In this instalment, we chat to Jack (Moneybox People Manager) and get the inside scoop on the team who make sure the social side of Moneybox is alive and kicking!
Who looks after the social side at Moneybox?
We have a designated Culture Committee of seven people from across the business. We’re all volunteers who wanted to be involved in shaping the social side of the company. We meet every fortnight to discuss various ideas, activities and initiatives. We’ve done some really fun things in the last few years and the team have had some great times so expectations are high…but we’re happy to rise to the challenge.
So what activities have the Culture Committee organised?
There are so many things we’ve arranged but I guess it can be roughly broken down into four categories. Sports, monthly socials, birthday lunches and ‘other’.
Sports – as the saying goes, a healthy body is a healthy mind and we try to encourage that. We have organised a fortnightly running club for lunchtime jogs around St James’s Park and back. We’ve introduced a super-popular monthly yoga class– a great way to re-align the Chakras!! We also have a 7-aside football team which plays nearby every couple of weeks.. I can remember when we had to ask other companies in our building to join just to make up the numbers and now there are almost too many people wanting to fit in. We’ve also started a boxing fitness class on a Friday lunchtime – lucky for us we’ve got a couple of experts amongst our ranks who help run the sessions.
Monthly socials – these are a highlight for many team members and are really fun to organise. Each month we do something different so we have to think creatively about what we feel people would enjoy. To date, we’ve arranged an afternoon/evening at Go Ape (an outdoor ropes course), a photo scavenger hunt around Southwark/Waterloo, bowling, ping pong at Bounce, karaoke, pool (as in snooker, not the swimming kind) at the 1920’s bar and many, many more!
Birthday lunch – this is another much-awaited monthly occurrence. Once a month we organise lunch for everyone in the business to celebrate the birthdays of people who were born in that month. Each time we try a different type of cuisine so the food on offer changes from month to month. We’re currently alternating between delicious choices from City Pantry and Deliveroo.
Other – this includes things like our Bake-Off competition where we ask team members to bring in all kinds of impressive baked creations over the course of many weeks or “rounds”. Team members vote by choosing an amount to donate to their favourite baker. By the end of the competition this year we managed to raise £500 for charity! We’ve also had a couple of board game nights which we’ll try to make into a more regular event (board games appear to be making a comeback!?).
One of my favourite ideas the Culture Committee has had was a Valentine’s Day initiative. We decided to put together little notes for everyone in the company highlighting something/s that we appreciated about them (it sounds really cheesy, I know). So, the morning of Valentine’s Day, everyone had some chocolate hearts and a note waiting for them on their desk – the feedback we received for this was brilliant.
