I totally agree with Red Ventures’ decision to fly 950 employees to Cancun for 3 nights

This past weekend, 950 Red Ventures employees jumped on planes from Charlotte Douglas International Airport and flew down to Cancun, Mexico for their annual offsite.

Sales support, master sales agents (top salespeople) and management spent three nights at the Grand Fiesta Americana Coral Beach Resort.

This year, celebrity guests included Lior Suchard (mentalist) and Derek Hughes (magician from America’s Got Talent). 

Many view this as “crazy” and “over the top” – but in reality, it’s a sound strategic investment.

Given the nature of its business (acquiring customers for clients – aka sales), Red Ventures’ ability to recruit and retain A+ sales and technology talent is a strategic imperative. Red Ventures added 584 employees at its Charlotte office in 2016.

Many in Charlotte know somebody who’s worked or works at Red Ventures and while the perks are amazing, the company has a performance-oriented culture. It’s not always an easy place to work.

In 2016, the Red Ventures technology team launched 20 new products and consumed 19,000 cans of Red Bull. The sales team took over 6,900,000 calls and talked for over 109,200,000 minutes.

When you’ve got A+ talent (especially young talent) performing at a high level, Red Ventures must communicate how much they respect their hard work and that management is committed to surrounding A+ employees with other A+ people.

The Cancun trip does both.

“So many Red Ventures employees on this trip – almost 1,000. Every year the advice is ‘get out there, make connections!’ & ‘meet new people, add them on LinkedIn!’ In a weekend filled with reflecting on 2016 and setting the goals for 2017, don’t forget the most important connection is the one you make with yourself, ” Red Ventures Sales Performance Manager Alison Knight posted to Instagram. “This is a weekend to celebrate you. And be proud of yourself for the hard work you’ve put in 2016 to get you here. #rvcancun2017.”

If you’re CEO Ric Elias, this is exactly the type of post you want to see from your young talent.

Recruiting is a core strategic function at Red Ventures and while a three-night trip to Cancun seems insane, it’s actually just a logical recruitment and retention investment.