In Close Cooperation is Cegeka’s core value, genuine and authentic bonds being the foundation for it. Moving forward from remote work to hybrid work facilitated once more the possibility to engage in meaningful interactions and activities both online and at the office.
This year, while we maintain the same focus on flexibility and hybrid work, we aimed for consolidating our bonds and work In Close Cooperation. This is how we gave meaning to human interactions at work, through Moments That Matter.
In a nutshell, we’re staying tuned to our colleagues’ needs and tailor moments which capture them; be it through our Wellbeing initiatives from the Mind, Body, Purpose program, or encouraging healthy habits by staying active and being part of Marathons and internal sports initiatives and challenges.
Mental Health and Sports have been two main drives for our internal initiatives this year. We’ve had online workshops such as The Neuroscience of Human Connection and Trust, or Dealing with anxiety in times of uncertainty, Mindfulness in work and life, Growth Mindset, Healthy Habit for the Mind, just to name a few.
In the spirit of gaining insights on topics which are part of our day-to-day life, we added complementary flavors to the workshops' list, capturing themes such as nutrition, financial awareness, presentation skills, communication and personal branding.
Since we enjoy challenging ourselves, we were present to Color Run event, trail running competitions as well as 2 marathons - the Big Hearts Marathon from Chisinau and the Bucharest Marathons. The marathons’ goal was helping children in need, so we had the opportunity to encourage both healthy habits and do good deeds at the same time.
For those of us who wanted to smell the roses while being active, we had the 3rd internal edition of Steps Challenge. Although it is still a sports competition, this challenge helps us collaborate cross-city and cross-country and strengthen our bonds.
When Tour de France announced they’d be organizing for the first time an edition in Bucharest, we were steadfast to partner up and show our support with a team of 10 colleagues who eagerly took on the challenge in the biggest cycling event in Europe. We are very proud of one of our colleagues who won 1st place on the podium – Anca Zapodeanu took home the first prize for The Race 85 km, in the women's category, 30-39 yo category.
Apart from these events, we made a tradition out of having thematic Hangout Parties (Belgian Day, Halloween Party) at the end of each month with beer, pizza and good company. These events are moments that bring us together whether we choose to work from home or from the office, reconnecting face-to-face with our team and others as well.
During the summer we also had season appropriate events at the office like Ice Cream Day or Smoothie Bike Day – which frankly subscribes itself on both sports and staying healthy category, since you had to put in the effort for those smoothies!
We decided to create micro-experiences and to honor and cherish our bonds through team level Team Buildings. Therefore, each team was the creator of its desired experience in terms of where, what, when and how. This also offered the teams which have members across the country to gather in one desired location and celebrate - and, when you have 40+ colleagues in one place, we do know that party is the way to go.
In all this context, we feel that flexibility remains our best choice so far. It stimulates our employees, consolidating the work-life balance we strive so much to encourage. We're grateful that hybrid work is here since for us it is working like a charm. Both for customizing the best personal work-life balance and for interacting in authentic and meaningful Moments That Matter.