FutureBrand North America is proud to announce that it won the Best Hybrid Work Environment award in DigiDay’s 2022 WorkLife Awards. The annual awards programme recognises the top employers globally and the values that make them unique. This year, a new category was introduced to celebrate company culture in a hybrid work environment.
The COVID-19 pandemic changed work culture forever. Organisations all over the world had to find balance in this disrupted environment, but with change comes growth opportunities — for employees and for businesses. A core part of the solution was to implement a flexible working and hybrid environment; however, achieving a shared sense of purpose and culture across teams, especially in different time zones, was challenging.
At FutureBrand, we strive to deliver positive brand-led business transformation to our clients but to do this successfully, we need to provide our own employees with a best-in-class workplace experience. Working remotely during the pandemic resulted in major changes in team dynamics, so this acknowledgement comes after an incredibly successful year of resetting our workplace culture and taking into account our employees’ needs and personal experiences of hybrid life.
Our employees are the most important assets we can ask for, so we did everything in our power to ensure their comfort and well-being during this unprecedented shift. The future of work is a balancing act between intimacy and flexibility, and we recognise that a strong workplace culture is built on experiences that prioritise equal representation of people from all levels. We work hard to ensure that everything we do is inclusive for everyone - from dedicated time to team meetings to mental health support globally.
Simon Hill President - FutureBrand North America
Throughout the last 12 months, the goal for North America was to foster a creative culture with a passion for excellence and growth – all underpinned by our value system of being progressive, adaptable, collaborative and empowering. Despite the disruption of our workflow, we managed to adapt to the new operation processes very quickly, resulting in an engaged and motivated workforce globally.
There were several practical steps that the North American team took to make this a reality, including:
- Redesigning the office to be an 80% shareable space, featuring smaller break-out spaces for solo work and varied technology support.
- Embracing the PACE values model (progressive, adaptable, collaborative, and empowering), which meshes perfectly with hybrid working. The team applied learnings from the lockdown, and these efforts have resulted in an improvement in our team's individual wellness.
- Adopting a flexible social approach: this year, the team hosted a virtual and in-person summer party, empowering colleagues to attend whichever they felt most comfortable at.
The benefits felt as a result of this approach has been striking – from an uplift in year-on-year growth to a boost in productivity and the ability to recruit talent across the US.
"This recognition is fantastic for boosting our team morale. In our most recent employee survey, 93% of the team felt that FutureBrand has a strong culture and sense of belonging. As a leader striving to bring the company’s values to an individual level, I couldn’t be prouder of the initiatives we implemented internally to support our employees. And getting nominated for an award is just the cherry on top."
Clare-Louise Smith Group Director of Client Experience - FutureBrand North America
The pandemic also brought a silver lining to FutureBrand - a positive shift in the mindset towards a work-from-anywhere approach that enables us access to a broader talent pool across different regions. The hybrid workplace not only helped us build a resilient culture and prepared us for any future disruptions but allowed us to cultivate a more caring environment for our employees.
