Creating a Culture That is Hard to Leave

By Rebecca Heslep, Corporate HR Director

Recently, I was reading an article about workforce issues that included a stat that made my eyes pop. According to a survey conducted by Monster.com, a global employment website, 96% of workers are looking for a new job in 2023. That can’t be correct, right? 96%! Further reading showed me that those stats came from a collection of 930 respondents — not a small figure.

It’s unlikely that percentage is actually playing out in the market, but we certainly can’t deny that there is a lot pulling on American workers these days.

As recruiters, we can’t directly change this trend. But we can help set up a workplace that employees don’t want to leave.

I’ve stayed at my company, InnoSource, for nearly 19 years, which, based on that Monster.com survey, would put me in the minority. I’ve stayed for three reasons: I love the culture. I love the people. And I’ve had the opportunities to grow in my career here.

As InnoSource’s Corporate HR Director, I like to tell candidates that our company has the best culture around. We’ve worked hard over the 24-plus years we have been in business to create a culture that allows our employees to flourish. For example, many staffing agencies operate with commission incentives, but early on at InnoSource, we decided it was best for our company and our associates to avoid that model. Instead, we provide a competitive salary and a team bonus structure that attracts talented individuals.

Commission programs can be a huge motivator for employees and can help a company attract top-level talent, but at the same time it can also lead to a “me-first” environment. Creating a culture with a collaborative, team mentality has always been important to us, and we believe our culture has had a direct impact on the success of our company.

Another driving factor in our culture is the environment where we operate. Our office, like so many offices in the business world, is where our culture comes alive. It’s the place where our team shares the knowledge, skills and passion that embody our principles, and enables us to serve the needs of our clients.

The COVID-19 pandemic changed the work environment as we once knew it, and we’ve had to adapt and reimagine our offices to best serve our team. The year 2020 showed us that work in many industries could be done successfully in a remote environment, thus the demand for remote positions has increased.

We adapted our policies at our headquarters to offer a hybrid work model where our teams work from home a couple of days a week, if they choose, and come to the office the rest. We’ve always felt our best results come when our team collaborates. Thus, in a world with an abundance of remote work options, we wanted to create a more comfortable, collaborative and inviting workspace, making it one that the team is enthusiastic about coming to. With input from our team, we are in the process of updating our headquarters to add more spaces for comfortable collaboration, updating our break area with more televisions, coffee bar, games and seating with a modern feel. We are also holding more team lunches, and we’ve added treadmill desk spaces that allows individuals to walk while working on their laptop.

All companies have evolved since the start of 2020 — the pandemic required it. But that is not a bad thing, as long as companies stay true to their team-first mindset and remember that just because things were done one way in the past, doesn’t mean that’s how it must be done now. Keeping our team, values and culture top of mind allows us to evolve how we operate, which only benefits our clients and our company.

People will always be looking for new places to work, and companies will always be looking for people — that’s what keeps InnoSource in business. But within our walls, we believe our culture is the key to keeping our people happy and proud to stay members of our team.