See inside a fast-growing SaaS scale-up. Our people, our practices and our thoughts on the digital signage software industry.

Behind the Screens in our Company Culture - ScreenCloud

Anna is our Head of Recruitment and Onboarding based in our London hub! When she’s not doing all things recruitment related and helping to hire awesome ScreenClouders into the business, she’s getting crafty… did you know she did a furniture degree?! Anna has also recently purchased a bike, so if you keep an eye out, you may just see her whizzing around the roads of South West London!

At ScreenCloud I’m responsible for our talent acquisition strategy across our three international hubs. The talent landscapes in the US, UK and Thailand always require a tailored, individualised approach to attract great talent - one size does not fit all (particularly in the emerging tech ecosystem in Thailand) and the constantly evolving picture across our international hiring continues to present new and unique challenges. 

Of all the recent trends impacting growing businesses in the macro economic climate, there has been significant discussion of the Great Resignation. And now, of the Great Resignation potentially giving way to the ‘Great Regret’; a recent study (Joblist Q2 2022 U.S. Job Market Report) found that over a quarter of employees who changed jobs in the past year regretted the move, with the majority citing ‘surprise’ that their new role was more or less the same as the old. 

I sat down with our VP People Strategy, Ginni Lisk, to talk about the lessons we have learnt so far, and how we have tackled them at ScreenCloud.  

What is the greatest lesson you have learned from the Great Resignation?

The lesson every company should be taking from the Great Resignation is that businesses have to prioritise their employee experience at the strategy-setting level. Leadership teams must reframe their traditional view of HR functions and enable the long-overdue shift from HR acting as a reactionary service centre that is there to command, control, administer and put out fires, to being a proactive, core driver of overall company success. For companies this means investing appropriately in their operational functionality with the same proactivity they would invest in non-centralised teams. 

For the HR department specifically, a mirror should be held up to how effectively they are enabling their employees - with enablement conceptualised as the opposite to the ‘command and control’ role businesses have for so long now defined People & Culture with.  This means that - as far as I am concerned- HR needs to up its communications game and look at the skill sets that are being prioritised in People roles. Personally I look for first principles thinking, design-thinking, empathy-first approaches, human-centric design and an appreciation of user experience that are skill sets most commonly found in Product teams. 

All HR roadmaps for 2022 and beyond must prioritise connecting with employees via a carefully curated communication landscape. Because, communication gaps create uncertainty, and people don’t stop thinking - or assuming - in those  gaps. In fact our brains left to their own devices are much more likely to fill comms gaps with negative assumptions rather than good ones - for companies this means ‘no news is good news’ might not apply neatly for a workforce that, in a post-pandemic context, is feeling more enabled than ever before to request the things they need and more concerned than ever about the changing landscapes impacting them. So… let’s close those comms gaps! 

How are you applying that lesson to ScreenCloud’s own retention efforts? What do people need from their employer to stay?

At ScreenCloud, it’s about practising what we preach. ScreenCloud is a scaling business that faces constant change - and the one thing that was very obvious in our most recent engagement survey is that, while all our scores are all very good, the area we need to do more in for our employees is better manage expectations, and demonstrate what we are doing with all the feedback we receive from our employees. This fits very nicely into the theme of closing comms gaps! So yes, practising what we preach is how I’d summarise it. 

Ultimately, employees need to know where they stand at work, and companies need to manage expectations effectively  - ‘Effectively’ needs defining though.  For me it’s a combination of empathy for employees, and commercial savvy to bring people along with a company’s strategy. 

People need flexibility and autonomy and trust. Enabling  this means a reduction in noisy information, managing expectations honestly, and a dramatically shortened feedback loop between effort and their recognition. Of course People functions won't - and shouldn’t - deliver individual ‘counts’ of people practices or initiatives directly, they need to work with managers and leaders to proactively steer and support that cascade, channelling the future skill sets People teams need, as I’ve already mentioned.  This means that HR needs to embrace tech and digital transformation. 

I recently hired Karl, our People Director to bolster the People team and as a group we are focusing efforts on our OKRs and overarching people roadmap to make sure our people are as enabled as they can be, and that our roadmap ensures our own internal communication strategy is the best it can be.

I am lucky to be in a people role at a SaaS company that is building a product that has potential to redefine digital signage, and bring effective employee communication to every worker; this means our People team get to partner with our product team to tackle the challenge of creating truly connected companies. It’s a privilege and I’m excited for how we’re going to close out 2022 and launch into 2023 in ScreenCloud’s people team with more cross-functional collaboration.  

What advice do you have for a manager who is faced with a top performer who is considering leaving?

Individualised career conversations should be the goal, and conversation is the key word; it should be an ongoing exchange. At ScreenCloud the People team plays an active role in nudging managers not to neglect those conversations during 1:1s and interactions with their teams.  

A top-down annual performance appraisal with an allocated rating that is arbitrarily used to inform high-performance and set an equally arbitrary benchmark for what ‘good’ looks like, is old fashioned command and control HR. It’s why I don’t really like competency frameworks very much (not because they’re not a good idea by design, but because in application they’re too often implemented with a disregard for nuance or the individual the framework is being applied to. They become a box-ticking exercise that excuses managers from leaning in.) That is just not good enough as far as I’m concerned. Employees expect a more personalised experience and managers who won’t prioritise that within their reporting lines also - as harsh as this may sound - lose the right to come to a People function with sudden and surprise flight risks or retention issues, in my book! Every business is a people business, and yes people are all busy - but managers declaring themselves too busy to give feedback or to engage in a conversation about growth and development is - in and of itself - underperformance, as far as I’m concerned. 

Managers are doing a crucial and oftentimes very difficult job, therefore People functions need to recognize the crucial importance of the management layer and invest in it.  Give them the power and autonomy — and training — to bake an appropriate level of HR skill into their day jobs, I say! There are lots of variables that impact a People function in that context, not least resources and what is made available to make that investment, but People teams should be striving to, at all times, enable over control… to get out of people’s way rather than create more rules… to prioritise building internal products over writing policies… that sort of thing! 

