Publish Date: October 26th, 2026
In her three years at Namaste Solar, Casey has become a go-to for employees who have questions or need support. In this spotlight, she reflects on what it’s like to have that role at our cooperative and what makes Namaste Solar so special.
How long have you been with Namaste Solar and what’s your role?
I’ve been at Namaste Solar just about three years. My role is Payroll, Benefits, and Compliance Manager. I’m also a co-owner.
Why were you first interested in working here?
There were quite a few reasons. I had been in the same place for a really long time and was very tired of corporate. I also had experience with payroll and benefits. So, the job itself was really aligned with my skill set. And I also had a couple friends that had either been previous Namaste Solar employees or still worked here. They always had great things to say about Namaste Solar in general. I was interested in getting into a company that had a good mission, vision, and values – including wanting to be a part of making the world a little bit of a better place and propping up renewable resources. I also knew I could be myself at a place like this, and that was appealing.
What motivates you to get up and go to work?
Right now, we are working as a really small HR team and have had some shake-ups on the team. I want to make sure that all the employees are still feeling really supported and that we’re able to continue creating a good experience for new hires and creating a good experience for our more tenured folks and making sure people are feeling engaged day-to-day. We also have a lot of immediate needs, like making sure payroll gets in and done on time and accurately, making sure our new director is getting up to speed and things like that. I just really want to make sure that we are doing our best to support the cooperative.
I think sometimes when there’s adversity or challenges, like we’re seeing right now, being shorthanded, it helps me to work better. I do well with my back against the wall or when I’m under pressure.
What is something about your job that most people don’t know about?
I would say there’s a ton of task switching, especially right now. It can be somewhat challenging to go from answering a question about leave benefits to entering certified payroll to training resources to researching an employee concern.
In a more general sense, I’ve written a lot of processes since I’ve started working here and then gone through and done a lot of process improvement over the past several years. And a lot of that’s behind the scenes.
For example, we’ve implemented this new process for prevailing wage tracking and certified payroll entries. I built that process from the ground up. And so, I’m pretty proud of that because it is really complex. And over the past couple of years, as I’ve been doing that and working through how to manage a massive influx of prevailing wage work, I’ve had to make a lot of adjustments and changes to our process. That’s been a continual improvement journey with our certified payroll entry process and prevailing wage. And you know, it’s got a big component I’m working on right now, that involves trying to automate some of the things that are really manual. I’m really looking forward to that coming to fruition.
What’s been one of your proudest moments working here?
I would go back into what I was just mentioning about being able to learn these new processes. I didn’t have any prior experience with prevailing wage and certified payroll before I started working here. I learned it all, just kind of organically. I had some support from Jason Sharpe and Jon Wedel whether it was an Excel tool or industry knowledge. I took a lot of things and ran with them. I feel like now I know a lot about certified payroll.
The process is one thing but then there’s a ton of effort to get it done right. We’ve gotten great feedback from some of our auditors and some of our other clients that we’re working for on our processes about our responsiveness and us being easy to work with. So, of course it’s not just me in that regard. Our project managers are great partners. Our leaders are great partners as well. I wanted to make sure that though the process is complex, we also show good partnership with certified payroll reporting management. And I think we’re succeeding at that right now even amidst a lot of complexity.
What’s the most unique part about working at Namaste Solar?
Has to be our co-ownership model and our company retreats. We just got back from our fall company retreat for co-owners and candidates. We had quite a lot of new people there this time around. And one of the sentiments I kept hearing over and over again was, “I’ve been to a lot of places that say they feel like a family and you can bring your authentic self to work and never has it been true until coming here to Namaste Solar.” We walk the walk, whereas other places claim to be a family, but then at the end of the day, all they really care about is money. I just heard that reiterated from a lot of new co-owners, and I had the same sort of reaction as a new co-owner. I felt like it was really also very prideful to see everybody buying into the model that we’re claiming to be and then showing up and being a part of that. The retreats are a major way to show that value.
How has Namaste Solar helped develop your skills and career?
I think that’s playing out in real time right now, where I’ve had to step into a lot of different things that I haven’t done before or haven’t needed to be point person on because we had a full staff of folks on the HR team. So, while things like that can be overwhelming, I do really try to see it as an opportunity to learn. I know I have a lot of people to support me that would understand if I didn’t get something 100% correct, and I certainly know I can go talk to folks in the company for support about some uncertainties that I have and share what I think we should do. The ability and agency to take something and run with it and see if I can do it, brings confidence in me as well. It shows that I can work through challenges without a ton of intervention. Being given that opportunity to be trusted to do that helps me build my skills and my confidence and makes me think more about where I want to go from this point in my career.
What advice would you give to recent new hires?
I think it depends on what role you’re in. For new field hires, I would certainly let them know that the HR team is here to help. So, don’t hold back if you have questions or you need to be pointed in the right direction. Even if I don’t know the answers to things, I’ll find you what you need and try to support you.
And then I would say, for those with office roles, try to be a sponge and learn as much as you can. And if you have ideas, we want to hear them, and we want to evaluate if they would be good for the business. I think as a cooperative we like to evaluate things as a group. So, if you have ideas, you might need to be patient in them coming to fruition, but we’ll always work to be collaborative when there’s something that you want to bring to the co-op or ideas that you have for change. Always remember that collaboration is a really good method to get those new things or new ideas implemented.
What part of our mission do you most connect with?
I think creating holistic wealth for ourselves and our community is probably resonating the most right now for me. First, because of the co-ownership model, we do really have a lot of say in what happens with our profits and how we spend money. So many examples of that came up during retreat this time. For example, we always determine where we want to send Community Profit Sharing dollars. We get to vote on who we’re donating those dollars to. We talked about 401k matches and what we could realistically support as an organization. And we got to decide that together in a room. I think these are a great example of how we create holistic wealth for the community and ourselves.
What do you like to do when you’re not at work?
Gardening. I’m a big reader. I love to read. Right now I’m reading a book called The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. She’s one of my favorite authors actually. She writes literary fiction, but she often brings in elements of environmental stewardship and nature.
Where would you go on your dream vacation?
Let’s say Italy because I’ve never been there, and I’ve been dying to go. I’ve started making plans before, but it’s been pushed back multiple times.
What’s your favorite local spot?
There’s this garden center that I love called Front Range Gardens. Also, The Book Cranny in Arvada is an awesome used bookstore.
