Mr Yum shares its playbook for adopting hybrid working

How to create a strong company culture while hybrid working 

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There are a whole host of perks to adopting a hybrid working structure, but creating and maintaining a great company culture that reflects what you’re all about can be challenging when your whole team isn’t physically together everyday. 

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At Mr Yum, the mobile food ordering and payments app, creating a sense of team is a high priority. Beth Waker, Marketing and Operations Coordinator at Mr Yum, is based at the startup’s London office – she shares how the business is bringing people together.

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Host a regular town hall

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Every second Wednesday of the month, Mr Yum has a UK town hall meeting that the whole UK team attends in person. The meeting is an opportunity for staff to update the team about how business is going, answer any questions and host a lunch.

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“The town hall is all about team bonding,” says Waker. “Mr Yum is really at a point in the business right now where we're – as the startup world calls it – crossing the chasm. 

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“We really need to stick together, be totally aware and have the context of what's going on in the business. The best way to do that is to be together and talk about it, so that means being in the same place at the same time.”

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Connect teammates around the world

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Mr Yum’s workplace experience specialist in Australia recently launched the Chance Cafe – staff can opt in and be linked up with somebody else in the company every two weeks to get to know them. If physically based in the same place, they go out for coffee or ‘meet’ remotely if they’re in different countries.

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“I spoke to a colleague who's based in Malaysia the other day and we were talking about football and Formula 1,” says Waker. “It was really nice and I likely wouldn't have the opportunity to connect with him in any other circumstance. The Chance Cafe is working really well in its early days and is a great example of an effective cultural initiative.”

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Arrange socials

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The UK Mr Yum team arranges breakfast and evening socials every fortnight – it was important to them to schedule in both options in order to be as inclusive as possible. The aim of the socials is purely for the teams to get to know each other and eat, drink and chat. 

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“The only way that I think you can really connect with people is when you become a bit vulnerable so you see different sides of colleagues that perhaps they wouldn't typically display when they're at work,” explains Waker. “That's why it's always fun to play games or do things that tap into parts of people that maybe you wouldn't typically see.”

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Commute in on the same days

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While having complete flexibility on what days of the week you can come into the office has its perks, it can mean you are like passing ships with your colleagues. While there are no mandated days for staff to come into Mr Yum’s London office, many teams arrange to come in on the same day per week so they can work together.

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“We've managed to keep a good sense of camaraderie when we are all together because of these initiatives and because we're all striving for the same goal, which I believe is a common approach in the startup world,” adds Waker.

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This interview was conducted as part of the 'ways of working' interviews with Techspace members exclusively for The Scaleup Culture Report 2023.

Get your copy of the report by Techspace here > https://www.techspace.co/scaleup-report

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