Will it be through stock options, catering services, parties, cool office digs, free educational training courses or competitive compensation packages? It’s a predicament that many a CEO has grappled with, because as much as you’d like to offer all these perks (and more), it’s simply not possible or fiscally responsible. So it boils down to a choice that has the potential of defining (or redefining) your company’s culture.

Netflix’s innovative and unconventional comp-based model is a prime example of how investment choices can lead to high employee retention and satisfaction. The on-demand video streaming giant promises its employees top-of-the-market compensation packages, giving them a choice between stock-focused or cash-focused salaries. And, as if that isn’t enticing enough, the company’s vacation policy is that it has no policy or formal tracking system.

The concept, which Netflix laid out in a slideshow presentation that has been viewed more than 14 million times online, was an instant hit with employees, and the market was quick to take notice. “[A] great workplace is stunning colleagues. [A] great workplace is not espresso, lush benefits, sushi lunches, grand parties or nice offices,” Netflix wrote in its presentation. “We do some of these things, but only if they are efficient at attracting and retaining stunning colleagues.”

Luckily, lucrative comp packages aren’t the only way to achieve this goal. I personally have found that money isn’t everything. Of course, salaries must be fair; your employees shouldn’t be underpaid. In essence, salary is the enabler of retention, but it doesn’t stimulate retention. The IT market is competitive. There is always going to be a company, like Netflix, that is going to offer (a lot) more money than you. You need to give your employees reason to work for you. They need to feel like they not only have a purpose, but that they belong. Here’s how you can achieve this:

Focusing on Employee Retention

At my company, we offer a couple of standards, like free food, educational events, gym memberships and easy access to top management. But what we decided to pour our hearts, souls and a big chunk of our profits into is a really cool office space.

People spend the majority of their lives in the office. It would be a shame to spend those hours in a hole. The quality of office space has always been one of our topic investment priorities, and as it turns out is key to our employee retention strategy.

Keep in mind, it’s simply not possible to make everyone happy, especially if you’re running a large, growing company. We have around 150 employees, a significant increase from 2015, when we were a small staff of 50. A decade ago, there were essentially just two of us manning the ship.

As our team began to expand exponentially, my co-founders and I found ourselves moving from a dinky 860 square-foot loft-like office space into a 3,770 square-foot unit in a well-established commercial complex. We expanded it to 9,150 square feet less than a year after moving in.

But last spring, it became clear that we were rapidly outgrowing even that spot. We decided that our next move would be for a long-term commitment, and we wanted space that would not only be big enough to someday accommodate a development team of 500, but one that would also have pizzazz. After nearly a year-long search, we settled on a 59,200 square-foot space in a new office development along a leafy riverbank, and immediately set out designing a headquarters our employees would feel like was their second home.

Creating the perfect work environment is not something to shortchange nor is it something that can be done in a week or even a month. Hand this task off to dedicated professionals. Finding a team of experienced interior designers and architects should be at the top of your to-do list once you settle on a new office location.

We tried to steer clear of trendsetters, and did not want to emulate office digs like that of Google or Facebook. Instead, we opted for something unique — a design and feel that closely relates to our own brand. Our new offices cover three floors, and includes two terraces and a large multipurpose event space, where we hold developer meetups and hackathons. In addition to themed meeting rooms, several kitchens and a bar, gym, pool table and an outdoor jacuzzi, our offices feature sleeping boxes, swings and a birch tree forest.

Having an office that feels like home will not only help increase employee retention, but will also increase overall morale, which should be any company’s key goal. Whether or not a comfortable office space is one of your business’s top priorities, focus on the perks that help employees feel like they matter.

Although there are no set boundaries, millennials are the generation born somewhere between the early 1980s and 2000s who, as Sinek describes, are accused of being “entitled, unfocused, lazy and tough to manage.” What’s even more controversial and interesting about Sinek’s take on the matter, however, is his affirmation that it’s not their fault. He describes that this is a generation who grew up being told that “they could have anything they wanted, just because they wanted it,” distorting their view of the world and leaving them unprepared for what awaits them. And yet, this brings a whole new idea and adamant belief into their lives: that work goes hand-in-hand with happiness.

