One of the most interesting yet common situations I’ve encountered is the annual bonus exodus. A few years ago, I worked with a client who gave their employees an annual bonus every January. And right after this bonus, many of their people quit and left to go elsewhere. While it initially seemed counterintuitive, it quickly became apparent that these people who have been planning to leave for some time simply decide to wait till they get the annual bonus (a good sum of money) before making their exit. This also meant that people forced themselves to stay at the organization for months without any interest in the job or their work, simply to stick around for the bonus, harming both productivity and workplace culture.
But the huge, glaring issue was clear: People did not like working there! The incentives, the annual bonuses, just kept people in place and masked the real issue. The real issue was that people did not enjoy the workplace culture, they were not moved to want to stay. And that’s exactly why they left once they got their bonus. This turnover of good people and talent was costing the organization hundreds of thoughts of dollars in hiring and training costs as well as lost productivity.
To stop the annual bonus exodus, the solution was clear: we needed to create an environment where people actually enjoyed working. Beyond the job description, the benefits, and even the money, what truly makes someone want to stay is the culture. Your culture is what enables you to attract and retain the very best people.
I worked with this organization for a few months to implement precisely this: ways to make employees want to stay beyond just the money. Here’s what we did:
1) Rethink Organizational Culture
We started by evaluating the existing culture to understand what was driving disengagement and dissatisfaction. We discovered that the culture was heavily built upon a “get-it-done” mentality, where the focus was solely on achieving tasks and hitting targets, with little emphasis on building relationships or fostering a sense of community. Rethinking the culture was essential to ensure that we created a workplace that was built upon genuine relationships, where employees could feel a sense of belonging to the organization.
2) Create an amazing set of values
Values are foundational to every organization. They determine how an organization acts, functions, and makes decisions. They serve as a guiding light and bring together the people in the organization. Values define the workplace culture. An amazing set of values that align with the organization and its people is essential for fostering trust, unity, and a shared sense of belonging, creating a culture where everyone feels motivated and committed to the same principles.
This amazing set of values was built around respecting and valuing people. The values communicated that the organization’s success and wellbeing were rooted in its people; that the people came first always and no matter what.
3) Establish the values within the leadership
An amazing set of values is ineffective if it is not lived by the people. For the people to live the values, the leaders must embody them first. The most integral step in transforming an organization’s culture is to ensure that the leadership consistently models these values through their actions, decisions, and communication. Many times, leaders need assistance learning how to powerfully lead through a set of values. Always remember: lived values shape the culture. When leaders lead by example, they set a standard that inspires employees to align with and embrace the values as part of their daily work.
4) Disseminate the values within the team
Naturally, when the leaders start modeling their commitment to the values, it sets the foundation for the rest of the team to follow. The next step is to actively and consistently help the people connect every decision that they make to these values. When employees, regardless of which level of the organization they are in, can consistently trace back their decisions and actions to the guiding values of the organization, you have created a culture that feels purposeful and aligned.
This alignment fosters a deep sense of connection and belonging, making employees realize that they are a part of something bigger than themselves. When people see their values reflected in the organization’s actions and feel supported and excited about living those values, they feel at home. And when surrounded by people who share and live the same values in a place built upon these very same principles, they feel a strong sense of loyalty and commitment. This kind of environment makes them want to stay, not just for the job, the paycheck, or even the bonus, but because they are part of a community where they feel understood, valued, and inspired to grow.
It’s this sense of belonging and shared purpose that transforms a workplace into a home people do not want to leave. And that is exactly what happened at this organization once we had worked through redefining the workplace culture.
The next January came along, and so did the annual bonus, but this time, no one left. People chose to stay because they loved being a part of the organization—an organization built on values of respect and valuing each other, where people were connected through these very values. It wasn’t just a workplace anymore—it was a community where they felt valued, empowered, and proud to belong.
