Culture of Proactivity:

Etcetera's Team

Development Strategy

In the digital space where innovation and creative solutions are key to success, being proactive is crucial. Initiative is all about taking action, being responsible, and bringing new ideas and approaches. For our agency, this soft skill is essential for every team member because it allows us to create unique solutions for our clients and stay ahead of the competition.

Why Proactivity Matters

We believe that initiative is one of the driving forces behind the growth of our team, our agency, and the professional development of any freelancer. In our team, everyone is encouraged to suggest new ideas to improve our work processes. Many of Etcetera's internal processes were developed thanks to the team's initiative. We also believe that allowing our freelancers to choose projects that interest them will motivate and encourage them to achieve great results. Clients really appreciate this level of engagement!

Encouraging Proactivity in the Team

We’ve created an environment that encourages initiative and openness to new ideas by implementing several processes that allow every team member to influence the development of the agency:

Ask Questions! Asking questions is a form of proactivity. We believe that curiosity and openness are key to generating new ideas and solutions.
Everyone Can Propose a New Idea: Anyone can suggest an improvement or a new idea and drive its implementation. The best solutions often come from those directly involved in the processes.
Help Each Other! We encourage helping one another. For example, when a team member took on additional responsibilities, we created a new position to officially recognize this role. Our developer Volodymyr, who took the initiative in organizing technological processes, is a great example of this.
One-on-Ones: We hold regular one-on-one meetings with each team member to stay in tune with everyone. This helps align the agency’s and the freelancer’s goals and implement changes that meet the team’s needs for effective work processes. We also conduct anonymous surveys from time to time to ensure openness and safety in expressing opinions.
“Pet Projects”: We encourage the creation of “pet projects”—tools that are useful for the team, helping develop new skills and experiment with innovative approaches.

The Impact of Proactivity on Work Processes

Clients highly value and expect collaboration with Etcetera because our freelancers, by choosing their projects, actively generate ideas and participate at all stages of the process. This level of engagement and initiative helps us better understand clients' needs, allowing us to offer effective solutions. This approach helps build long-term partnerships with clients, lasting for years.

Professional Development of Team Members

We provide opportunities for growth and realization for every team member through initiative in their work. From the onboarding stage, we seek out proactive candidates to join our team. An inherently proactive person will be eager to delve into new things, which means they will be interested in taking on more challenging projects, helping them grow both personally and professionally. We support and offer new, more responsible roles to such team members. Initiative is key to professional recognition and career growth.

For Etcetera, it’s hard to imagine working with people who lack initiative because it’s one of our core values. It acts as a filter, weeding out those not ready to move forward. We encourage everyone to value and foster proactivity in the workplace and within themselves. By engaging each team member, we can offer effective solutions to clients, build long-term partnerships, and ensure professional development and growth for everyone involved.

And if you’re not sure how to start being proactive, here are a few tips from our team:

Take an interest in what your colleagues are doing.
Share your ideas. Every idea can spark or solve something important.
Look for and suggest (read point 2) new ways to improve work processes.
Don’t be indifferent when colleagues need help.
Think ahead and anticipate what will happen after you complete your part of the work—this helps prioritize actions and find the most effective way to complete tasks.
Take responsibility when needed. Don’t wait for others to find solutions for you.

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