Building Blocks | Edition 16 💌
Stories, reflections and tools from People leaders & change-makers to help navigate the new world of work.
In this issue…
Building Together — Our Events Roundup 🗣️
PB Retro — Learnings From our Recent Events ⬅️
NEW — Our Mentorship Programme 👯♀️
Ambassador Call-Out — Join us and host your OWN in-person events! ✨
Resource Hub — Curated Articles Selected by our Ambassadors 💻
Hello, People Builders! 👋
Welcome to this month's edition of our Building Blocks Newsletter! We’ve had a very exciting July so far - from hosting our first-ever Berlin picnic with our Ambassador Galia, to collaborating with our fantastic partners at Culture Amp and Bravely for an insights-packed webinar on non-promotions based strategies, to crafting some new and exciting programmes for our Community 👀
Without further spoilers, let’s just dive straight in. Cheers to many more learning moments, co-created solutions and fun socials together!
Let’s get started 🤓
Building Together – Our Events Roundup 🗣️
As August is upon us, a lot of our People Builders will be away on vacation so we’ve decided to keep things a bit more low key. Rest assured though we have an opportunity for you to catch up with the Community on our monthly call! Sign up below:
Community Catch Up — 22nd August 17:00-17:30 CET
We also have a very insightful suite of events coming up for you VERY SOON: Conversations with Authors. We are excited to introduce a series of events featuring esteemed people leaders and book authors who will share their experiences and insights. The calendar of events will be published in our LinkedIn Group and included in the August newsletter so keep your eyes peeled!
Retro - Key Learnings From Our Past Workshops ⬅️
Last week, People Builders joined forces with Culture Amp and Bravely for an insights-packed webinar with the wonderful Gia DeMichele, Mark Turner and Debra Turner Bailey chatting about all possible non-promotion based growth strategies 📈
We find ourselves in a moment of shifting expectations from employees - it used to be that you could stay in companies for a long time and get promotions and opportunities, but now this has become something that is rare even for those high performers. So how can we overcome this challenge and ensure we still empower our employees to grow as well as ensure that they remain engaged?
Some of the ideas we dove into included:
🎨 Diversifying the available development opportunities (e.g., job rotations, cross-functional projects)
🌱 Promoting a culture of continuous learning (e.g., regular training programs and options to obtain further certificates / learning in topics that interest you)
👯 Implementing mentorship and coaching programs (e.g., from formal mentoring to peer coaches & external coaching platforms)
Curious to hear what else we discussed? ⬇️
We also had a blast hosting Oyster’s Co-Founder Jack Mardack, on a People Builders special LinkedIn LIVE all about Economic, Social and Governance Strategies in a remote and distributed context.
Didn't catch us LIVE? Make sure to watch the replay and learn about:
ESGs in Remote Work - the advantages & challenges
Workforce Diversity and how to leverage geographical freedom
Environmental Impact in remote companies and how to reduce your carbon footprint
ESG Reporting - the essentials and how to get started
How Oyster is currently reporting and publishing our data
B Corp Certification - what are the benefits and what is the process?
Interested in learning more? You can dive into the Oyster ESG impact report here!
Ambassador Call-Out! — Join us and host your OWN in-person events! ✨
Our very own Ambassador Galia Davimes hosted a delightful picnic in Berlin a few weeks back. I heard it was full of fun, connection and insightful conversation. Thank you to all who attended and contributed your wonderful shares and ideas! ✨
Do YOU want to host your local People Builders events too? Join us an Ambassador!
Our Community Ambassador Program is designed for passionate people & culture professionals and future of work pioneers like you. Our amazing community thrives when members get involved and want to make a difference.
Your role as an Ambassador 🤩
Host community virtual and in-person workshops and meet-ups
Connect with current and future community members to foster meaningful relationships
Provide feedback and suggest ideas for current and future community initiatives
Research, create, and edit community content
Share community updates and event news on social media and in other People/HR communities and networks
Refer new members to the community, as well as expert guests for community events or newsletters
If you’re interested in becoming an Ambassador, let’s have a chat and email me directly at: carmen.amadorbarreiro@oysterhr.com 🤩
NEW - Our very own Mentorship Programme 👯♀️
You spoke, we listened! In our on-going commitment to fostering best practices and collaboratively shaping the future of work, we are thrilled to announce the launch of our Mentorship Program!!
This initiative aims to facilitate meaningful connections between people leaders interested in mentoring or being mentored. Applications for the program will open at the end of August so start thinking about whether this is something you’d be interested in! Stay tuned for more details on how to apply and we look forward to seeing your application come through 😃
Resource Hub – Curated feedback articles 💻
And last but not least, our Resource Hub packed with useful resources from our Ambassadors for you to peruse through:
Wanted to dive more into ESG? Here is a great starting guide and here are 9 ideas to implement ESG for the rest of 2024.
Still wanting to dive deeper into non-promotion based strategies as well? I love this article in Harvard Business Review about employee championing in a cost-cutting environment.
Struggling with compensation for your company? Here is a template our Ambassadors regularly use!
Wondering about mentorship programmes, their use-case and whether to get involved? Here is a thoughtful piece on mentorships, where it works, where it can go wrong, and how we can all approach it better!
If you’ve made it down this far in the newsletter, I want to personally thank you again for coming along the People Builders journey with us — I truly hope to see you at our next virtual or in-person events! Here's to building the future together 👯
Carmen Amador Barreiro, Community Lead
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