Mutual goals, mutual time. On the power of Sabre Sports Clubs
At Sabre, we highly care about the integration of our community through initiatives that make our team members feel like they genuinely know each other. We believe that maintaining connections across various teams is best achieved not just through communication but through shared activities as well. As we sum up June, which is the Wellbeing Month at Sabre, we wanted to cover something that contributes heavily to our team members’ well-being and overall health – the activities of Sabre Sports Clubs. To do so, we talked with representatives of the clubs and asked them what it really means to belong to them.
We care about holistic wellbeing all year round, but in June, we celebrated it especially. It was a wellness month across Sabre – both globally and in Poland. I think that Sports Clubs’ activities are an absolute pillar of our team members’ comprehensive resilience to stress and fatigue. The way our committed club leaders and members are promoting being in shape with both mind and body is invaluable – said Anna Stach, EMEA People Team Senior Director and Board Member at Sabre Poland.
New clubs, dedicated to cycling, swimming, running, and basketball, have been formed in recent years, joining the oldest of them – the Football club that many of you might know since its participation in the recent Aviation Cup. Combined, they currently have a total of about 300 members. That’s with roughly 1200 of us currently employed at our Poland branch. We’re proud that roughly 25% of Sabre Poland team members are involved in a Sports Club, highlighting our focus on promoting a balanced and active life. What drives this impressive level of participation?
We could say that it’s because the clubs are an open space for sharing passion, while also focusing on mutual initiatives and coordinated preparation for them. For instance, members of the Running Club participate in all major running events in the city: Cracovia Marathon, Three Mounds’ Run, Cracovia Royal Half-Marathon, The Night Run (10 km), Marzanna Half-Marathon, Independence Run, Cracow New Year’s Eve Race – to name a few. That’s a lot of kilometers, right? Most importantly, for Running Club’s members, it also means heavy collective preparation – something they have committed to and enjoyed since the beginning.
Marcin Kotas, founder of the Running Club, remembers the early days of his club well.
When establishing the Running club, I didn’t think more than 30 people would participate. Meanwhile, 60 people joined it right away, and then its popularity only grew. Right now, we’re at 100 people and create a community where runners with different levels of experience learn from each other, and most importantly, people from different parts of the company meet. Running with the Sabre logo makes us feel like a professional team, only without the pressure associated with professional sports. To me, our biggest success is that people join us, start running, get in great shape – and many times we find that we can run a distance that we would not have even walked a year earlier – said Marcin Kotas, Manager of Cloud Operations/Linux Operations at Sabre Poland.
However, the Running Club is just one example of where people truly commit to their passion, making participation much more than just being on a mailing list. In the Cycling Club, members encourage each other through the Strava app, where they have a club profile. The riding data, summary statistics, and participant rankings available on Strava motivate everyone to keep growing and developing to enhance the entire group’s performance.
Sebastian Inglot, founder of the Cycling Club, also has some fond memories.
I remember posting one day about a ride I was planning for the following day at 6:30 a.m. I did not expect any response. Then my colleague, Michał, wrote back and expressed his desire to ride together. I was, of course, quite surprised that anyone wanted to get up in the morning and start the day with 50 km on the bike. And yet we set off for a round in the direction of Skawina – mostly on bike paths. Michał revealed that he had specially commuted to Cracow (~20 km by car) just to ride around the area together. To me, it was unreal. I realised how much difference a single post in the group can make, how much motivation another person gives – and how much dedication one can have to ride together – said Sebastian Inglot, Principal Business Operations at Sabre Poland.
The Cycling club coordinates several activities, such as collective rides every Thursday after work, weekend bike rides followed by a barbecue over a campfire, many events hosted at the office for the start and end of the season, and just riding together. In addition, several members of the club regularly take part in competitions, an example of a big success being Rafał Sikora’s 3rd place in the Wisła 1200 Ultramarathon.
Yet, riding is not the only aspect that its members highly value. They also assist each other in selecting appropriate equipment, share valuable knowledge, provide exclusive discounts on equipment and services for club members, and facilitate an internal bicycle exchange.
Sabre Sports Clubs aren’t exclusive and locked in within their bubble either, and Cycling club probably proves it the most. Its members frequently organise events for the entire Sabre community, such as open picnics and stationary Q&A sessions about the clubs. Its team does charity work with GiveTogether, too. This year its members coordinated two events, co-hosting a garage sale and organising a charity ride (4 cycling trips of various distances) with entry fee going to charity.
As the main organiser of skiing activities and co-creator of the Cycling Club, Arkadiusz Smorągiewicz brings extensive experience with various Sabre sport initiatives.
Despite being associated mostly with the Cycling club, I find one thing peculiar. Interestingly enough, while Sabre does not have a ski club as such, there are also seasonal skiing activities of our own. Despite the lack of a membership formula and coordinated training, several times each year skiers get together for trips. Depending on the weather conditions, each year we organise 3 to 5 trips, in which about 100 people take part. That’s 2 buses full of people! The first such trips were already organised in 2013. In addition, they are characterised by a real inclusiveness, as we bring instructors for beginners in skiing and snowboarding – said Arkadiusz Smorągiewicz, Manager Software Engineering at Sabre Poland.
It’s remarkable how willing our team members are to share their passions. That’s probably what makes our team really understand our values. By opening up to each other, learning about each other and achieving goals together – the small ones, but also even some great achievements – we all show what it really means to be driven and be united.