Take This Job and Love It

Laura Davidson (L) and Gina Jevic co-authored this article.

When building a successful PR company, most managers focus on profit, market share and client longevity. The metric that’s frequently overlooked is employee retention. One of my biggest takeaways from 30 years in the trenches of travel PR is that this is one of the most vital—if not the most vital—predictors of an agency’s success. And all those other metrics of success are directly linked to the length of time that your key employees stay with your company. LDPR isn’t one of the top travel-PR agencies just because we do outstanding work, but also because it’s an outstanding place to work.

Improving the “happiness” of your employees isn’t a nebulous and fuzzy feel-good aspiration. It’s an intentional goal and a precisely measured, data-driven metric like all the others. At LDPR, we know our staff is our most valuable asset, and we go to great lengths to nourish and protect it. This includes graphing employee tenure to create and determine the success of our HR strategies—for examples, see below—continually reassessing them to adapt to trends, employee life-stage priorities—like young families—and yes, even generational anomalies.

How successful are we? 25 percent of our 25-person staff has worked with LDPR for a decade or more. At the end of the high-turnover COVID years (2020-2023) and the Great Resignation (2022) 48 percent had been with us for three years or more, bucking all industry norms. More than 40 percent of our staff (including two SVPs) started as either an intern or an entry-level employee and are now climbing through the company. In 2022, when employee turnover rates in the PR industry were clocked at 22.8 percent by PRWeek, LDPR saw an 8 percent turnover, a number we have consistently maintained year over year.

This success isn’t the result of good luck but of a focused and determined allocation of time and resources that are only increasing to meet today’s shifting work attitudes on remote work, work/life balance, mental health and self-care. Today, the demands of Millennials (constant feedback, meaningful motivation, etc.) are mixing with those of Gen Z (financial stability and flexibility). Gen Alpha is coming up fast with its own personalities and priorities. Curious trends like quiet quitting, loud laborers, rage quitting and bare-minimum Mondays are cohering on social media faster than you can say “TikTok.”

Making LDPR a great place to work has always been a brand pillar and my personal ambition. But it’s only part of the reason we apply significant resources to keeping and nurturing our employees. We also do it because we want to attract and retain the best talent while maximizing the ROI from our extensive training programs. Because we understand both the hard costs (HR hours, recruitment costs, training hours, etc.) and the soft costs (impact on client relationships, motivation and company culture). And we make employee retention a top priority because we know it leads directly to client retention (40 percent of our clients have remained loyal to LDPR for more than five years, including several anchor clients who have been with us for more than 15 years).

So, how do we do it? Many people assume that the way to retain employees is through generous perks (vacation days, matched contributions, etc.), relaxed WFH expectations and remuneration (salary and bonuses). And yes, especially in these days of employment transparency, contracts must be competitive. But they are just the beginning of a strong retention strategy. Here are six other ways LDPR has moved the needle:

Commit to growth and development

Take the time to define the top 10–15 skill sets that are essential for each department and create a pathway for every level. It’s a big undertaking but, once complete, your managers will be equipped with the tools they need to create development plans that will be consistent across the organization.

Understand the employee experience

Dig deep for what is working well and where improvements should be made from the employee’s point of view. Annual trust surveys are key to success in collaboration with full transparency about the survey results and action items.

Solicit continuous feedback

Enroll everyone in the value of continuous feedback that displays patience and empathy, specifies where an individual can improve, is direct and builds trust and conveys confidence and elevation.

Develop leaders

Have an active mentorship program and teach all your managers how to properly “coach” their teams. It’s one thing to train someone on a task, but it’s another to coach them to discover solutions on their own. By adopting a philosophy of coaching, you develop leaders, not just doers. In “The State of Organizations” 2023 survey conducted by McKinsey & Company, only 25 percent of respondents said their organization’s leaders are engaged, passionate and inspire employees to the best possible extent. Key to the development journey is empowering staff at every level, giving them the space necessary to take the initiative, be heard and, yes, even make mistakes.

Understand each person’s different motivating factors

Every team member comes to work with unique expectations and a one-size-fits-all approach will not work. Generational stereotyping—Gen Z is fearless, confident and passionate, etc.—only goes so far. Of course, you must systemize how you reward for milestones and have universal policies for perks and company celebrations. But, for praise and recognition, take the time to understand what truly drives each individual employee. This personal touch makes a huge difference and deepens relationships.

Maintain clear lines of communication

Clear, honest and timely communication is essential in any healthy relationship. Ambitious employees must see and be constantly reminded that hard work is recognized and rewarded and that there’s a straight path to advancement. At LDPR, we share the company’s challenges and victories throughout the hierarchy to build team spirit, solve, congratulate and give context to individual efforts.

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Laura Davidson is CEO of LDPR. Gina Jevic is COO of LDPR.