Stop Buying Swag: Build an Employee Retention Culture Instead (with JC Hite)

If you’ve invested in swag, end-of-year parties, and awards ceremonies, and your team still doesn’t feel genuinely valued, this episode is for you.

I’m joined by JC Hite, entrepreneur, speaker, and co-owner of Appreciation at Work®, whose focus is helping business owners scale with stability without sacrificing faith and family. JC brings something rare: he’s lived both sides of this: leading teams where people left for a 3% raise, and building an employee retention culture where competitors have to offer double the salary to even get a conversation.

What changed? He stopped guessing and started appreciating people the way they actually feel valued. In this conversation, JC unpacks the real ROI behind authentic appreciation, why 92% of what most leaders spend on recognition is wasted, and why the 5 Languages of Appreciation framework is the most practical retention strategy in business today.

Books Mentioned
- The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace by Dr. Gary Chapman and Dr. Paul White

Connect with JC Hite on Instagram at @jc.hite or explore his work helping entrepreneurs scale without sacrificing what matters most at scalewithstability.com.

Transcript

People Leave Cultures Not Companies

Dr. William Attaway 0:00

People don't leave companies. They leave cultures where they don't feel valued. Welcome to the Appreciation at Work Podcast, where we share real stories from leaders building workplaces that teams don't want to leave. I'm your host, Dr. William Attaway. I'm excited today to have JC Haidt on the podcast. JC is an entrepreneur, speaker, and the co-owner of Appreciation at Work. His focus is on helping business owners scale with stability without sacrificing their faith and family to build a business. JC, I'm so glad you're here, man. Thanks for being on the show.

JC Hite 0:42

Dr. Attaway, I'm pumped to be on here, brother. It's going to be fun. It is indeed.

Dr. William Attaway 0:48

Yeah, I'd love to start with this question. You know, uh, about a year ago, you saw and met Dr. Paul White, the founder of Appreciation at Work, and started some conversations around what would it look like to acquire the business? What

Why JC Joined Appreciation At Work

Dr. William Attaway 1:05

drew you to appreciation at work?

JC Hite 1:07

Yeah. Well, actually, the first conversations had nothing to do with acquisition. OMA. I mean, it was really the biggest problem I see in my own companies and every time I talk to other business owners, is the ability to recruit and retain incredible talent. And if if we think about it, like every problem you could possibly dream, um, you got a sales problem, you got a marketing problem, you got, you know, almost every problem, man, if you could if you could be the type of person that can recruit really, really well, and there's a lot of factors there, and then retain really well, I bet you can solve that problem. So um, we got introduced by a friend. Obviously, I was familiar with the five love languages, and I was immediately fell in love with Dr. White's mission and his vision for helping create sustainability and stability in the workplace through recruiting and retaining. And so we hit it off right off the bat. I love that.

Dr. William Attaway 2:04

So, you know, you've got your hands in a lot of different things. What is it about appreciation at work that really captures your heart? I mean, what made this different?

JC Hite 2:14

Yeah,

Simple Framework With Surprising Depth

JC Hite 2:15

I got a 2.1 GPA. I'm I'm not the smartest tool in the shed, you know, Dr. Hadaway. Uh, but I really like these simple concepts that are like once you, you know, even even hearing appreciation at work, the five languages of appreciation, immediately you know what we're talking about. Like immediately you get it. And and then to see, like I think in in business so often we just overcomplicate so much. We overcomplicate so many things. And and so the simplicity of the message, but yet the power of it. Like, as you dig deep, right? Like you the surface level, okay, here's these five languages of appreciation. Everyone fits into one of the categories, and we all have a secondary, and we always we have a least, you know, favorite as well. But then you dig into these, like you go a deeper layer and you really start to understand like how human beings work, right? And so uh it's it's I feel like every month I'm learning more and more. Of course, I've read the book I don't know how many times, reading, you know, we got five books in total all around culture, and um I feel like I'm learning something new every day.

Dr. William Attaway 3:24

I think that speaks to your teachable spirit, you know, and and what you model for your team, understanding you can learn something from anybody, and you can learn something every day if you walk in with that kind of a mindset. And I think you exhibit that. That's right. Before you before you heard about the the languages of appreciation in the workplace, how did you typically try to show appreciation to your team?

