Our AnswerFirst volunteer Culture Committee had another great year!

Through the committee’s hard work, commitment and creativity we were able to have engaging activities for our employees each quarter. The goal to have at least one activity per quarter was actually exceeded with multiple activities in some quarters.

Starting in our first quarter we kicked off January with “A New Year Resolution Challenge” for any employee that wished to accept the challenge. They were able to join with a resolution regarding their career path or with a goal for their team here at AnswerFirst. The challenge was accepted by many and we had a few successful achievements when we checked back as 2018 came to a close. They are being recognized this month on their success.

February is always “Heart Health” month which brought a few initiatives to warm the hearts of those we love; our employees! Everyone was encouraged to share their favorite heart healthy recipes throughout that month to inspire us to eat a little more healthy. Some yummy, yet still healthy recipes, were shared with all employees. Valentine’s Day e-cards were sent out to all employees from our Director of Smiles, Penny Herron. Everyone loves getting a message from Penny and that sure did warm their hearts.

The month ended with positive messages or words of encouragement for all employees that were sent by the culture committee to each person on their assigned team. We also added a Share the Love Badge to their profile on our internal Intranet that was especially created for this initiative. We wanted every employee to know how much they are loved and appreciated. The quarter ended with green shenanigan fun by wearing our green for St Patrick’s day.

Our 2nd quarter of 2018 began with a surprise overnight visit from the Easter Bunny and the next day our office staff enjoyed an egg hunt!

April 15th marked a very special time for AnswerFirst – our 20 year anniversary. We celebrated with a week long competition called “The Amazing 20 years of AnswerFirst.”

Our Culture committee members were assigned as team captains and any other employees who wished to participate were assigned to a team. These teams each competed in different challenges during the week. These challenges included answering trivia questions about AnswerFirst over the last 20 years, employees sharing memories of what they were doing in 1998 with bonus points given when pictures accompanied their stories.

Another challenge asked employees to go out in the community and locate AnswerFirst clients; once employees found an AnswerFirst client, the employees were asked to take a selfie including the client’s sign, billboard or work vehicle. Bonus points were given if employees were able get a selfie with the actual AnswerFirst client or one of their staff members.  Our employees used those great opportunities to thank our clients in person for their contributions to our business success over the last 20 years.

AnswerFirst Lunch At Lowry Park Zoo

AnswerFirst Lunch At Lowry Park Zoo

At the beginning of this competition, each team was assigned a name based on a different zoo animal.  The competition concluded with a scavenger hunt that included a team picture in front of their team animal at the zoo during our “Family Fun Day at Zoo Tampa” on April 15.  Many employees attended and brought their families along as well. We all met for lunch and watched a 20 year celebration video that captured pictures and videos from the last 20 years.

Every employee was given a 20th anniversary AnswerFirst insulated tumbler that had been personalized with their name and a special message of thanks for their dedication and contributions to AnswerFirst. Those who were unable to attend received their tumblers by mail.

Our summers are always our busiest time of year in our industry, but we still wanted to find a small way to insert some engaging fun for our employees.

In June we held our “Summertime Fun Photo Contest.”  We know this time of year is typically when our employees enjoy their family vacations while their kids are on break from school. We asked employees to share their favorite summer photos so we could enjoy seeing how others spent their summer vacations. Our winner was one of our shift leads, Michelle, who traveled from Florida to visit family out in California. While in California, she happened to find one of our very popular clients and captured a photo of her encounter to share with all of us.

Our last quarter was a busy one beginning with an annual participation in National Customer Service week.

The entire week we provide different themes for each day including fun activities for everyone to participate in. We decorated our work areas, shared fun facts about ourselves, had magical fun with Disney attire, had twin dress alike day and even found our famous twin and so much more.

Our last event of the year was our annual end of the year celebration and crowning of our GEM award winner.

AnswerFirst Holiday Party 2018Our theme this year was “Flamingle and Jingle” where we combined traditions for all of our employees down here in the south and up north east and west in the cold or blustering snowy weather.

We had a snowman in the sand to combine the two.

We decorated with flamingo decor to go with our tropical setting here in Florida including a tropical buffet of food to enjoy.

Our holiday tree had decorations to represent all of the different states in which our employees reside and a candy table filled with the favorite candies for each of these states too.

One of our very creative employees made us a photo booth that had a backdrop of snowflakes and palm trees to go with our flamingo themed props.

Our reveal for our 2018 GEM Award winner ended the celebration on a fabulous note with one of our long time employees, Jaime, who consistently goes the extra mile was crowned as our winner to take home a bonus of $2,000 along with a beautiful GEM award trophy.

We are looking forward to an amazing 2019!