A small money manager in South Florida thinks it has an answer to one of the most pressing challenges in finance
It's often said in finance that a firm's most valuable asset - its people - walks out the door at the end of each day.
That begs the question: what does a firm have to do to keep its top talent from leaving one day and not coming back?
Polen Capital might have the answer.
The South Florida-based money manager, which overseas $10.2 billion in assets, was named a Best Place to Work in Money Management by Pensions & Investments in 2016. And it has witnessed zero turnover in the past 18 months.
Business Insider spoke with Chip Jones, the firm's director of marketing and adviser relations, to explore some of the aspects of Polen's culture that he thinks set the company apart from other small firms in the financial services industry.
The first thing Jones mentioned was Polen's "results oriented work environment." The policy, which went into effect 18 months ago, allows employees to come and go as they please. Bosses at Polen care more about results than facetime, so if you work most effectively at Starbucks or from home, that's fine.
"There's no time clock," Jones said. "But what we have found is that everyone who is here wants to be here, but we think it's important to provide that flexibility."
In addition, every department has a "results coach" who "provides ongoing formal and informal mentoring and feedback to each team member."
For a firm of 43 people, perks are pretty extensive. For instance, free breakfast and lunch are available every day.
Jones told Business Insider that this helps create more of a family environment in which everyone sits down and eats together. The firm also occasionally brings in a professional shoe shiner.
"We are expanding currently and looking for more things to improve our employees' quality of life," Jones said. "We are looking to get a massage person to come in frequently, treadmill desks, as well as on-site dry cleaning."
The firm is also working on building an "education center" where employees can brush up on key skills.
"Everything we do here at Polen, including decisions about culture, has to do with one thing," Jones said. "We want to attract and retain the highest caliber individuals so that we can do the right thing by the client," Jones added.
Jones told Business Insider that their perks attract a lot of candidates. He said last year the firm advertised for a portfolio manager position and received over 100 applications. The small firm even had to conduct interviews on three different continents.
"For a firm our size in South Florida, that's pretty impressive," Jones said. "They know we are a company that has this results orientated work environment and they know they are going to get trained."