ECHOtape is wrapping up the end of 2014, and that means that it’s time to hand out our yearly commemoration of everyone and everything exciting that has happened this year. We know that digital is the way the world works these days, but there is something distinctive and special about being able to hold a hard copy of our Yearbook, and employees will be getting their very own copy on December 24th.
Let us take a trip down memory lane, shall we? The Yearbook began many years ago in the early 1990’s when ECHOtape ran a monthly newsletter titled, “I heard it through the tape vine.” The goal of this newsletter was to bring everyone in the company up to speed on what was going on. This newsletter was especially important because we had multiple locations and remote account representatives in the field, and without the power of the Internet, smartphones, and digital imagery, communication was much more challenging. Consisting of a few sheets of paper stapled together, the newsletter was our primary connection with each other. At one point, an employee suggested that it would be great to see what all of these wonderful people looked like so faces could be put to voices over the phone. Subsequently, the document morphed into a Yearbook which included profiles of everyone in the company. ECHOtape has continued this tradition every year.
Each edition of the ECHOtape Yearbook is a way to capture the year’s highlights and profiles of our teams. Everyone gets to complete their own profile so that we know something about everybody. Our HR Manager creates a questionnaire for us to answer, including questions like, “How are you most recognized in the company,” “Share something about you that no one here knows,” “What music style best describes your department,” and “If you could create any kind of tape, what would it be?” The answers to these questions accompany each person’s photograph and a personal blurb.
Along with each profile, our executives write letters to the company, discussing all the great things we have accomplished together. These letters are accompanied by many, many photographs of the company, the events that have taken place, and the memories we hope to preserve.
We hope you look forward to receiving your 2014 Yearbook, because without you all, it would not exist.
Tell us… As a business, what do you do internally to help people get to know each other?
