Creating Intentional Connection Across Offices
HoneyBook’s One Office Mindset
As a people-first company, we’re always thinking about our employee experience. We all know there are many factors that make up a positive experience at work, and feeling connected to your coworkers is a big part of that positive experience. There’s a certain kind of magic and collaboration that happens when a team is cohesive and connected. Creating these connections isn’t too hard when you work in the same office, but creating them with co-workers who work across the globe — well, that’s a challenge.
Luckily, this is something we’ve had experience with from day one. Our founders started the company in Tel Aviv, Israel and soon after, two of the founders moved to San Francisco. Despite the physical distance and adding more people to the team, they made a point to keep their relationship strong with a daily video chat.
Since then, we’ve continued to be intentional about connection. It’s one of my favorite parts of our culture, and something that I think really adds to the experience of working at HoneyBook. Our goal is that everyone at HoneyBook feels like they are a part of one office, no matter where they work.
What Connection Looks Like
Company Meetings
Our daily team video chats are our most tangible point of connection. We kick off the week with The Weekly. This meeting lasts anywhere from 15–30 minutes and covers company metrics. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, we come together for 7x7. This is a shorter, 7-minute long meeting where individuals or teams present what they are working on. This meeting is a powerful communication tool to share important happenings in the company and provide transparency across all teams. We are a dynamic, fast-paced startup so The Weekly and 7x7 keep us on the same page and in the know.
Both San Francisco and Tel Aviv have a designated monitor in All Hands that acts as a mirror of the other office. If an employee is working from home or is remote, they also are able to view this camera and can see the two offices come together. Whether you are in a different office from the presenter or working remotely, seeing each other on the screen makes it feel like we’re in one big room.
Travel Between Offices
Our offices are equipped with many tools and technologies that bring our global teams closer, but nothing beats sitting side by side with your counterpart from another office for a week. Being intentional about connection also means investing in it. We spent a lot of time, effort, and money to make this a reality for our people who work on our distributed teams.
Next week, we’re bringing the Tel Aviv team to San Francisco for One Office Week, a week where every HoneyBooker across the globe will come together. Monday through Wednesday will be spent working together side by side, and Thursday through Friday we will pack our overnight bags and head to “Camp HoneyBook” to get some much-needed downtime together. This week is all about connecting with our people, our passion, and our purpose!
Shared Experiences
There’s something really powerful about sharing an experience in person and so we try to replicate that as best we can when we can’t all be together. Celebrating each other’s holidays and having the same themed events is a fun way to connect when we’re busy with life in our own offices.
We switch things up every year, but the holiday we always celebrate together is Purim, a Jewish holiday that commemorates the saving of the Jewish people from Haman. Celebrating Purim includes wearing a costume and is similar to how Americans celebrate Halloween. Every year, our Tel Aviv office hosts a costume contest during the 7x7. The entire company participates and it gets pretty competitive.
In 2018, we hosted our first-ever global Bring Your People to Work event for family and friends. We spend so much time at work, and we wanted to take a moment to show our people what we do all day, and who we work with. It was fun to see all the photos from each event and see everyone’s people, even if we couldn’t meet them in person.
We share photos of daily office happenings via our Slack channel, #hbphotos. It gives us a sense we’re all around for the little things in each office.
Office Space
My personal favorite point of connection is our office design. HoneyBook has an eclectic, homey feel and that translates across both our San Francisco and Tel Aviv offices. In each office, you’ll find open workspace, comfortable collaborative areas, market lights hanging from the ceiling, plenty of plants, music in the background, and even the same macrame, woven swings. When you walk in a HoneyBook space, you know exactly where you are. We even have the same wifi password in both offices, so if you’re traveling to the other office, you’re always connected.
One Office has become a mindset for us at HoneyBook, and we can’t imagine working without being so connected. Who else is working for a distributed company and how do you stay connected?
HoneyBook is hiring. Check out our open roles at www.honeybook.com/careers.
