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Welcome to episode 6 of Claire Shares. I’m so glad you’re here. I’m going to be sharing with you high energy, bite size videos, about all things talent attraction, talent acquisition and talent retention. Today’s topic is: we all do better when we all do better. Meaning taking care of the communities you serve and operate in, as well as taking care of your employees, positively impacts each other and improves employee retention! On previous episodes, we talked about new hire onboarding and positive new hire communication for retention. Be sure to check them out if you missed it / subscribe to us where you get your podcasts.
Before we get started with today’s topic, I want to share with you my recommendation of the week!
Recommendation of the week
I’m excited to share that Disrupt HR Buffalo is back for 5.0 on April 11th. If you’re not familiar, Disrupt is an information exchange designed to energize, inform and empower people in the HR field. Once in a while an event series is born that shakes things up. it makes you think differently. it leaves you inspired. That event is DisruptHR. Each speaker gets 5 minutes, and slides rotate every 15 seconds. If you’re an HR professional, a CEO, a technologist, a community leader – and you’ve got something to say about talent, culture or technology – Disrupt is the place. As a previous host of the event in 2018 and 2019, I’m so glad to see it’s made its return to Buffalo! I look forward to attending with my fellow HR professionals, networking, and learning from the speakers. Check out disrupthr.co/city/buffalo for more information and to RSVP. I love to curate resources and share recommendations, so please reach out to me if there’s something you’re looking for.
Let’s get into our talent topic of the day, we all do better when we all do better. What do I mean by this? Today, we’re exploring a philosophy that’s close to our hearts here at Lighthouse: “We all do better when we all do better.” It’s a simple but powerful truth. Nurturing our communities and taking care of those around us doesn’t just create a better world—it rejuvenates us and our teams with a profound sense of wellbeing.
This philosophy aligns closely with our core values, to treat others the way they’d like to be treated, be a lighthouse and guide others on their journey to their destination, and light up those around you by infusing positivity and joy into all we do. Finding ways to care about the communities in which you do business improves your company brand, employee retention, and the lives of others. Ready to go? Let’s dive in!
Caring for your employees
First, let’s start with ways that you can take care of your employees, so they can care for their communities. For the purpose of today’s video, I’m talking about extra care, and some special ways you can show employees and your community that you care about their wellbeing. The basics should be covered, such as providing a safe work environment, health benefits and time off for vacation, illness or bereavement. Having these in place first are important so that employees do have the capacity to care for their communities because their needs are covered. Some ideas to consider are a corporate subscription to Calm or Headspace for mental wellbeing. Another alternative could be forming a partnership with a local institution in your area that provides these types of services. Next, be sure to understand the discounts available to your employees through your health benefits provider. When you select a provider, your broker, or representative at the provider will be able to help you understand all of the benefits and discounts so you can communicate this to your employees. For example, here at Lighthouse, because we have independent health, I get a 20% discount at some of the businesses I visit, such as my massage therapist. There are also corporate fitness subscriptions, such as through Peloton. You can often find group discounts for memberships and fitness classes. According to Calm Business, connecting employees to purpose, prioritizing employee recognition, creating employee growth plans and fostering a sense of belonging leads to improved engagement and is a long-term investment in employee retention. This leads right into my next topic, caring for your communities. The CEO and leadership team at your organization have to believe and show that helping the community is important to them. There are many ways to do that. And, I’m excited to tell you all about what we do at Lighthouse a little later in this video.
Caring for your community
At a previous organization, the CEO was a big supporter of a scholarship program that helped students from underrepresented groups go to better schools. Building on this, they would have these students in to the organization for tours and hands on learning days, and employees would volunteer time at the program. To take an example like this a step further, you could provide summer internship slots for those students, and keep them in your pipeline for full-time jobs once they finish their education. Companies like M&T Bank offer 40 hours a year of paid volunteer hours. There are opportunities for your team to get together and help the community through a habitat for humanity project for example. There are also numerous walks for a cause that your team can do together throughout the year, such as the Komen Race for the cure, this year on June 10th here in Buffalo. Some companies do donation matching. Donation matching is a program where you match the donations your employees make to charities. You can limit the gift matching to a list of certain charities or offer it for any donation. It’s common for employers to match the donation dollar amount exactly, but you can make a larger donation. You might also have a maximum amount you’ll match. There are so many options. Do what feels best and makes the most sense for your company, community, and budget. In a previous episode we talked about employee surveys and feedback gathering. You could always do a pulse survey of your employees to gather interest on causes they would like to support or community events they would like to attend.
What we do here at Lighthouse
Now, I’m so excited to tell you about what we do here at Lighthouse Technology Services, because I know it’ll give you some ideas as well. Lighthouse allows employees to pick a cause each year and will donate $250 to that charity on the employee’s behalf. The past couple of years I’ve selected Empower Camp and the Buffalo City Mission, and it meant the world to me when those organizations reached out confirming they received the donations and thanked myself and Lighthouse for the contribution. It felt really special that I was able to help them, through the support of my employer. It also feels good to know that Lighthouse cares about me and the causes that are important to me personally. All the company asks for in return for providing the $250, is team members sharing information with each other about the causes they selected. A quick overview of the organization, their website, and why they chose that cause. Our team loves the opportunity to share with each other what cause we chose for our company donation. It fosters a sense of belonging and support for one another. Through our unlimited paid time off policy, we also support our employees when they volunteer at day long, or sometimes overnight events such as the Make A Wish Radiothon and Empower Camp. We have a team calendar where individuals indicate when they’ll be off, and the team works together to responsibly coordinate coverage. We also love to find community events to do together such as the Fight for Air Climb, benefiting the American lung association, which will take place on March 23rd here at Seneca One in Buffalo. I’ve never participated in this event, and I’m excited to hopefully climb 691 steps at Seneca One and raise money for those battling lung cancer. In August of 2022, there was a Buffalo Community Bike Build, honoring late M&T Bank CEO, here at Seneca One. Numerous organizations such as Lighthouse, M&T Bank, and 43North came together to build 50 bicycles which were donated to kids in our community through the east side bike club, the International Institute of Buffalo, Buffalo Prep, and the Buffalo police Athletic League. I’m so glad we were able to take part. It was a fun day, for a great cause. These events have so many benefits, from improved camaraderie and team building, sense of belonging and giving back through our time and effort to make the community around us a better place. Something else I’m really proud of here at Lighthouse is how much time we donate to community partners through sharing our expertise. Each year, our Lighthouse team does presentations at Tech Buffalo, Say Yes Buffalo, and Buffalo Center for Arts and Technology events on resume building, interviewing, LinkedIn profiles and other career readiness and career advancement topics. These types of sessions help our community participants, but also help our team members reach their individual goals of improving public speaking skills for example. Volunteering time such as this, can also be an opportunity for employee skill development.
As I’ve reiterated in prior videos, be sure to think about the people, process and technology involved in all of your employee processes. There are many ways you can kick off an employee volunteerism initiative, such as putting together a committee, and using a survey tool such as Microsoft Forms or Survey Monkey to collect interest or volunteer sign ups. Map out what a new process would like, tools and technology to aid the process in being more efficient, and the communication touch points for your employees and the organizations you’re working with. This week, think about how we all do better when we all do better. There could be small steps to take, at a small cost, that would make a big impact for your employee and the community.
Thank you for being here with me and joining me for these bite size videos all about all things talent attraction, talent acquisition and talent retention. These areas of HR and People Ops are my favorite and specialty, and I’m so excited to dive in with you. This work is what I do, if you need help with the tools, technology and process around how you attract, acquire and retain talent, reach out to me and let’s talk!
Claire is Coaching 