Two years ago, there was only one LTC office that housed all the full-time staff. As we have continued to grow and expand, 20% of our full-time staff now work remotely from all over the country, including places like Atlanta, San Francisco, New York, Washington D.C. and Chattanooga. As our company has opened up this new concept of a remote staff, we have come across many obstacles as we embrace the change.

At the beginning of this year, LTC’s CEO Martin George came up with a vision to have a 3-day company conference, where the entire company could come together and not only work in the same building for the first time but also learn more about the company and work together to create goals and a future for LTC.

In September, Martin’s vision came to life. LTC hosted its first ever annual “Remote Rally”. One goal of this event was to foster morale, comradery, and cooperation between members and make remote workers feel like valued members of the company. The other goal was to use the time together to set personal, departmental and company-wide goals based on the company’s vision by providing an opportunity for department members to collaborate as a team and accomplish tasks in-person.

The event began on a Monday evening, allowing remote staff to be fly in and get settled before rallying everyone together. The evening started with lots of anticipation and excitement. For some, it was the first time they had met each other. For others, it was a time for them to reconnect with long-time staff.

The final day, a guest speaker from the Leadership Institute spoke to staff on employee engagement. Staff were then divided in groups to build bikes for underprivileged kids. What they didn’t know was that to build the bikes, they were going to have to do team activities to acquire pieces to build the bikes. This enabled staff to work with people they may not interact with often.

Each day not only consisted of training sessions, teamwork and goal setting but also team bonding through initiatives like Taco Tuesday, cookouts and outside adventures.

Through this rally, LTC had a chance to bring all the staff together to work as one and come together to see the vision. Since the rally, staff have been able to take the skills and takeaways and apply them to working toward the bettering of LTC.

-Leah Streeval, Marketing Manager