Guest Post by Gusto
Loyal employees aren’t a rare species. But keeping the team stoked to come to work each day is an obstacle every successful company has to overcome—and it’s something every company can achieve. Considering that three million Americans quit their jobs every month, you’ll most likely have to deal with turnover at some point. But if you’re a small business, how can you retain employees without simply passing out more cash and perks?
We chatted with ThirdLove CEO Heidi Zak to find out exactly how they were able to achieve their 96 percent retention rate, despite dealing with the challenges of explosive growth.
Here are two tactics that contributed to ThirdLove’s extremely high employee retention rate:
- Collaborative recruiting
Heidi is a staunch believer in enlisting the team to help source candidates. While not every ThirdLove employee is technically a recruiter, they all have the ability to contribute to the candidate pipeline. Why is this important? Because people do better work when they get along with their coworkers.
In fact, one major clue that your team is happy is whether or not they have a best friend at work. That’s why Heidi wanted to use her team’s network and sourcing skills to ensure they always find talented candidates.
ThirdLove set up a program called “Hot Jobs” that highlights the top open positions at the company. Every week, they publicize the most crucial roles internally before posting it publically, along with what they’re looking for in star candidates. They also double the referral bonus for those roles to get more people to participate.
- Onboarding buddies
Heidi also believes in the power of work friendships to increase retention. That’s why she promotes relationships through an in-depth employee onboarding program.
When new hires join, they’re matched up with an onboarding buddy. That person can’t be the new person’s manager, but should be someone they can open up to and talk to about both work and non-work issues. The buddy’s job is to make the new hire feel comfortable during the first couple of days, tell them about any unspoken work rules and check in with them once they’ve gotten into a rhythm.
Onboarding buddies can help acclimate new teammates much quicker by allowing them to open up and share concerns during those thrilling (and nerve-wracking!) early days.
And those two secrets are just part of Heidi’s employee retention formula. Want to get your hands on all of ThirdLove’s exclusive tricks? Read the rest of Heidi’s story here.