When your business is in the startup stage, you’re in an ideal position to attract genius talent, and genius talent often comes with an entrepreneurial mindset and little to no fear of failure. Like most entrepreneurs, failure is embraced as an impersonal opportunity to learn. These are the people you want on your team. Talented people are easy to attract, but not always easy to keep. Here are some strategies you can use to develop a winning employee retention strategy and hang on to your genius minds:
1. Know what your talent really wants
Retaining your best talent is simple when you know what they want. Find out what drives your best employees. If they’re millennials, you can bet that making a difference is at the top of their list. They’re not motivated by money. Their goal is to make the world more compassionate, innovative and sustainable.
According to Fast Company, “More than 50 percent of millennials say they would take a pay cut to find work that matches their values, while 90 percent want to use their skills for good.”
Knowing what drives your employees is mutually beneficial. When your team is passionate about making a difference through the work they do, they won’t want to leave.
Related: How To Motivate Your Employees
2. Establish a physical presence where your best players are
If you’re like most startups, you have a few core people you work with regularly, and they’re often remote. They might be employees, contractors or clients spread across the world. If you’ve developed a team mostly located in one corner of the world, consider establishing a physical office in that area. If your best players happen to be overseas, help to get them set up.
Remote workers enjoy their freedom, but they also enjoy structure, to a degree. If they don’t have a home office and can’t rent their own space, they’ll feel supported having a reliable location to work from.
If there’s a need for collaboration in person, giving your remote team the space to be creative and work together demonstrates they’re a priority to you. They’ll love having the ability to access an office 24/7 without worrying about internet cafes shutting down before they’re finished working.
Having a central office for your best players helps you maintain a global, professional presence. This helps your team stay focused and organized.
3. The importance of a professional presence central to your team
Clients may wonder why a majority of your team lives in the same city, but they don’t have their own office to work out of. Providing a local office space for your overseas team demonstrates your commitment to your team’s success.
An official presence makes it easier for your top overseas players to conduct business on your behalf with clients, potential partners and investors. With a local address, your team won’t need to provide explanations to anyone.
If officially doing business in Europe isn’t an option, establishing a virtual office will give you many of the same benefits, including an address. Regardless of how you obtain it, a local address is your key to smooth operations abroad.
4. Honor their expertise
When you hire genius talent, they’re going to be the best at something. Identify their area of expertise and let them run with it. By recognizing their expertise and giving them the freedom to make authoritative decisions, you’re not just supporting them; your business will benefit, too.
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5. Resolve problems quickly and efficiently
Your best talent will notice when systems and procedures don’t work or are inefficient. Most of them have learned to be silent, but some will share what’s on their mind. Your biggest assets are those who will point out the snags and flaws in how your business operates.
