Thank God it’s Friday at IGW

10 April, 2020

At IGW, we work hard every day to make sure that we deliver prime, top-quality products to our customers. In order to be able to do that, we need focussed and committed employees. That’s why we like to organise special events from time to time; think family days or special team building events. They allow us to bond and commit even more because as the proverb goes: “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”

 

Fun Fridays

 

At our plant in Romania, our colleagues have come up with quite an original way to keep each other motivated and committed. In March of last year, they rolled out an initiative to organise theme activities on every first Friday of each month. The activities, and the strategies for them, are devised by the company ambassadors. They are creative colleagues with an ardent passion for our company who dedicate a portion of their free time to come up with interesting activities.

 

The inaugural activity in March of last year was to make hand made symbols for spring and hand them out to one another, a Romanian tradition known as trinkets (“martisorul” in Romanian). The aim was to make the most original martisor symbol. The other activities that are organised range from a running contest for charity in which our colleagues take on employees from other companies to selfie competitions and even parties. Last year, at Halloween, there was a pumpkin carving contest in which each department had to carve their own pumpkin, with the most original design receiving an award.

Other activities also had a more societal approach. One of them was an initiative to plant trees near the IGW plant in Iasi. The aim of the initiative was to raise both social and evironmental awareness. It’s fairly safe to say that it was a succes as no fewer than 300 trees were planted, all through great teamwork. A second initiative with a more social angle was Gratitude Friday. Our colleagues were asked to send a letter of gratitude to a someone in the company they were grateful to. A final activity included talking to somebody in the company that you don’t normally speak or socialise with. This was a great way to get to know more people and to learn more about our own processes.

 

 

IGW workers digging outside

Committed people

 

The effect of the Friday theme activities has been very clear. By enhancing the competitive spirit among our colleagues and just approaching team bonding differently, our departments have become even more driven. What’s more, the team spirit is stronger and it has turned out to be a great way to increase involvement and commitment even further. That, ultimately, is all that we as a company could wish for: strong teams in which proactive colleagues drive each other to even better results.