2022 in review: When work from anywhere really works
Length: 8-minute read.
Quick summary: At The Recognition group, work from anywhere isn’t just a buzzword: it’s a lifestyle. Our remote first work culture lets us grow and succeed personally and professionally from anywhere. Read more about how The Recognition Group made work from anywhere a way of life in 2022.
Why The Recognition Group loved the work from anywhere lifestyle in 2022
2022 has been another blockbuster year for The Recognition Group, full of exciting new developments in our business as we continue to grow from strength to strength and help our clients achieve great success. Behind the curtain, it’s also been an incredibly exciting year for all of our exceptional team members, who continue to embrace our remote first work culture and make work from anywhere really work for them.
Like many businesses, we switched to the work from anywhere (we call it “freeworking”) way of life in 2020 as a result of the pandemic. We quickly realised that work from anywhere would be more than just a buzzword for our business: it would be a lifestyle.
Making remote first work for everyone, everywhere
Our remote first work culture lets us find a work/life blend that works best for each of us, meaning we can easily be there for the important things in life, including spending time with old and new (human or animal) family members.
Working from home lets our team seamlessly move wherever their life takes them. In 2022, many of our team members embraced the opportunity to work interstate and overseas—including in The United States, New Zealand, and Brazil—while visiting friends and family (and saving their annual leave for other adventures). We've even had team members take the opportunity to permanently move interstate while freeworking with us this year.
Our remote first work culture means that our team members can also seamlessly blend study into their lives when they want to embark on continued personal and professional development. This year, more than 13 per cent of our team members were enrolled in external training programs.
That number has now dropped ever so slightly as we celebrated the successful graduation of one of our star senior account managers from a Master of Business Administration (MBA) with the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT). Our CEO, Adam Benson, also blended the work from anywhere lifestyle with study while completing a residential course at Harvard in 2022.
Sinead Hickey
graduates from RMIT with a Master of Business Administration
Embracing our commitment to lifelong learning, more than 75 per cent of our business got involved in our personal and professional development book club - which members are quite literally paid to read! For at least one of our team members, the book club has helped empower her to grow her own home library even further, with the money she earns from reading our professional development books going into buying even more books.
Growing a community spirit
Living the work from anywhere life doesn’t mean we don’t regularly come together as a team to celebrate and enjoy each other’s company. Throughout the year, we participated in a number of virtual personal and professional development courses, including the extremely engaging Clifton Strengths assessment and meditation and mindfulness workshops with The Modern Meditator.
In 2022, we also took part in several virtual team-building experiences, including virtual team drinks to welcome new team members and an illuminating magic class with Magic Mike. We also enjoyed a virtual cooking class with Otao Kitchen in September, where we learned how to make dumplings from scratch. Our community spirit also included a Beyond the Boardroom workshop where we put together Solar Buddy solar lamps to donate to communities experiencing extreme energy poverty. Wrapping up our year, we also came together earlier in December for a fun afternoon making terrariums with the help of Champagne Creative.
We also encourage our team members to catch up weekly to get to know their colleagues, especially those they don’t work with frequently, to continue to grow our close team bond. This year, our buddy program gave our team members even more opportunities to connect with their colleagues and learn more about the people they work with outside client work and company activities.
Despite our team working across great distances, our buddy program lets us catch up one-on-one with each other as much as possible, with many of our team members embracing the opportunity to catch up with their buddy for coffee or lunch whenever they can. More than 75 per cent of our team embraced the buddy program in 2022 and continued to make strong connections with their colleagues.
Living the retreat dream
After two and a half years apart, we reunited in June for our first full company offsite since January 2020. Our entire team came together from across the country for three days of social events and professional development lectures in the Scenic Rim, all complemented by sit-down meals that let us enjoy each other’s company outside our laptop screens. It was the perfect opportunity to meet, relax, and learn all at once while introducing our new team members to the wider group and encouraging our colleagues to reconnect.
We’ve been fortunate to grow our team bond even more this year with exciting experiences both online and outside of our laptops as we embrace the work from anywhere lifestyle. Beyond our workshops, we’ve also celebrated significant milestones for our team members this year, including engagements and the exciting addition of several new family members (pets included).
2022 has been a year of mammoth success for The Recognition Group, and we’re looking forward to the freeworking model continue for our team—and our clients—by doing it all again next year. To embrace the work from anywhere lifestyle and join our team in 2023, view our current opportunities.
Thank you for your continued support; see you in 2023!