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How Renovia invests in culture building

4 insights from Our Annual “Wasatch” Retreat

As Renovia has been on a rapid growth path, expanding and opening new office locations, their culture is STILL at the center of everything they do. This is why Wasatch exists and the Renovia team has been doing its annual retreat there since 2013. It’s a little business (less than an hour in the beginning) and gives this growing team an opportunity to connect with co-workers and form bonds. Bonds that the Renovia leadership team knows, will extend into the workplace and make each team member more collaborative (regardless of the miles apart) and more equipped to do their job. See what Wasatch means to employees – Check out Matt Doucey’s video.

Since Wasatch is an employee-only event we wanted to give you an inside look on 4 key insights from this year’s retreat. 

  • Gives employees an opportunity to be heard and reflect on the first half of the year.

At the beginning of the event, the entire team meets for a town hall. Surprisingly, for a company-sponsored event, this is the only “business-centric” activity that is planned at Wasatch. The Renovia team conducts town halls quarterly, this one happens to be in-person and allows everyone to get together in one place vs participating in the meeting from their local office locations. So what happens at a town hall? Employees can anonymously submit questions before the meeting or ask questions live during the meeting, knowing that no question is off-limits. This not only promotes transparency at all levels of leadership throughout the organization, but it also makes teammates feel valued and heard when it comes to expressing their thoughts and feelings. The team also celebrates wins from the first six months of the year and utilizes a halftime speech to inspire and announce our goals and objectives for the remaining back half of the year.

  • Building relationships is at the core of who we are.

After town hall the rest of the time at Wasatch is spent building relationships with co-workers. So why would a commercial painting company take time out in June to do something other than painting? Because we know that when employees from the Tampa office intermingle with employees from the Indianapolis office, the bond is going to help those two teammates work better together. Renovia understands when it allows employees to take time out to form organic relationships with each other, they form true friendships vs. doing business with some random person on an email distribution list they’ve never met – they’re now willing to go the extra mile for one another. The team understands there’s something magical that happens when you take time out to create relationships and employees lean into a company who supports that!

  • We’re not “all business” – Having fun is an important part of the culture too. 

The leadership team knows that when you give people an opportunity to refresh and recharge, they’ll produce better results once they’re back in the office. This is what PTO (personal leave time is for). What is it called when you refresh and recharge as a whole company? Culture building. The main purpose of the time at Wasatch is to invest and promote the culture that everyone regardless of role is part of. While at Wasatch, the team engages with fun things like ping pong, a wiffle ball tournament, sitting around the campfire, listening to live music (the company brings in a live band)! This much-needed time away pays off in spades once employees are back in the office. 

  • Teamwork is essential on an off the clock

One of the fun things about Wasatch is how the company handles meal prep and clean-up. Just like a big family, everyone must work together to accomplish a goal. Employees are divided into groups to cook and clean up. These groups usually include employees from different offices so it creates an opportunity to work with new people while accomplishing a common goal, even if it is only as simple as making a meal together. 

To sum up the Renovia team’s experience at Wasatch, Jordan Arvin, Director of Technology says it best, “Wasatch is about how do we continue to grow and align core values from an office to office location and continue to do life together.” 

Want to hear more? Watch Jordan’s video interview on what Wasatch means to him.

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