“If you have a caged lion that was born in captivity, and then you open the cage, they back up more into the cage,” said Mark Douglas, CEO of SteelHouse. “They don’t start running free.”
So Douglas went a step further and decided to pay his employees $2,000 to take a vacation one year after his firm started in 2010. Employees can spend the money on one big trip or spread it out over multiple trips, but he has turned down employees who have asked to take the $2,000 as a bonus instead. “I actually want you to go somewhere and enjoy yourself,” he said.
So how’s it all worked out? In three years, only five of the firm’s 250 employees have left the company. For three of those five, leaving had nothing to do with work. And productivity has gone up as well. “We have virtually zero turnover,” Douglas said.