Matthew Rieck
Chief Human Resources Officer
Inszone Insurance
Episode 228
Beyond paychecks: Simple HR moves that retain your top talent.
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleApril 17, 2025 · 11:19
Thesis
“Companies often overlook simple, often free, yet highly effective HR strategies like succession planning and genuine employee appreciation, leading to high turnover and missed opportunities for fostering a strong culture and retaining top talent. Proactive personal and professional development is also key for individual career resilience.”
Show notes
Navigating HR Challenges and Employee Retention with Matthew Rieck
In this episode of the Built by People Podcast, host Dave interviews Matt, a seasoned HR leader.
Matt shares his unconventional career journey from insurance to HR, his experience in integrating multiple small insurance agencies, and insights on improving employee retention.
He emphasizes the importance of succession planning, employee appreciation, and creating a positive company culture.
Matt also discusses his viral LinkedIn video, the impact of genuine communication in social media, and the key takeaways from his book, 'The Employee Retention Bible.'
Finally, Matt offers valuable advice for HR professionals on networking and continuous self-development.
00:00 Introduction to the Built by People Podcast
00:19 Sponsor Message: Previ's Employee Benefits
00:38 Guest Introduction: Matt's Career Journey
03:29 Challenges in Employee Retention
03:58 The Importance of Succession Planning
05:01 Employee Appreciation Strategies
05:30 Transitioning to a Thought Leader
07:08 The Viral LinkedIn Video
08:20 Insights from the Employee Retention Bible
09:27 Critical Skills for HR Professionals
10:30 Parting Advice for the HR Community
11:12 Conclusion and Farewell
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What you'll take away
- 1Implement a simple 4-step succession plan for key roles to ensure upward mobility and retain top talent.
- 2Develop consistent, often free, employee appreciation programs beyond just compensation to show value and build loyalty.
- 3Leverage social media platforms like LinkedIn for employee recognition to brand the company as a great place to work and highlight internal values.
- 4HR professionals should prioritize networking with peers at or above their level to gain diverse perspectives and solutions for complex challenges.
- 5Continuously build skills, certifications, and relationships to remain marketable and adaptable in a changing job market, regardless of current company tenure.
What most organizations get wrong
- •Many impactful employee appreciation programs are actually free, contrary to the belief that they require significant financial investment.
- •Highly polished, professional videos for social media often perform worse than casual, relatable content, especially on platforms like LinkedIn.
In Matthew's words
“The biggest first mistake that companies don't have in place is they don't have succession planning in place.”
This highlights a critical oversight by many companies directly impacting talent retention.
“Most companies don't have anything in place, and most employee appreciation programs are actually free, but companies don't know how to do them.”
Challenges the notion that employee appreciation requires significant budget and points to a knowledge gap.
“What that does is it brands, Dave, it brands your company as a great place to work because you're doing employee appreciation.”
Explains a direct benefit of visible employee recognition beyond just internal morale.
“What I would say is the best skill that you can develop actually as an HR professional is to network yourself with other professionals that are either at or above your level.”
Provides a crucial, often underestimated, skill for HR career growth and problem-solving.
“The point is to always be developing yourself and trying to improve your skillset so that you're always marketable and you're always at the best edge of your field.”
Offers forward-looking advice on continuous personal and professional development for long-term career security.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Companies struggle with high employee turnover, with average tenure around 3.9 years, leading to loss of institutional knowledge and relationships.
- •Organizations fail to implement basic succession planning, leaving employees without clear paths for upward mobility and leading to boredom and attrition among top talent.
- •Many companies lack effective and consistent mechanisms for employee appreciation, beyond just compensation or infrequent events like pizza parties.
- •Integrating diverse company cultures post-acquisition is a significant challenge for PE-backed, acquisition-based businesses.
- •HR professionals often lack a robust network to learn from more experienced peers or handle complex, large-scale HR issues.
In this episode
Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built by People
Dave Anderson shares a little bit more about his career journey
Describing Your Career Journey
Companies don't have succession planning in place when it comes to employee retention
The 3 Mistakes Companies Make in Retaining Talent
Your viral LinkedIn video about the job market resonated with hundreds of thousands
Why Your Viral LinkedIn Video About the Job Market Resonated With
Matt Miller has written a book on employee retention and it was recently published
Matt Walsh in The Employee Retention Bible
Matt Miller: The best skill an HR professional can develop is networking
Skills necessary for HR professionals in today's rapidly changing workplace
Matt, what parting advice would you like to share with our community
Matt Flannery on Leaving the Company
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
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