If you’re keen to join a company that practises what it preaches, talk a look at our currently open roles here! If you can’t see anything that’s an obvious neat fit for your skills, we’re keen to hear from you anyway - you can email me, at anna.thomas@screencloud.io

I think many talent professionals would agree when I say that the past two years have been a challenge.

I think many talent professionals would agree when I say that the past two years have been a challenge. From the extremes of  international recruitment freezes, to significant layoffs, to inflated salaries in competitive talent markets, looming recessionary warnings or a seeming complete lack of candidates, recruitment has experienced  tough times of late.

The Great Resignation: A conversation with our VP of People Strategy

Lish is our People Experience Coordinator based in our London hub. Lish’s hobbies include cooking (Thai food in particular, since she’s half Thai), travelling, and trying to get TikTok famous. If she’s not in the office working on all things people and culture, she’s at home in London playing with her cat, Benny!

ScreenCloud Together is our annual company conference & retreat that, while completely optional to attend, remains a joyfully popular and culturally incredibly significant event that provides all our ScreenClouders with the opportunity to get together for a week of bonding and cross functional collaboration.  Having all our employees in one place benefits us (individually, collectively and as a business) in so many ways.  To date ScreenCloud Together has seen our ScreenClouders travel to Poland, Bangkok and Greece. In June 2022, we headed to Turkey.  

In 2021 our Bangkok hub were unfortunately unable to attend ScreenCloud Together due to the coronavirus situation in Thailand at the time. Since then, we’ve also hired over 100 people! For both our Bangkok ScreenClouders who missed out in 2021, and our newest joiners (and the whole team - of course!), the People team were really looking forward to enabling the opportunity to regroup properly after so long. 

We prioritise flexibility and want all our ScreenClouders to benefit from the best of individualised ways of working; including zero clock-watching or presenteeism, the ability to regularly work from home, vibrant and productive offices in each of our hubs, and the chance to attend get-togethers as frequently as possible. We also love ScreenCloud's diversity, which is enabled in many ways - not least by employing people across our four international hubs (Bangkok, Belfast, London and Los Angeles). The positive impact of bringing this incredible group of individuals together to collaborate in one place, is something we value highly and view as an integral part of our flexible approach… in fact, ScreenCloud Together is an opportunity for us to experience all elements of our company and culture - just condensed into one working week! 

Let me tell you a bit about how the People Team planned ScreenCloud Together 2022, and I’ll lift the lid on some of our favourite bits... 

The People Team planned numerous sessions for ScreenCloud Together 2022 to promote the facilitation of shared ideas regarding important business activities. The first two days were for our Leadership and Senior Management Team to meet and get stuck into some exciting strategic planning. After the leadership & management retreat, all our other ScreenClouders arrived in Turkey and we wanted to ensure everybody’s individual needs were met... The People Team was deliberate and intentional about ensuring there was a good balance between working  sessions and much needed downtime across the week. 

100 people all arriving at an overseas resort at the same time (as well as being quite the logistical challenge!) is potentially socially intimidating and tiring - everyone has individual boundaries, and collectively this could have felt particularly intense after the pandemic has seen so many of us out of practice when it comes to social interaction.  For these reasons, and as a fun, interactive icebreaker, we organised a sports morning to ‘kick off’ our week (although technically, there was no football - either the UK or US definition!) Our ScreenClouders played badminton and basketball (we have lots of basketball fans over in our LA hub) some brave individuals took part in an intense Body Pump session led by our CEO, Mark (who is a group fitness coach on the side!) and we enjoyed some swimming and water volleyball at the pool. What better way to bond than through some fun team activities in the Turkish sun! 

The midpoint of the week was our internal conference. To start the day, we played a fun task-based game. Each task has a corresponding set of points to be won, with everyone trying to achieve a target points total and not go bust! The tasks range from “find a Founder and take their photo” to “draw your line manager” to “stand up and out loud make the sound a Turkey makes” (we realise turkeys don’t come from Turkey, but it felt like too good an opportunity to miss!), and our absolute favourite “perform a poem or a 30 second rap about working at ScreenCloud.”  We played this game at ScreenCloud Together 2021  and it was a hit so we brought it back - and are confident this has become a ScreenCloud Together staple. In 2021 we were lucky enough to witness a live rap from Dylan, our Enterprise Account Executive Team Lead in our LA hub. This year Matt, our CFO delivered a truly moving poem (yes, we’re being sarcastic) and Leroy, our Customer Success Manager in the London hub rapped about ScreenCloud while Ben, our Graphic Designer - also in the London hub - accompanied him with some beatboxing. Impressive stuff!! 

Mark, our CEO, got the sessions started with his keynote speech, setting us all up for a big push for the rest of the year, before we heard from numerous other teams in the business. The Marketing team gave us a deep-dive into their new team functionality and, to give some of our non customer-facing ScreenClouders a taste of the action, some of our Sales team members gave us a live (and entertaining) ScreenCloud demo! Our Leadership team then gathered together on stage for an ‘Ask Me Anything’ (AMA), where they answered an array of questions that had been submitted by our very own ScreenClouders. 

Trust & Transparency and Integrity are some of our core values; we don’t hide from the truth and we don’t compromise on that. Our leadership AMA gave the whole company the opportunity to ask the questions they wanted to of our leadership team - with no topic being off the table, and no question considered too direct. 

Another of our core values here at ScreenCloud is ‘Unconventional & Brave’. We believe that these two words go hand in hand; to be unconventional (seek new and innovative ways of working and solving problems) you must be brave (and channel a growth mindset). It’s really important for us as a business to continuously improve and give our ScreenClouders the freedom to use their initiative to bust silos and challenge the norm. With this in mind, the People Team created a series of cross-functional sessions to give everyone at ScreenCloud the autonomy to design their own solutions to business critical topics, such as enhancing internal communications, identifying ways to improve our collection and use of data and discussions surrounding specific parts of our product. These cross-functional sessions were an effective way for us to provide our ScreenClouders with the opportunity, and the safe space, to be brave and challenge the conventional. 

