Want to Hire Your Dream Team? Offer These 5 Unusual Perks

Hey, it’s Marie Forleo and you are watching MarieTV, the place to be if you want to create a business and life you love, and I think you do. Now, if you ever wonder how to attract and retain the best team you possibly can, especially if big salaries or huge bonuses are just not an option, this question is for you. Today’s comes from Elizabeth who writes:

“Hey, Marie. I love your show and your heart for service.” Thank you. “I’m the founder of a nonprofit and we’re in a huge growth spell right now, so we’re starting to hire, and I want to bring the right people on board. I want to invest in my team, but this seems hard with a nonprofit because donors want their resources to go towards programs, not payroll. I know taking care of your team is how you thrive as an organization. Can you suggest incentives outside of profit sharing that help you grow and retain talent? Thank you so much for your advice, Elizabeth.”

Elizabeth, I love this question. As you know, getting and keeping the right people on board – it is crucial to your success, especially in today’s world of low employee engagement and high turnover. But even more than that, getting the right people on the bus makes going to work fun and something you can actually look forward to.

Now, I have no doubt that our amazing audience is going to help crowdsource a ton of brilliance in the comments below, but first I want to share five ideas that have really worked well in our business.

But before I do that, I want to say something to you. You actually have a huge advantage going for you, because recent studies of employees here in the US show that making a positive impact is the most important measure of employee success followed by, in this order: doing work you love, good work/life balance, and, of course, the pay.

So as a nonprofit you have got your purpose game down, girl. Booyah! But here are five more incentives that I want you to consider.

Number one is flexibility. This, my friend, is what so many humans crave more of. We crave more control over our own schedule because, let’s face it, right? In life, things happen. Both special events that you just don’t want to miss, and people get sick. Plus, putting the emphasis on results rather than who is at their desk at what hours gives people more control over their day and makes them feel trusted, which is hugely important.

Now, of course there are positions where you do need to be at your desk at certain hours, but in those cases you might want to consider having people cross-trained or consider having a few part-timers instead of one full-timer.

Number two is time off. Because I’ve got to say, what’s one thing we all want more of? More time! Amen. Yes, we do. So, Elizabeth, how can you be generous about giving people time off? I’ll tell you what we do in our company. We give people six weeks of paid vacation, plus paid holidays, plus something called inspiration days. Now you might be asking, what are inspiration days? Inspiration days are paid time off that you can take to do something fun and inspiring like go to a museum or head to the beach, or learn beekeeping … in Spanish.

Don’t anger the bees, or they will kill you. Ow!

Number three is the best tech. So you’ve got to hook your people up and make sure they have the most up to date software and laptops and phones. Now, of course you do not have to upgrade every time something new comes out – that would be a little nuts. But the best tech not only helps people be more productive, but it also builds company pride and morale. Because, you know this, nothing is more demoralizing than trying to get something done and being stymied by the pinwheel of death.

Hey, guy – guys? Can you hear me right now? Hello? Something’s not right. I can’t feel my legs.

So, yes. This one does cost money. But as a nonprofit, there’s a really good chance you can negotiate a discount or a donation.

Number four, you want to challenge them to grow. So you need to expect a lot from your people and really challenge them to gain new skills, because if they don’t see a growth path ahead they’re not going to stay.

You know what I do sometimes is I assign missions to people that they need to go figure out, and 99% of the time it’s around a project that none of us have experience in, we’ve never done anything like it before. And, frankly, I expect results. And, you know what? They always make it happen.

And other times something will come up and I’ll say, “Hey, who’s stepping up to take this on?” And always someone rises to the challenge. And doing that transforms them in a way that’s exciting both for them and for everyone else. And you want to know why? It is because of this tweetable.

“No one rises to low expectations. A-players want to step up, not level out.”

And, finally, number five is appreciation and acknowledgement. Now, I have to say, this is one of the most important things you can do to attract and retain talent, and it’s one of the most underrated. You have got to make it a part of your company culture to celebrate and appreciate and publicly acknowledge people for their hard work.

Now, for example, when someone in our company hits a milestone or they just kick some major butt on a project or when a team gets something monumental done, we pour on the specific and sincere recognition for each person. I mean, we clap, sometimes we make monkey sounds, we will throw the confetti in the air. We go to town celebrating. And, you know what? When something is real good? Yup, gets a little reggae airhorn.

Now, this year things were so good that to show my appreciation for my team I took everyone on a company vacation to Mexico. Yes. Now, obviously I’ve been in business for many years now and this is not the kind of thing that I could have done early on. So if that’s a little too nachos in the sky for you, start simple. Do something maybe like a company brunch. Anything really where the only agenda is connection and having fun.

So there you have it, Elizabeth. Five creative ideas to help you both attract and retain top talent. And before we wrap, make sure that you watch these other episodes on this topic too. So the first one up is my secret weapon for leading a happy team. And, yes, it involves handcuffs. Second, the one with my good buddy Simon Sinek on how to inspire others to do remarkable things. I’m going to put links to both of those right below this video.

And that was my A to your Q, Elizabeth. I really do hope it helps. And now I would love to hear from you. So outside of big salaries or bonuses or profit sharing, what are some other ideas for meaningful, creative incentives to offer your team?

Now, as always, the best conversations happen over at the badass land of MarieForleo.com, so go there and leave a comment now. And once you’re there, be sure to subscribe to our email list and become an MF Insider. You’ll get instant access to an audio training I created called How To Get Anything You Want. You’ll also get some exclusive content and special giveaways, and some personal updates from me that I don’t talk about anywhere else.

Stay on your game and keep going for your dreams, because the world needs that special gift that only you have. Thank you so much for watching and I’ll catch you next time on MarieTV.

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