The best teams are still built by connecting people

Those things matter, but when you're delivering complex commerce programmes, individual expertise is only part of the equation. Every project brings together strategists, solution specialists, developers, QA engineers, DevOps, project managers and client teams. Decisions are made every day that rely on trust, communication and collaboration across multiple disciplines. When those relationships are strong, projects move faster, problems are solved earlier and better decisions get made. When they aren't, friction appears. Misunderstandings increase. Delivery slows. Everyone feels it.

That's why we don't see culture simply as an employee benefit. We see it as an operational advantage.

Our clients don't pay for individual experts. They benefit from high-performing teams.

Closing the business for two days isn't inexpensive, but neither is poor communication, siloed teams or fractured delivery. We'd much rather invest in building the relationships that allow exceptional work to happen than accept the hidden cost of teams who only ever interact through meetings and messages.

GENE has always seen the benefits of remote working, and our "work where you work best" approach has allowed us to build an exceptional team that spreads across the UK and beyond. Every day we collaborate through Google Meet, Slack and countless client conversations.

Those tools are brilliant for helping people work together, but they were never designed to help people really know each other.

That's why, several times each year, we bring everyone together in person. Different events, different activities, different people depending on availability, but all with the same purpose: strengthening the relationships that underpin the way we work.

GENEFest is the flagship of those events.

On paper, it looked like two days of raft building, archery, scavenger hunts, football, pool, table tennis, great food and probably a little too much healthy competition.

In reality, it was two days of building something much more valuable.

There were homemade rafts with names including HMS GENIE, GENE MARY and the unfortunately titled TITANIC 2. CEO Matt's team claimed victory on the lake, earning themselves plenty of bragging rights in the process.

Archery revealed talents that nobody knew existed, with Tom and Masha making the rest of us question whether they'd secretly been training for years, while Chloe’s stylish outfit quickly launched her "Robin Hood era".

The following morning's scavenger hunt saw six teams sprinting around the estate completing increasingly ridiculous challenges before Carl's team eventually took the win.

But none of those activities were the sole point. The real value was in everything happening between them.

People who'd only ever existed as profile pictures spent hours together. Conversations that would never happen during a scheduled meeting happened naturally over breakfast, dinner and between activities. New starters got to know people from every department. Teams that rarely crossed paths during normal delivery suddenly found themselves solving problems together, laughing together and building relationships that would continue long after the event ended.

And you could see the impact almost immediately.

Slack lit up with photos, videos and inside jokes that still haven't disappeared. Titanic 2 somehow refused to sink, even after the event had finished. One scavenger hunt challenge resulted in Carl being christened the "Warrington Steve Irwin". Duncan's life jacket issues somehow became a recurring topic of conversation.

None of that was planned. It's simply what happens when people spend meaningful time together.

More importantly, those relationships don't stay behind at GENEFest. They come back into work with us.

It's easier to ask somebody for help when you've spent an afternoon building a raft with them. Cross-functional collaboration becomes more natural because the relationship already exists. New starters integrate faster because they've built connections across the business, not just within their own team. Conversations become more open. Feedback becomes easier to give. Trust develops naturally instead of needing to be manufactured through process.

This isn't just about morale; it's building trust that translates into performance.

Every successful commerce programme depends on hundreds of conversations, thousands of decisions and dozens of people working towards a shared outcome. The quality of those interactions ultimately determines the quality of what we deliver.

Everyone at GENE brings deep expertise in their own discipline. Our investment is in creating an environment where that expertise compounds through trust, communication and shared ownership. The most successful commerce programmes aren't delivered by individuals. They're delivered by teams that challenge each other, support each other and succeed together. That's what our clients experience.

We'll continue investing in our people and in the relationships that make us a stronger team. Because whilst technology has become exceptionally good at connecting computers, exceptional outcomes are still delivered by people who trust each other, collaborate openly and genuinely enjoy working together.

Exceptional client outcomes are rarely the result of individual brilliance. They're the product of talented people working exceptionally well together.

Want to join the GENE Team? Our current vacancies can be found here. Don't see an opening that's right for you, but think you'd be a perfect fit? Get in touch!