Wiegers Financial & Benefits is one of the largest private financial planning and employee benefits consulting firms in Saskatchewan. Our Financial Planning Division provides business owners, individuals and families with expert investment and insurance planning services to help them reach their long-term financial goals. We also have a Group benefits division. In our latest news, Cliff Wiegers shares how you can become an employer of choice for your employees. 

How do you become an employer of choice to retain and attract great people to your business? The following is a list of things that the Wiegers Financial & Benefits team and I learned to do from my coaching program and from other business owners to help keep us ahead of the curve on being an employer of choice.

1. Sitting with each employee every six months to find out what their job stressors are and trying to manage or eliminate those stressors so they can be as productive as possible without negative energy. Secondly, we try to find out what goals they are trying to reach in different aspects of their job. If we know what they are trying to achieve, then we as a management team may be able to help them achieve their goals more easily. In both cases this is a positive. If our employees succeed, so too does Wiegers Financial & Benefits.

2. Creating a good culture and environment for our team. We hold regular pot lucks at our office which helps employees from all departments get to know each other better. Many have developed friendships beyond the working walls of our office. There are also good team building activities, including our annual scavenger hunt which promotes a lot of fun and comradery.

3. Find out who wants to grow on your team and provide them with resources and tools so they can grow personally and professionally. This is another investment we make in our team to help them be their best. As one example, during the pandemic, we started an in-house Toastmasters group for members of our team who were interested in improving their public speaking skills. It was a safe environment for them, particularly for those who were nervous about public speaking.

4. Throughout the year, recognize and support ongoing educational courses that help team members perform their roles more effectively.

5. When needed, allow a flexible work schedule for employees with special needs at home due to young children, children in school, and/or special situations for caregiving for senior family members. One of our team members recently had a parent dealing with failing health and our team member worked remotely from another province while helping her parents.

6. The pandemic changed our office dynamics dramatically. We now have some of our team working remotely three days each week. Initially we were forced into this but it has actually enhanced our abilities to attract and retain people due to this flexibility.

7. Our goal at Wiegers Financial & Benefits is to have people leave our organization in the future in a better state, both personally and professionally. Situations change in people’s lives and it is our objective to have ambassadors for our business whether they are retired or have taken some other opportunity.

At the end of the day you want your team to answer the BBQ question in a positive way. What, you ask, is the BBQ question? Your employee is at a BBQ and after some initial conversation with people at the BBQ, the question of where he or she works comes up. That is usually followed with, do you enjoy what you do, and what is Wiegers Financial & Benefits really like to work for? You want your employee to be an ambassador for your business when no one else is looking or knows them. I said it before and will say it again: you need to invest in your team to generate good long term results for your business. The cost of retraining new employees is what you want to minimize. This is the reason we view these initiatives as an investment versus a cost. Hope you’ll join me for the next edition of Intentional Success.

Clifford A. Wiegers, CFP, TEP, Ch.F.C., CLU, B.Comm. Insurance Representative, Wiegers Financial and Insurance Planning Services Ltd.

Financial Planner, Manulife Securities Investment Services Inc.

The opinions expressed are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect those of Manulife Securities Investment Services Inc.

Mutual funds are offered through Manulife Securities Investment Services Inc. Insurance products and services are offered through Wiegers Financial & Insurance Planning Services Ltd. Banking products and services are offered by referral arrangements through our related company Manulife Bank of Canada.