At ScreenCloud, company growth is a shared goal and we are ambitious about designing the best possible solutions for our customers.  We ran a customer-centric hackathon with groups forming teams across three hackathon streams, each stream aligned with a key ScreenCloud customer persona and their needs. At the end of the week, our hackathon teams were asked to put together a presentation and “pitch” their solution to the rest of the business; with our leadership and senior management team (SMT) responding with their recognition and feedback, and thoughts on what could be most viably implementable.  The hackathon was definitely one of the highlights of the week and we really loved ScreenClouders putting our customers first and working with individuals they may not normally work closely with… a truly proud People Team moment! 

Giving thanks and recognising all the hard work, care, thought and proactivity that goes into scaling a company, was always going to be top priority in designing our ScreenCloud Together 2022 itinerary.  We wanted to intentionally pause to reflect upon and emphasise the truly remarkable things our  ScreenClouders achieve every day. 

Awards were given to individuals and teams with nominations collected (some from the whole company, some from our senior management and/or leadership teams) in preparation for the trip.  From “The Vanilla Ice Award” (a collaboration award for the best examples of ‘stop, collaborate and listen’ - obviously!) to the “Bolt Award” (for demonstrations of sprinting to meet a deadline or goal) to the “ScreenClowns” who were nominated for their good jokes/dad jokes, entertaining anecdotes or encyclopaedic knowledge of something niche... it was incredible to see so many people win awards (and receive honourable mentions,) and to give ourselves a collective, shared moment of celebration. 

Like any awesome holiday you may have been on, the post-trip blues are always real. Much as ScreenCloud Together has become a core part of our culture, for the People team, so has the feeling of all that adrenaline (the planning, organising and delivery of a complex annual event) dissipating afterwards. The People team always makes the most of our unlimited holiday to take some time off immediately after ScreenCloud Together to relax and recuperate. The peak of activity and collaboration is intense, but we love it!! …And it doesn’t take long for the People team to start debating potential ideas for inclusion in our next ScreenCloud Together.  

…Stay tuned for ScreenCloud Together 2023!

We don’t know where we’re going yet, but we hope you enjoyed reading about our greatest hits from 2022, and can’t wait to write another of these blog posts to shine a light on our 2023 adventure. 

The words “ScreenCloud Together” mean so much to us as a company.

ScreenCloud Together is a time to meet, collaborate and build stronger relationships with our colleagues and friends across the business. It’s a time of cohesion and, of course, fun!

Anna is our Talent Acquisition Manager based in our London hub! When she’s not doing all things recruitment related and helping to hire awesome ScreenClouders into the business, she’s getting crafty… did you know she did a furniture degree?! Anna has also recently purchased a bike, so if you keep an eye out, you may just see her whizzing around the roads of South West London!

We recently launched Work Experience programmes at ScreenCloud. In order to provide our future high-performers with useful, compelling and real-life experiences within a SaaS scale-up, we carefully craft Work Experience in any department that can provide a rewarding programme. Our Talent Acquisition Manager caught up with Peter, who joined us in January as an Associate QA with our Belfast Engineering team. 

Read on to hear how he went from  student to  full-time employee within a matter of months, and to hear Peter’s advice for anyone looking to make the most of work experience, to break into an exciting role in the tech industry!

I’d love it if you could start by sharing a bit about yourself and in particular, what you were doing before joining ScreenCloud.  

Pre-COVID, I was working for a SaaS company called Teamwork. I secured the role at Teamwork  via a Government programme, called Shared Skills. Shared Skills was created to help individuals level-up their skills and get into industry; I was in a Shared Skills cohort specifically for roles in software. I went into an academy with approximately 30 people to start with and they whittled it down to 11 of us, who they hired for roles in Support. Unfortunately, like many, Teamwork was impacted by the pandemic and they had to downsize the company. Sadly our team ended up experiencing redundancies.

I then took the opportunity to go back into education for a foundation degree in Software Engineering. 

During my second year, my University communicated an opportunity for work-based learning; a period of three months to complete a related  work placement. I had previously worked with Ciaran Murray (ScreenCloud’s Head of Customer Support) in my role at Teamwork. Ciaran and I had stayed in touch and when the subject of work experience came up, we got the ball rolling, I spoke to Michael (one of ScreenCloud’s Directors of Engineering), and then you know, the rest is history! 

What did your work experience mean to you? 

The work experience proved to be invaluable from day one, from onboarding at ScreenCloud and getting to initial grips with everyday tools & systems, to the processes using GitHub and Slack, agile methodologies, stand-up meetings and cross-functional teams coming together. These are things  that you don't get exposure to on the course I was on. It was really, really good to see just how all those different parts came  together. When you’re learning and you’re working  on projects end-to-end (the full spectrum of engineering, from  back end to front end, etc.) you can get overwhelmed and wonder “Is this what I'll have to do if I’m a programmer?” My work experience at ScreenCloud was great for many reasons, including proving that developers are given the time and space to really focus and go deep on challenges in order to get the work done and build the best solutions 

Do you think your Work Experience will give you an advantage going into industry? 

Yeah, I definitely do. There's a lot of stuff that would be industry standard that Screencloud uses, like GitHub, and AWS (Amazon Web Services). I’ve been able to get to grips with all of the tables, using DynamoDB and CloudWatch, checking the logs etc.. It's all part and parcel of modern software development, so it makes a big difference.  I could now confidently say at a job interview “yeah, I've already used GitHub; I know how to pull down a repo and run it locally.” 

I’m doing things that I wouldn’t have had a chance to do on my course; I've been using API endpoints, setting up different scenarios to test to make sure things are working and then checking the logs. I've learned more than I expected and  I’ve really enjoyed it. 

Did your work experience meet your expectations? Was it what you imagined it would be? 

I received lots of information upfront which was great; I was given a great overview of the work experience program including a preliminary pack which outlined the three months and what exactly I should expect  in month one, month two, month three. It didn’t quite pan out exactly as is, because you can’t predict exactly the type of bugs you’ll have in QA (for example there weren’t any critical bugs for me to work on at one point!) However, the placement was delivered as closely to the plan as possible. 

What has it been like transitioning from your work experience programme, to now being a permanent member of the ScreenCloud team? 

