By JC Abusaid, CEO/President as Featured in Forbes
Growing your company and remaining competitive requires shrewd investing for the future. For leaders, that means keeping a constant eye on prioritizing your time and your company’s resources.
You’re constantly making choices and trade-offs, and rationalizing these decisions. “Where do we want to be?” “What kinds of outlays pay off for us?” “Where can we tighten our belts?” Whether you answer to a board and shareholders, co-owners or simply to yourself, what you value and what gets results are huge drivers.
For us, robust growth continues to flow from investing strategically in our people and in industry-leading technology. What follows are lessons from our investing-for-the-future story: where it pays to go pretty much all in—and where to throttle back.
Human Capital: Investing In Your Employees
Nothing matters more to future success than securing and retaining talent. Your workforce culture and relationships can set you apart from your competitors—and make your team’s working lives worth living. We never hesitate to invest in helping our associates grow in their professional and personal lives. I always tell people, “You will be a better person the day you leave the company.” While that means gaining more education, in addition to experience, we also believe in those intangibles that come from mentoring, camaraderie and culture.
All that great energy ensures you have talented people seeking work with your company. Education is a significant investment that we’ve found pays off. Consider building a road map for each person to make sure they keep moving forward and never feel stuck.
Our employee road maps provide clarity about what’s first, what comes second, all the way through to a master’s degree if the employee wishes. We fund financial designations such as CFPs; there are other professional achievements we’ve invested in, like training in life and career coaching. A master’s degree is a hefty financial commitment. The associate takes out a loan that we pay off monthly. If they decide to leave before payments are finished, it’s on them. But they’re never forced to sign a contract. Building fences around a firm creates a false sense of security. Freedom earns more respect and truly committed employees.
Time is an incredibly valuable investment, as well. Every new hire, including interns, gets a one-on-one meeting with me, their CEO, to hear about our company’s history, values and culture. I take people out for lunch whenever I have the opportunity.
A formal mentorship program for every associate is also vital, with ongoing commitment of time and attention. All of these investments help lay the foundation for a healthy, vibrant company culture—and can pay big dividends in tenure.
Technology: Investing In Your Infrastructure
Anything that can enhance productivity, even if a big spend, deserves serious consideration. Our firm typically leaps at getting the best productivity tools, and we upgrade all the time. This paid off handsomely for us in early 2020. When the pandemic hit, all the tools needed for working from home were already in place.
High-performing tools also allow your people to travel more freely. With those in place, you’ll know that if anything happens, they have their laptop and phone. Of course, these purchases should be made within limits. There should be a consensus on what’s optimal for your ROI.