JC Hite 3:48

Well, I I I'm a believer, and uh as a Christian and someone that follows Jesus, that that's kind of been our like leading principle since day one. Uh we we love others and we treat them how we want to be treated. And and so for us, culture has always been a very simple act of like, all right, well, what are the needs of our people and how do we match those? And so there was a season where we had an office and we had a lot of young mothers, so we put a daycare in there. And there was, but it was it was it was much more reacting to um people's requests and just ideas and brainstorming. We've always like been intrigued with culture. We've always had a I think a good culture within our organization, even great at times, and and oh, by the way, terrible at times too. But I think as as as as a Christian, that's always been my motto. In fact, when I was early in business, I had a mentor that told me, like, if you want to win and you want to do everything in business is gonna be built on the back of your team. And so treat them as such. And that that's not a negative thing, that's a very positive thing. Like these are our these are the beautiful human beings that are gonna help pay for my daughter's college one day, you know, and and every training. So so but but the book really puts the formula on this, right? It creates some more intentionality because to be frank, I was loving everyone the way I felt loved and appreciated, right? Like it's the same thing in my marriage, by the way. I'm physical touch is my love language, and so obviously, every time I touch my wife, I feel like she's receiving love and it's just not the case. Uh and so um so understanding the intentionality behind these actions is is has been something really new to me over the past you know year and a half.

Dr. William Attaway 5:33

So

When Recognition Backfires On People

Dr. William Attaway 5:34

thinking about in the in the workplace, like can you think of a time when appreciation or maybe the lack of it had a big impact on you?

JC Hite 5:43

Oh yeah. No, man. I can think of several reasons where you know, for us, you know, you talk about rewards and recognition, and and that's what we thought, right? Like you got the end of the year award and we brought you in front of the company, and turns out that was the opposite. Like, like we thought it was great, we thought it was good, oh, they're gonna love us. But it's actually the opposite. They they really don't appreciate that. They didn't want to be in the spotlight, they didn't want these things, right? I've had seasons. I I had a personal assistant who I love so much, she was so amazing in so many ways. But her her language of appreciation was words of affirmation. And if I was not affirming her verbally on a weekly basis, she was really concerned with how much was I happy with her, was I was I attentive, did I need anything? Was I gonna fire her? Was I gonna and I I really liked her. Like I never got under her, she never got anything. I think I she doubled her salary while being with me, but we we never met eye to eye on this this appreciation thing. And uh and so I've had several cases where I I have walked away feeling like, what an idiot. Like, what do you mean they don't feel appreciated? I I I I I show them appreciation all the time. Have they seen that daycare? Have they seen this? Have they seen this? Have they done this? And and and quite frankly, it just wasn't resonating at all. Hmm.

Dr. William Attaway 7:07

You know, I think a lot of people make that mistake. You know, they're they're trying to to show appreciation the way they want to receive it. Yeah. I see leaders doing this all the time. Like as you work with business owners and business leaders from around the world, do you see this consistently being done? Like people are people are trying to show appreciation. They're just they're they're not hitting the target. And it even goes beyond

Stop Wasting Money On Appreciation

Dr. William Attaway 7:32

that.

JC Hite 7:32

Like our two most greatest assets are time and money, probably, you know, just right, time and money. And we waste so much time and money on this. And so the the money part, right? Like, you know, we have times where, man, they're just not happy. So what do we do? We throw money at it. What do we do? We throw a big party at the end of the year and spend all kinds of money. What do we do? Man, I bought a bunch of swag for my team. I do all of these things that resonate. What is it, gifts? Was it 9% these days at a way? 9% of people.

Dr. William Attaway 8:02

That's right.

JC Hite 8:02

The language of appreciation is gifts, which means 90, 92% of the money I spend on swag or trips or gifts or whatever, 90 2% of it's wasted. And so, and then you go to the time route. My my time is super valuable. So I really try to spend time with my people, one-on-ones, time in general, just in meetings, like listening and going through. And what is it? 75% of folks really don't see value in that at all, right? Only 25% of people, their their language is quality time. And so, uh, and then you get in. I mean, like, so so this like as a CEO, if we can really dial this in, we we save so much time for our people as well as money. And that doesn't even count like the benefits of having a good culture, right? The productivity increases and things like this. And so Yeah.

Dr. William Attaway 8:57

Well,

Retention Advantage You Can Measure

Dr. William Attaway 8:58

and I think the retention, too. You know, I mean, we want to retain A players. We want to we want to hang on to these folks. But so many companies, organizations, even industries are dealing with higher churn rates than they've ever seen before. It's it's how does this help with that?