When I first started my work experience programme and came into the business, I wasn’t treated any differently to anyone else joining, even though I was a temporary employee. Everybody's been really approachable and they all want to work together to get the work done; people don't silo themselves in their teams and there’s always someone around to help! There’s been times where the work has been really simple but, you know, it’s because it is what has to be done, but not because I’ve been a work experience person! When the harder or bigger challenges  do come down the line, they are also thrown my way and I am included in that. 

On another note, I’ve actually experienced a bit of impostor syndrome! Coming into the business from a foundation degree course and then being offered a permanent job as an Associate QA Engineer was brilliant, but I wasn't expecting a job offer! I kind of struggled a little bit at the start wondering if I was way out of my depth - but I think I've come to grips with it now and I’m really settling in! 

What advice would you give to someone considering applying to work experience at ScreenCloud? 

I would just say be honest about what you really want to get out of it. There’s no point going into a placement and deliberately putting yourself into somewhere where you’re in over your head, or getting involved just for the sake of having working experience. 

Here at ScreenCloud, we’re proud advocates of developing our employees. Our organisational levelling ensures a constantly visible career path for all ScreenClouders (and their line managers.) This starts by creating exciting and meaningful entry level positions.

Here at ScreenCloud, we’re proud advocates of developing our employees. Our organisational levelling ensures a constantly visible career path for all ScreenClouders (and their line managers). This starts by creating exciting and meaningful entry level positions. 

How ScreenCloud Makes Work Experience... Work!

"What's the Startup scene like in Thailand?"

Anna Thomas : Let’s start by discussing the context for ScreenCloud’s Bangkok hub. What’s the startup scene like in Thailand?

Mark McDermott : If the UK is slightly behind America’s startup scene, then I think comparatively the startup scene in Thailand is a bit behind the UK.  It’s great to see more and more startups in Thailand - some at very early stages - and the promising signs for this building ecosystem.  There is a strong appetite for funding and some venturesome funding decisions are being made.  

AT : And what do you think that means for people who live and work in Thailand, who want to be part of this building ecosystem?

MM :  For now, it means that there aren’t many startup leaders in Thailand who have gone through the full lifecycle of starting, scaling and exiting and then reentering the ecosystem, either as investors or second time founders. The emerging scene means that, comparatively to the UK and US, there are fewer ‘first generation’ companies in Thailand; businesses that have scaled up, succeeded, maybe floated or been acquired for a lot of money. Compared to the UK or US, there isn’t that experienced founder expertise there at the moment… but it’s just a matter of time. 

AT : On that basis, what do you think ScreenCloud contributes to the Thai startup scene? How are we adding value?

MM : We definitely bring our experience and expertise from London. London is without doubt one of the main startup cities in Europe if you look at where the funding is going, where the big and exciting exits are happening and the amount of talented people who are working in these sorts of businesses. London's now into its second or even third generation of startups and ScreenCloud is bringing that to Thailand. I believe that amazing things are going to be happening in Thailand in the next five to ten years and I’m excited to be part of the first wave of this. 

"Why should someone in Thailand join our engineering team?" 

AT : Why do you believe that being part of our growing engineering team in Bangkok, is a better option than joining one of the larger corporations in the same city?  

MM :  I think the biggest difference will be the increased sense of freedom our engineering team has; both the freedom of working as part of ScreenCloud’s flexible culture, and the freedom to take ownership of certain parts of the product.  Compared to working in larger corporate engineering functions our engineers have more input into designing, building and delivering - and they’re doing that with modern technology.  We've recently rebuilt the whole platform and unlike working with a technology stack that has evolved over 15 or 20 years, at ScreenCloud there isn't that legacy technology. Being an engineer at ScreenCloud means you don’t have to work with older programming languages and older frameworks. For people who want to be accountable for something, they can take that freedom of ownership and have tangible, direct impact.  And, put all of that into the context of a fast-paced, scaling business that is international, working predominantly in English and for customers in the US and Europe, and it presents an engaging learning environment and the potential for a high-impact engineering career. 

AT : What’s the most rewarding part of that for someone who might be reading this now, and considering working in a startup or scaleup environment?

MM : For an individual who wants to be accountable, take ownership and deliver products quickly into the hands of customers I think the reward comes in seeing your product being used, and getting feedback on it. There are tonnes of things that ScreenCloud wants to explore, we haven’t done everything we need to do yet... There is new research and development to be pursued and more to deliver.  It really could be your big idea and your contribution that gets us to the next level as a company.  

"What's your favourite thing about our Bangkok hub?" 

AT : Let’s move on to talking about ScreenCloud’s Bangkok hub specifically. What do you love about it?

MM : My favourite thing about our Bangkok office - apart from our world class coffee machine and the swimming pool of course - is the way that the office has been laid out. We have an Innovation Zone, which is a testing centre for all of our devices where you can see almost every different type of screen and every different type of player, all running ScreenCloud.   The main office space is super collaborative with comfortable and flexible breakout spaces and it’s a generally inspiring place to be; you can speak with your fellow ScreenClouders and collaborate on different projects as easily as you can find quiet space to focus on doing some deep work.  It's also lovely because it's surrounded by gardens; there's a general sense of peace and tranquillity which you don't always get in a busy city like Bangkok. It’s a truly creative, focused and generally great atmosphere to work in.  

AT : ScreenCloud is a deliberately international business - we love our individual hubs and we work hard to recognise and amplify the cultural diversity we have.  As CEO, how do our Bangkok-based ScreenClouders contribute uniquely to our overall company culture? 

MM : There are some universal themes about what I've learned, and I think the biggest scope of influence that our Bangkok hub has on our overall company culture is a real sense of creative focus - and that’s so needed if ScreenCloud is going to find elegant solutions to problems.  In the West we’re so prone to peaks and troughs and extremes and I think that is the strongest generalised comparison; there is a sense of calmness that our Bangkok hub brings to the company.  Of course, we all get stressed from time to time and we’re a scale-up, so things are busy in all our hubs! But I love how much our Bangkok hub drives the whole company to  look at the bigger picture from time to time. 

