and collaboration allowed us to unlock so many ideas in a short amount of time. Because everyone embraced the timeline and understood the value of this investment, approvals came more quickly and autonomy and proactive support from all parts of the company came together quite seamlessly once we all knew what role we played and where we could make the most impact.

Operations and Planning

That said, never underestimate the power of seasoned professionals. We had an amazing organizer in our wonderful Office Manager and event creator extraordinaire, plus special assists from project managers across multiple departments. We also had Senior Leadership support in all aspects of the event. These factors allowed for smooth execution and unlocked a powerful experience for all.

We found amazing partners to help bring our event to life. Our venue and other partners helped to add value to the event, even on a tight budget. For instance, we were able to utilize a wellness budget provided by our health insurance provider to support bringing in on-site massage therapists and a meditation guide to our program without additional cost. We utilized our travel and expense platform to create an event registration site. We sourced freelancers that we already work with to help with event photography and videography. We utilized Zoom to allow closed captioning in all of our sessions. My recruiting team also spent their time planning out over 40 small dinner reservations for our teams to help avoid large party fees and create smaller, more connected dining experiences for our teams. So get help where you can, and investigate perks and benefits provided by your current providers to add value to your event.

Other key areas of consideration:

• Overall budget. Where do you want to invest and where can you go for the more frugal option?
• Venue location and what’s important (we opted for a location that was able to provide more accessibility accommodations since that is something we value)
• Hotel accommodations and distance to venue
• Third-party support (we used a third party to help with our opening icebreaker and found this to be an effective way to bring people together without it feeling too contrived)
• Party venue and dinners (Will you want an opening or closing celebration? Organizing dinners in NYC for large groups comes at a higher cost and guarantee; thus, we opted for one closing party and smaller dining experiences on other nights)
• Meals (Our venue provided all daytime dining and had an amazing chef on premises to be able to accommodate all dietary needs. Remember to take catering into account if your venue doesn’t provide meals and snacks)
• Timing also factored in as we felt February rates would be more affordable than other prime times of the year 

Measure and Review Data

During our 3 days together, we were able to create an atmosphere that allowed teams to work productively together, align on goals, learn about important levers to our business, connect with our global leadership team, and build trust. This event was an investment in time and money, and an experiment we wanted to try as we begin to fully embrace a remote-first culture, mindset, and operating model. That said, the success of a company onsite cannot be measured by the event alone. We sent short surveys at the close of each day and an overall event survey the following week. We also plan on checking in on goal progress throughout the year and continue to ask our teams if our :transform onsite made a difference. 

We’re hopeful that the foundation in trust, collaboration, and knowledge sharing experienced at this event will help each team member operate like owners, act quickly, and solve together throughout 2023—and ultimately achieve our business objectives. Other practical takeaways from this event will include prioritizing every idea and plan that came out of our 72+ hours of discussion and workshopping and redesigning our operating practices to best serve our remote workforce. 

Think About What’s Next

By the end of the three days, we were exhausted yet energized about what’s to come for our team and our creators. We can’t wait to help more creators build their knowledge businesses and expand the creator economy. We’ll hold a retrospective with the Senior Leadership Team and event organizers to capture best practices and gather learnings about what can be improved for the next time. We will be thinking about how often a remote-first team should come together and look at our budget to see what is feasible in the future. We also want to make sure every attendee knows how they can continue to make an impact on our business and on our creators’ businesses. 

And Lastly, A Positive Mindset Goes a Long Way

Our team, despite early ambiguity around this event due to truncated timelines and real-time planning, came fully prepared to show up and engage. Everyone demonstrated positive intent, embraced our time together, and overcame any personal discomforts around engaging with hundreds of people all at once (a rare occurrence for most of us these days). This took heart and extra courage for some, and that extra courage is very much appreciated. In fact, it made all the difference. 

Teachaneers, we look forward to more meaningful moments together in the future, both online and IRL. Thanks for engaging and showing up! I hope you left feeling inspired and :transformed.