JC Hite 9:14

Well, it's there's so many ways. But what one of the easy ways, we we've tracked this a long time at height. And uh in order to recruit, if if someone out there listening wants to steal one of my team members, now there's there's there's been seasons where we've had a crappy culture, okay? Like nobody's arguing this. But when our culture is where it's supposed to be, we we track this over the years. On average, here we are, on average, you have to offer someone double the pay for them to leave our organization. Double. So we we track as people leave, as people move on, now there's season people have to move on unless you just have infinite job opportunities. People will grow, and and that's just part of it, right? But what ends up happening? Because if someone else can steal your team members, take your team members, recruit you, whatever your word you want to use, with just a 2% raise, 3% raise, oh, heaven forbid, even a 10% decrease and then still go. This is all leverage that you've got in your organization that really leverage for the team member that really hurts you. I mean, it really hurts you because the cost of training, developing, hiring, or just flat out the cost of having to outpay a crappy culture is ridiculous. And and I've had team members, I I've had team members where there were seasons where, quite frankly, we couldn't afford to pay them what they deserve. We just couldn't. And they could have won right now in the office that I'm at. Couldn't afford to pay her what she needed, what she was worth, but because she enjoyed us, because she was a little bit crazy, uh, she just stuck around and she just like believed in the mission and kept working, she kept at it, and then you know, eventually we're able to get those raises and pay more and things like this, right? So the competitive advantage for young companies, companies that are small, that just can't quite afford it, is ridiculously massive, right? But even the larger ones, I mean, it it's it's and again, don't hear me say good culture is an excuse to pay less. That's not what I'm saying. Pay your people as much as you can. That is a flat out, just go for it. What I am saying is that in seasons where you can't pay as much, you can't have enough, um, it is a dramatic um makes a very large difference in your ability to win and and survive. Because what what's the famous quote, right? Like um the the the oh oh Simon Sinek actually said that the the the the goal of business is to stay in business. That's the goal of business.

Dr. William Attaway 11:40

That's a good word.

JC Hite 11:41

And so you gotta you gotta survive seasons. Spirit Airlines. That's hot news right now. Hot news, right? A couple of days before we have this podcast, they just went under. Yeah. Couldn't survive a rough time. And I wonder that if they would have had a great culture if they could have done some more cutting financially that would that would have, or you know, like they're they were definitely spending more money than they were making, right? That's not rocket science. And so anyway, it's uh it's a fun thing.

Dr. William Attaway 12:08

I think that's I think that's very solid. And I think the ROI of appreciation in the workplace is something that that we're talking about a lot more these days. You know, with the with the business owners that that you talk to, you know, in your committed mastermind and in so many different venues, the Scale with Stability Summit, you know, you have the opportunity to speak into and hear from a lot of business owners and leaders. You know, the ROI of appreciation is pretty solid. It's data driven. When you talk about that, do you sense them leaning in?

Why Most Leaders Still Do Nothing

JC Hite 12:41

Well, most people don't take action, right? Like that that's the reality. And this is what makes it a great opportunity, you know. And you think about this across the board, right? I don't I don't think I've ever talked to anyone that's like, no, being healthier and going to the gym is not, I don't, I don't agree with that. I think that's that would be worse for me than better for me. Everyone thinks it's better, but very few do it, which is why it's such a great opportunity, right? Like every single organ, most organizations need people to thrive and grow. And if they want to scale fast, they have they have to do this. And so uh if if that's what makes it such a great opportunity. Now, those that are doing it, you see them just and like you we were at an event the other day and Myers Davis, and you just talk to their people and you see like they are happy to be there. Savannah Bananas, have you ever once seen their salary or comp plan? Like I haven't, but like they are happy to be there. And you go through organizations and you you can see when they're when when team members are excited about um the culture that they're a part of, everything. And we're not even talking about all the benefits, right? Like, even if you're I asked, I was at a conference the other day and I had everyone raise their hand. I said, everyone raise their hand if you if you have someone you know right now that's looking for a better job. Every single person, raise their hand. And then I asked, okay, everyone, raise your hand if your organization or an organization you know really well is recruiting right now. Every one of them raise their hand. Then my next question was, why have you not paired them? And everyone was silent. And I was like, it's exactly right. Because even we know a lot of jobs available out there if we're just not quite sure that we want to put them in touch with each other. And so, you know, wow. I want to create a culture where, man, people are referring all the time, and they're protective of that culture. They don't refer crappy people to us. They like, man, I've got my best friend out there and I want them to come work for me or for us.

Making Appreciation Work Remote

Dr. William Attaway 14:45

Love that. Does appreciation work for remote employees? Uh this is something that's you know on the rise, and you've been leading remote teams for a decade now. Like, does this work in that type of an environment?

JC Hite 15:00

Absolutely. In fact, it works. It's so much harder to build a relationship remote than it is in person. You have to be more intentional about it, right? Now, there's a lot of organizations that have chosen not to do that. Like I know several CEOs that have companies that they've done decently well. That I don't know a single one of them. I don't care to know, I don't have to know, I don't whatever. They churn and they hire, and that's just part of their business model, right? But the companies that I like, that I'm excited to be a part of, that we promote, that we push, are strategic partners, these guys have to be intentional about building culture, especially when it's remote. Because uh again, quite uh just think about this from an employee standpoint. If I if I'm not attached to the mission and I'm not attached to the vision, and I'm not attached to the culture or a team or leadership there, if I'm if I have none of that attachment, then why am I there? What is the only reason why I'm there? I'm there for a paycheck. And and if that is the only variable in the scenario, there are 50 million other companies willing to pay me probably 10 to 20% more. Right? Or or you have an employee, or you have an employee where they don't want them, and neither do you want them. They're just filling a void, you know. Like either way, it's a crappy scenario to be in.