Mark McDermott on Joining ScreenCloud's Bangkok hub : “Amazing Things are going to be Happening in Thailand"

Our Bangkok team is hard at work building the platform that runs ScreenCloud; a global operating system for screens.  Anna Thomas leads our talent function, and recently sat down with our CEO, Mark McDermott, to talk about what it’s like being part of our Bangkok hub. Anna and Mark discuss the fulfilling, rewarding careers that ScreenCloud is uniquely positioned to provide in Bangkok.

Why We're So Excited to Have a Thailand Hub!

Lish works as ScreenCloud's People Team Assistant, based in our London hub. When she's not assisting in all things people related, you'll find her stalking sausage dogs on Clapham Common or in Gails buying blueberry muffins. She loves also cooking and getting artsy, and is still on her quest to become TikTok famous.

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that being surrounded by good people in the face of adversity and uncertainty is crucial.

Uncertainty. God, I hate that word. The word uncertainty for a meticulous planner like myself fills me with dread; typically, I love knowing what is happening, where, when, and who is going. What do I need to bring? What time shall I arrive? As those I travel with know all too well, every trip has to have a pre-planned itinerary. 

The Coronavirus pandemic has been ongoing in the UK for around a year and a half now, and we’ve spent most of that time in and out of national lockdowns – unable to travel freely or see our loved ones. As a result, one of the many challenges we have had to endure is uncertainty. 

For me, it's the uncertainty of when I’ll be able to see my family again.

Currently, we’ve been apart for about a year and a half, but who's counting? Even with the UK’s new found ‘freedom day’, I’ve still been unable to travel home to see my family due to the turbulent Coronavirus situation in Thailand. To give this some context; I’m Lish. I’m twenty three years old, half English and half Thai, living in London.

My Mum is originally from a small village in Northern Thailand and my Dad is from a small town in North Yorkshire. I was born in Bangkok, Thailand’s capital city, where we lived for a little under a year before my parents moved us to the UK. Fast forward to the present day; my Mum and my brother are currently living in Thailand’s southern island of Phuket, where our family home is located, and my Dad is working away in Indonesia. Dad’s side of the family are all scattered around the UK but, due to the pandemic, I wasn’t able to see them properly for over a year. Only recently were we all reunited at a family wedding and let me tell you, many happy tears were shed. I’ve never loved hugging my grandparents more!

Have you ever cried for the whole duration of a twelve hour flight? I would not recommend it.

After living in the UK for around fifteen years, we moved back to Thailand in 2013 and settled down in Phuket. I use the word ‘moved’ loosely, as I had to be dragged onto the plane. Unhappy was not an understatement. Have you ever cried for the whole duration of a twelve hour flight? I would not recommend it. The thought of moving across the world, then aged fifteen, terrified me and leaving behind everything I knew and moving to the unknown was daunting.

Again, the fear of uncertainty and something I could not forecast or control. Eight years later, after studying in both Thailand and the UK, I’ve settled in London to focus on my career. And now I work for ScreenCloud.

When the first national lockdown was announced in March 2020, I was really anxious at the thought of being stuck indoors and losing my support group, especially as my family is over 6,000 miles away. My nightmare became a reality when three months into the lockdown I lost my job and was made redundant. 

At the time, I’d been living in London for around seven months and I had never felt so far away from my family and what was familiar to me. A lot of worry followed; how will I pay rent? What am I going to do? Who can I talk to about all of this? Luckily, shortly afterwards, I was introduced to ScreenCloud by an old colleague and I have been working with them ever since!

Culture, inclusivity and diversity were the most important factors to me when looking for a new role.

What attracted me to ScreenCloud initially was that they also had an office hub based in Bangkok. Growing up mixed race and attending an international school has taught me that culture, inclusivity and diversity were the most important factors to me when looking for a new role; I wanted to be appreciated for my differences… They shouldn’t be the reason why I stand out from a crowd. 

My colleague Kieran once said “At ScreenCloud, you are allowed to be yourself and you don’t have to put on a different image when you come into the office” and what a truth that is! As a ScreenClouder, I feel valued for who I am. Not only am I lucky enough to be able to use my heritage – something I am so proud of – in my everyday work, but I’m encouraged to do so.

One of the benefits ScreenCloud offers to its employees is a Personal Development Fund, which can be used to develop our knowledge and skills in the workplace. I’ve used some of my fund to purchase some Thai language textbooks so that I can improve on my Thai and speak more confidently with the Bangkok team via Zoom – and eventually in person when we can finally travel again.

They don’t call Thailand the land of smiles for nothing!

When I first joined ScreenCloud and the Bangkok team found out that I was Luk Khreung (which translates in English to ‘half child’), they were so welcoming and I felt at home. It’s hard to describe, it’s just a comforting and familiar feeling. The Thai’s are probably some of the friendliest people that you’ll ever meet… They don’t call Thailand the land of smiles for nothing!

The Thai’s are known for their laid back and relaxed nature that comes from the teachings of Buddhism; to live life at a slow pace and enjoy what it has to offer. In Thailand, we call this ‘sabai sabai’, which literally translates to ‘relaxed’ or ‘chilled out’. As a result of this easy lifestyle, some of the things that may be deemed a bit out of the ordinary here in the West are completely normal in Thailand.

An example of this? Last year I was having my weekly call with my colleague in Bangkok whilst she was in the noodle shop grabbing some boat noodles (or Guay Tiew as they are called in Thai; a noodle soup dish containing a variety of meat and vegetables. Hands down one of my favourite Thai dishes ever).

Taking a meeting whilst eating lunch in the West may be seen as rude, but in Thailand this is more normal, as per the sabai sabai lifestyle. In Asian culture, food is also known to bring people together and it brings a sense of closeness (my friends can attest to the fact that I am a huge feeder) so the nature of the call really reminded me of home and Thai values.

Since I moved out of Phuket, it’s been a ritual for me and my family to get boat noodles as our first meal when we are all back together on the Island, so this really brought a sense of homeliness and comfort that cannot be easily fabricated.

In Asian culture, family is everything… This is definitely embodied by the Thai team and the Bangkok hub is known for its ‘family vibe’; everybody supports and helps one another as if they are a family.

