Due to the Pandemic, more employees than ever before are seeking meaning and certainty beyond their ‘9 to 5’. With 2022 being labeled ‘The Great Resignation’, the question on everyone’s lips is ‘How can CEOs optimize employee retention during uncharted times?’
In 2020, Radhika Jones, Editor in Chief at Vanity Fair Magazine, shifted the entire magazine’s content and a team of employees online. As a result, Vanity Fair broke its record for new monthly subscriptions – twice. A staggering feat in the ever-changing world of media.
She saw the power of innovating the environment in which her team worked, and moved before the Pandemic told her she should. Through trusting her gut instinct as a Leader, and prioritizing what would allow her team to perform at their best, she was able to optimize employee retention, and lead her company to new heights.
Deeply Know Your People
Kortney Murray is the brains and the beauty behind Coastal Kapital, one of America’s leading lending firms for Start-Up Entrepreneurs and business equipment. As Murray states: “we live in a virtual world.” By doing business rooted in their motto; “financing you can trust”, alongside their values of honesty, integrity, and authenticity have blessed Coastal Kapital with a 90% repeat client base and even higher partner retention.
Getting to know the person behind the job title is Murray’s secret to thriving as a CEO. She utilizes ‘scientifically-backed survey’ to obtain a deeper look into each person within her Company, and in doing so she is able to place her people into positions that play to their natural talents: “This method shows the cultural strengths and naturally organic manner in which each employee feels comfort and shows their constraints. It allows us to provide life/work balance that has our team connect better with one another, improve their productivity, and truly thrive.”
Murray utilizes the Index to provide her with insight into how each person on her Team likes to be rewarded. Rewarding her people in the way that activates their intrinsic motivators is the top priority in maximizing retention.
“We aim to be clear with everyone on what motivates them. We work on a 90-day rotation where everyone is resurveyed. We then make sure they are still in line with their proper alignment for growth and happiness.”
Promote Authenticity And Collective Decision Making
When it came time for Michelle Beltran to expand her company, she knew that having the right team was key, but not for the purpose of financial gain. Her heart-centered business is helmed by a culture of caring and an internal belief system that employees are seen as trusted partners.
Michelle Beltran is a best-selling author, globally celebrated intuitive expert, transformation trailblazer, and spiritual teacher who believes that one of the key components to retention is ensuring her employees feel relaxed and comfortable, with the freedom to be themselves.
“Of course, we are all professionals – that’s a given. But our true, authentic self matters as well. Our staff feels a sense of autonomy when it comes to things as simple as how they dress, to how they communicate, and express themselves. Just being able to be their true self at work ensures they stay and in the interim, we support the human behind the employee.”
At her company RWM, LLC Beltran fosters collective decision making vs leading through a hierarchy. She has found that this approach deeply promotes confident and empowered team members who feel seen, heard, and ultimately valued. These are employees who don’t just come to work for a paycheck – they are Leaders-in-the-making, and people who find meaning in their work.
Be A Leader, Not A Boss
Creating a community at work that cultivates employee-led initiative and motivation to get the job done, proves more lucrative both financially for the company and in terms of employee retention.
April Ryan, CEO of Red Iguana, Nailfie, and Nailboxy, a 7 figure company with a small and intimate team, shares how her employees consider her more like a colleague and friend than as a boss. She prioritizes leading with trust and by giving her team the space and freedom to be creative. The upside: “By leaving them alone if there are no deadlines or anything urgent, productivity is increased! ”
“I pay my team very well; I step back and am not a helicopter boss; I help financially if employees need it and I choose to be friendly to not stress my employees by being a Boss.”