We are halfway through December 2020 now. It’s been a really busy time, and it’s always refreshing to pause and look back.
Whilst the phrase “unprecedented times” seems over said, these really are unprecedented times and this year has been a year like no other. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to produce uncertainty, stress and trauma in our communities and businesses. By now, we have all been impacted by this virus, which has been devastating for so many. Chaser is incredibly grateful to offer services and software that is helping businesses prepare for and survive the looming recession.
Chaser has experienced massive changes in 2020 - outside of the pandemic - including a change in leadership, brand, product vision, website and commercial strategy. We’ve gone through restructuring and have worked tremendously hard and quickly to reset a foundation that will enable us to grow faster in 2021. I am incredibly proud of our team coming to work every day and putting others before themselves to provide our essential products and services during this unprecedented time. I am impressed with the resilience they demonstrated amidst the macroeconomic challenges, but also internal change management. Change is never easy.
That is why, this year, more than ever, I wanted to plan and organise a virtual Christmas party like no other. With the help of our social club lead Amy Jordan, and the marketing team Dean Norris and Amaya Woods, this is precisely what we did.
Christmas is a time of joy, happiness, and love. It brings people together, which is so important now when we have been socially distancing. Even though that will continue for a while, we found that there are many ways to celebrate this festive season together digitally.
Our aim: to bring some extra joy to the people we work with this year.
PART 1: Setting the scene with - Christmas Props
We prepared personalised hampers with Christmas props for all the team at Chaser and shipped them to their homes, no matter where they live. This included sending them Christmas headbands and glasses. (We had feline helpers ;-))
PART 2: We Celebrate
True to our new values from 2020, we kicked off the party reflecting on the year and highlighting reasons to celebrate. This included the launch of Chaser 2.0 at the start of the year, hiring Mark Robertson as Chief Revenue Officer in August and consistent growth at the end of the year.
PART 3: The Chaser Awards
We hosted the first (of many we hope) Chaser Awards. There were awards to employees who held true to our values and some funny awards that the entire company voted on.
Chaser Celebrates
The first award for Chaser values was awarded to Amy Jordan who has gone above and beyond her role at Chaser to help us all have fun. Looking for innovative ways to get us all to meet like automating virtual coffee mates on Slack to volunteering to run the company Social Club.
We are Candid
Ricardo Vieira won the Chaser Candid award as he contributed to several milestones at Chaser this year, which required him to work cross-departmentally on various challenging projects. He is always ready to help move projects forward, communicating well at each stage of the progress, and managing expectations with ongoing communications. He is transparent and direct so that people know where the project stands and what they need to do.
We are Courageous
It takes courage to do a role that you’ve never done before; and even more courage to take on several roles that have never been done before! Whether it is running collections, managing customer happiness, or taking on a new service line like outsourced credit control, Inga Schibsted never shies away from taking risks and making bold decisions that are driving Chaser forward.
We Care
Pedro Sampaio, silently and with the utmost humility, is always looking out for the team. Behind the scenes, and without any expectation of recognition, Pedro cares about the success of our customers, partners, employees and shareholders, so we aim to truly make a difference. Chaser’s values include believing that people caring about people is a critical ingredient to consistently deliver superlative results. We are so lucky to count one of the most caring individuals I’ve ever met amongst our leadership team.
PART 4: Escape Room
We hosted a virtual escape room where we were split into four teams - competing against each other to solve a range of tasks, puzzles and challenges delivered via an app, to escape the rooms in the quickest time possible. Some of the team members excelled at this - others, well - let’s just say we’d still be stuck in that room! LOL
PART 5: Casino Night
We had an amazing Casino Night. We played Blackjack and gambled on the fastest reindeers.
PART 6: Jingle Bell Rock
To end the evening of festivities, we ended the evening singing, lip-singing or just head bobbing to a cheerful Christmas song: Jingle Bell Rock!
Conclusion
Thank you to the incredible Chaser team for the fun we had celebrating Christmas and the end of the year, albeit virtually.
I want to close by thanking everyone who has helped us get to this point, our gifted staff members, our customers and our investors and shareholders. The feedback we keep receiving from customers is truly inspiring, and our whole company feels a lot of love every day from all of you, around the world. I’m very excited for another year of learning, building, and growing.