“We are fortunate. We have a great team, the right technology, good communication and a good vision,” Bernstein says. “I am not saying we don’t have hiccups, everyone does, but I think when you put those pieces of the puzzle together it creates a clearer picture.”

Gratus Capital also has been laser-focused on retaining employees and a flexible remote work schedule has been a popular incentive for people to stay. Neil Campbell, president of the Atlanta-based RIA with about $3.5 billion in assets under management, said that as of November 1, the firm moved into new space in Atlanta’s Buckhead district. Employees are going in twice a week. Prior to that, they had been working remotely.

Campbell said the policy is loose. But “as long as folks are achieving their goals and we are hiring within our culture and treating each other with respect, it’s fine if I am the only one in the office,” he said. “If we are setting goals and we are achieving them, we don’t want to create an environment where someone is watching the door.”

Campbell reports one of the company’s goals is to have “exceptionally high satisfaction” and in the next few weeks it will conduct an employee survey to establish a baseline. In addition to variables around Covid workplace flexibility, such as the quality of collaboration of colleagues and relationship with managers, they are looking at other variables, such as salary, bonus, long-term compensation, and career path.

Gratus also has experienced growth. The firm, Campbell said, began the pandemic with 30 employees and has hired 12 within the past 12 months. A couple of the employees work in Florida, one whose husband was reassigned to Boca Raton and one in McLean, Va., whose wife’s job also was reassigned.

“Typically, we would have these three positions in the headquarters, but we said yes to the move because two were tenured high performers. They know the process and they know the culture,” Campbell noted.

Bernstein said accommodating employees and demonstrating that you care matters. In one instance he said, rather than hiring another member for the operations team, he approached the team and asked if each of the six members would be willing to take a piece of the task for extra compensation. They agreed. “II would rather take care of my own [staff] than bring in some new people if I didn’t have to,” he said.

Promoting from within is a common practice at Michigan-based Telemus, said Matt Ran, president and chief operating officer. “Typically, a lot of our openings happen because we have promoted somebody."

Ran said employees at Telemus, which has offices in Southfield and Ann Arbor, Mich., and Chicago, remained intact throughout the Covid crisis and the company stayed committed to not laying off anyone. “We have a really good culture here and that’s why we have been able to retain a lot of the employees,” he said. Telemus has 44 employees and about $3.5 billion in AUM.

Ran said the firm has been around for 17 years and many of the employees have been there for more than 10 years. “The office is a family-like environment and I think a lot of the employees feel like they have been part of the extended family,” he said.