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Eugeniuses: Building a Global Team Culture with HeyTaco
At Eugeniuses, a global digital agency, building a strong team culture has been a top priority from the start. In just a few short years, the agency grew from two freelancers to a global team of 40-50 employees. As the team expanded, spanning across Europe, Brazil, India, and the United States, maintaining a sense of connection became a challenge. Enter HeyTaco—a peer recognition platform that has helped Eugeniuses foster camaraderie and create meaningful interactions across time zones and geographies.
The Start of Something Fun
With a growing team and a desire to make everyone feel part of the Eugeniuses "family," Catherine began exploring ways to create a positive, connected remote culture. Her solution? HeyTaco. “We wanted to ensure that people felt included,” she explains. Remote work can sometimes leave employees feeling isolated, especially when they see colleagues in other parts of the world enjoying social events they can’t attend. HeyTaco was introduced to bridge that gap, giving employees a fun and easy way to connect and recognize each other’s efforts, regardless of their location.
What started as an experiment quickly turned into a beloved tradition. “I wanted to try it with just the project managers first, to see if I was the only one who found it fun,” Catherine recalls. Within a week, it became clear that the whole team was on board. “People were already having fun with it—there was a ‘taco war’ going on, and everyone wanted to participate.”
Strengthening Bonds with Every Taco
HeyTaco has done more than just introduce a fun way to give recognition—it has transformed the way Eugeniuses celebrate achievements, both big and small. While the team previously celebrated the successful completion of projects, HeyTaco shifted the focus to acknowledging daily efforts. “We used to only celebrate at the end of a project,” Catherine says. “But now, with HeyTaco, we’re celebrating the little things—like saving a client relationship or helping with a tricky functionality.”
By making recognition a part of everyday interactions, HeyTaco has encouraged a culture of gratitude. “It’s not just about work anymore,” Catherine explains. “People are saying ‘thank you’ more often and sharing compliments, which has made the team more thoughtful about acknowledging each other’s contributions.”
A Global Tradition
Despite the global nature of the team and the fact that tacos aren’t a common food in every country, HeyTaco’s playful premise has been a hit across cultural boundaries. “Even in places where people have never tasted a taco, they love sending them,” Catherine laughs. “It’s like sending flowers or a drink—it’s just fun!”
HeyTaco has become so ingrained in Eugeniuses’ culture that removing it would cause an uproar. Catherine learned this the hard way when she forgot to send out the weekly leaderboard, a favorite tradition where team members eagerly check to see who gave and received the most tacos. “People were messaging me, asking if the tacos were still a thing!” she recalls. “They were worried I had taken it away.”
Rewards and Recognition
To add to the excitement, Eugeniuses has incorporated small rewards into their HeyTaco system. Around Christmas and summer vacations, employees can exchange tacos for extra time off, Starbucks gift cards, and other small tokens of appreciation. The combination of recognition and rewards has made HeyTaco a central part of the team’s culture, keeping employees engaged and motivated.
The Impact on Team Morale
For Catherine, HeyTaco has helped solve one of the most significant challenges of managing a global, remote team: fostering a sense of belonging. “Everyone knows what they need to do for work, but it’s the personal connections that are harder to maintain,” she says. By creating a fun and engaging way for team members to interact and appreciate each other, HeyTaco has helped Eugeniuses build a team that not only works well together but genuinely enjoys each other’s company.
“HeyTaco has made it more fun to go to work,” Catherine shares. “It’s not just about the tasks—it’s about the relationships we build along the way. And when we’re having fun, it shows in the work we do.”
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About Eugeniuses: Eugeniuses is an agency specializing in high-end e-commerce solutions, web, and mobile development, exceptional user experience design, and unique brand identity creation. Passionate about technology and dedicated to creating custom solutions that drive success for clients, Eugeniuses team is highly skilled in developing applications across all platforms, catering to both B2B and B2C markets.