I am incredibly grateful to be able to work with the Bangkok team and share a mutual understanding and love of Thai culture and Thailand itself. In Asian culture, family is everything and we are taught that relationships are the most important things in life; you put other people's happiness before your own and find gratification in having good relationships with those around you. This is definitely embodied by the Thai team and the Bangkok hub is known for its ‘family vibe’; everybody supports and helps one another as if they are a family.

Trust and autonomy underpins everything we do at ScreenCloud, which is highlighted by one of our benefits… unlimited annual leave. Due to this unlimited holiday policy – which recognises all cultural holidays in our four hub locations – I am also able to take off Thai holidays that I wish to celebrate, something I was never able to do before due to rationing my holiday days. Our flexible working policy also means that, if I wanted to, I would be able to work from home during my next trip to Thailand, which, again, takes away so much stress and means I can spend some much needed quality time at home with my family.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that working as part of such a culturally diverse team has really helped with my mental health this past year and a half. For those with the privilege of fitting in with those who surround them, this would not even be something to be considered, but for internationals like myself, inclusion and diversity in the workplace can really make a difference. 

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that being surrounded by good people in the face of adversity and uncertainty is crucial and those are the same people that will get you through those tough days. An inclusive and diverse workplace is not something businesses should be cultivating overnight in order to tick a box, follow a movement, or improve their marketing; it’s something that they should strive for and foster as part of their internal culture because they want to.

 For some, a diverse workplace with an inclusive culture could be the main thing getting them through the turbulent  and unprecedented times we are all currently enduring. 

The pandemic affected everyone differently. For our People Team Assistant Lish, it meant not seeing family for a year and a half. Here's her story and how ScreenCloud supported her through it.

Long Distance and Lockdown: How ScreenCloud Helped Me Through the Pandemic

Jen is a People Experience Manager at ScreenCloud, based in our London Hub. Outside of her role she loves to travel and has a passion for wildlife photography. These days she's home-bound in Essex and you'll usually find her over a country park attempting a 5k run!

Any expectation that people can or should ‘leave life at the door’ when they are working is not only a naive interpretation that lacks compassion, it actively damages the psychological contract businesses have with their people and in many cases is exclusionary… even discriminatory.  

When it comes to practices and structures that enable peoples’ whole selves to thrive as a result of (not in spite of) their jobs, at ScreenCloud we’re proud of the space we create for individualised choice.  That includes the choice to give back - and crucially for us - to give back in ways that are personally meaningful. 

“Volunteers do not necessarily have the time; they just have the heart”.
Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew, literary author

Our ScreenClouders have the heart… We enable them with time. 

At ScreenCloud, we provide five paid volunteering days each year.  This could be considered an unusual or arguably unnecessary move for a company that already has a flexible, unlimited annual leave policy, however, this specific provision for volunteering days is deliberate. 

We believe that it is important to shine a spotlight on volunteering and in signposting this ‘time off type,’ facilitate an internal conversation around the meaning and impact of our personal volunteering activities.  

At the policy level, this is about enabling people with an accessible framework, explaining how to book the time off and encouraging people to use this additional time off each year. This includes telling stories to drive engagement across our international hubs and encouraging those who may never have volunteered before to reach out to their local communities to investigate ways they can help, with the individualised choice to decide what is meaningful to them. 

And ScreenCloud benefits from this volunteering policy too. Specifically this is as a result of the additional skill our people bring back into the company as a result of the added confidence new experiences can bring and the fulfillment that volunteering provides. 

If our people feel more ‘whole’, the whole selves they bring to work benefit our collective potential.

We are looking forward to making announcements about company-wide CSR commitments, however this provision is deliberately not that.  While group activities and ‘all hands on deck’ volunteering initiatives can - and do - have huge impact, this is about the individual and respecting personal decisions.  As an employer that places value on individualised flexibility, we wanted to avoid giving our people a predetermined list of volunteering options to choose from. Instead we give our employees a platform for choice, and thereafter to share relatable experiences… After all, our individual passions, knowledge and lived experiences are unique. 

Many thanks to Maya, Mel, Katy and Santino (as well as Jen’s own contribution as the original author of this article) for telling their individual stories. We’re beyond proud to be sharing some awesome examples of how our ScreenClouders choose to give back.

Maya Shah-Ceccotti, Senior Product Marketing Manager, LA Hub

Growing up, volunteering was really important to Maya’s family who were regularly involved in food donation and gift-giving events for children.  As Maya entered the workplace, she realised she wanted to identify a volunteering opportunity that would enable her to apply her product marketing skills to fundraising and growing a charity’s awareness. 

Maya and her husband have been on a junior board for a community-based children's charity for over 6 years, after being introduced to the charity by a friend. A Place Called Home aims to help children and their families with educational and artistic programs, counseling, mentorship and pathways to a bright future. Maya says that this strategic board is made up of an amazing group of people who have formed strong friendships while doing fantastic work, leveraging diverse and impressive skill sets and applying their strengths to a wide range of events for different audiences.  

They have raised approximately $450,000 so far over eight years, but Maya does not consider herself a fundraiser - she is a product marketer, creating new pathways for donations through positioning a product. Great examples include pioneering a strategy to offer potential donors the opportunity to purchase a membership, in turn enabling a more steady stream of donations. The membership is an exclusive club within which stories are surfaced about how donations have made an impact, and what the charity are focusing on for the upcoming year.  

Maya is also an ambassador for Multiple Sclerosis (MS), a condition which can affect the brain and spinal cord. Maya was introduced to the National MS Society through her own team of doctors.  Maya helps the LA chapter to fundraise by positioning meaningful opportunities for involvement with people who want to provide their support and can afford to donate. The money raised goes towards scientific advancements and essential resources, and Maya says the money goes a long way, with new medications on the market now that would not have been available just three years ago. 

Mel Thompson, Senior Project Manager, London Hub

Mel works four days a week at ScreenCloud.  Every Friday, she volunteers at her local Oxfam bookshop and absolutely adores her role there; living her dream of being surrounded by books. 

Always the Project Manager, Mel’s weekly contribution has huge impact. Mel ensures the shop is well-organised by pricing the books (accompanied by a cup of tea and biscuits) , processing online orders and helping customers, many of whom are regulars - she enjoys getting to know them and their favourite genres.

