IHRSA Report | Ask the Entrepreneurs Taking Pride in Staff Goes a Long Way Toward Employee Retention What is your strategy for rewarding and retaining your best employees? Victoria Gill, Managing Director Green Apple Wellness Centre, Brisbane, Australia "Employees are encouraged to identify and hone their strengths, and they're mentored in their journey by in-house and external learning, development from training, job projects and assign ments, regular team meetings, coaching, and constructive feedback. This practice of "developing people" has been reward enough for employees who use our company as a vehicle for their professional growth. Recognition has been given at each new stage of growth, verbally one-on-one, verbally in team meetings, by written card and by gifts. We initially tried cash bonuses, but found that they were less effective than the standard practice, every Christmas, of writing a personal letter to every staff member acknowledging all the ways in which they had benefited the business." Club Business International February 2010