In this article, we talk to one of our customers about how their Perth based digital agency uses our employee surveys to build a better, happier team within their business.
Today’s guest is Laura Egerton, one of three company directors at Perth digital agency, Bam Creative. In between handling her projects, and being busy with her digital campaigns, Laura was kind enough to answer the following questions. This Perth-based company in Australia has a been using employee surveys powered by 6Q for the last six months.
Thank you Laura for taking time with us today. Let’s start by asking you, what does Bam Creative do, and where are you located?
Bam Creative started back in mid 2002, and we build innovative, goal-focused campaigns and website for a range of clients across many different industries, such as the education sector, government and travel companies. We create mobile apps, landing pages, work on optimisation, social media and creating fantastic websites that not only look great, but achieve the objectives our clients are after.
We’re located in sunny Perth, Western Australia.
How many people work at Bam Creative? Tell us a little about the typical roles there.
We have three main teams; designers who create the amazing visual elements of our campaigns and projects, the strategy team who ensure that we meet our goals, and the development team who do everything ‘under the hood’ when it comes to the websites and apps we create.
There are 14 of us in total, which is great because it means we are small enough all to be in the one physical office.
Some of the Bam Creative team visiting Bali, Indonesia
What sort of team building activities have you tried? What has worked best?
We’ve done a number of things; we’ve taken the entire team overseas three times, which is always great fun and a good opportunity for everyone to let their hair down.
We have also run a number of in office sprints, where we pause work for a day and get the entire team working together on a surprise project. These sprints are always a challenge, but the team rises to the occasion to work together to achieve a series of goals in a short amount of time. I find that these work best to improve communication and understanding of different job roles within the team.
How do you incorporate the results of the 6Q employee surveys in your business?
We hold a weekly session called ‘Five minute meetings’ where the directors meet with each employee for five minutes, face to face, and discuss their 6Q responses, how they feel their week has gone and anything else they are keen to discuss.
Whilst it takes us an average of an hour per week to do this, we find it very beneficial, and the team really enjoys the chance each week to have a quick chat.
Employee survey report for Bam Creative
What about High Fives? Do you use these, and what has the feedback been to them?
The team loves the high fives, along with the employee surveys.
We all get a kick out of receiving them, and each week, one of the directors posts a screen grab of this week’s high fives to our staff slack channel, and makes a point of congratulating everybody.
The fact they are anonymous really helps; we want to encourage all of our team to help each other; if they knew who was sending these high fives, it may skew their behaviour.
If you could only give one tip, based on your experience, what’s the best way to engage with your employees?
Be open and transparent with them. Our team at Bam is more like a family, or ‘bamily’ as we like to call it. Honest, open communication ensures that everyone feels supported and enjoys coming to work creating fantastic websites, everyday.
Honest, open communication ensures that everyone feels supported and enjoys coming to work everyday.
– Laura Egerton, Bam Creative
What are your plans in the near future? Do you have any plans for further employee engagement coming up?
The employee surveys have been a great way for the directors to gain an insight into our teams week, in future, I would love to see a focus on internal peer review.
I think it’s important for the team to be transparent not only with the directors, but with each other. For example, if they’re having a great week, the whole team should know. Similarly if someone is having difficulties, sharing this knowledge would give the team opportunity to rally around and help where they can.
In Summary
As we’ve read, Laura and the team are big on ensuring great employee engagement, and are fully committed to employee surveys to help them highlight any issues, and understand the team sentiment.
Their commitment to constant review and feedback ensures they have a great company culture. I especially like Laura’s remark about open and honest communication.
