NYQUEST has been in the business for 12 years now, and we have come a long way. From having one full-time employee to a team of 12, our mission, strategies, and culture have improved every single year.

At the NYQUEST’s Toronto office (or our headquarters as we like to call it), you will find most of us. However, we’ve opened a new location in Victoria, BC! That’s right! West Coast, we are coming for you. From intake to marketing and placement, we are so proud to have a diverse team from 6 different countries doing what they love to do.

Here at NYQUEST, we run a program that supports international participants to work at summer camps and outdoor centres across Canada. But did you ever wonder who are the people behind the emails? Or what our office looks like? Well, in this blog I want to give you an insight of our culture. Here’s a list of a few of the things we do here at our HQ, I mean, our office 😉

• BITMOJIS! Bitmoji’s everywhere: In case you don’t know what these are, imagine a funny cartoon/caricature of yourself that can include different text, actions, or most of the things you could think of. We use them for internal communication, as well as on a board weekly calendar—which leads me to the next thing.
• Work from home day: At NYQUEST, we come to our office four days a week, and we have one day in which we can work from home. Here’s where the bitmoji’s come back, we have a calendar on our office wall where we place our printed bitmoji on the day that we choose to work from home.
• Our 10:50 and 2:50 (we still haven’t figured out a name for this): Every person in our team gets assigned a day of the week, and we have to plan a 10-minute physical activity/game for everyone. At 10:50 am and 2:50 pm, we get together for a stretch, a workout, desk yoga, board games, a walk around the block, or anything to get our bodies moving during our work days.
• Standing desks: Our team doesn’t only hire exceptional international staff, but we are also great at handcrafting! Camilla built two standing desks for both rooms in our office. This way, one person per room can stand for as long as they want, and considering our love for the outdoors and exercise activities, these get used a lot!

Those are some of the things that we do to keep a great office environment, as well as taking some short time away from our desks every day. We are lucky to work in an empowering environment with fun and hard-working people. Do you have any fun activities that you do at your office? Share it with us on our social media, or let us know if you are going to try any of these!

• Sebastian