HOW TWINO ARE ADAPTING TO HYBRID WORKING!

Last week had the wonderful opportunity to meet Anastasija Oleinika and Monta Zaķe at TWINO’s new HQ.

I had watched a ‘Becoming CEO of Smart Growth keynote' from Anastasija where she had shared the importance of conducting quarterly review meetings.

As GetFocused is all about orchestrating highly effective meeting rhythms, as well as embracing and adapting to a post-pandemic working style, I was especially interested to get a tour around TWINO’s spankingly new centrally located office specifically designed for hybrid Woking. I reached out to gauge whether this was possible, Anastasija kindly agreed and the date was set!

Day of the meeting

Well, I had not met in center of town for some time and due to my bike being in the bike repair shop I opted to drive.

Located in the stylish and recently renovated square brimming with stylish coffee outlets and quirky lunch spots on Dzinarvu iela. It was evidently a very popular place and due to that fact, I found it incredibly challenging to find a parking spot.

TIP:

When opting to drive to meet in person ALWAYS enquire about on-site parking or leave with an extra 20-30 minute cushion to accommodate for parking challenges.

The Meeting shelf

Evidently, TWINO is doing so much right both in and out of the office. TWINO Group has issued over €1 billion in unsecured consumer and business loans, expanded to 4 markets, and set the pace P2P lending growth in Europe.

Understanding that their people are their #1 asset they have created a ‘hybrid workspace’ that will certainly help attract, retain a develop talent. Incorporating elements of practical functionality, with design flair to create a fun and attractive working environment.

Their current strategy to manage the balance between offering flexibility whilst maintaining productivity is to encourage their employees to come to the office to connect and collaborate and to conduct deep focused work at home. The design of the office certainly reflects this.

On the first floor, you walk into an open plan training and event space with funky ‘branded sofas’ in TWINO blue, a table-tennis ‘meeting’ table and a reception area. It could easily be converted into an in-person event space/training room and Monta plans to conduct a future series of TWINO-TALKS in this space. These are open for anyone involved in Fintech scene to join.

As you venture up to the 3rd floor. You walk into a socially vibrant kitchen space and open-plan office environment. I doubt much "deep focused" work would get done in this area but as you walk through the space, away from the buzz, you find hot desks where you could certainly get your head down, should you want to.

There is also a boardroom-style meeting room with a TV on the wall. My suggestion was to only beam in a remote worker if there was one of them not present in the office. This would enable him/her to sit at the head of the table.

What I really valued about this space is that it was designed for up to 7 + 1 potential off-site worker to be present. Any meeting with more than 7-9 people quickly becomes an inefficient use of time.

TIP:

In the case where more than one person is working from home, my suggestion would be for the team to join via Google hangout to ensure everyone is on the same page and there is no locational bias during the meeting. Please click here to read more on this topic.

Next to this room is a very informal meeting space. Great for a quiet call, quick check-in, or a weekly 45-minute live brainstorming meeting with your team.

At the end of the space, there is a separate corner office. The custom neon light is an eye-catcher both inside and from the outside, leading the way to the office and inviting passers-by to find out what TWINO is about.

Leading up to this space was an area they were not quite sure what to do with.

TIP:

My suggestion was to create a TWINO TOP BOOKS library by asking everyone employees to share their top 5 books. This would create a fascinating library overnight.

My list would comprise of these books.

Conclusion

All in all, TWINO has adapted extremely well and I have no doubt they are going to keep growing from strength to strength…… Watch this space, as I have no doubt a new floor will be opening soon to accommodate its growing hybrid workforce :)

Should you want any advice on how best to adapt to fully remote or hybrid working please feel free to contact the GetFocused Team.