Rümineers can forge their own future at Rümi

As a startup company, officially launched launched in June 2021 in the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, Calgary-based Rümi can’t offer its employees – or Rümineers, as they’re known – straightforward, traditional career paths.

But that’s part of the excitement, says Nicole Murray, Rümi’s champion, people and culture. “We tell people in their interviews that they’re going to be able to forge new paths,” Murray says. “There are lots of unique opportunities across our lines of business.”

Rümi – pronounced roomie – is a subsidiary of ATCO Ltd., a 75-year-old pillar of Alberta’s corporate community. Rümi offers a remarkably wide range of services and products to both businesses and homeowners through three different business lines.

The company contracts with carefully selected outside firms to deliver everything from lawn and yard care to carpet cleaning, interior and exterior painting and electric vehicle charger installations. It markets through online sales a whole suite of products for home or business. Rümi also sells heating through ATCOenergy as well as meals, virtual cooking classes and specialty catering through its Blue Flame Kitchen.

“We exist to make people happy in the places where they live or work,” says Sarah Francis, vice-president, people and customer engagement.

Launching during the pandemic presented some big challenges, Francis notes, but that hasn’t held the company back. In fact, it added 90 new Rümineers to the payroll between November 2020 and November 2021.

“Talented people have lots of opportunities these days, but we’ve been able to attract some incredible talent because we’ve got exciting and aspirational plans, and we’re backed by a long-established company,” says Francis.

Many new hires have had to join the company virtually, but a comprehensive and well-designed onboarding process has made for soft landings. “There are key stages in a 12-month journey,” says Murray. “The first stage is pre-Day 1, where we get new people excited and ready to be productive whether it’s from home or in the office.”

The next stage is called moving week in which they are welcomed to their team and get briefed on the “need to knows,” as Murray puts it. From there it’s on to Rümi 101 where new recruits meet their peers throughout the organization. In between the formal stages, there are opportunities for interaction through virtual coffee chats and exchanges through another channel called the virtual ‘Water Cooler’.

“We want people to build their careers with us,” says Murray, adding: “There are lots of opportunities to advance across our lines of business because they’re so diverse.”

Over the past year, the company has staged regular lunch and learns to take advantage of that diversity. Product and service managers from various areas of the business have shared their expertise with their colleagues. Rümi also holds ‘Positive Energy Week’, an annual event in which internal and external guest speakers present to encourage ongoing personal development and expanded knowledge.

The company has gone to great lengths to keeps its employees and teams connected while working remotely, and now is focused on a post-pandemic future.

“Collaboration is one of our core values and we truly believe that in order to have effective collaboration there is a need to be in the office face to face,” says Francis. “We’re headed toward what we’re calling a dynamic workplace, with a positive synergy between being able to work from home and also having Rümineers in the office a couple of days a week.”

This article appeared in the magazine announcing this year's Alberta’s Top Employers winners, published January 25, 2022 in the Calgary Herald and Edmonton Journal. This article was prepared with the financial support of the employer, which reviewed but did not write its contents.