Something for the weekend: Retail marketing organisation Shopper Media Group (SMG) decided to roll out the red carpet for its latest staff motivation strategy, as it gave four new employees a treat-laden first day in the office, including a helicopter tour of Liverpool.
SMG designed what it felt would be the ‘best first day ever’ to celebrate reaching the 100-employee milestone. With four employees scheduled to start on the same day, all four were jointly awarded the title of being the 100th employee recruited to the organisation.
The four new joiners, who started at the organisation’s Liverpool office on 22 January 2018, began their first day at SMG in style, as they were picked up by a luxurious, white Hummer limousine. The non-typical, stress-free commute enabled the new employees to share breakfast and Bucks Fizz with their colleagues while they were driven to work.
After a red-carpet arrival at the office, the lucky new starters were handed their favourite coffees before being shown to their new desks that had been decorated with balloons and welcome greetings. Packed lunches could also be stowed away as the organisation founders took the four new employees to a nearby restaurant, Elephant, for a three-course lunch.
During the afternoon, the new joiners were able to attend their own pop-up café for numerous rounds of tea and cake, which were served by management. A bingo-style scavenger hunt also enabled the new starters to explore the office in order to find and meet key organisation names. The new employee who was first to finish also won a bottle of champagne.
Home-time continued the first day extravaganza as the four new employees were treated to a private helicopter tour of Liverpool to enjoy a bird-eye view of their working location.
Although the new employees were enjoying their first day at Liverpool, SMG’s offices in Manchester and London also celebrated the organisation’s 100th employee milestone with a celebratory breakfast, group lunch, goody bags and a bottle of champagne for every employee.
Matt Lee, co-founder at SMG, said: “When my co-founder and I started the [organisation] nine years ago in my bedroom with just £1,000 that we spent on business cards, we dreamt of creating [an organisation] that would give others the career growth opportunities we had enjoyed. Reaching 100 employees is such an exciting milestone for the [organisation], and we wanted to celebrate this achievement by giving our new starters the ultimate first day at work, and I think we’ve pulled it off.”
Joel Hopwood, co-founder at SMG, added: “Building SMG to this scale and size is a result of the creativity, courage and drive to succeed among everyone we have working here today. We always knew reaching this milestone would be a huge occasion for us and everyone who works for the group, so it was natural for us to do something different to mark such a momentous day.
"It was important for us to not only do something for those new joiners who have helped us reach the triple digits, but for everyone to be a part of the celebration and for us to come together, take in everything we've achieved, and truly feel part of something special and unique. We’ve built our workplace culture around three core values, be hungry, be foolish, be honest, and I like to think [these] activities are a reflection of our foolish yet fun ethos.”
Here at Employee Benefits, we think this sounds like an incredible first day, and it certainly tops the list of exciting ice-breaking activities. We wonder if we could swap the tube for a private helicopter ride home…
