Jill Christensen
Jill ChristensenAuthor Blogger
Jill Christensen is a guest blogger for EmpowerPoints, an employee engagement expert, best-selling author, and international keynote speaker. She is a Top 100 Global Employee Engagement Influencer, authored the best-selling book, If Not You, Who?, and works with the best and brightest global leaders to improve productivity and retention, customer satisfaction, and revenue growth by re-engaging employees. Jill’s Website | LinkedIn Profile

Firas Kittanesh gets it. A serial entrepreneur, and co-founder and CEO of Amerisleep, an eco-friendly luxury mattress company, he has grown the business to serve hundreds of thousands of customers across the globe with no loans or investors.

His philosophy?  “Your ideas and vision will drive your company from its infancy, but it’s your employees who will have the most impact on the long-term performance of your business.  By developing a company culture our employees enjoy, empowering them to accomplish more at their jobs and incorporating social good into our business processes, we’ve established a brand our team members are proud to work for.”

In a recent Inc.com article, Kittanesh laid out three strategies you can use to make your company a place your top performers will never want to leave:

  • Build a dynamic company culture. Strong company cultures that attract passionate and talented employees don’t arise out of thin air. They have to be strategically created, built from the top down and nurtured over time. When you define company culture, then you can hire people who will be a good fit.
  • Set clear expectations and empower employees to exceed them. Establish ambitious, yet feasible, expectations for employees.  Hardworking, talented employees want to work with their colleagues to achieve great things.  Then once you let your employees know exactly what is expected of them, your second major task is to give them a runway to achieve the goals.
  • Highlight your company’s social impact. Today’s workers want to work for an organization that has defined values and routinely makes a difference in society.  Amerisleep builds beds to last decades and makes mattresses with plant-based materials, a zero-emissions manufacturing process.  Businesses like this increase their likelihood of retaining top talent when they support social causes their team members care about.

WHAT CAN I DO?  It all starts with culture.  By developing a company culture employees enjoy, empowering them to accomplish more at their jobs and incorporating social good into your business processes, you can establish a brand your team members are proud to work for and can’t imagine leaving.  If you have embarked on a culture journey, take a pulse check and ask yourself if you are doing everything above.  If you have not embarked on a culture journey, start now.  Great cultures are not difficult, they are deliberate.