You know you’ve achieved work-life balance when the demands of your job aren’t getting in the way of your family, friends and your ability to be a happy you. At Snackbox, we work hard to keep a positive work-life balance for everyone from our Principal and CEO to our associates and apprentices. Studies show employees with a good work-life balance are more productive and more creative. But it’s not all about the work our team can churn out. Snackbox founders left agency life to launch their own firm in reaction to the grind that’s typical for the industry. Above all, the happier the team is, the less it feels like work.

Summertime
It’s the middle of August and our faces are melting off on the short walk between our air conditioned cars to our air conditioned office. What’s the one thing that can make the heat bearable outside of permanently relocating our office to Saskatchewan? Summer hours! It’s a practice some of the larger agencies observe on the east coast. Work days start an hour later and end an hour earlier to allow for a more relaxed pace in the office during the summer heat. Snackbox observes summer hours for more than just relief of face-melting temps. We believe in putting little things into practice that help our associates achieve a better work-life balance. Even better? Summer hours are observed year round.

The Grind
Agency life is known for long nights and even longer weekends, but not at Snackbox. How is it that we can grind through and continually delight our clients without an unforgiving schedule? We work as a team. At many firms, your pitch team isn’t the team working on your day to day, but at Snackbox, our whole team works together to divvy up the responsibility and brainstorm ideas as a unit. This helps manage the workload and keeps those pesky tasks at bay.

Setting Expectations
We believe setting appropriate expectations on availability with our clients right from the start is important. We look at our client responsibility as “always on”; however, unless it’s a crisis, we don’t need to take care of everything immediately.

Flexibility
We know life happens and there are some things that need our attention during the work day. Confining people to a cubicle from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. doesn’t allow for a positive work-life balance. That’s why we allow our team members to work from home when they choose to do so. By leveraging online tools like Slack and Asana, we can stay in contact with everyone working remotely and in the office. Besides, Slack is a great way to share photos of our pets all while staying up to date on client work.

The data is clear, when your employees have a good work-life balance they will work harder and be more productive. Snackbox is here to serve our clients and we believe it is our job to provide a positive environment in which our employees can do so.