Toronto-based financial technology company Givex Corp. is using remote working as a key component of its employee retention strategy.

“We’ve found our work-from-home strategy has helped us with retention and we’re hiring on a regular basis,” says Don Gray, chief executive officer of Givex. “We’re trying to stay as flexible as we can with this to make sure our current [employees] and new ones we hire are motivated by our policies.”

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Givex has always prioritized employee retention, he says, noting a third (32 per cent) of workers have been with the company for more than five years and nearly a fifth (17 per cent) have worked there for more than 10 years. The organization was able to easily transition to a fully remote workplace at the start of the coronavirus pandemic because it already had essential tools in place like the “job jar,” a task management tool that helps measure productivity.

“The job jar is a tool that my wife and I built because when we started the company, we worked remotely and we wanted to make sure we had the ability to keep track of what’s going on and our [employees] could keep track of tasks as well,” says Gray.

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The tool isn’t used to hover over employees, he notes, but automatically generates tasks based on the work done by the employee. It also allows colleagues who are interested in certain projects or tasks to collaborate.

“Over the last two years, we’ve been able to see our productivity stay as good or better than what it was [pre-pandemic]. So it became obvious to me there was an opportunity for us to look at using a hybrid or [a fully remote] work schedule to help us with retention of our team members and make it more convenient for them.”

Gray believes, as long as his team is effectively using the available tools and management can see the results of their work, he’ll be content to maintain a remote working policy.

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