Looking at the minutes from the yearly planning meeting we held in early January this year, there’s a theme that is consistent throughout. It all just felt a little “uncertain”… And why wouldn’t it? We had just wrapped up nearly 2 years of pandemic operations. Some of us were still living under movement restrictions. Everyone was exhausted with the possibility that this “new normal” would continue indefinitely. Would there be enough left in the mental tank for 2022?

How It Started…

As far as Oracle Tree is concerned, 2020 / 2021 were years where we focused on being as impactful for our clients as possible. Our team worked diligently with those who stayed during Covid. We said “see you again soon” with love to those who were forced to pause. We counseled. We facilitated. We encouraged pivoting. And then we hustled hard to create digital ecosystems that could keep up with the changing world.

Vs How It’s Going

But 2022? She hit differently. Recently our CEO Marama said that it feels like we’re “sliding into home base, covered in dirt, just in time” and that sentiment seems pretty spot on! Because 2022 has been a year full of unprecedented growth for our agency, exciting new client opportunities, mountains of organisational learning, and so much pride in what we’ve achieved that it’s hard to believe it’s only been 12 months!

Here are a few of our biggest highlights to wrap up the year.

Our Agency Doubled in Size

We started the year with a small core group of talented OT’ers. But we will finish the year with almost 100% more team members crammed onto our weekly Zoom huddle screen. And they come from all over Australia and the world! We’ve added another Social Media Coordinator, a super talented Content Specialist, two (awesome) Administrative Assistants, an in-house Web Design and Development Lead, plus another Copywriter to share the work around with. Check out all of our smiling faces by clicking here!

We Made Mental Wellbeing a Focus

As a virtual agency, with our people working from all around the world (at all times of the day / night!) it can sometimes be difficult to remember to connect with each other as humans. Especially when you’re being swamped with the day-to-day, or approaching clients’ deadlines. Agency life is also not for everyone. You need to love moving quickly, jumping from project to project, managing changing deadlines and dealing with expectations. So supporting everyone at OT in a way that means they can achieve this – whilst also maintaining a love for what they do – is key.

One of the ways we’ve done that this year is by making the move to a 4 day work week. We have made Fridays at Oracle Tree a permanent personal day. Which means our team can use it how they see fit. For life admin jobs, to get the washing done, clean the house, or to just chill out. This way, when the weekend officially starts on Saturday, they’re able to fully connect with their friends and loved ones, and switch off from work. When we asked our team recently what they’ve loved the most about this change, it’s the feeling that they’ve been given the gift of time. And that come Monday, they’re actually excited<