Mel says that her volunteer role allows her to challenge her brain in a different way and to achieve additional variety alongside her role at ScreenCloud. It’s full of surprises too! Mel regularly uncovers intriguing insights and hidden treasure, like notes inside donated books with a story or a photograph.  

The money raised by the bookshop goes towards ending poverty, beating hunger, providing clean water resources, health and education and much more.

Katy Aylward - Customer Success Manager, London Hub

Katy has been an active volunteer for many years; while at school Katy volunteered for three years in British Heart Foundation charity shops, as well as spending 1 year supporting the dementia unit of a retirement home. Whilst at University, Katy helped the Anthony Nolan charity by encouraging students to register to be a bone marrow donor. 

Katy has been on the lookout for other opportunities to give back and although she discovered many places were unable to take additional volunteers due to the pandemic, has been volunteering  as a community responder for Good Sam since March, helping those who are isolating due to Covid-19. 

Good Sam volunteers have a significant impact on their local community by providing essential care for vulnerable people. This includes befriending individuals who are otherwise at risk of suffering from the loneliness associated with isolating, providing phone-based support (for people who really look forward to their ‘chit chats’ with Katy,) driving people to and from hospital, collecting groceries and ensuring that these individuals’ essential needs are met. 

Santino Scibelli, Support Operations Lead, Remote (Long Island, NY, USA) 

Tino has a passion for animal rights and helping animals in need. He has been volunteering with local animal shelters in New York to help with the influx of people looking to adopt during the pandemic. 

Tino has been able to volunteer remotely, and makes use of this flexibility alongside the flexibility he benefits from in his role at ScreenCloud to review and screen adoption applications. Tino helps to ensure that the best possible fit is found, so that the puppies are placed into loving homes that they can be forever happy in. 

And… Tino has recently provided two beautiful beagle pups, Gigi and Griffin with their own forever home. 

Jen Sayer, People Experience Manager, London Hub

Like Katy, Jen found that volunteering opportunities were more scarce due to the pandemic, so decided to proactively reach out to some small local charities.  

Jen loved the idea of her volunteering efforts enabling her to do something new and different; she was looking for opportunities that might take her outside of her usual comfort zone and give her some more social interaction after a year of on-off lockdowns and isolation. 

Jen found a local non-profit theatre with a capacity of just over 100 people, who needed help with general tasks such as welcoming guests, checking tickets and showing people to their seats.  Jen’s first day at the theatre saw her helping out with an Eric Clapton tribute night! While working in the Kiosk to serve drinks and snacks during the intervals Jen was also able to watch the show… which was apparently really good! The theatre is run entirely by volunteers with all money raised through events going to the continued restoration and upkeep of the historical War Memorial buildings in the local area.

Flexible working requires a high level of trust - we provide the framework and we trust that employees will use it in a way that works for their own personal circumstances. We don’t police what counts as “volunteering” and we don’t have an approval process.  We don’t scrutinise how employees are using this time, but of course we do always encourage our ScreenClouders to talk about their experiences and passions if they want to! 

We wanted to highlight our volunteering days provision, but ScreenCloud isn’t affiliated with these charities; the recognition and appreciation belongs 100% to the individuals featured in this blog. 

Our ScreenClouders have the heart… We enable them with time. Read more about our Volunteering policy here at ScreenCloud.

Our ScreenClouders have the heart… We enable them with time.

Alice is ScreenCloud's resident wordsmith, based in the London hub. When she's not writing about digital signage you'll either find her in Greenwich Park, one of Greenwich's many pubs or talking about how great Greenwich is. 

While we have always been a remote-friendly and flexible workplace, the enforced COVID working pattern has meant a lot of time out of the office; and for new joiners, no time in the office at all. 

As with a majority of businesses worldwide, we not only had to adapt when it came to onboarding new joiners during the pandemic, but we also had to ensure that all our colleagues felt connected to each other – and the business – as well. 

We have written before on how to engage remote employees, and we practice what we preach across our four global hubs. But, there’s nothing quite like connecting with your colleagues in person to drive home company culture and build great working relationships. 

As a global company with hybrid and asynchronous working patterns that pre-date the pandemic, we’re no stranger to virtual onboarding. It’s part of the make-up of ScreenCloud’s working culture. But we believe that in-person interaction – and forming social connections via creating shared experiences – can greatly complement the overall, blended, onboarding experience. It’s nice to know who you’re working with; this is one of the core values behind our annual ScreenCloud Together events. 

The ScreenCloud Summer Re-OnBonding event

Many of our colleagues missed out on this blended experience due to COVID, so as soon as we were given the green light for returning safely to the London office (for those who felt comfortable in doing so), this gave us the perfect opportunity to get everyone together for what we called the ScreenCloud Summer Re-OnBonding event.

While we may have conjured-up this portmanteau, there is real meaning behind it. 

The onboarding period in a new company is an incredibly important phase in anyone’s career. For us, it doesn’t end after the first couple of weeks; our onboarding period is what others term ‘probationary’, and lasts for the first few months our new employees are with us. It’s how we like to set our colleagues up for success.

As an ambitious scale-up with big plans, teams that work well together are crucial. Creating a bond via shared values, and a company culture that encourages social interaction, helps our employees feel connected to something bigger than just their own work.

Simply put, ‘OnBonding’ is a mix of onboarding and bonding. And  it’s ‘re-’ because we’re doing it again! 

Our Summer ReOnBonding event was therefore to repeat (in a super-condensed manner) the onboarding experience for all ScreenClouders, regardless of how long they have been with the company.

Aside from being a great excuse to get back together in person, there is some psychology behind this; as our CEO wrote in this article, employee engagement is critical to a business’ success – companies with engaged employees outperform those without by 202%. 

Part of our approach when consulting with businesses about their digital signage initiatives is to help them strategize ways to empower their employees via impactful content. Part of achieving that comes from repetition; this helps drive recall (even if it is subliminal). 

So it was important for us to take our own advice and turn our screens back on, repeating our onboarding content to reinvigorate and re-engage. 

While we would have loved each of our hubs to enjoy a Re-OnBonding event back in their respective offices, unfortunately our colleagues in Bangkok are in the midst of another lockdown; we’re thinking of you!

