This is the challenging question your best employees ask themselves – about you – every day.

If, as an employer, you can’t answer this question immediately and without referencing either the salary you’re paying or your personal qualities as a leader, then you have a serious issue.

It is an increasingly challenging employment market with a talent pool that is contracting rather than expanding. The good operators are rising to the fore and poor operators are being exposed, meaning competition for talent is fierce.

Company culture is the new battleground.

The thing to understand is that even if you aren’t thinking about why your employees stay with you, you can rest assured they are. This is compounded by the fact that it is predominantly your best employees who are questioning the value equation between their efforts to do a great job and their employers efforts to create a great environment. 

After all, these are the people who are giving you more than you are paying for. As a result, they expect more than money in return. They want respect, fairness, understanding and honesty. The good stuff.

They want a culture and values system they can believe in.

The 'other' employees, the ones who don’t strive to give you more than you pay for, aren’t asking this question because they don’t care enough. They will add little or no value while employed and leave your business for entirely different reasons.

The businesses that are attracting and retaining the best talent have delivered a cultural value system that automatically answers this question for their employees. They no longer need to ask it because the answer is patently clear. It’s written on walls, intranets, posters and compendiums - everywhere.

Don’t give your team a reason to question their value to your organisation. Deliver a structured, branded, deliberate culture that tells your people what you stand for and why they should want to be a part of your world.

In today’s market, you need to earn your team’s time, not just pay for it.