Improving Employee Retention Through Systems and Documentation

Mack Male and Karen Unland founded Taproot Publishing to help communities understand each other better. And they’ve created a unique revenue model to do it. In addition to providing news and resources for the Edmonton community, the Taproot team also provides paid B2B content and aggregation services for companies and membership organizations. Taproot began expanding its staff in 2020 and is working with a remote team. They knew they could increase the way they supported and onboarded new employees. 

The Challenge

Mack and Karen also recognized that they had been working so hard “in” their business that they hadn’t prioritized working “on” their business. As the team continues to increase its output of original reporting, newsletters and custom content for clients, Mack and Karen wanted to create some fundamental infrastructure to support their team members and make it easier to run the organization.

The Results

Mack and Karen wanted to focus on creating team-building training and support materials to improve retention of their team members. They also recognized, with a distributed team, that these materials had the best chance of being utilized if they were easily accessible. By participating in the 2022 GNI Startups Lab on Building and Managing a Team and with guidance from their program coach, Bene Cipolla, the Taproot team got busy. They created an intranet system, which now houses all of their orientation documentation, a new Taproot employee handbook and training videos. By creating this intranet portal, Mack and Karen feel like they’ve created a resource that will directly impact their ability to retain new team members.

They put their new assets to the test when they hired and onboarded a part time employee using their new intranet and materials. That employee is still part of the team – an important data point that suggests Mack and Karen’s new system is increasing employee retention and satisfaction.

The Wins

• Created an employee handbook
• Made and retained new hire
• Launched an employee intranet system and refined their onboarding process

“Growing is not just about hiring; growing is making sure people who work with you are in the right place and feel good.”

– Mack Male

Have a success story to share about the business side of your news business? Email the LION team at [email protected]!