A large majority of previous generations have seemed to surrender to the fact that true and genuine happiness in the workplace is an unattainable, utopian idea, while for millennials, it is an absolute essential. Millennials have grown up their entire lives with a hunger to work in a place with purpose: where they can truly make a difference and feel valued as individuals.

I believe this is an idea everyone should have incorporated into their workplace a long time ago. Millennials have so much potential to change the way we work and function in the best possible way.

Companies shouldn’t be forcing millennials to fit into their mold, as is often the case. Rather, companies need to understand and adapt to this generation. Forcing them to change would make for an unhappy, demotivated and uninspired workforce that is inevitably the key to our entire future. Companies should build — or rebuild — themselves to be able to attract this fresh wave of young talent by creating core values that focus on people. Companies should be based on foundations of trust, support, tolerance, communication, self-management, self-fulfillment and happiness.

Sinek speaks to the impatience of the millennial generation and their need for instant gratification, but it is organizations that must learn to be patient. This change won’t come easy, but it’s imperative.

So what exactly can we, as companies, do to welcome the millennial generation?

Create workspaces where people are put first.

We can never forget that our businesses only function because of the people who work for them. The most important asset in any organization is the team members who make its existence possible. Their happiness and wellbeing is something that we must strive for.

I have seen that if young people feel that they play an important role within their company and are given responsibilities and goals to achieve rather than feel oppressed and micromanaged, it builds their ability to work fervently. This develops tolerance and patience toward the inevitable mistakes along their arduous path to success.

Promote emotional as well as professional growth.

I talk a lot about the importance of a team’s continuous learning and growing their professional skills. It is equally as important, however, not to forget about our emotional skills. Patience, effort and tolerance are complex matters that require a different kind of learning based on a team’s open communication and intelligent leadership, where the leader supports these young people both professionally and emotionally to develop their skills.

Have a purpose and an impact on society.

The millennial generation has different values than those of its predecessors. They no longer strive for lifelong employment positions; they will change workplaces every several years. That’s why they look for a place where they feel fulfilled, happy, and where their contributions bring a change to the world, even if only small. They want to identify with what their company stands for. 

My company has three core values: admire people, always find a better way, and obsess over customer experience. Each and every one of us strives to live these values out every day, which makes us a united, satisfied, eager and motivated team. 

Create teams from different generations.

Each generation has its strong points, and the millennial generation is full of digital natives. They grew up surrounded by computers, smart phones and the internet. Previous generations however, are better versed in tolerance and dealing with frustration. Creating teams with members from different generations will create the best of both worlds, where they will learn and teach whatever they know best.

Millennials are onto something, and it’s something that we need to embrace. They bring with them an innovative and revolutionary way of thinking, where work and happiness are not only compatible but indispensable, and where people are put first. The future is here, and they are ready to change the world.

While the reality is that most people do not dream about being in an office from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., what if they were able to make steps toward fulfilling their personal goals while meeting the goals and necessities of the business? This may seem taboo, but I believe there’s something here.

When co-founding my e-learning company in 2012, the No. 1 goal I knew I wanted to embed into our culture was employee happiness. I asked myself, “What do people need to be happy?” With this top of mind, my co-founder and I developed a culture that allows employees to feel like they don’t have to hide plans to travel — or maybe even start their own company one day — from their bosses.

This leads us to one of the most important pieces of designing a business with a focus on employee happiness: Leadership must be 100% committed to this vision, and have a willingness to see people succeed at what they love doing.

With this commitment, we then adopted a management philosophy supporting this vision called Positive Leader, developed by Paul Fayad (my father and business partner) and Chak Fu Lam, which helps businesses design a positive work environment that promotes creativity, happiness and positive thinking. Here are five takeaways we’ve gleaned from this experience.

1. Hire For Culture Fit

We realized that personality was as much a part of the hiring process as education and experience. We use a personality assessment called the Positive Assessment Tool (PAT) that allows us to hire individuals with who have high amounts of empathy and compassion, embodying a service attitude. We call our team members “rowers,” because they are constantly in motion, steering the company in the right direction.

2. Prioritize The Onboarding Process

This is where you get to know an employee, and they get to know you. This window of time filled with enthusiasm is often squandered and neglected by businesses. We’ve found great success in pairing our new hires with mentors. It’s also important to make sure you take this time to educate them about whatever else they need to be successful, such as your company’s culture, policies and products.

