We all know the pandemic changed our work environment – from where we work to how we work to work better. A Forbes study showed that after two years of the world battling COVID nearly half of all workers in the United States were remote while the remainder are hybrid or in-office. In fact, employers attempting a ‘return to normal’ when there was a new normal experienced the wrath of The Great Resignation. What business owners and managers once knew as ‘status quo’ – go into office each day, set hours, to work and ‘report back’ – was gone. The new normal is now normal and as companies embrace change new approaches to extend care to team members have bloomed.
For our team, to remain innovators we strive to stay ahead of what’s happening (before it happens, at best). Our adapted global environment saw a slew of changes to how we work and what we expect from our team. Innovating is fundamental to who we are and our strategy to stay ahead and keep Orbis the place we all know and love to work at involved extending new methodologies and systems to deepen remote support for our team.
While remote work and the ways we approach it are essential and have proven successful for us its value aligns with, does not supersede, in-person – meetings, gatherings, conferences etc. It’s so important to get the team together, to celebrate the ‘win’s, learn from the ‘failures’, share, plan ahead, and reconnect.
Our recent ‘All-Hands’ team meeting was held at Orbis head office, on John Street, South, in Hamilton. Our team members flew in, took trains, buses, drove, biked, and some, walked to gather again as a united group strategically looking to develop and build what’s next in experiential education.
And?
It was awesome.
Not only were colleagues able to catch up (like it was just yesterday) but some of our team members met for the first time in-person (after working together for a year plus online).
Our two day ‘All-Hands’ began with a (delicious) team breakfast prepared by Cam and Emily, followed by recapping of our work thus far and previewing plans for the coming year. As usual, we aren’t all work no play so we wrapped up by going to ‘axe throwing’ at BATL, in Hamilton. Check out some photos of our team at this ‘All-Hands’ here.
