Destination: Remote - our home office makeover project

We all know that the space we choose to work in has direct influence not just on our wellbeing, but also our productivity. And as usual, no one solution fits all. Some companies invest in big open-plan spaces, others prefer a more cozy office with separate rooms for different teams.

But how can you create the perfect office space for your remote staff?

That is a question we were recently faced with, as many of the 10Clouders who used to enjoy coming to the office almost every day had to change their habits due to the pandemic.

What prompted the home office makeover project?

10Clouds has always operated as a remote first company, but 2020 still impacted a lot of our employees. While there’s no obligation to come to the office, many still preferred to do so, meaning that they didn’t have a dedicated working space at home.

It’s one thing to tough it out through a month of lockdown, but just like everyone else, we quickly realised the pandemic wasn’t going to go away quickly. We needed to look for long term solutions.

This is why we launched a special project under the code name of Destination: Remote. The goal was to create an amazing remote work experience for everyone, even those who under normal circumstances would prefer to still visit the office.

The very first initiative under the Destination: Remote flag became the home office makeover project.

How did we engage our employees?

We announced the home office makeover project during the 10Clouds Christmas Party, one of the biggest events we all gather for. The event itself was, of course, also remote. It seemed like the perfect occasion for introducing everyone to the new Destination:Remote team as well, so they knew that it wasn’t just a one time project.

The rules were simple: every employee gets a home makeover budget to spend as they wish. All they had to do in order to join the fun was to share a before and after picture so we can all get inspired by each other’s ideas. There were no forms to fill in, no receipts to send in. We decided to trust 10Clouders to make responsible decisions autonomously.

Of course those who decided their home offices were perfect and didn’t require further work were invited to donate their allocated amount to a charity of their choice.

What were the results?

It’s hard to know exactly what to expect when launching a completely new initiative, but we were delighted to see that almost 80% of all 10Clouders got involved in the home office makeover. We’ve seen so many great pictures shared and discussions started, we definitely felt a boost in employee engagement. And it wasn’t just the organisers of the initiative - all of the participants shared this sentiment according to the post initiative survey, with 92,6% being very satisfied and 7,4% being satisfied with the project.

This is by far one of our most successful wellbeing initiatives so far and we are excited to see not just the immediate effects, but also the long term effects for each and every 10Clouder.

Are we in fact more productive than before? Are we happier and healthier? Has our overall wellbeing increased? We hope to go back and look for answers to these questions in a couple of months.

In the meantime, we’re working on more initiatives that will help make remote work an amazing experience. Keep visiting our blog to learn more about how we’re doing!

Looking for remote work?

Check out our Careers page for the latest opportunities. You might just be our next colleague!