Danish bank says forget about retention and focus on happiness

I came across an awesome LinkedIn post from Jonas Juehl Thomsen who is a Regional Director at Danish bank Arbejdernes Landsbank.

It was written in Danish, so unless you’re Danish, you would not have seen it – but you definitely should, so here is my translation of the key parts:

We do not have a goal of retaining employees! Instead, we focus on creating happiness at work and thus make people want to stay.

In Arbejdernes Landsbank, we make an effort to make it fun to go to work!

This is a prerequisite for succeeding with our ambitions for employees, the customer experience and, not least, strengthening the bank’s position.

For me, the most important success criterion is “Taking responsibility and doing the right thing”!

This requires that we do not just lend a helping hand as leaders.
But that we also make an effort to make it easy to do the right thing for our employees.

When this succeeds, work makes sense.

And that makes people want to stay!

In Arbejdernes Landsbank, several years ago, we did away with meaningless target metric regimes. Instead, we focus on what effort we should make for each other and for the customers!

Why? Because it creates the right conditions for us to always put the customer at the center – and deliver the attentive and competent advice that customers should expect.

Close to 50% of new hires in the sector are gone after five years. Unfortunately, these are facts in yesterday’s article in FinansWatch with Finansforbundet as a source.

In my view, this is not an employee problem. It is a management responsibility – which we have already taken to heart!

Let’s once and for all drop retention as a focus area but instead focus on making it worth it to stay. This means that we automatically show up with positive energy and courage for the changes we need to succeed with.

It is no coincidence that customers have chosen us as the Danes’ preferred bank for 16 years in a row!

When employees are thriving, customers can feel it.

Do you also seek a workplace with the right focus on your well-being and development Please contact me on or visit our website for vacancies.

How awesome is this. No performance metrics, just a focus on helping customers and coworkers. No direct focus on retention, just a focus on making employees happy.
Kudos, Jonas.

Here’s another detail I liked: Jonas’ LinkedIn profile lists his title as “Regionsdirektør I Mennesket først!” which translates to “Regional Director of Humans first!”