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How a CEO communicates care to staff

As an interim CFO for start-ups I spend a lot of time creating new HR processes…

One metric that is very important and that investors always look at is retention…in other words can you keep your best team members working for you…

…and it boils down to your staff being able to answer these three questions about the CEO, each with a resounding ‘yes’:

  1. Do you care for me?
  2. Can you help me?
  3. Can I trust you?

For each company I work with I remain in these questions until I have a plan to show the CEO.

For example, I just implemented a 401K matching program and am in the process of designing a maternity/paternity leave policy for the same company.

These HR ‘benefits’ were the ones most highly requested at the company’s annual offsite.

But it raised the question: “How do we decide the next important benefit for the team and have we actually provided what the team is looking for?”

Clif Bar Company based in Berkeley, CA has one of the best HR strategy and benefits policies in the world.

Their recommendation is the following:

  1. Issue a survey (Survey Monkey) and ask to rank order a list of benefits
  2. Create an open forum setting and discuss, based on the survey, what benefits the staff would like to see offered
  3. Then rank the benefits with the staff present
  4. When the decision is made by the executive team to move forward with a new benefit, keep the process private until you’re ready to launch. If there are many questions from staff, it’s always possible to frame what the new benefit might look like in the year ahead.

HR benefits are a key item to attract and retain employees. However, studies show that Millennials are less likely to value benefits. It’s therefore imperative to get them involved in the choice of which benefits to add; then communicate the value of all benefits throughout the year via videos and blog posts.

If all this sounds like it’ll take too long, then here’s an immediate staff satisfaction booster…

Implement flexible working hours…they consistently rank #1 as most requested benefit