Written by Marisa Mann
As our families and friends commence with their annual traditions this holiday season, Solstice started a new tradition of its own in November -- Employee Appreciation Month.
November has always marked the start of a season filled with the spirit of gratitude and appreciation. It’s a time when we give thanks for our many blessings, which for us includes each and every one of our employees.
To celebrate our Solsties hard work and dedication, we honored a different discipline or team each day of November to shine light on how their consistent contributions throughout the year are directly responsible for Solstice’s continued success. Each discipline was not only showered in Slack messages, written letters and small treats, but they received a t-shirt from our Employee Experience department that highlighted their craft such as Scrum Masters' "Jack of all Trades, Master of Scrum" or Product's "Where We're Going, We Need Roadmaps."
Our senior leadership kicked off the celebrations by serving those who have served Solstice so diligently all year. As servant leaders in the company, the leadership team served lunch to all of the employees at all locations globally. The spirit of servant leadership, however, is about more than a meal. It is about fostering mutual appreciation for everyone in the Solstice family. It is about nurturing their mental, physical, and spiritual well being, so that they can attack each day with passion and energy. This vitality is critical for ensuring our teams are high functioning and capable of delivering valuable experiences to our clients and their customers.
As the month continued, we also took time out to celebrate the unique contributions each and every person makes to the company. Each practice shared their craft by demonstrating some of their daily activities, from a strategy ideation session for our new office, to an architecture activity to build a tall building out of pasta and marshmallows, to a whack-a-mole competition to represent how our office management team works to serve each and every one of us.
We also showed our appreciation for those that reached milestones in their career at Solstice, from 2 to 5 to 10 year anniversaries, we honored those that have helped Solstice scale and grow to the 400+ company we are today.
The first annual Employee Appreciation Month was a success thanks to a wonderful team who took an idea to celebrate each other and all aspects of Solstie life (practices, mentorship, philanthropy, mental health, our global locations, our clients) and ran with it across all of our Solstice offices. This month’s success is proof that you can make any idea become reality at Solstice, regardless of your role or title.
It is with complete collaboration and openness we can celebrate and appreciate each other during this special month in a deeply meaningful way. I am proud to be a part of a community where the sense of belonging is based on caring for each other and supporting each other in our quest to pursue our passion and find happiness where we spend most of our waking hours.
Cheers to our Solsties and thank you for giving us an opportunity to build a culture and workplace people only dream of!
