Sara: “Celebrating successes with the team strengthens the connection”
Sara about her job as Operations & HR manager.
She may literally be the smallest employee at Spryng, no one can (and will) avoid Sara. Because Sara takes care of just about everything in the office. As Operations & HR Manager she supervises the Monday morning meeting, helps with the on- and offboarding of colleagues, coaches employees, monitors the protocols around our ISO and NEN certifications and is a confidential advisor within Spryng. And we could go on like this for a while. Sara is an energetic and caring colleague, who comes from the events industry. She has lived in Amsterdam for over 15 years, now with her husband and two daughters, and loves windsurfing. Below she tells us more about her work and the HR policy of Spryng (to which she contributes quite a bit).
Sara's move to Spryng
"Exactly one year ago I was put in touch with Marc, CEO of Spryng. I was already in another application process, and coming from the events industry, a SAAS-related environment didn't make me very enthusiastic right away, but right from the first contact with Marc, I understood why a mutual acquaintance had brought us together. There was definitely a cultural fit and a personal click. And if one thing is important in finding a suitable job, that is it. So, two interviews later, I quit the other job application to start working at Spryng!
As an HR manager in previous jobs, I always did my best to give new employees the warmest possible welcome to the office during their first days. At Spryng, I didn't have to change that culture. On my first day, my desk was full of coloured balloons and there was a card on my desk with personal messages from the whole team. There was also a clear onboarding plan so I knew exactly when I had a training or meeting with whom. My feeling was confirmed: at Spryng there is a lot of attention for the employees. That made it not only enjoyable for me personally, it is also interesting for me as an operational manager."
How do you create a pleasant working environment?
"I get a lot of freedom to make Spryng an even nicer place to work for employees. How do we do that? A good onboarding starts with signing the contract. At Spryng we do that in the office; the signing is recorded on camera (nice for the home front) and afterwards we toast the new colleague with the team. Hopefully this makes the first day a lot less exciting.
At the beginning of this year, we also entered into a partnership with OpenUp. OpenUp gives our employees low-threshold access to a certified psychologist free of charge. For something small or big, a private matter or work related. There are also several webinars about personal development and even mindfulness lessons can be followed. I am very proud of this, because it shows that we really care about the health, mental well-being and safety of our employees. I also regularly talk to colleagues one-on-one to find out how they are doing and if there is anything I can do for them. We also start and end each day together and when someone has been employed for a year, Marc and Alexander take that person out to lunch. Every year, the lunch gets more luxurious, haha!
Celebrating milestones leads to better performance
"Celebrating a success should not be underestimated. By realising that you have achieved something, you also grow in your personal development and you can give these moments a place and prevent them from disappearing in the stream of daily events. For example, we recently introduced award drinks: every month, colleagues can nominate each other's successes via a kind of wall of fame and during the award drinks the winners are announced and we toast these successes together. Celebrating successes with your team also creates more connection and that is something we find important at Spryng. It's good for the cooperation, people are less concerned with competition and more with doing a good job as a team, which leads to better performance. And even though we have many sales-related functions, fortunately there is no cock-and-bull culture here. Everyone grants each other success, there is a strong team spirit. As an employee, I am happy about that and from my HR position I am proud that we can offer our employees this safe and pleasant environment."
