I kicked off the year in my new permanent role of Talent Manager, People & Culture at Movio with a blog post expressing my excitement and prospective challenges for the year ahead. Now that I’m at the other end, it’s clear to see how huge this year has been for the Movio Crew, both at work and at play. Alongside our business growth, our social calendar has been equally busy.
I wanted to use this opportunity to look back and reflect on what the Movio Crew have been up to behind-the-scenes in 2016. So, where do I begin?
We welcomed summer with team BBQs over the warmer months out in the sunny courtyard, then brought the festivities indoors for May the Fourth where we celebrated in full Star Wars costume and a themed shared lunch. This was followed by our Auckland team fun day that combined go-karting and cooking classes - but not at the same time! We were in full swing by mid-year, with the main highlight being the weekend ski trip down in Turoa.
For those that missed Star Wars Day, there was another chance to dress up later in the year for our Halloween shared lunch. Staff were encouraged to bring along their spookily themed kitchen creations to share with the team, and there were some truly terrifying contributions. The next big event on our social calendar is our ‘James Bond: Casino Royale’ themed Christmas party - the perfect way to end the year with a bang!
Aside from the big celebrations, we hosted our popular annual activities including; team movie nights out, monthly BBQs, and the bi-annual Hackathons. On top of these, we tried a lot of new initiatives to improve staff wellbeing. We held a Pink Ribbon breakfast event to raise money for breast cancer, which was a massive success and smashed our target of $2,000. Other highlights were the free OPSM staff eye-check, the daily fruit box deliveries, and the microgreens we grew in-office - they were so impressive, they got featured in the Sunday Star Times!
The Movio Run Club had a very busy year, too, participating in Round the Bays, the Rotorua Marathon and the Powerade Challenge (where we currently hold the top spot). This season, we also started our very first touch rugby team which we lovingly named the “Movio Blockbusters”. Continuing our fitness and wellbeing theme, we also recruited five more members to weekly yoga squad.
The biggest highlight of 2016 has got to be when Movio won the award for ‘Duncan Cotterill Innovative Software Product’ for Movio Media at the Hi-Tech Awards in May - that was a special moment! The executive team acknowledged everyone’s hard work and contribution by splurging on champagne and celebrations. That’s not all, as Vista Group also won on the night, taking away 'Hi-Tech Company of The Year' award.
One of the things that I love about working at Movio is the diverse workforce. We have 59 people from all around the world, all very talented and passionate about what they do. Being the geek that I am, I did a quick study of similar businesses and found we have a massive amount of cultural diversity in comparison - 26 different nationalities to be exact. This blend of cultures and personalities is undoubtedly a big part of why Movio is such a fun company to be a part of.
As you can see, we’ve had a great year and are all very excited for what 2017 holds. Check out our infographic below for some fun facts from the past 342 days, and view our latest vacancies on our career page. From everyone here at Movio, we wish you all a very happy holidays. That's a wrap!
