How Do You Retain Top Talent in a Company?
In the quest to keep their best and brightest, we've gathered insights from CEOs and founders on unique strategies for employee retention. From upskilling and maximizing potential to ensuring a pleasing work environment, explore the twelve creative approaches these leaders implement to retain top talent in their companies.
- Upskill and Maximize Potential
- Foster a Continuous Learning Culture
- Empower with Decision-Making Authority
- Offer Unlimited Paid Time Off
- Focus on Work-Life Integration
- Provide Growth Tools and Resources
- Start an Engaging Skill-Sharing Program
- Enable Flexible Work Schedules
- Implement a Learning and Growth Fund
- Personalize Professional Development Plans
- Create a Family-Like Company Culture
- Ensure a Pleasing Work Environment
Upskill and Maximize Potential
We constantly work to continue improving the experience of our associates and create initiatives that allow us to upskill and maximize their potential. Such initiatives include creating challenging and innovative development experiences, empowering our mentoring programs, and providing them with opportunities to participate in international projects and assignments. We simplify their ways of working by providing them with technology tools that allow us to use artificial intelligence to streamline our work. Additionally, we aim to create a purpose-driven culture, as we continue striving to become the best place to be, grow, and belong.
Foster a Continuous Learning Culture
One creative approach I've implemented to retain top talent in my company is by fostering a culture of continuous learning and development. Recognizing that growth opportunities are essential for employee engagement and retention, I've invested in various training programs, workshops, and mentorship initiatives.
Additionally, I've introduced flexible work arrangements and perks tailored to individual needs and preferences. Understanding that work-life balance is a significant factor in employee satisfaction and retention, I offer options such as remote work, flexible hours, and additional time off. By accommodating diverse lifestyles and priorities, I show appreciation for my employees' well-being and foster a positive work environment that promotes loyalty and commitment. This approach not only helps retain top talent but also boosts morale, productivity, and overall job satisfaction within the company.
Empower with Decision-Making Authority
Our approach to retaining top talent is to give team members more ownership over their projects. Doing so transforms an employee's role from a participant to a stakeholder. One specific way this happens is by allowing or enabling people to make reversible decisions. Instead of team members waiting for a higher-up to get back to them on a minor detail or question, an employee is empowered to make a decision based on their best judgment—so long as it can be undone. Should it be a mistake, it can be fixed. In this way, employees have autonomy and decision-making authority while experiencing the safety provided by guardrails. Such flexibility, trust, and autonomy are seldom practiced in typical businesses, but it has been critical in keeping our top talent happy.
Offer Unlimited Paid Time Off
One key strategy we offer in our business that retains our best talent is offering unlimited PTO, or paid time off. This helps us in multiple ways: it allows employees to take time off when they need it without worrying about accruing it. It also removes the need for us to track who has taken time off and whether they stuck to a specific number of days, and so on. We did try implementing limited time off, but it was more trouble than it was worth. Unlimited PTO is extremely appealing when it comes to recruiting, too. It often makes the difference or is the reason why people choose our business over others.
Focus on Work-Life Integration
If you want to retain your top talent, consider focusing on work-life integration instead of work-life balance. I think many leaders give their employees the impression that their work should take up as much time as their personal lives. Trust me when I say this is not what people want. I like using the phrase 'work-life integration' instead because it implies that work is just one small part of a happy and active life. We structure our business around this idea, too, by focusing on key performance indicators (KPIs) instead of tracking time and providing our employees with tools they can use to speed up their workflows and reduce repetitive tasks.
Provide Growth Tools and Resources
One of my best tips for retaining your best employees is to give them the tools and resources they need to grow. We do this for our team in several different ways. First, we have a company Kindle account filled with business, tech, and leadership books that we paid for out of pocket. We actively encourage everyone to check out the library during their onboarding and take advantage of this perk. Another strategy we've had a lot of luck with is asking team members to come to us if they find a valuable premium online course. If we think it's something that will help them or has the potential to help anyone else within our company, we buy it and make it available to those who are interested. These two strategies encourage our best employees to hone their skills and grow within our company, which means they're more likely to stay with us and continue their journey.
Start an Engaging Skill-Sharing Program
A great way to retain your top talent is to start an engaging skill-sharing program. Each month, we invite team members to host a video presentation where they teach a new skill to the rest of the team. For example, an employee recently hosted a skill-sharing event where they showed us how they are using AI in their day-to-day workflow. We found that this strategy is great for building rapport, crushing information silos, and helping people who want to move up in the company learn from their peers. I believe building a sense of community brings people closer together and encourages your top talent to step into leadership roles.
Enable Flexible Work Schedules
Allowing teams to have a flexible work schedule has helped me retain top talent in my company. People operate differently, and not everyone wants to work a standard 9-to-5 job. Some people may be more active at night, whereas others may be more comfortable with a morning routine. Some may be able to stay focused at work for a long time, whereas others may find it easier to work in smaller intervals followed by frequent breaks. Overall, people have diverse preferences when it comes to being active for work. So, allowing them to create their own schedules and design their workflows can significantly boost employee satisfaction and help you retain the top talent in your company.
Implement a Learning and Growth Fund
One creative approach I've taken to retain top talent in my company is to implement a "Learning and Growth Fund" program. This program provides each employee with a budget they can use to invest in their professional development and personal growth. Employees can use this fund to attend conferences, enroll in courses, or pursue certifications that align with their career goals and interests. Not only does this program show our commitment to supporting our employees' growth, but it also helps us retain top talent by providing them with valuable learning opportunities and career advancement prospects within the company.
Personalize Professional Development Plans
One creative approach I've taken to retain top talent in my company is implementing a personalized professional development program. Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach to training and development, we work closely with each employee to create a customized plan that aligns with their career goals and aspirations. This includes identifying relevant training courses, workshops, and conferences, as well as opportunities for mentorship and coaching. By investing in the professional growth and development of our employees in a personalized way, we've been able to retain top talent and create a more engaged and motivated workforce.
Create a Family-Like Company Culture
One creative approach our company has taken to retain talent is to do our best to make people feel part of something special. We do our utmost to treat everyone as family members. We try to show we appreciate their efforts, to say 'thank you' when they go the extra mile, and show everyone why we're doing certain things and share the results of those efforts. Rather than enforcing a 9-5, office-based workplace, we're 100% remote. We set minimum work hours per month and provide as much freedom as possible within that framework. Want to work longer days for longer weekends? No problem. Need time off for your child's sports day? No problem. As long as you're around for meetings and collaboration and do your hours in the month, it's all good. We encourage informal chats in Slack, have weekly and monthly video meetings, and try to create a family feel as much as possible. We also have scheduled in-person meetings too, as that's still an important part of business. Our HR team has a 'people-first' approach. They are always coming up with competitions, quizzes, and interactions that bring people together and forge a bond between everyone. We think it makes a huge difference in how people feel about the company. While there's nothing groundbreaking here, it's at the heart of everything we do. That adds authenticity to our intentions. It's also making a real difference in retention, so we're going to keep doing it!
Ensure a Pleasing Work Environment
If you do not have enough monetary incentives to keep your key talent, at least make the work environment professionally and personally pleasing, with only the stress needed to exact maximum performance from your employees. Another job may pay more, but the environment might not be right for your top talent. There are many things you can do, including your personal management style, that will minimize costs but still assure peak performance from the right team members.
