Lionel Riley
Chief Human Resources Officer
Riceland Foods
Episode 164
Forget the Perks: Unlock Employee Loyalty with Active Listening & Purpose.
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleJune 3, 2025 · 12:05
Thesis
“Effective employee experience, engagement, and retention stem from actively listening to employees, visibly acting on their feedback, and fostering a strong sense of purpose, culture, and community, rather than solely relying on monetary perks, especially in competitive or challenging environments.”
Show notes
Lionel Riley has spent 20-plus years running HR operations in two of the most demanding environments imaginable: the corporate world and the U.S. Air Force, simultaneously. As a Colonel and the CHRO of Riceland Foods, he brings a commander's clarity to one of HR's hardest problems — how do you attract and retain talent in a remote location when you can't out-spend the competition?
His answer isn't a perk package. It's purpose. At Riceland, the mission is literal and global: "We feed the world sustainably." Lionel's bet is that when employees internalize a mission that big, no competitor's sign-on bonus can match it. But the mission only sticks if leadership earns trust first — which means running a "Voice of the Floor" program that captures feedback from every shift, including overnight production, and acting on it within 90 days. Not filing it away. Acting on it. The military instinct is direct: if you ask and don't follow through, the next survey will be a waste of everyone's time.
The other through-line in this conversation is career mobility. In rural locations, employees often assume there's nowhere to grow. Lionel's team changed that narrative by building explicit career paths, spotlighting internal success stories, and partnering with regional colleges for internships and apprenticeships — turning the perceived liability of geography into a selling point for people who want roots, community, and a clear future in one place.
- The "Voice of the Floor" initiative — how to capture feedback across all shifts and close the loop fast enough that employees actually believe you heard them
- "People are the mission" — the military mindset that reshapes how Lionel approaches every HR decision
- Competing without the shiny perks — why purpose, culture, and community beat compensation packages in talent markets you can't outbid
- Making career mobility visible — how internal success stories and clear pathing reduce the sense that there's nowhere to go
- Rural talent strategy — partnerships with educational institutions, family inclusion support, and community-building as recruitment tools
- Small wins as trust currency — why you don't need 8-month milestones to build organizational credibility with frontline workers
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What you'll take away
- 1Implement 'Voice of the Floor' or similar active listening programs to gather real-time employee feedback and demonstrably act on it quickly to build trust.
- 2Prioritize purpose, culture, and community engagement over shiny perks to attract and retain talent in rural or highly competitive locations.
- 3Develop clear internal mobility and career pathing programs, spotlighting success stories, to encourage long-term retention and growth for all employees, including frontline staff.
- 4Adopt a 'people are the mission' mindset, ensuring that all leadership initiatives and organizational objectives are underpinned by valuing and taking care of employees.
- 5Expand talent acquisition strategies to include partnerships with regional educational institutions for internships and apprenticeships, and consider family inclusion support to reduce relocation hesitation.
What most organizations get wrong
- •Rather than trying to outspend competitors for talent, focus on building belonging and showcasing career mobility.
- •You can't always compete on shiny perks, but you can always compete on purpose, culture, and community.
- •Building trust doesn't require huge, month-long milestones; even small, quick wins count and are vital for continuous trust-building.
In Lionel's words
“if you're gonna ask, one, you better listen, and then two, you need to follow up on what they said, not just write it down, put it in the email and file it away because they're going to say, hey, we took the time to provide this feedback, now what are you going to do with it?”
Highlights the critical importance of actively listening to employee feedback and demonstrably acting on it to build trust.
“people are the mission, right? I don't care how critical a mission or objective is, you can't accomplish it without the people. You know, if you don't take care of your people, the mission fails.”
A foundational belief from military experience, emphasizing the centrality of valuing and supporting employees for organizational success.
“you can't always compete on the shiny perks, but you can always compete on purpose, culture, and community.”
Challenges conventional talent acquisition wisdom, advocating for non-monetary value propositions in competitive markets.
“We feed the world sustainably, right? Who doesn't wanna be a part of that? Helping to feed the world sustainably. Not feed the state of Arkansas, not feed the United States, but feed the world. And so once you tie in that connection and the employee has purpose, they tend to understand that what they're doing... they have a purpose that they're connected to.”
Illustrates how connecting employees to a grander, mission-driven narrative fosters deeper purpose and belonging.
“Everything does not have to be this huge, humongous milestone that it took 8 months to accomplish. Small wins count. And the second thing is just sell the mission, not just the job.”
Emphasizes the power of incremental progress in building employee trust and the importance of mission-driven recruitment.
The problems this episode addresses
- •High turnover rates in remote or geographically isolated facilities due to lack of local amenities and fierce talent competition.
- •Employee disengagement and perceptions of top-down communication, leading to a feeling of not being heard or having clear development paths.
- •Inability to compete effectively for specialized talent against companies with larger budgets and more 'shiny perks' in rural locations.
- •Reluctance of potential hires to relocate due to concerns about family inclusion, childcare, and community integration.
- •Failure to adequately capture and act on feedback from all shifts (e.g., overnight production), leading to a disconnect with a significant portion of the workforce.
In this episode
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Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
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