Behind The Scenes - May 2020
It’s starting to feel like summer, starting to feel like we are finally getting on the other side of the COVID curve, life slowly coming back to some form of normality! Whether home or in the office, life is always in the fast lane at OutsideIn. There are always bumps along the way but our dream remains the same to rewrite homelessness, something we will continue to do and show during COVID19 and on the other side of it. So what have we been up to? From launching Hope Hero's, interviewing charities about the impact the disease is having on their work, team nights and updates to the new office. Here’s my May behind the scenes. Hope you enjoy!
Launched Hope Hero
First off was the launch of our Hope Heroes! A big part of our brand is stories, whether that be the stories from people who are homeless, you guys or the team, we love sharing stories. So during the Hope campaign we decided to highlight the stories of people making a difference in your community. Whether that be your gran, your neighbour, we wanted to hear the different ways Hope was being spread during COVID-19. We were blown away by the feedback from our request as we received over 200 unique stories of individuals who were Hope Heroes across the globe. Our first winner was from Sarah who nominated her dad.
“My dad. He’s a window cleaner and has been continuing to work in our local community checking in on elderly and vulnerable residents during his rounds. He has been making sure they have all they need and if they don’t he’s been going to shops during work to pick up essential items such as food. Not all heroes wear capes.”
It's so inspiring to see people like this spreading hope to those who need it! From highlighting individuals we went a step further with Hope Heroes and used our platform to celebrate other businesses and charities making a difference, so this was a perfect time to hear the amazing work that is happening globally for those who are homeless, essential workers and ways people were giving back to the community.
The hope hero campaign made me proud. Proud that we have gathered together as communities, businesses to do what we can with what we have during COVID-19. There is strength in numbers, and hearing these stories really has highlighted that there is so much hope despite the hard times we all face.
OutsideIn - InsideOut
If you have been following our socials or blog posts, then you’ll know we have started what we call “Social Impact Thursdays.” A day where we get to highlight all things social impact, what we have been up to or a chance to highlight the incredible work our partnered homeless charities are doing. This month we started a new series called OutsideIn - InsideOut (best series name) where we spoke to 3 charities and our street team in order to have a greater understanding of homelessness and inform our followers the different ways they have been impacted by COVID-19. The whole series is truly inspiring, from Ross talking about our street teams plans, to Kirsten from the Simon Community, Jack from Glasgow City Mission and Hannah from the Bowery mission. The passion behind each of these people to help others and to spread hope will have you on a roller coaster of emotions, so get buckled in and check out the links below.
Team Night - Scavenger Hunt
Biggest challenge from COVID-19 and the part I miss the most is team meet ups. You can have the best webcam and software, but nothing quite beats human interaction. Morning meetings and lunch times in the OI HQ are something else, no day is ever quite the same. Beyblade battles in a plastic box, the weirdest of competitions, someone putting a pen in the oven by “accident,” I now see why so many of you say it's like watching an episode of the US office. Withs social distancing and lockdown putting a hold on these fun filled activities, I decided that shouldn’t mean we can’t have fun. So we did our very own Oi Scavenger hunt. A quick summary of what that is - all team members had to go and get items that I called out in their house and first to bring it back got the points. Points mean prizes so the competitive level was at an all time high, with some team members coming onto zoom with intro music, I wondered what had I just created and was I now responsible for any injuries that may occur.
Social Impact
Since we created a social impact team just a few months ago the team have been working on how to best communicate what we do, to share the numbers, facts and include you as part of our Oi Fam in on the journey of giving back. The role of social impact definitely encompasses A LOT. The team has racked up over 130 hours this month solely on social impact which is not only incredible but also helps inspire and motivate the whole team to know that whatever their role at the company, you are helping to give back to those who are homeless. Deliveroo has played a big part of our giving back this month with 1020 meals ready to be donated for May alone. Working alongside Inner City Helping Homeless in Dublin, we will be starting to distribute meals this weekend, so stay tuned for some behind the scenes footage of what a meal looks like and who it reaches. Transparency is a massive part of what we do so a massive thanks to deliveroo who are helping to make it possible. Few more stats for you - 21 hours on developing new giving products, 28 hours researching homelessness and 7 blog posts about homelessness. I love that we have a team so driven and passionate to see change here in the UK and globally for those who are homeless. I know we’ve only been kicking about for 3 years but looking back each month and seeing improvement really gets me excited moving forward!
New Office - Coming Along Nicely!
The days of being sardines in the small office are over, well that’s due to new health and safety rules and because we now have new offices! We’ve shown you the new warehouse already but we also have that we have secretly been working on over the past few months. I’m super excited for the team to use this new space after lockdown, more space means more dreaming and more room to grow! A huge shoutout to Stephen Kyle who crafted our new tables (check out the photos above.) We will definitely be doing a proper behind the scenes video so you can see what’s going on and the different ways we will be using our new space. There is talk of a basketball net.. Couldn’t get more like the office US, could it? As long as I’m not Michael Scott we’re good.
Mental Health Week - First Instagram Live
The past few months of lockdown has been a challenging and difficult time for everyone. If one thing it has highlighted, it’s the importance of looking after our Mental Health. We see OutsideIn as a family, hence why you probably hear us time and time again calling it the ‘Oi Fam.’ A big part of that from day one has been looking after each other, whether that be celebrating the good or an arm of support during the tough times.
We see you as a key part of the Oi Fam, so we decided as a team to share with you all some helpful tips from our own mental health experiences and things that we do to stay positive. Reading through each team member honestly helped me not only connect but understand that how we all process and deal with mental health is so unique. Make sure you check out the blog post, there might be that one story that you find super helpful.
New Collection - Putting In Work
Letting you in on a little secret, like coke talking about their secret recipe or chic-fil-a giving you the how to of their insanely good sauce. We maybe aren’t quite there yet but our team has been working insanely hard behind the scenes on summer and winter drops for 2020. I’m never going to be able to do our new designs justice, but the meaning behind the drops, now that is something I can talk about. Without giving too much away the purpose behind the two big drops this year are incredible! From plans of how to give back to those who are homeless, to what we want our customers to feel, these collections will not disappoint. As COVID-19 has caused havoc across the globe, like all businesses we have had setbacks in manufacturing with lead times now slightly longer than usual. However it’s coming and when I have more info that I am allowed to share, the Oi Fam blog readers will be first to know. The deliveroo concept was amazing, but I’m even more excited about this one. Yes I’m building hype without giving much away… just trust me.
That's a wrap for May 2020, thanks for following us and being a part of the Oi fam journey. We can't wait for June!
David