Is Appreciation Really Necessary

Dr. William Attaway 16:19

Yeah. Yeah, you know, a lot of people who are listening to this may be like, wow, this sounds this sounds good. It sounds nice, appreciation's nice, that's great. I just don't know that it's necessary for my team, for my company. What would you say to that?

JC Hite 16:34

Yeah, it's not necessary. Uh again, I see a lot of businesses floating by. I see a lot of businesses churning and they're okay with it. No different than I see a lot of marriages that are just floating by, a lot of overweight folks that are just, you know, passing time and everything else. But if you want to be great, if you want to have a company that you're proud of, that, you know, I met someone the other day and like they were like, yeah, we I've met this several times. Like, would you be okay with folks from your church working for you? Some people, I've met them, they're like, I can't hire from church. I don't want to. It's it gets too chaotic, it gets too messy, it gets too like that's a sign for me that like, and I've had people like, dude, I'll take my best friend because we're gonna crush it. I want I want to be the latter guy. I want to be the guy that like is proud to be where I'm at and what we're doing. And the great thing is, it's like most things, it's it's simple, okay? It's just not hard. And you know, I'm I'm really proud of the work Dr. White put in and Dr. Chapman put in to lay the foundation. And then now you and I have taken this and we've ran with it, and we've kind of kind of like changed it up to match this new modern culture that we live in, and and and this idea of of a lot of folks kind of learning from each other, from you, from you know, all of our leadership. And it it's actually fun and kind of addictive once you get started, but you gotta get started.

Dr. William Attaway 18:02

So well, and I think that's that's the key. You know, it's about executing. You know, a lot of great ideas that people hear. You know, we just we just had the Scale with Stability Summit, and I came back with pages of notes. How many times do we leave a conference or a workshop or a seminar or a webinar and we have a great idea? And six months later, it's still just a great idea.

JC Hite 18:26

Yeah. You know, yeah, what's what's the deal? Like the difference between uh uh entrepreneurs that what is it? Uh oh, it's it's all none of us know what we're doing, but some of us some of us do it anyways. None of us know what we're doing, but some of us do it anyways. And so if you're looking at culture right now and you're just like, man, I I want either want to have a good one, I want to have a great one, which honestly is my favorite people to work with, you know, or I have a crappy one and I'm trying to make it good. Either way, okay, I don't know what I'm doing. Well, let me give you a step one.

Execute With A Systemized Path

JC Hite 18:59

Step one is jump on a call with Dr. Attaway or anyone from our team to figure it out. And I mean, like, we we have something to meet every budget or every need, but like I don't know what I'm doing. Well, let's just do it anyways. Let's just let's just go. And and there there is there is a systemized path to better your culture. There's a systemized path to better our culture. You just gotta do the small little things and and you'll be good to go.

Dr. William Attaway 19:28

This has been so insightful, JC. I'm I'm grateful for your time in sharing this today. I as people walk away from this episode, if they only walk away with one big idea, one thing, and you got to choose what that one thing was, what would you like for them to walk away with?

Love, Intentionality, And Next Steps

JC Hite 19:44

Oh man, love covers a multitude of sins. And and the deeper I've focused on the intimacy of relationships, the better it's been in everywhere. That's with my faith, that's with my marriage, that's with my children, and it's also with my team members. And so the the intentionality behind this this a more intimate relationship is um it's good and it's fun and it's rewarding, and it's all these fun emotions, and and if you haven't experienced it before, once you do, you'll see what I'm talking about. It's so good.

Dr. William Attaway 20:24

I love it. Man, this has been such a great conversation. Thanks for doing this. Uh, I know folks are gonna want to continue to learn from you uh as you are continuing to grow and teach other people as you speak, as you write. What's the best way for folks to connect with you?

JC Hite 20:38

Ooh, me personally, Instagram, jc.hyight, and if you want to see our work, scalewithstability.com. My wife and I are fully focused on helping entrepreneurs scale with stability. And what we mean by that is is scale without forsaking our faith, our family, uh, and our and our health. And so scale stability.com or hit me up on Instagram.

Dr. William Attaway 21:00

We'll have those links in the show notes.

JC Hite 21:02

JC, thanks.

Dr. William Attaway 21:03

Thank you, sir.