Organizational Culture and Environment: Discover the Sabiá Way of Working and Flying
As an advertising agency that started out as a full-service one in 2008, we have come a long way to get here, where we have developed our way of working, singing, and flying.
We understand that consolidating a culture requires daily practices and continuous work. Therefore, we have evolved our management system to face challenges (which have not been few in recent years), sustained innovation, empowered teams, and made our nest a unique place to work.
THE CHALLENGE
We think it is essential that culture be permeated by our “heat sources” — the term of endearment by which we call our values. They are: enjoyment, confidence, commitment, courage, curiosity, closeness, and collaboration.
But how can we turn theory into practice? How can our values be present in all processes? To answer these questions, we created a dynamic management model inspired by continuous improvement practices.
THE SOLUTION
To have an open, safe, and collaborative work environment, we understand that having a tool that guides our actions is a great start.
That is why we adopted the Great Place to Work survey (GPTW) in 2017 as a compass to continuously increase the engagement of our work environment with a vision of continuous improvement.
We also create a continuous improvement flow by leveraging insights from this GPTW survey.
Take a closer look at the steps:
1) GPTW Survey > Insights
In the annual GPTW surveys, we can see how the actions impact our employees’ perception of what we have been doing well and where we can improve. Based on that, we put together a powerful action plan in a collaborative way, which guides our constant quest to always evolve.
GPTW certification is the guide for our achievements and internal actions:
The application of the survey shows our constant quest to improve our nest by obtaining everyone’s commitment, dedication, and engagement. The birds’ responses show that we are doing well when it comes to working towards having a special environment.
We have been able to develop our activities and services with high performance and an established management system and culture. Every beginning of the year, we carry out a precise analysis of the responses obtained through the GPTW questionnaire, define where we want to get, set tangible goals, and achieve good results.
We use the benchmark assessment to, on a comparative basis, prioritize improvement actions when it comes to points we are great at and maintain excellence when it comes to points we are already working on.
As we work with horizontal communication and radical transparency, where all of the birds know everything and have a voice, the action plan is organized by the team who suggests the priorities and defines the steps. Thus, all actions taken correspond to our vision and values. At this stage, a key point of our culture is consolidated: collaboration. Our birds feel valued and more connected with our agency.
3) Taking Actions and Digging Deeper
Here is a list of examples of actions that strengthen our culture:
Remote work
We have been working remotely since 2020. Our nest is in the cloud, so each bird can work wherever they are and want, whether in Brazil or anywhere in the world. This expanded our reach and we now have even more diverse teams from different regions of Brazil.
Language courses
As we serve customers from different countries and in order to be able to communicate and create materials in English and Spanish, in addition to Portuguese, we enhanced our range of language courses available so that birds are even more prepared in their careers and personal lives.
Training
Sabiá maintains an active collaborative training program for birds. Through this program the birds say which courses and topics they wish to learn about on a monthly basis, and everyone decides which ones to invest in during that period, making dreams come true in a collaborative manner. This is a way to encourage and empower growth in the nest by giving everyone room to fly higher!
Annual feedback
We assess the performance and give feedback to each team member every December. Thus, we were able to outline their career plan, understand how they are feeling, and see what they want in their personal and professional life.
Career plan
You need to get momentum to fly! That is why we develop a special career plan for each bird at Sabiá, so you can know in advance the path you need to take to reach the position you want and understand the necessary skills to obtain it. Our team prepares and develops together to sing beautifully in one accord in every corner.
Workout
We hold a quarterly meeting where we take time to focus on our agency’s strategy. For a whole day we talk about the evolution of the business, discuss goals, and enjoy the content and collaborative interchange of experiences.
Sabiá communication channel
Our birds have a direct communication channel with the leaders. In addition to traditional chat channels, it is possible to send messages to leaders anonymously to address more sensitive topics or schedule meetings to deal with sensitive topics related to the form of treatment and the guarantee of fair practices at all times.
Feedforward
We have a special online feedforward space in our nest, where our birds can share messages with their workmates. This is a loving way to encourage and empower our team.
#ProudOfBeingABird
We want to know what our birds are proud of at Sabiá, learn about their creative processes, in addition to what inspires and motivates them. That is why we created #SabiáShare, where we encourage each bird to share the results of their jobs.
Diversity initiatives
Here at Sabiá we have a diverse nest with all birds bringing their song, tone, and charm. And to further strengthen our commitment to a more diverse and inclusive nest, we created a series of actions aimed at promoting a respectful, inclusive organizational culture so that everyone can express themselves and fly without fear in an open, safe, and collaborative environment.
External mentoring
According to our commitment to the development of our birds, our creative members participate in mentoring meetings with external experts. This time of interchange of experiences is perfect for them to have their questions answered, carry out work analysis, aim to improve their technical skills, and enhance their competencies.
Pledge 1%
Sabiá is part of the Pledge 1%, a worldwide program whose objective is to make “donation” part of the DNA of companies. Every semester we choose an organization to help with communication support, fundraising, among other activities. Since 2017 our birds have engaged with various social organizations. These are some of the organizations that our birds helped make a difference:
Short Friday
Every 15 days our birds have the Short Friday dynamic, an action to optimize the balance of life in the nest by starting to enjoy Friday earlier to make the most of the last working day of the week.
RESULT
By investing in strengthening our culture, we managed to build a strong, resilient, and engaged team. A team that can find creative solutions for our customers. We are formed by people who make a difference and deliver a differentiated work.
• Strengthened organizational culture
• Engaged team
• Employees’ sense of belonging
• We received the GPTW seal 5 times in a row — and we are working towards our sixth 😉