It turns out that coding remotely alone isn’t everything, and sometimes it’s worth leaving the warm, comfortable home office to talk live. ValueExperts teams enjoy spending time together. We do meet in the office, but mostly we work online, on calls, our on joint projects for a client. To change that, we developed our own idea for create work in our own ValueLogic’s climate. The Cabin in the woods idea was born when we were already firmly settled with working remotely, but at the same time, we missed meeting each other in person.

What is important when planning an extra team building activity for employees?

What we wanted were joint trips and opportunities to get a change of environment to one that is less office-like and less formal. Company trips are one of the best ideas and a proven way to get integrated.

Important to us

• Flexibility: the ability of employees to choose the best location. We have people from all over the country, and we didn’t want to push one location, renting a house for the whole year.
• Availability: easy to get to in the country, so that, for example, restrictions would not impact the trip plan. Learning from the experience of recent years, we decided to focus on Poland so that travel rules between countries would not make travel difficult.
• Attraction: each team likes different things, some love mountains, others prefer a house with a pool. We decided that each team will choose a Cabin in the Woods destination that suits everyone.
• Higher goals: we keep our employees’ priorities in mind, and we don’t change their lifestyles. We are a company of experienced employees, many of us already have families, sports, and responsibilities and a settled lifestyle, so the trips are tailored and in terms of length and location to our capabilities.

Cabin in the woods at ValueLogic in more detail

Now a few words about us and about what our own idea of team building looks like. A team that feels like spending 2 days together out of the office chooses a date and sets a location to meet. During the trip, the team has time to work, daily with the client, and discuss current topics in person, and then they already have time of their own. Usually, the trips are a nice intro to the weekend. We know that work is super important, but Cabin in the woods is all about laughing a lot, eating good food and relaxing in a cool group.

Location doesn’t limit us, the important thing is to keep the teams satisfied: sometimes it’s about being close to Wroclaw, at other times the Wroclaw team goes closer to other team members. We already have a nice base of proven places where we had a brilliant time. The team working for ImmoScout24 is made up of programmers from several cities: Rzeszow, Krakow, Wroclaw and Zielona Gora. For example, the team met at an integration workshop in Wroclaw, and then went to work together in the Sudetes and get Snieznik.

What do such trips look like? Take a peek at an overview of one of them by our IT Project Manager

The early plan was to ascend Czarna Gora by lift and continue to Snieznik on foot. However, our team after checking the ticket price of the lift decided to go the entire way on foot. It is worth noting that the route to Snieznik is about 25km, and everyone made it). The trip went smoothly, despite the fact that some tour participants walked in their sneakers ;).

After reaching the mountain shelter and making sure we had a good weather window, we proceeded to the peak attack (and here it should be emphasized that without the use of oxygen). After climbing this challenging peak (it should be noted that it is one of the peaks of the Polish Crown of Mountains), a kind woman and her young child took a photo.

After returning to base camp, we went for a well-deserved dinner and then continued to integrate by putting together 3D puzzles, a difficulty level “self-folding” (where, unfortunately, we fell all over), and playing poker until late at night.

Maciej Cisowski, IT Project Manager in ValueLogic

From the beginning, we have been a company that aims to stand out with a unique atmosphere. ValueLogic has grown in a short time to a large team of more than 100 employees. When there were fewer of us, the cozy vibe and non-corporate atmosphere built itself. With a larger team, especially working remotely, it’s important, we already have to create new opportunities for integration, but still keep our core values. We appreciate normality, we don’t impose a business lifestyle on employees, we let them choose what they enjoy and what relaxes them.

Learn about our other initiatives! We make good things happen and create engaging CSR: Technology inclusion for seniors – how does it work?

Project work goes smoothly when we want to think together to solve problems in code, choose technology together for the client’s business, and even argue together about the most effective solution. Teams that like each other have the ease of giving each other open honest feedback, and thanks to that, the clear communication that our clients so appreciate. And most importantly: you don’t have to come up with exotic vacations and fireworks at all to make it a bit of fun for employees and show them that the company really appreciates their commitment. Sometimes it’s worth asking what will make the team happy and exploring real-world options.