3. Use On-the-Ground Leadership

To put it simply, being an “on-the-ground” leader means being both visible and available to your team. To understand what employees want and need, you have to be around — which is why we work alongside our teams in all three of our offices across the country. We make ourselves available via office hours every day, and also conduct weekly one-on-one meetings with leaders on our team. Never underestimate the impact of employee facetime.

4. Be Transparent When You Communicate 

Communication is the “make or break” component of every company: communicate too sparingly, and your employees will feel like they have no say in the company. Unless you’re dealing with personal, private information, there shouldn’t be an element of secrecy in the company. You either have transparency or you don’t. Transparency only works when everyone is on board and comfortable being open with their communication. 

In one-on-one meetings, we not only set company and department-specific goals, but we have employees write out their personal achievement aspirations so we can understand what gets them excited. We also have found great success in our monthly all-hands meetings for company-wide transparency, and Slack communication for the day-to-day transparency.

5. Look Towards The Future

One of the most important elements of our company’s culture is that it gives employees the freedom to be able to create and shape their future. This includes reinventing their job duties and responsibilities.  

Throughout my career, I’ve made it my personal mission to seek out what it means to be a leader and develop a culture where employees don’t drag their feet every morning to wake up. Now more than ever, we’re choosing to embrace the dreams and goals that employees have outside of the office, and empower them to work towards those and apply them to their work for us. This is what will open up the floodgates for engaged, fulfilled, and happy employees contributing to the success and future of your business.

Skills Building And Instilling A Motivation To Succeed

Unlike having a traditional job where your kids won’t see you, you can typically run a startup or small business from a home environment. This provides a great example for your kids about how a business runs and what goes into making it a success. I have friends who even include their kids in work — from stamping envelopes and making copies to filing.

It’s a great way to spend time with your kids and make them feel a part of what you are doing. It also ignites their own entrepreneurial ability and starts them off on a right foot. They can also build work skills at an earlier age, by typing, video editing, using social media, coding and more.

In fact, a study from Harvard concluded that mothers who work can increase their daughters’ future career prospects. The study also found that women who grew up with working and entrepreneurial moms earned approximately 23% more than women whose mothers didn’t work. They were also more likely to hold down a supervisory or leadership role.

In this way, you are not only helping your kids become more successful, but you are also pushing the momentum forward on female entrepreneurship and leadership that is so necessary for future generations.

Teaching And Learning Life Lessons

You can also choose to use your time as an entrepreneur as a way to teach children about life, including how to handle challenges. Most people grow up ill-prepared to take on the real world. The natural inclination is to shield kids and family members from what’s impacting us. We don’t want to seem like we can’t handle what’s been put in front of us.

Choose to take a different perspective by embracing these situations as a way to explain to your family how you addressed the problem. Use the experience to teach your kids a lesson in ethics and values, problem-solving, or emotional intelligence development. Again, they are getting to experience something that other children may not, so you are putting them at a competitive advantage for later in life. You are also doing your job as a parent by teaching them something.

A friend of mine asks her kids what they would do in a certain situation, listens to their ideas, and discusses how they may or may not work. She said it not only gives her quality time with her kids, but it also calms her down when she has been stressed about that problem and often offers some interesting perspectives on the situation.

Scheduling Everything

What makes the constant juggling act that many women do in all their roles work is a well-oiled machine of organization built around a schedule. Mostly working like clockwork, this schedule is based on everyone’s activities. Running the business often comes early in the morning and the evening to accommodate family events and lessons when others are around.

Many things will not go as planned. Your clients, children and family members have other ideas about how you should spend your time. These ideas typically pull you away from a productive work day. Be flexible and patient to allow some of that happen while taking control of other situations to ensure you still have the time to help clients and keep the business going. You’ll make more money on some days than others with your regimen. If you take care of everything you can, there’s no reason to feel guilty.

Delegating And Investing In Support

My friends often reach out to family and friends to do some babysitting or assist with other errands so they can get their work done faster, which leads to more family time. It’s OK to delegate some of your work by getting a virtual or in-house assistant who can take the load off of you.

As you grow your business, maybe you want to reach out to other mothers looking to put their writing, coding, graphic design or other skills to work from home. This is a mutually beneficial way to address any concerns you have about running your business.

