The Olympics is all about bringing the international community together and working as a team to achieve success, making it the perfect inspiration for Silverline’s end-of-the-year team-building event with employees across the world.
“Silverline Olympics was inspired by our values, culture of trying to have fun (including some healthy competition), and commitment to fostering a connected, global community,” said Shanna Sandy, Director of People. “It served as our 2021 year-end celebration and brought our teams together for fun in a mostly virtual environment. It was truly amazing to see our Silverliners participate in various individual and team challenges that resulted in peer recognition, individual development, and wellness, as well as cross-regional and cross-functional connection.”
The objective of the Silverline Olympics was to obtain the highest average points per person for your team, with prizes awarded for individual achievement in each of these challenges:
- Always Learning: Complete a microlearning course in Cornerstone, our learning platform.
- Coffee Buddies: Schedule a virtual coffee chat with a Silverliner you don’t know
- Kudos Challenge: Recognize a deserving Silverliner in Espresa, our culture benefits platform
- Photo Contest: Put your creativity to the test by taking a photo with the Silverline logo
- Wellness Challenge: Complete one of three daily wellness challenges
- Game Show Challenge: Compete against other teams in a virtual game show
We saw significant engagement across the entire organization, with over 5200 completed challenges: 588 learning activities, 1691 coffee chats, 2575 wellness challenges, 305 kudos given, and 72 photo submissions. And all of this over the course of two weeks! Teams in India and Central America were especially active, taking the top 3 spots on the leaderboard.
“Silverline Olympics was a meaningful event which helped us know more about Silverliners and recognize their efforts,” said Shwetha Rao, Senior QA Engineer. “There was a race to learn about people and ourselves.” Rao made that race a sprint, and she was the top finisher with 146 completed challenges.
Reva Siva, Senior QA Engineer, took the silver, but just barely, with 145 completed challenges. Siva appreciated how the Olympics reinforced a spirit of collaboration, healthy competition, and fun, and how eager everyone was to learn more about their coworkers: “The whole team enjoyed it a lot and got a chance to get to know each other.”
The popularity of the coffee chats was especially inspiring, and we loved seeing Silverline veterans and new hires share their experiences. “I most enjoyed the coffee catch-ups and learning a lot about many Silverliners and leaders,” said Sreedhar Nadadur, Director, Managed Services. “It was a very good way to learn about Silverliners as a newcomer, and a good way to learn and refresh a few soft skills. I also appreciated the creativity I saw many Silverliners post on selfies.”
“I really enjoyed coffee catch-up, through which I made many friends and got a chance to know about them personally and share similar interests,” said Arpitha Devaraja, Developer. “I usually work out thrice a week or so but the wellness challenge pushed me to do physical and mental activity consistently everyday. The game show was completely fun and informative — so happy to participate in it and eventually win it!”
The wellness of our employees is a top priority for us, and the Silverline Olympics gave us the opportunity to build on the work we had done with our Fresh Air Self Care challenge earlier in the year.
“It was a great reminder to take care of our physical and mental health,” said Edward Dalton, Business Analyst. “We had a lot of fun and it was nice to share it with collaborators based all over the world. I also learned how to give Kudos on Espresa and discovered the Coffee Buddies system.”
“What I most enjoyed was the global interaction of the team,” said Joanna Bak, Developer. “The photo challenges especially, allowed us to get a glimpse of how we all live and work in our corners of the world and connect in a creative, visual way.” Bak’s photos were two of the funniest, posing with her Silverline sleep mask at Seaworld, both at the aquarium and on the Mako roller coaster.
Paige Thompson, Business Analyst/Consultant, showed off her makeup skills by painting the Silverline logo on her face. The Silverline logo travelled all across the world during the photo challenge, from beaches to stadiums to outside the San Miguel volcano in El Salvador. The photo challenge also helped bring coworkers together, like when Michael LePore, Creative Director, and Ilka Lauermann, Director, Managed Services, met up in Maui.
“The Silverline Olympics couldn’t have come at a more welcome time,” said Lepore. “I was struggling with some burnout and the competition encouraged me to push through my complacency and my barriers while making me refocus on building some healthier and constructive habits. The added bonus was that I got to engage with and start a friendship with a fellow coworker who was on island vacationing. I’m now in a work-group book club (developing more healthy habits!) — an invite which stemmed from a conversation we had after taking our challenge photo together.”
The Silverline Olympics showed us how we could encourage our team members to make stronger connections with each other, while also devoting attention to their ongoing learning and personal wellness. It created an enthusiastic, uplifting atmosphere for the end of the year, and we can’t wait to see how the relationships built during the Olympics benefit our organization’s future.
Do you want to join a team that fosters connection and appreciation, no matter where you work? Check out available positions on our Careers page.
