My CEO Life

I was recently asked the question “how do you attract and retain excellent employees?”.  This entry looks at the second part of the equation.

Firstly, you need to make sure that your team members are paid at least at the market rates.  Now you can often get away with paying a little less than market rates if you have the ability to issue options / equity in the business to the employees.  When we pay our employees, we ensure that everyone has a bonus component linked to measurable KPI’s.  We also allow people to earn more than their package through over performance.

Secondly, you need to create a culture where people can grow.  Now to do this, you need to understand what people want to do and then ensure that they can achieve some or all of those objectives.  We are about to instigate a google type 1 day per week for tech guys to explore new ideas.

Thirdly, we are a strong believer in spot awards.  For example, a team has just completed a marathon new product launch.  So as a reward, we are going to ask them all into a room, give them a day off AND give them $2k each to spend in that day.  Make it fun for them!

Fourthly, we create a very open environment where people’s thoughts / concerns and ideas are clearly heard.  Often a closed environment means that people get sick of going no where and leave.

Finally, you need to ensure that they have part of the business.  That you make them feel like owners and that they can ride the growth of the business.  Options are a great way to do this.

I would love your thoughts and questions.

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