You can even reach out to a mentor who can show you how to get rid of the guilt that could be blocking additional business growth as well as assist in creating a schedule and strategy that better divides your time up between responsibilities. Whatever it takes, pat yourself on the back in order to truly achieve the success you are capable of and deserve.

But sometimes, they also end. Divorce for couples comes in all forms, from amicable “we’ve both changed” separations to prolonged battles involving property and child custody. When you find a business partner, you’re investing your future in them; the commitment is akin to marriage. And the end of that partnership — the business divorce — is just like a marital one: It can be clean, or it can be ugly. Instead of kids and houses, you have vendors, staff and partners.

So, how do you prevent a business dissolution from getting ugly? Here are five key points to consider when you’re thinking of launching a business partnership. Heed these early on, and any possible separation down the road will be much less painful.

Your Business Partner: Finding Mr./Ms. Right

Nobody wants to plan for separation, but it helps to find someone who is compatible with your communication style and thought process: someone who can navigate your strengths and weaknesses with an underlying trust. In business relationships, this can be easier said than done. But when finding that perfect partner, it’s best to consider how well you work together in high-pressure situations. This should trump friendship, history and even ideas, because without it, things will become problematic at the first obstacle. This also makes dissolution much more collaborative rather than combative.

Vesting: The Prenup

The one key difference between a marriage and a business partnership is that asking for a prenuptial agreement can often be accompanied by hurt feelings and suspicion. In marriage, it’s easy for one person to take it as an insult: a safety net doubling as a hedged bet. But in business, having clean and clear language about processes, protocols, vesting, expectations, and what belongs to whom is often acknowledged as smart and safe. This should be regularly reviewed and updated to smooth out all future paths. Remember, the goal is to grow your business into a large and successful entity, possibly a public one complete with a board and corporate rules. It might even be on the path to getting absorbed by a larger competitor. All of these avenues should be considered.

Partnership: The Marriage

Is it counterproductive to go into a marriage thinking it might fail? Only if you view it from a purely negative lens. But if you understand that the foundation of a successful marriage also works as a means to a clean and amicable separation, then it puts things into perspective. To that end, regular communication and honesty are absolute musts. Issues should be confronted head on, and the business equivalent of date nights — activities that strengthen team bonds — establish a history and communal experience that brings forth mutual respect. In most cases, that respect is the key ingredient that will bring about a peaceful dissolution.

Advisory Boards: Counseling

What happens when those inevitable disputes pop up? Healthy couples go to a marriage counselor. For businesses, that means getting qualified outside opinions. Consultants, advisory boards, and other professional entities can provide objective insight towards practical solutions and mutually beneficial paths. They can act as intermediaries during a disagreement, a third party during brainstorming, or even a tie-breaker during a stalemate. As with a marriage, sometimes it means more when you hear it from someone else — and many times, the most important aspect of these discussions is letting your guard down and keeping an open mind.

Getting Fired: The Divorce

During the many ups and downs of a long-term relationship, you can both be good, respectful people, and yet things can still go sideways. In business, it’s much the same. Perhaps your partner’s interest has wandered into a different industry, or maybe you like working in a smaller startup environment. Whatever the case, now it’s time to move on. If you have followed the steps above from the very beginning of your journey, then you will most likely have a clear path to dissolution. This includes custody of assets and shares, severance packages, royalties and other practical matters within the business. The worst thing you can do is get deep into a business partnership without foresight into such critical matters.

In a marriage, separation terms are often based on stability for children. The business equivalent is a break that allows the actual company to continue running smoothly without impacting customers, stakeholders, vendors and staff. If all parties can walk away happy and keep the business running, then a separation is as smooth as it’s going to get.

Exit Strategies

When two people enter into a marriage, they do so with the hope that it lasts forever. In business, though, there’s almost always some long-term plan, and that often includes an exit strategy. This may be the biggest difference between marriage and a business partnership: With love, you want it to last. With business, you want it to be successful, but perhaps to a point where you can leave. Whether your exit was loosely planned from the beginning or a byproduct of difficult times, remember that keeping a grounded, practical eye on dissolution from day one can mean that everyone walks away with no hard feelings.

