Dailymotion’s Culture resolutions for 2019
Last year was a big year for us, our company grew and so did our Culture. We put our values into words, started bringing them to life and, as one does at this time of the year, we found ourselves reflecting back on our work. On what we’d started, achieved, what worked and what didn’t. Here are 5 resolutions we’re taking in 2019.
“Flex” more
Our first culture value is about building a community, a space where people care, empathize and know each other. Our offices are designed to reflect this. Few people have a private office, not even managers. The intention is to encourage flat line management, exchanges between managers and teammates and cooperation between teams.
In 2019 we want to make it a point to “flex”, which means move around the office to work, at least once a week or at least once with every team. Sure, it can feel a little awkward to sit down and start working next to a random team you don’t even know, but in the long run it pays off. One strategy is to just pick a friend and sit with them for an afternoon. It can be anyone, from someone you talked to at the last office party to a person who can help you with your work.
“I love it because it allows me to work near people I like, even though we don’t do the same job. Plus, I like to flex in open spaces where they put music on (either music I like, or can discover).”
- Lucie Vicat, HR Assistant
It helps to get an insight into the mood and experience of other teams and to meet other coworkers, learn about what they do, and strengthen the relationships with the ones you already know.
Take part in at least one culture initiative (or start your own)
The best way to get something done is to begin. Whether it’s a project that involves top management, a small change in the office or just finding people to share a hobby with — we empower people to take action and figure out how to bring people together and how to make it happen.
“I began an initiative inside dailymotion to collect and share the info and knowledge of everyone’s job inside the company. It started from a simple question I had when browsing our Who’s Who: ‘Do I even know what this person is doing on a daily basis?’. For most of my colleagues, the answer was no. Hence the Job Knowledge initiative!”
— Elisabeth De Sa Barbaro, Technical Support Engineer
At dailymotion we’ve always been very lucky to have people who are full of ideas and energy to get together and get things done. Their participation in culture initiatives ranges from events like the Hackathon and the Team Party Challenge, to forming their own interest groups on Slack such as movie nights, laser tag, football, volunteering days and tiramisu making classes.
In 2019 we want to continue with this and encourage everyone to participate in at least one initiative. And if there isn’t anything out there for them, they are free to start one of their own. We’ll be happy to support them in organizing it.
Share your opinion
We believe in creating trust, voicing our opinions and being clear with each other. It’s hard to navigate new initiatives without knowing what is working and what isn’t.
“Our main mission is to answer employees’ needs and build the best employee experience possible. Their opinion is vital for us because it’s the foundation on which our HR team relies on to construct our roadmap, define priorities and pick tools and processes.”
- Ilaria Fazio, Culture Manager
We organize a lot of different initiatives to strengthen our internal communication and alignment on company vision. We have implemented events such as Q&As with the CEO, Lunch & Learn sessions with executives and “Stand Up” meetings, where teams can update each other on what they are working on. It’s all about measuring the pulse of the company and adjusting to the beat of it.
In fact, last year we attempted to add a new feedback and recognition app on Slack. On paper it seemed like a great way to reward positive daily interactions and good deeds with points that could accumulate into gifts. But some people didn’t take to it. Even if almost everybody was using it, a survey we conducted showed us that the majority didn’t see the point in it, or felt it was too competitive and shallow. After giving it a good trial run, we eventually decided to cut it. There’s no point forcing a tool on employees if they don’t like it.
As for surveys, sure, filling them out can seem boring even when we stick a funny gif on the end. So, this year we’ll try to answer each and every one of them, because no matter what the feedback is, it’s crucial to continuously improve our work environment.
Share your skills
We can only be as strong as each of our members, so let’s make sure that we encourage and celebrate people around us. Last year we implemented a lot of new initiatives to strengthen cross-team training. Our bi-weekly sessions called FYI — Feed Your Ideas offer employees the opportunity to present their area of expertise to their coworkers.
“For most people, it was kind of a stressful challenge to do a presentation in front of people, however attendee’s questions and marks of interest are in my opinion a great reward, and I’ll be happy to renew the adventure in the future.”
— François Serreau, Video Architecture Developer
It’s a chance for presenters to share their work and to inspire and excite their colleagues on new topics, while giving everyone a chance to understand more about different aspects of the dailymotion machine.
“As far as my team is concerned, the FYI session was a good opportunity to send a clear message on how our products should be used, convert other teams on our best practices and provide them the means to be more independent on their data analysis. Great exercise to be clear, brief and popularize science!!”
— Sharone Dayan, Data Scientist
So, one of our resolutions for this year will be to share our knowledge, skills and talent in any form of internal training. Even if public speaking might be scary for some of us, we’ll champion each other through it and go for it at least once.
Bonus one: Stop rage quitting
It’s all fun and games until Super Smash Bros and Ping-Pong are involved.
