RAPP Invite Staff to ‘Freshers Week’ to Re-connect the Workforce Ahead of a Return to the Office

RAPP is encouraging staff to work in the office on a hybrid basis from and has taken steps to ease the transition from home working by inviting staff to participate in a 'Freshers Week' of activities, including training and development as well as social events. 

Attendees will be greeted with an array of stalls catering for every interest and communities within the business.

There will be representatives from each stall to answer questions and discuss upcoming initiatives. The Leadership team will be on hand on the 'Tea with the SLT' stall, whilst team ‘Feel Good’ will be promoting all the health and wellness benefits that RAPP offers its staff alongside the Mental Health First Aid stall manned by many of their 40 MHFA qualified people. Other stalls include Culture Club, Disco (DE&I), The Academy – the home to RAPP’s Learning and Development offering, Creative Writing, Book Club, Climate Action and more. All come with suggestion boxes to help the agency build its culture and evolve collaboratively for the future.

Staff will have the opportunity to attend learning and development workshops on key themes that will help to ease them into a new world of hybrid working. They will focus on empathy, creativity, presentation skills, and confidence, all hosted by either senior staff or external professionals.

Towards the end of the day, there will be an optional hour of silliness in the form of ‘RAPPMaster,’ the agency’s very own take on the TV comedy challenge show ‘Taskmaster’, with all tasks being created by Alex Horne (Taksmaster’s creator and Co-presenter). To finish, happy hour drinks will close out the day.

For many people, it will be the first chance to meet new colleagues in real life, as the agency merged with Proximity mid lockdown last year.

Gabby Ludzker, RAPP UK’s CEO said: “A freshers week felt like an inviting and inclusive way to bring people together, and start the process of building back connection and collaboration in a way that will ensure that RAPP’s culture is safeguarded while also being given a chance to adapt for the future. And whilst we know that we are not over the pandemic and things can change very quickly, bringing people back together IRL is a long held ambition but we’ve done so with safety front of mind and purely on a voluntary basis”.

Everyone will be invited to attend on one of five separate days of Freshers Week, and given a choice of wristbands to indicate their personal levels of comfort with a return to the office:

• Green: I’m more than happy to share handshakes, high fives, and hugs with my colleagues. Come and say hi!
• Amber: I’m comfortable with some socialising, but I will want to be careful. Elbow bumps only please.
• Red: I’m not quite ready to chat or work together up close, so in the politest way possible – back off! Thank you.

In addition, everyone will be asked to take a lateral flow test at the start of the day, and encouraged to wash hands regularly, as well as wearing masks and practising social distancing when appropriate.