An example cropped up a couple of years ago when my daughter Talulla was born. Many of us claim to be appalled by the disparity between men and women in leadership positions at large companies, or the gap in career earnings that can easily be traced to when children are born. Yet when a mother takes three months of maternity leave, we think it’s normal, as opposed to when we see a man take two weeks of paternity leave and think it’s progressive and very modern. What? This is why my wife and I were very deliberate in splitting the time 50/50. We each took two months. We are equals in parenting just as we are equals in our careers. Action was required, and we took it.

The same is true in terms of building a diverse team. For years we have said we wanted it, but the reality did not match up. As time passed, I realized heartfelt beliefs are not enough when it comes to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. It took deliberate action. It hasn’t been easy or instantaneous, and we are by no means claiming “mission accomplished,” but we have made progress. I wanted to share what we have done and what we have learned.

1. Commit to a Target: The first step is being clear that this is something you and the people in your company value. The next step is putting measurable targets against that. Is it based on numbers? On percentages? Is it for all team members? Executives? Managers and up? Your board? There is no way to measure progress or hold yourself truly accountable without measurable targets to track.
2. Institute Your Own Version of the Rooney Rule: The NFL has a policy that requires teams to interview minority candidates for head coaching and senior football operations jobs. The idea is that you’re not going to be able to hire a diverse team if you aren’t even looking. This has been crucial for my company. So many early referrals who came to us through our own network looked just like us. It was far easier to field inbound interest than post and go through a robust time and resource-consuming hiring process. This one step alone has not only increased the diversity of the pool we end up seeing, but has also dramatically increased the quality of that pool.
3. Rewrite Your Job Descriptions: There is clear research that the same job, described in different ways, will be appealing to some groups and totally unappealing to others. Be deliberate in crafting your job descriptions and messaging around hiring. Otherwise you could turn off some of your best potential candidates before you ever get the chance to meet them and convince them they should join your team.
4. Go After People Who Aren’t Looking: There’s an old adage in recruiting that the best candidates are not looking for jobs. Knowing this, you will need to be proactive in your job search. Fortunately, LinkedIn is an amazing tool for this. Your company profile may not be what the ideal candidate is looking for, and maybe you didn’t do a great job cleaning up your job description, but by being proactive in searching out the best candidates, you’re giving yourself a better shot at proactively building the diverse team you are trying to create.
5. Don’t Take ‘No’ at Face Value: Just as there is research showing some language attracts or turns off certain candidates, there is also research showing that men tend to view job descriptions as being more flexible, whereas women tend to view them as hard and fast requirements. Thus, even with the right language and proactive recruiting, you might find candidates that still self-filter. This is even truer if you’re just posting a job and hoping the right people apply in the first place. I have had this experience personally where more than one female candidate who I viewed as having the ideal experience for a role came back saying “I don’t think I have the right experience, but a guy friend of mine might be good for this.” I am not kidding.

All of this being said, change will not happen overnight. For example, even as we began implementing the changes above, we found female candidates were turning down our job offers at twice the rate of male candidates. Though no one explicitly stated it as the reason, it seemed that having a more male-based tech environment was just not appealing to many of them. What tipped the scales was that as the changes above became the norm and our team became more diverse, we saw those acceptance rates reach parity.

Even today this is not something we, or anyone, can “set and forget.” Creating a culture of diversity and inclusion requires constant diligence and vigilance. But it is important enough that it’s well worth the effort.

A version of this post originally appeared here.

Recruit The Right Candidates

• Culture and environment: Company outings, family picnics, lunch and learns, appreciation days, etc.
• Attire: Whether there’s a dress code — if it’s business casual, business formal, and so on.
• Employer prestige: Your retention rate, company history, tech opportunities, awards won, etc.
• Travel: Company trips, seminars, conferences and training.
• Compensation and benefits: Incentives, bonus structure, stock, 401(k), holidays, company car, healthcare, etc.
• Personal advancement: On-the-job training, cross-training, education, certifications, employee awards and promotions.

Know The Type of Candidate You Want

Ask Pertinent Interview Questions

• “Why should I hire you?”
• “If I called your old boss, what would he or she tell me you need to work on?”
• “How you would handle X situation?” (Make it a situational question that requires creative reasoning skills.)

Check References

Commit to Excellence 

Check Social Media

Hire Interns