How we build and reinforce relationships through events

Recognition is an everyday thing but here at EASI we also love to take the time to celebrate. So why do we celebrate as often as possible? Read on to find out!

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At EASI we are well-known for celebrating… a lot and as often as possible. ;-) For us it's a great way of showing we value the relationship we have with our employees. The importance and the influence of our events is difficult to overestimate.

Why is celebrating so important to us and how we do it?

The reason seems quite logical. Every event is just another opportunity for us to be together and to enhance the our cohesion.

Don't forget we spent more than 1/3 of our time at work. Most of us see their co-workers more than their closest friends and family.

It just doesn't seem logical not to invest in creating a meaningful relationship with colleagues.

A recent study showed that 83% of employees say having a 'work family' makes them feel happier. 69% of them say they are more successful at work because of these close connections. And having friends at work does not only make you happier, it makes you a better employee.

Is partying productive?

Yes, it is. Our events will guarantee a better workplace, because they are the key to building an encouraging, supportive and friendly atmosphere.

By being more together, we will also work better together and that will directly improve the link between the people and as a result our productivity. It is a well-known fact that a hyper-united team will be more efficient, and of course, it is way more pleasant to work in a great atmosphere.

And it's not just us saying that. The Happiness Advantage” author Shawn Achor states that a company with happy employees could increase their sales by 37%, productivity by 31%, both aspects that will contribute to building a high-performance work environment and the improving quality of life for all people involved with the work.

So which kind of party does the trick?

To that purpose, we experimented different ways to maximize the cohesion between people and we try to innovate - an event at a time.

Corporate Events

First there are of course the corporate events, organized by the company: Kickoff, Recognition days, Family days, shared breakfasts… are words that you will know by heart if you work with us. It is an official channel to do things in the right way.

Some events we also organize for the plus ones of our colleagues. Like the Kick-Off, the Family Days... In this way, colleagues get to know each other's families, the bonding experience goes one step further and they also discover what EASI stands for.

Feel Good Events

Moreover, after that, we have what we call Feel Good Events. At first, these events were organized by an elected team that showed their ability and motivation to organize it for one year.

After that, we decided to give all our employees the possibility to organize these events. With 5 offices in Belgium alone, we wanted to avoid only having events in our headquarters and it gave a whole new vibe to the kind of events that were organised. We felt a real bottom-up vibe from every site.

This year, as you certainly know, it was the 20th anniversary of EASI. That is why we wanted to shake things up and install a brand-new system. Different teams campaigned with different themes to convince our employees. In the end they elected three teams (Gastronomy - Surprise Us -Sport) to represent them and organize all kinds of activities.

Being a little over the middle of this year, we can say this system has been a success. The teams have already organized six events - one every month: mini-foot, workshops, cruise, race, air games… - and they were a big hit.

Breakfasts

There is always something to celebrate! A new commercial contract, a prize the company got, the satisfaction rate of our customers that has increased, geek day... So this year we try to gather everyone together once a month with a group breakfast.

Perfect moments to enable us to strengthen our professional relations, but it helps us to get personal at the right time with a colleague by doing something else than just going to have a coffee or a lunch together in the kitchen.     

Do you measure the success of these parties?

As a matter of fact, yes we do!

Every year we send out a survey to our employees to ask if they are happy with us. And this year we had the highest rate of our employee satisfaction survey ever. Our employees rated the work atmosphere with 87%!

Knowing that this, next to the package and the job content, is one of the three most important reasons to choose to stay in a job, it seems that, for this moment at least ;-) we are definitively on the right way.