Q: Over the past year, what extra actions have you taken to strengthen your company’s culture and keep employees engaged, motivated and happy at work?

Cole Stark, Owner/President, Gator Garb Promotions

“Here are a few things that we have changed:

  1. Weekly meetings with our entire staff were put in place that allow us to share our personal lives as well as fun, new findings in the business world.
  2. We built “The Swamp.” Our sales team remodeled a building at our office as a bar/conference room. It was a fun project that showcases our fun work environment and a great place to network with clients and suppliers.
  3. Added a never-ending supply of snacks and treats for employees who were in the office.
  4. Although we couldn’t host company events this past year, we didn’t stop talking about them and planning them. We celebrated the start of summer with a company grill-out followed by a local baseball game, which was very refreshing to all hang out again.
  5. We learned how to work remotely. We added a hybrid work schedule to our everyday business model that includes Freddie Fridays (named after our founder), which ends our days at noon on Fridays to spend a longer weekend with family and friends.

“I would say the key to our success in 2020 was our ability to embrace change. 2020 was a challenge and the whole team took on the responsibility to come out better at the end of the COVID world. We all learned something new and valuable that we can take with us for future success.”