What are the top 5 levers to work on employee engagement ?

and what really matter to A-players ?

Many startups are trying to find the best way to recruit and retain A-players. They are asking for the secret sauce — or at least some tips — to improve employee engagement. A-players, otherwise known as top talent, are the folks who are the leaders or future leaders of your business, those who have mastered the technical and economic issues relating to this new economy, and the ones who are the best performers in their jobs. They are gold in the startup ecosystem.

So, how do you attract them and keep them motivated? Beyond salary and perks, what are the things that really matter t0 A-players?

Here are the top 5 things that you should focus on if you want to win top talent and keep them engaged (if you just want the actionable tools, go directly to the “How to do it concretely ?” part at the end of each section!)

#1 Meaning

What does it mean for employees to find “meaning” in their work? It might be defined as having a clear vision of the organization’s global strategy and objectives and a strong understanding of his or her role within the organization. That means, as a founder or leader, you will need to share your vision, culture, and values with ALL your employees.

How to do it concretely ?

Help everyone understand their objectives and monitor corporate and individual results. Transparency on what counts for performance and a culture of feedback is key. Some tools that can help you upgrade meaning for your team are very easy to get started with. Check out OKR as an example.

#2 Self-improvement

The ability to learn as part of their day to day job is really essential for top talent. The very reason that they are top performers is that they have a natural inclination to want to stay at the top and self-improve.

How to do it concretely ?

If you want to develop these opportunities in your organization but don’t have a lot of cash to spend on a training program, you can start by implementing a mentoring program, developing a ‘meetup culture’ and letting each employee, from intern to executive, go to at least one key conference every year. Last but not least, be sure to give your top talent the opportunity to develop relationships with external mentors from your network.

#3 Impact

People are driven by the feeling of making an impact on the organization. They are driven by performance and achievement of change.

As a founder or a manager, this one may be more difficult to handle when it comes to your team — we know that different members of the team can all have varying levels of impact on your business. However, everyone needs to feel that his work is truly having an influence either on other people or on the business.

It may be easier for team managers to feel like they are making an impact because they are supporting or representing their team. But for employees who have less responsibility and visibility, you need to be more creative in order to make them feel special.

How to do it concretely ?

Communicate on how each role is integral to the business and develop a special function that each employee is fully responsible for in the organization to develop ownership. It could be owning a special project, being the ethics or compliance officer, training new employees or interns on a special skill…just nudge your employees to reveal each of their own unique talents.

Lastly, coach your team to boost their leadership abilities and help them become more impactful both inside the company and outside as a member of the larger community.

#4 Balance

Developing a culture that advocates balance between professional and personal life is another key to retaining top talent. For a large proportion of top employees, the ability to live it up and enjoy life fully is essential. And even if some of them appear to be hard workers who work like crazy, make no mistake that they will undoubtedly appreciate your openness to let them travel or work on some of their own entrepreneurial projects. We usually talk about the concept of work-life “balance,” but really we should talk about the concept of work-life “blending”, meaning that people are the most productive when they have true autonomy and the ability to manage their own time across both professional and personal projects that matter to them.

How to do it concretely ?

Yes, having unlimited paid days off is cool, and establishing a remote work policy is now a must-have, but you can also boost the concept of balance by being more flexible on work hours, letting people work where they want (flex office) or even establishing or extending mandatory parental leave. Give your employees time to work on side projects too, they are going to do it anyway, so acceptance is key.

#5 Ethics

Being an ethical company means that you care about being compliant in your industry, in terms of production, relationships with suppliers, employee rights, sustainability…the list goes on. The goal is not to be perfect, but more to try to act with awareness and stand for the values you care about. This will make your employees proud of being part of your company.

Working for a fair company that acts ethically is so important for top talent because most of them want to have a positive impact. If they feel their own values are aligned with the mission of the company, their actions will more closely align with your priorities and your business model. Plus they will naturally begin to act like strong ambassadors for your brand.

How to do it concretely ?

You can support your employees in their personal non-profits projects by giving them some time away from the office to work on them. Or you can directly support some actions that fit with your corporate values. Maybe you even try to get labeled as a B corp if your aim is to fully commit on this topic.

Overall, attracting and retaining top talent is not an easy thing to model, so this piece is not meant to be exhaustive or taken as absolute truth. People, first and foremost, are individuals.

But, these aspects are representative of a paradigm shift that companies — gracefully represented by HR, managers or founders themselves — should factor in when it comes to recruiting and engaging top employees.