Twice a year in the spring and fall, our team takes a day off of our normal work routine to get out of the office and focus on getting better and working together. In the past, our retreats were held at various locations in and around Louisville including an art gallery in LaGrange, a YMCA camp in Meade County, and UofL's Shelby campus. This year's spring retreat was unlike anything we've done before. In fact, the details of it were kept top secret until we met in the office on Friday morning.
If you follow us on Instagram, you might have noticed a stream of insanely interesting photos posted on Friday. That's because our spring retreat this year took us on a scavenger hunt around Louisville. Using the hashtag #squadvillehunt, we were broken up into three teams and handed a set of clues that would take us to various landmarks and tourist attractions in downtown and Old Louisville. The goal of the hunt was to solve the clue, find the location, snap a photo of the landmark, and upload the photo to Instagram. The team to find the most clues was the winner!
So where in Louisville did the scavenger hunt take us? Here are just some of the locations we found and Instagrammed along the way. As you can see, we had a really busy day.
- Muth's Candy
- The Table (Our lunch destination. Incredible food and a wonderful mission.)
- Big Four Walking Bridge
- Churchill Downs
- Saint James Court
- 21C Hotel and Museum
- Thomas Edison House
- Main Event (We ended our day with a game of laser tag. It was intense!)
- Locust Grove
- Slugger Museum
- The Founders’ Garden for Botanica
- Baringer Hill
- Pink Palace
- Kentucky Science Center
- Tim Faulkner gallery
The Benefits of Having a Team Retreat
When you're in the grind each and every day, it's easy to lose sight of the overall goal and how important what you're contributing is to the bigger picture. Each job performed, no matter how small it may be, is helping the company reach its overarching goal. This is an important thing to remember. Retreats are a great time to show appreciation for employees, review progress, discuss hits and misses, and present goals for the company's future growth. It does wonders for employee morale and gives people a chance to connect outside of a normal office atmosphere. We've also found that retreats help employees recharge and get excited about their role and the company's overall goals. Sure, you're missing a full day of production, but in the long run, employees are typically more productive after being allowed to get away for a day and have some fun.
If you don't already, we encourage you to follow us on Instagram to get a behind the scenes look at the culture we've created here at The Squad. It'll help you get to know our true brand better. And we'd love to hear your thoughts on company-wide retreats. Does your company offer retreats for employees? Have you found them to be beneficial? Leave us your comments below.
