op-tier companies like the Top 49ers didn’t get there by chance. It takes effort, vision, planning, and persistence to unlock top-shelf status. Most importantly, it takes an excellent team of employees.

Hiring talented workers is just one step; after successfully enticing a promising team, employers must think about how they’re going to foster creativity, empower them to do their best work, and encourage them to grow.

PeopleAK founder Paula Bradison and Christine Brown, lead recruiter and human resources services partner with Wilson Albers, are two prominent Alaska recruiters and business consulting companies. Here are their tips for how they attract and retain high-quality employees, as well as advice that they provide to their clients looking to attract talent.

Employees who got their start in the ‘90s or before can share stories of having to put in long hours before earning much in the way of benefits. Family leave, a few decades ago, wasn’t really on the radar for many companies. A 1988 New York Times article, “Wooing Workers in the ‘90s: New Role for Family Benefits,” touts benefits some companies were considering to deal with an oncoming worker shortage due to lower birth rates in the ‘70s: “Chief among these benefits are ways to make it easier or cheaper for young parents to obtain child care. Other family incentives being offered include paid and unpaid maternity leaves, flexible working hours, and programs that enable employees to work part time by sharing a job.”

Times have changed, at least in part. Twelve weeks of family and medical leave is federally required, though it’s not always paid leave. Many companies now offer flexible work hours, and—thanks in part to COVID-19—allow workers to telecommute. What it takes to attract workers looks a little different today, Bradison and Brown say.

“There are multiple incentives that make an employer attractive to a wide range of applicants,” Brown says. “Some of the perks that my organization offers are unlimited paid time off, additional paid time away to spend with family, paid volunteering time, professional development money, and various financial incentives based on performance.”

Bradison underscored several of those offerings and added that carefully building a strong team can also be attractive to prospective employees—who doesn’t want to be part of a dynamic, like-minded team?

Identifying that team isn’t always easy. Bradison says when she is evaluating prospective employees, she looks for transferrable skills and a desire to be productive. Brown keeps an eye out for details—information about specific projects that turned out successfully, for example. She says she’s not always looking for perfection; personal growth is key. “You do not need to show a perfect track record, but you need to show that you have taken steps to grow professionally and that you are open to learning from yourself and others,” Brown says.

The incentives worked, the interviews were successful, and a dream team of fantastic employees are on board. Now what? How can companies retain those skilled, dynamic workers?

“Onboarding with expectations and key performance indicators from day one,” Bradison says. “We have adopted a strengths-based philosophy, focusing on our strengths and the strengths of our clients as well. Quality core value alignment makes the work come easy,” she says.

With employees on board and working toward goals, it’s important that basic needs are tended to. Employee health and wellness is important, and employers who nurture those things are generally rewarded.

“Companies that put their employees’ physical and mental health as a top priority will always see a tremendous increase in productivity and overall satisfaction. Some of the ways employers can do this are to provide health and wellness programs and allow for time off as needed to care for oneself or family,” says Brown.

Bradison says that, for her team, modeling and presenting healthy opportunities are key. “We try to make it both fun and easy to be in the office,” she says. “During and post-COVID, we have high-protein snacks to encourage healthy snacking versus daily DoorDash [orders]. We have on contract a weekly massage therapy appointment, with a certified therapist for sports and/or targeted massage therapy (off-site). Starting each September, we offer free vitamin D testing and supply employees with vitamin D3.”

Fostering engagement and collaboration—as well as disagreement in a healthy way—is vital to creating a safe space for employees to give input and grow, Bradison says. A clean workplace, multiple work areas that allow impromptu collaboration, on-site meetings with clients: those are all vital to encouraging collaboration. But disagreements?

“We argue freely as part of our routine—while understanding professionalism is key,” Bradison says. “We are here to solve problems on behalf of our clients; this is best accomplished with varying and diverse-experienced or -educated staff members.”

Providing opportunities for employees to grow and learn is key to nurturing employee health as well, Brown says.

“Professional development and training should be an ongoing aspect of any employer/ employee relationship. It is a very mutually beneficial aspect that both parties need to be invested in. Thoughtful planning and communication need to occur to ensure that an employee is on the right track toward the professional goals they have, and the employer needs to help ensure that progress is ongoing. Education, certification, and professional coaching are just some ways these goals can be achieved, and often a combination of these tools will yield the best results,” Brown says.

Keeping an ongoing dialogue with employees about what they need is also valuable, she says. When budgets are tight, those discussions can provide a way to be sure client needs are met while employee needs are met as well.

“Employers that concentrate on focusing on using money wisely in terms of how they meet their customer needs as well as their employee’s needs have a clear advantage. Oftentimes asking employees what is most valuable to them in terms of benefits and perks is the best way to meet those needs,” Brown says. “My employer keeps an open dialogue with our employees and uses surveys to make sure they are offering us the benefits that matter most to us, and not offering us benefits that are not a value to us. It is a win/win!”

Bradison says recognizing and planning for employee turnover can be a vital tool for keeping a work team engaged and a company stable, fostering growth and development.

“We recruit according to our attrition rate, looking for talent before we have a vacancy. We also embrace a healthy turnover, with solid retention and succession plans,” she says.

Life is going to happen; employees rarely stay in the same place for thirty years anymore, even if they love their workplace. Planning for the inevitable before it happens will help keep your company moving forward when it does.