{"id":11816,"date":"2024-03-07T18:51:20","date_gmt":"2024-03-07T18:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cheesecakelabs.com\/blog\/"},"modified":"2024-03-07T19:00:31","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T19:00:31","slug":"elevating-employee-experience-with-the-cakers-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cheesecakelabs.com\/blog\/elevating-employee-experience-with-the-cakers-summit\/","title":{"rendered":"Elevating Employee Experience with the Cakers\u2019 Summit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We recently celebrated our 10th anniversary<\/a>! This fantastic achievement gave us a great opportunity to gather up as many Cakers as possible at our Florianopolis headquarters for a Cakers\u2019 Sumit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This epic celebration allowed us all to celebrate our achievements in 2023 and the previous decade and bring the company together around our shared values and culture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, we\u2019re pulling back the curtain on this momentous occasion and just how much 10 years’ worth of accomplishments means to everyone at Cheesecake Labs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How the Cakers\u2019 Summit came to be<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s always important for us to find ways to make our team feel recognized and appreciated for all the hard work they do and all the value they bring to Cheesecake Labs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our 2023 at Cheesecake Labs<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

2023 was a big year for us at Cheesecake Labs. We got to work on some amazing projects with MoneyGram and Stellar<\/a>, FINN<\/a>, and a whole lot more!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were honored to receive several awards, including being named the #1 Mobile App Development Company in Brazil<\/a> and the #1 Web App Development Company in Latin America<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And we got to wrap up the year by marking 10 years in business. We could go on, but instead, we\u2019ll point you toward our 2023 roundup<\/a> to learn more about what we were up to last year!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nurturing our remote-first culture <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

One of the big things we\u2019re always looking to do is keep our Cakers engaged with our remote-first culture. Like many other companies, we became a remote-first<\/a> company out of necessity during COVID lockdowns. But we decided to remain remote-first after seeing the benefits and opportunities it gave us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We love that working remotely means we get to work with a wider range of talented tech professionals all across Brazil and that Cakers get to work where and how they want to work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision to remain remote-first meant we had to rethink how we foster connection and collaboration within the team and still pass the benefits on to our clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also knew we needed to be thoughtful about how we fostered leadership development<\/a> within a remote-first environment, ensuring we gave every Caker a chance to make their voices heard and work toward their personal and professional goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, being remote-first has been a great success! It\u2019s allowed us to grow from 40 Cakers in 2020 to over 70 today. And we have Cakers living in 35 different cities and 12 out of Brazil\u2019s 27 states. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gamification through our CultureXplore program<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Getting that remote-first balance right is always a learning experience, and we\u2019re always looking for ways to improve the employee experience for everyone at Cheesecake Labs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the things we\u2019ve been working on recently is building gamification<\/strong> into our culture as a way to boost employee engagement and satisfaction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our CultureXplore gamification program is a fun way for us to nurture our culture and company values<\/a>. CultureXplore rewards Cakers who actively participate in our cultural practices. We do this with a series of regular activities where Cakers can earn points (we call them CakerCoins) for giving feedback, voting for who practiced English the most each week, joining quarterly onboarding events for new Cakers, and much more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project has been very well received by our team, and we\u2019re excited to keep developing CultureXplore in 2024 and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of last year, the 10th anniversary was an excellent chance for us to bring that gamification to an in-person event. We did that by letting people earn CakerCoins during the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They could then exchange their CakerCoins at the Caker Shop for company merch like jackets, coffee mugs, or beer cups available at the Cakers\u2019 Summit or store them in Stellar wallets for future transactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s how we brought everyone together for a once-in-a-decade in-person event that celebrated and supported our unique company culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building the main event<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

From Pride Week<\/a> to Female Week<\/a> to our end-of-the-year review, we\u2019re experts at running remote-first events. But this in-person event was the chance to combine the best of both worlds. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To do that, we split the Cakers\u2019 Summit into two main parts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Part one was our traditional yearly recap that included a look back at 2023<\/a>, awards, and a special look at 10 years of Cheesecake Labs.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Part two was a celebration with interactive experiences, music, food, and lots of meaningful, in-person connections.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Here\u2019s how everything went!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n