While remote work has offered newfound flexibility for desk workers across the U.S., it may come at a cost to
More than two years into the pandemic, nearly 60% of U.S. workers who have jobs that can be done from home are working remotely, according to the Pew Research Center. Encouraging community, even when employees are far-flung, takes some innovative but necessary thinking, something Trey Ditto, CEO of Ditto PR, has spent a lot of time contemplating.
"There's no way you're doing your best work sitting at home in front of a computer all day," says Ditto. "You're a better person when you are moving around. You're a better person when you're outside in nature. I wanted a hard break, where everybody went somewhere most had never been to create radical change."
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For Ditto, this meant taking his employees out of their homes and even out of the office. Ditto took the entire company to a retreat in Big Sky, Montana in October of 2021 and again in June of this year. Employees had the chance to participate in activities like archery, horseback riding, hiking, meditation, breath work and art while also meeting their colleagues — possibly for the first time.
"The first time we went to Montana, I called it a company reunion," says Ditto. "This latest retreat was indicative of where we're at in terms of remote or hybrid work. It was a great time for us to come together in terms of community and connection, but it was also for us to come together to iterate the work we've been doing."
Ditto underlines that the company's latest retreat went beyond just employees getting to know each other — it was also about getting to know how they can support each other at work. For example, employees worked on leadership plans for clients and discussed how they could creatively approach different accounts, explains Ditto.
But that doesn't mean workers didn't have a chance to just have fun. One of Ditto's favorite moments from the retreat was when everyone rewrote popular songs using PR lingo and performed them.
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But whether it's PR karaoke or workshops, Ditto's goal is for workers to bond.
"The obvious hope is when we connect personally with people, we feel compelled to help each other," he says. "Ditto is a very personal place, so it's important that we understand and like each other."
Ditto estimates that the retreat cost the company $30,000, and he believes it was worth every dollar. While he admits that he could not put an exact monetary value on the return on investment of their Montana retreat, he is confident that he could not put a price on the impact it had on his workforce.
"I'm not a business person. I am a family person, and I know the value of relationships," says Ditto. "I can tell you that the discussions we had and the challenges we talked about brought invaluable takeaways that we then took to our daily work life. And my senior team noticed it immediately. Two weeks later, they had never seen people being so productive."
Besides retreats, the CEO prioritizes in-person connection in an era of remote work, even if his workforce is dispersed across five time zones. The company is finalizing travel stipends for workers to choose a time when they would like to come to another Ditto office in the U.S.
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"If we're going to come to work, let's make this purposeful," says Ditto. "We purposely send people to different offices to connect and work together. People in Chicago would go to L.A., and the Texas team would come to New York."
While the state of work remains uncertain between ongoing public health crises and economic turbulence, Ditto points to an investment in people and connection as a vital constant for employers.
"My priority is employee happiness," he says. "Employees are hesitant to give a lot to an employer because they don't know if the employer will give it back. I found that as the CEO, if I hire the right people and show them that I'm willing to get them everything possible for them to succeed and enjoy their job, they'll give it back to me tenfold."
