Building a community at work

One thing I enjoy about working at Duck Creek Technologies is how we share our personal interests at work. Being a remote first company, it is not always easy  to get to know people and build relationships personally , so we make an effort to support that through our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), our Be Well initiatives, and encouraging social time before and after work-specific topics during meetings.

I am an active member of the Live Music community where we post updates, photos and videos about concerts we've attended or performed in. It's a great way to break the ice in group meetings when I recognize someone from the Live Music community I otherwise might not know. 

At a time in the pandemic when most of us were spending more time at home, I had the opportunity to put together a webinar about how to use GarageBand for anyone interested in music production. I did a demo of building a composition track by track with a basic introduction to music theory and some tips and tricks. We are an insurance software company, so music production isn’t a work-related topic, but it turns out there are dozens of fellow employees who showed up and were excited to compare notes about music composition and audio production. It was an enjoyable creative outlet for me to put together a training session that would appeal to novices as well as folks who were more knowledgeable, and I found there are many more musicians at Duck Creek than I realized.

Enabling employees to share their personal passions can be a great way for people to feel more at home, get to know their peers better, connect with others with common interests, and provide opportunities to make small talk and regular social connections. I know it's helped me to connect with my peers and made me a happier employee.

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