One of the cultural values here at T/K is to “live completely.” It means embracing opportunities to enhance our lives, both personally and professionally, because life is meant to be experienced, not observed.
Travel has always been one of our favorite experiences at Trevelino/Keller. Whether it’s an international flight or just a weekend road trip, we’ve always encouraged our team to see more of the world. When T/K was a much smaller agency, all-employee trips to celebrate company milestones were a regular occurrence. Now, we’re proud to be the third-fastest growing agency in the country with a 40+ talent roster. Travel logistics aren’t quite the same for us as they were 10 years ago.
Much of T/K’s exponential growth over the past few years also coincided with a global pandemic. COVID-19 greatly limited travel, making the urge to get out and hit the road even stronger. Today, with fewer travel restrictions and vaccinations available to protect us, people are acting on their travel bug.
Considering our emphasis on travel but also the size of a growing agency, T/K has introduced a new program: Wild Blue Yonder. On your one-year anniversary at the company, you become eligible for the program – a chance to win a tailored getaway of your choosing, somewhere out in the wild blue yonder. One winner is chosen every quarter via a company-wide raffle.
Employees who have been at the company for up to eight years are granted a vacation in which a flight for themselves, one guest of their choosing, and lodging for seven nights are fully covered. Employees who have been at the company for nine years, the “Niners,” are also given an additional five PTO days to take their vacation.
The destination options are limitless – pick any five places and submit to our travel desk to begin your WBY curation. It’s an offer all of us sheltering in our homes for the past two years would be more than thrilled to accept.
I was lucky enough to be the first winner of the Wild Blue Yonder program. My fiancé and I chose a few unique destination options from South Africa to Guatemala to a port city in Mexico – all of them on our bucket list. We selected Mexico as our destination, and a relaxing vacation was upon us. We spent seven nights in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, in an incredible resort with exceptional amenities and views. We ate authentic Mexican food, went deep sea fishing, and enjoyed quite a few Kiwi Mojitos.
I returned from vacation fully re-charged and appreciative of the once-in-a-lifetime experience I was given. An expenses-paid trip would be a dream for anyone, but I’m also grateful to work at a company that not only understands its employees’ desires to travel but encourages them.
