With the introduction of hybrid working post-pandemic, and a growing international workforce, face-to-face collaboration has become a real focus for us at Matcher Technologies Ltd.

As a company we recognise the benefits of collaboration and have initiatives in-place to encourage good collaborating. These include, ensuring cross-functional teams work together on projects, regular online meetings with those working away from our head office, and amending our weekly, company all-hands call to occur at a time in the day that means all our staff can dial in from wherever they are located.

However, there are challenges with this. Just collaborating online can lead to things getting lost-in-translation. It is widely known that communication is not just about the words used. It is more about body language and the tone of your voice. So, you could argue there is no substitute for still meeting in person, face-to-face.

This is why, as a company, we introduced ‘collaboration week’.

Twice a year, everyone who works for the company comes together and meets face-to-face for a whole week. During this time, we organise collaborative cross-functional meetings to drive creativity, to help move projects forward, we give informative presentations, and host workshops about different aspects of our company, for example, during the last collaboration week, we workshopped the company vision, mission, aims and values. This was the perfect opportunity to refresh those who were already familiar, but to also introduce any new members of staff to the concepts. Being face-to-face meant engagement was high, queries could be explained, and management were happy that everyone’s understanding was aligned.

Good collaboration helps to get work done, and aids innovation. By bringing together our Product Consultants from around the world, with our development team who are all UK-based, they were able to get round a table to easily share and discuss feedback from our end users. This collaboration aids the development of our product and the agreement of prioritised next steps.

Effective collaboration also boosts staff morale. During the most recent collaboration week HR ran a workshop all about our ‘people strategy’. Having small groups of people together, in-person, fostered a relaxed environment for staff to share their ideas with HR about attracting, retaining, developing, and recognising our staff. Hosting it during collaboration week when the whole company was together meant everyone felt equally included and their opinions valued.

Our collaboration weeks encourage people from different functions in the business to work better together. This increases their knowledge of each function and informs them how the work they do benefits the wider company and our customers. An example of this during our last collaboration week was when our Head of Sales led a session about the sales cycle and all the steps involved. This meant people in other departments understood what they are already contributing to the company closing a sale and what they could do even more of to support this process. It isn’t just down to the responsiveness of our Sales team. We now understand better how the fantastic feedback our Service & Support team receives, and the continual development of our Matcher system, are also big drivers of new sales.

We have a lot of fun during collaboration week with team offsite days. Our activities so far have included volunteering with local environmental charities, escape rooms, abseiling, cookery classes, wood whittling, and many meals out. It is usually during these days where you find out most about your colleagues, and really bond as a team.

As a global company, we have found that collaborating face to face is extremely valuable on many levels. Collaboration weeks allow our employees to take the time to get to know each other better, to build and solidify relationships, and align with the aims and values of the company. This in turn boosts staff morale, improves communication, and strengthens our company culture, which makes us a great place to work. Tom, our Service Delivery Manager summarised it best, “We’re a technology company, but it’s our people that set us apart.”