As much as we were encouraging our colleagues to interact with each other in person, we used our screens as a supporting medium; we showed the weather (essential viewing in the London hub), the agenda for the day, company announcements (birthdays and work anniversaries), as well as timely announcements – like countdowns to the next of the day’s activities.

The strategy behind this kind of screen content was to incite real-world interaction.

But in our other hubs, we used ScreenCloud Broadcast to live stream the day’s main event: the speeches. 

After a rousing speech from Lish welcoming us back to the office (who, along with People Team colleague Anna co-ordinated the day), ScreenCloud’s CEO Mark took to the floor.

Reverting back to his days as a student historian and channeling his impressive storytelling abilities, Mark delved into the history of ScreenCloud revisiting the ‘why’; why we do what we do, why screens matter and why it’s important to continue to evolve our product – all against a backdrop of using Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Dancing in the Dark’ as a metaphor for producing genius under pressure. As Mark proved, storytelling is a powerful medium for learning.

He split our history into ‘books’, with the founding story of ScreenCloud through to today (2015 - 2020) - including the struggle of the last 18 months - forming Book 1  of the ScreenCloud annals.

Book 2  is all about our “Great Reset”, and the Re-OnBonding Event marked the start of this.

It may sound like an obvious thing to say, but connecting  in person can feel incredibly different to communicating  through a screen.

Getting our colleagues in the London and Belfast offices to line up in order of tenure length (asking any question they could think of apart from “what was your start date” in order to do so) was a gentle icebreaker, after which we re-introduced ourselves.  We all got to learn a lot about each other from our respective “interesting facts”. In Bangkok, this had to unfortunately be virtual. 

The ice-breakers led nicely into some more teamwork; 

London: Design a vessel for an egg and drop it from the balcony to see whose survives.

Belfast: Ride a multi-seat party bike round town.

LA: An American football match on the beach

Bangkok: Enjoying a virtual lunch on the company while taking time away from work to connect and chat… albeit virtually.

 At ScreenCloud our core values are just that - core! We have three sets of values that operate as effective and complementary themes to describe the mindsets and behaviours that make us uniquely successful. Our values are not ‘rules’ to be followed; everyone has a variety of personal values and experiences and we work hard to create inclusive space for this diversity . Our values are a statement of what we don’t tolerate.  They are embedded in  every element of the people experience at ScreenCloud, and that starts with onboarding. 

To ‘re-onbond’ all our ScreenClouders in each hub, we took creative approaches to visualise these values, and reflect on how our core values ‘show up’ in everything we do. This incited conversation around them – and also a lot of laughter (turns out, there aren’t many ‘artists’ in the company!) We enable our team in Bangkok with Thai translations of our values. The Thai team were able to use this to ensure nothing got lost in translation in conceptualising our virtues and behaviours. 

The conclusion to this was a ‘fireside chat’ between Mark and our VP of People, Ginni. 

Meeting people in person and having meaningful conversations.

Seeing all the hubs doing activities together in person has really given everybody a mood boost and has emphasised how awesome our internal culture is; everybody got involved on the day.


Thank you to Lish and Anna for orchestrating such a brilliant event. Thank you to Barry and Joergen for organising the activities in LA, Michael and Jonny in Belfast, and Siri in Bangkok. 

‘OnBonding’ I Verb I from ‘bond’ and ‘onboarding’ I to assist and support ScreenClouders in reconnecting with the business and colleagues after a long period out of office.

The ScreenCloud Summer Re-OnBonding Event 2021

If there’s one thing we’d all like at work, it’s better meetings right? The “meeting” format can often make even the most exciting topic, oh so boring. Especially when attendees are fixated on emails and smartphones or managing anything else other than giving the session their undivided attention. Then you have the classic "meeting for the sake of meeting" where no one really knows why they’re there, but you lose an hour or two anyway.

At ScreenCloud, we believe there’s a simple solution to many of the problems that make meetings a time drain. How do we know? Because we’ve  been there and we’ve used it.  

Of course, we mean digital signage. Digital signage is the practice of getting screens up on walls and actually using them to make a difference to the way you communicate and share information. Here’s how digital signage can help you to have better meetings, in any office,  business or even co-working space.

As many businesses are contemplating heading back into the office, these are just a few excellent tips to keep in mind.

If you want some more information on how to safely transition back to the office, head to this link on returning to the office safely. ‍

How many meetings have you been to that you probably didn’t need to be in? The horrible truth is that when people are forced to attend irrelevant meetings, they actually fail to show up. Sure, they might be there physically but mentally, they’re elsewhere.

Digital signage can help eradicate this by showing guest list of who’s attending prior to the meeting start time. Use event calendar, a Google Spreadsheet or an app such as Wayfinding Pro which will all do the job of setting up your list of attendees on screen. 

This could be in your office, or outside of the meeting room itself.  When you see who’s attending, the person running the meeting can  actively make a decision on who needs to be there and who doesn’t. The more meetings you can remove from someone’s diary, the better. 

Lay out the agenda on the screen prior to the meeting

Most meetings take far too long to get started. The reason? No clear agenda. Prior to any meeting, have a policy that the meeting agenda gets added to your digital signage screens. 

This gives everyone a chance to digest the information and will  ensure you stay on track of topics much more easily. Sure, you could give everyone a paper print out but how many people are going to read  that? If you have the information up on your digital screen not only is  it more visible but you also get to change the information as often as  you like.

Meetings can be such a time drain. But, not with ScreenCloud...

At ScreenCloud, we believe there’s a simple solution to many of the problems that make meetings a time drain. How do we know? Because we’ve been there and we’ve used it. Here's a quick-fire guide of the most vital hints and tips.

Culture

The Great Resignation: A conversation with our VP of People Strategy

ScreenCloud Together 2022

How ScreenCloud Makes Work Experience... Work!

Why We're So Excited to Have a Thailand Hub!

Long Distance and Lockdown: How ScreenCloud Helped Me Through the Pandemic

The Flexibility to Give Back

The ScreenCloud Summer Re-OnBonding Event 2021

Ready to get your organization connected?