Back in 2019, when the pandemic brought the world to a standstill, it seemed challenging for a rapidly growing company such as ours to transition to a fully remote setup. We missed our usual work fun, the banters over coffee, the conference room conversations, the birthday parties, the impromptu celebrations, and everything in between.

Now, we have been working from home for almost 2 years, and while we still miss meeting our colleagues, we have found equally interesting things to do while working remotely. We've welcomed over 150 people to our growing team during this time but never felt that less of a connection with them. Instead, we look out for each other more than ever now, and distance has only helped strengthen our bond so much so that Velotio is now a remote-friendly workplace.

By embracing a model that supports both remote and in-office experiences, we are giving everyone the flexibility they need. We have our fully operational office available to those who value an in-office experience while welcoming team members who prefer to work in a remote setting.

Here's a glimpse of our journey and all the initiatives that helped us stay connected even in challenging times.

After Hours

Velotio After Hours is our biweekly "no work, only fun" banter where we let our minds run free and have heartfelt conversations about everything but tech. After Hours also serves as a source of inspiration where people share their life stories, and talk about their passion.

We take inspiration from our team of mountaineers, singers, and people with skills other than their tech expertise. It's a welcoming space to talk about our personal interests, be it trekking, comic stories, fitness, finance, or movies. And all this is driven by tech geeks who are otherwise found coding all the time.

Tech Talks

To foster knowledge sharing and peer support, we made a conscious effort to offer a platform for the team to learn and exchange their tech know-how. For years now, we've been hosting monthly tech discussions led by our internal tech experts (we call them Velotio Tech Influencers). This serves as a great open forum to discuss the new emerging tech innovations and stay updated on everything cool in technology.

‍Elevate: Our Annual Tech Conference

With the intention to take our monthly tech talks a step ahead, we hosted our first-ever 2-day internal virtual tech conference, Elevate, on July 30-31, 2021.

More than 200 Velotians from different tech domains attended 45+ mind-bending tech sessions conducted by 35+ Velotio Tech Influencers. Our internal tech community exchanged a vast range of knowledge and developer trends in this stellar virtual conference. During the after-hours, we had a gala at the fun-filled laughter-riot with the most-followed comedians in the country — the stand-up comedian, writer, and actor Biswa Rath. And, the icing on the cake was the concluding magical milieu with Suhani Shah, India's only female mentalist who pulled some random information from the teammates' heads as we all uncovered their most exciting secrets.

Check out this event sneak peek of some really enthusiastic Velotians along with their families.

Also Read: Elevate 2021: Velotio's Annual Tech Conference

Virtual Catch-ups and Celebrations

We believe a happy workplace comes from a happy team and happy customers. So we put emphasis on staying connected and celebrating everything, no matter how small or big.

We often have virtual catch-ups, team lunches, pizza parties, and more.  Also, all the new joiners get to start their velotio journey with a virtual coffee meet-up with our founders.

Furthermore, we constantly find ways to send our best wishes and gratitude to our team working from home. Be it surprising our teammates on their birthdays with care packages, celebrating the women of Velotio, or sending the team swag boxes on special events like Elevate, the virtual celebration mode is always ON.

#SlackChannels for Common Interests

At times, working from home means fewer ways to interact with fellow colleagues and more social isolation.

At Velotio, we break this monotony by coming together on Slack. We have dedicated channels to discuss common hobbies and interests like #food_and_cooking, #read-watch-listen, #fun (mostly hundreds of memes shared daily), #fuel_my_soul (for music lovers), along with many tech-based channels.

We also have a dedicated channel for #newbies to feel welcomed and get a ramp-up of everything at Velotio.
Slack is our happy place to unwind and stay connected.

Employee Assistance Program

We prioritize our team's physical and mental well-being as they are equally important for individual growth.

To support this belief, early this year Velotio introduced an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) that assists our team to navigate through personal and/or work-related problems that may impact their work, health, mental and emotional well-being.

We partnered with Trijog- a Mental Health and Holistic Wellness Provider and through this initiative anyone at Velotio can book as many 1:1 confidential counseling sessions as required with trained professionals.

Humor is Our Second Language

At Velotio, we believe that humor only greases efficiency. So, we indulge in meme fests, team-building activities, and fun AMAs - almost every week.

While working remotely, we have unlocked a treasure of memes. Every day, we all indulge in sharing memes on our #fun channel on Slack. It's just a way to laugh out loud together.

We've shared over 1000+ (and counting) memes so far. We pat on our backs sometimes for this!

‍Also Read: Life at Velotio

To sum everything up, we think that remote working requires few well-thought decisions, but a great work culture helps to make the transition smoother. Staying connected in a close-knit circle is our key to ace it.

Needless to say, that our culture is all about collaboration, meaningful relationships, and a sense of community building.

And all of this makes Velotio a Great Place to Work®.