What we’ve been up to: team, events & more amazing projects

We have been busy over the last few weeks. Between new certifications, attending events and making sure our team is feeling good, there’s always something keeping us on our feet and buzzing. We love what we do so it’s very fulfilling to spend our days doing things we feel passionate about and attending new events where we can meet new people. 

Over the last couple of years we have been reading and researching a lot about remote work. As we transitioned from an office-based company to a remote-friendly one, we knew that some challenges could arise but that it also came with a lot of advantages. 

We made the decision to become remote friendly for good and not go back to a office-only model a while ago and back in June we even wrote a blog post about it. This decision was based on a number of factors, including the Covid-19 situation as well as the feedback we gathered from our team. 

One of the references that we used to create remote-friendly policies was Buffer’s State of Remote Work, where it’s clear that remote work is seen as a very positive thing by most people and that companies should adapt to this new reality. 

Ever since, we’ve been continuing our efforts to be as remote-friendly as possible and leave the decision of where they want to work to our team. We’ve kept our office space for those who prefer to work from there, but we keep our meetings online and try to work as asynchronously as possible. There’s still some room for improvement and learning opportunities but we’re very proud of how our team has adapted over the last year and we feel that remote work has actually improved our processes and the way we work.  

Since our first day, we knew that having a happy team was key. We could deliver great products and work with amazing clients, but if our team isn’t happy and feeling their best, we are not able to continue creating beautiful solutions. 

With that in mind, we’ve added the NP4552 certification to our list of to-do’s and completed it in order to make sure we have clear and well-thought out processes that help our team’s work. 

From building a new system to writing better documentation, this certification allowed us to look back at the benefits we were already offering, and rethink what more we could add. By the end of the process, we are proud of what we’ve achieved with this amazing group of people and we know how to keep improving. 

We’ve written an entire blog post about this topic, which you can check out here. 

Apart from making sure our team is well taken care of by having good feedback systems and benefits, we also believe that ensuring high-quality work and good processes can make a big difference in a company’s success. 

To make sure we comply with the highest standards, we decided to get the ISO 9001 certification, which allowed us to create better processes and documentation. By writing down how we do things around Untile, we were able to understand ourselves better and see where we could apply some changes and ultimately consolidate our clients’ trust in us. 

This is meant to be an ongoing process that doesn’t end with getting the certification. The goal is always to keep moving forward and finding new better ways of improving the way we work and our efficiency. 

You can find out more about this certification here. 

EBEC (European BEST Engineering Competition) is the biggest engineering and technology competition in Europe with the goal of developing participants’ critical thinking and problem solution skills. During this event, participants get 24 hours to solve a proposed challenge and, in the end, they present their work and the best solution wins. 

We took part in the latest edition - EBEC Porto 22 - in what was a very rewarding experience for our team. It’s amazing to see how these participants tackled the challenge and understand the way they think. When you’ve been working for as long as we have, it’s very refreshing to get to experience new perspectives and see fresh minds in action.

In fact, we like this event so much that one of the awards was an internship at Untile so we’ll be expecting some new talent joining us very soon. 

Human Resources have been at the forefront of many organisations’ concerns. Many feel that it’s difficult to attract talent, making this something we should also pay attention to. We are always looking for people to join us and we don’t want to miss out on talent because we’re not following the right strategies, so attending this event was really important for us.

During two days, ExpoRH gathers different speakers, companies and perspectives to discuss strategies and practices that are just as bold as they are efficient and transforming.
This was a great chance to meet other professionals working in HR and understand their struggles and common pains. Furthermore, it allowed us to have a better grasp on which strategies we can use and how to keep our team happy and fulfilled. 

We were invited by Startup Braga to provide mentorship to the startups on their latest Acceleration Program, and we, of course, accepted the challenge. 

This Acceleration Program is focused on technological startups that are already in the market and need some advice on what they can do to consolidate their presence. 

Startup Braga has been doing these programs since its beginning and helped launch great projects that have since made a name for themselves, so when asked if our team could do some mentoring, we could not refuse. We sat down with each of the teams and provided feedback on what they’ve done so far and how we believe they should move forward. 

There were many great projects within the group and we can’t wait to see where they’re going. 

Viana do Castelo is part of Untile’s DNA. Our city has shaped us in many ways and Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo played a big role in that. Our founders attended IPCV and since their graduation, they’ve felt a deep connection with the institution and kept in contact with teachers and other former students. 

Because of this connection, it’s no surprise that many of the people in our team also come from IPVC and it’s an honour for us to keep searching for local talent that understands and shares our DNA. 

You can learn all about Untile’s and IPVC’s connection in this article. 

As a company, we are very proud of what we have achieved so far during these last few months and we can’t wait to see where the future brings us. You’re definitely invited to follow this journey so keep an eye out for our latest Diary entries.