Valerie King

R&R is officially accepting nominations for the 2022 Ladder Award through May 30.

R&R is honored to formally celebrate women making strides within their organizations and restoration overall for the seventh consecutive year. This year, 46 impressive women were nominated and one remarkable individual rose to the top.

On its surface, restoration doesn’t seem synonymous with “soft.” It’s a hard industry that operates in physically and emotionally tough working environments. Restoring a property to pre-loss condition requires a particular set of hard (job-specific) skills and tools. But there is a soft side that, I’d like to argue, carries more weight.

What do people, in general, want from employers? How are other industries treating employees and candidates? Answering these questions offers up ideas, lessons and competitive intel from beyond the world of restoration. After all, restoration businesses aren’t just competing against each other for talent.

Joining a new industry is humbling. Being an outsider in an environment teeming with insiders who’ve been engrained for years and know it like the back of their hand is humbling. But to flip challenge into opportunity, I believe that just as growing up in this industry or spending decades here brings irrefutable value, an outside-in lens does.

Through Field Notes, we look forward to sharing the stories of the industry’s most driven, engaged and innovative technicians. We are eager to consistently shed light on their ideas, pain points, motivators, paths to restoration and more. In doing so, we hope to help shrink the gap between C-suite and frontline. We hope to help give these unsung heroes a real seat at the proverbial table and a stronger voice in the future of the industry.

R&R is officially accepting nominations for the 2022 Women in Restoration Award through January 10. We are also excited to introduce an all-new award to the restoration industry, honoring restoration technicians! 

During the 2021 Violand Management Associates Business Planning Retreat in Canton, Ohio, Chuck Violand sat down with R&R to share his observations of attendees over the years. He talks about the importance of small business owners looking beyond the granular, short-term aspects of their companies to drive growth.

Tour the 95,000-square-foot Blue Kangaroo Packoutz flagship facility. See the inner workings of the warehouse, including 750 storage vaults, a state-of-the-art training room, art restoration, contents cleaning, furniture upholstery and refinishing, and more.