What's the Company Culture Like at Applecart?

What do holiday celebrations look like in your office, and how did these traditions develop?

Applecart has experienced rapid growth in the past few years, and we’ve been fortunate enough to have some of the original Applecart crew members stick around to continue old traditions and welcome our new joiners in creating new ones. Whether it’s our annual Halloween Karaoke Bash (singing in front of co-workers is way easier in costume!), swapping our weekly in-office Tuesday bagel spread with a donut buffet on April Fool’s Day, or using our weekly happy hour to celebrate International Nacho Day, we try to surprise and delight with celebrations that foster engagement and reflect Applecart’s unique and fun-loving employee population.

How does Applecart best support inclusive celebrations that allow everyone to participate comfortably?

At Applecart, we encourage our employees to guest-host our weekly happy hours based on their interests. This year, we’ve celebrated the Celebrity Branded Snacks Soiree, Hispanic Heritage Month and a very special Love Island-themed happy hour, to name a few. Our goal as an events team is to foster creativity among our employees and bring their ideas to life. We also try to keep a robust calendar of events, so even if the Love Island happy hour isn’t an employee’s cup of tea, the prescreening of Wicked: For Good might be! Having a high cadence of opportunities for engagement leads to more inclusivity for all employees.

Caddick's Advice for Building New Traditions

• “Getting to Know You: For new organizations, focus on who your employees are during the first year. Take a few out for coffee, ask for feedback, and ask about their hobbies. Learning about your employees can provide valuable insights into your events and festivities throughout the year.”
• “Find the Patterns: Try to look at the calendar and identify events that occur annually. If every spring your remote team comes to the office for the next quarter’s planning, that’s the perfect time to coordinate a trip to a baseball game. Every fall, does your city get windy and cold? It sounds like it’s time for the first Annual Chilly Chili Cook Off in the office! Let the seasons and other events outside of the main holidays inform your event schedule for a more inclusive celebration.”
• “Early Bird Gets The Engagement: The sooner you block events off on calendars, the better engagement you’ll have! Adding calendar holds early makes the event a priority for your employees, and the anticipation of the event details being revealed makes for an exciting conversation topic for the work week. Even if you don’t have everything ironed out yet, hold the space that you want your employees to hold for your event!”