5 ways we keep our Bronco team motivated and happy

No matter how much you love your job – and what’s not to love in digital marketing? – staying motivated and engaged in your work day after day can be tricky. When you’re hit with an unexpected Google update or you’re bogged down with audits up to your ears, it’s all too easy to switch off and fall back onto autopilot to see you through.

We’ve never wanted our team to feel like coming to work is a chore, so making sure that the balance between work and play is all-important to us. Did you know that 11 of our 15 strong team have been at Bronco for more than a decade? That’s dedication! As a team, we’ve been through thick and thin together and come out stronger on the other side.

As such, we’ve got a few tricks up our sleeve that ensures that staff at Bronco remain happy. After all, a happier and more motivated team is a more productive one, with better results for clients at the end of the day and feeling excited to get back into the office every morning.

1. In-office perks

Keeping a positive atmosphere around the office while we’re going about our work is key at Bronco, and we’ve developed a few ways to keep the good vibes flowing in the office. In the kitchen, our team has access to a constant supply of fruit, biscuits and drinks of all kinds, ice lollies when the weather is warm and mince pies and other festive treats as we approach the Christmas period. We also make sure that if anyone has anything they’d especially like regularly to get that for them too: apple juice, Pepsi, almond milk, rice cakes and peanut butter.

We have several break out areas for the team to use during breaks and lunch, as well as outside of normal work hours, including our very own Bronco Gym where we can get the blood flowing and muscles pumping, complete with a personal trainer who runs team sessions every Wednesday lunchtime, and the Bronco Garden where everyone gets involved in weeding and tending to our plants. Then there are the standing desk options and ergonomically designed chairs to make sure that we’re all comfortable while working. And finally, we have two extra fluffy team members, Cooper and Murphy, who are always available for cuddle therapy when it all gets too much!

2. Out of work perks

While we don’t want to take up everyone’s downtime out of the office with work events, we feel it’s important to take the time to bond as a team outside the working environment. Every year, we celebrate Bronco’s birthday – not just with cake in the day time, but with a meal at a local restaurant in Ripon for the whole team. Just before we finish for Christmas, we have the Bronco Christmas party, held at a local hotel where the team celebrates with a meal, a bit of a party, and a night’s stay in the hotel – partners are also invited to this event. Speaking of which, we also have the annual Secret Santa and Christmas Jumper Day just before we close down over the Christmas break – this time is given to the staff for “free”, meaning we don’t need to save holidays to get time off over Christmas, every day between Christmas Eve and New Years Day is allocated as Bronco’s time off – although we’re still available for emergencies if need be! We’re also treated to gifts from Bronco Santa on our desks at Christmas, and eggs from the Bronco Bunny at Easter.

Then there are the events that Team Bronco participate in such as Tough Mudder – we first completed this in 2017 with 15 people wearing Bronco’s famed blue vests crossing the finish line. These are fantastic for bringing the team together and motivating us. We also have the lesser noticed perks, but still very much appreciated, such as private health insurance that ensure we’re on top form all the time and a fuel subsidy to cover our mileage to and from the office.

And finally, we also take part in what we call “positivity days” every 6 months or so. These are coaching sessions run by Bernie Price that have taught us to “check our shadows”, how to communicate more effectively with one another and clients, what everyone’s personality types are and how they can best work together, how to give and receive feedback and so much more. We come away from these sessions feeling refreshed and ready to put our new skills into practice.

3. The Bronco Values

We like to think of Bronco as a second family, after all, you spend so much of your life in the office that it’s only natural. As a result, we’ve developed a list of values – things that are important to Bronco as a team and as a family – to keep everything running smoothly. Our values include: “pride & passion”, “be exceptional” and “show gratitude” among many others.

We have a copy of these values stuck in the kitchen so that while we’re making our lunch or doing the washing up (which we all chip in on!), we can refresh our minds on them. In addition to this, we have little reminders stuck around the office too – in the meeting room, on the mirrors in the toilets – to think about accountability (ask yourself “What more could I have done?”) and to inspire us.

4. Investing in the community

We’ve taken the opportunity to direct some of our time, skills and financial efforts towards the community. Over the years this has meant sponsoring local sports teams, supporting Bees & Co. (recently rebranded from Bees for Business) with our own Bronco hive, collecting donations for the local food bank, and taking part in events to raise money for local causes that are close to our hearts.

Even though these aren’t necessarily directly work-related, taking the time to invest in the local community is very important to us as a company. Not only does this make staff feel better about themselves, but it also helps out local sports teams, small businesses, charities and the environment in the long run. Much like our positivity days with Bernie Price and other out of work perks, the effect of these on our client work isn’t always direct or completely obvious, but keeping our team content in the background keeps us motivated to push harder, stronger and better for clients.

5. Regular check-ins

Making sure that we’re staying on track is key; it ensures that everyone feels part of the wider team and that we’re all heading in the right direction. We have regular check-ins with the team, whether that’s scheduled sit-downs in the meeting room, a quick catch up over coffee in the kitchen, or simply chats at our computers between different team members working on projects. We make individual and team commitments at our positivity sessions and are encouraged to remember these regularly and act on them. We also have a vote each month for Employee of the Month to recognise the hard work done by the team and reward them for it (with a trophy on our desk for the month!), but it’s clear to see just how appreciative everyone is as the vote is very often tied or a close call as people split their votes when so many people have been helpful and deserving of the award.

Most importantly, we have our Monday morning huddles where we all catch up on the work we’ve done the past week, what we’ve got coming up this week, and any other important bits we need to know. Knowing that the team is all on the same page and up to date on everything we’re doing – both client-side and Bronco-side – ensures that we’re all striving for the same goals.