We help companies be the one employees never want to leave
Our Focus
We focus on the development of people and the progress that brings.
How We Do It
Using our proven process, we customize and implement a plan for each client from our list of training and consulting services. Because one size does not fit all.
Colene Rogers & the Founding of Retention Architects
In 2017, Colene Rogers left the security of working for others and started her own company. Clearly, her career aspirations lay outside the scope of what could be accomplished in the employment of others. Her certification as a John Maxwell Leadership Trainer and coach, along with her SHRM-SCP and PHR Human Resource certifications, provided the credentials to attract clients.
Immediately, she began to speak to chapters of the Society of Human Resources around her home state of Florida. It helped that she had served as President of the Big Bend SHRM, winning the 2016 HR Florida President of the Year, out of 28 statewide chapters. When HR directors and others heard her message on leadership, they hired Colene to come and train the leaders and teams in their organizations.
And something started to brew. In her previous years in HR, Colene had spent much of her time specializing in talent recruitment. She was very familiar with the challenge of not only finding qualified candidates to fill positions, but keeping them as well. She knew well the frustration of watching a talented employee leave, whom she worked so hard to find. And all too often, it was because of the supervisor. It didn't take long, and the brew was complete. By developing leaders employees want to follow, Colene would help companies be the one employees never want to leave.
Colene Roger’s path to helping people and organizations is rooted in her humble beginnings. She grew up on a farm in Groveland, Florida, where hard work, determination and the dignity of others was lived out each and every day by her parents. Her dad’s work with young kids as a volunteer baseball and football coach inspired her own desire to pour into the lives of others.
Colene is a Human Resource Professional with 20+ years of experience. Her desire to provide solutions for greater employee retention was born out of her experiences as a former in-house recruiter. Experiencing firsthand, the frustration of watching talented individuals leave, she knew it didn’t always have to end that way. Her fresh take on this important topic has made her a highly sought-after keynote speaker, author, and consultant.
Colene is a University of Central Florida graduate with degrees in Organizational Communication and Public Speaking. She has worked for Walt Disney World Entertainment and Hyatt Hotel Sales and has served as an HR Professional in nonprofit, private, and state government. Colene is a professional member of the National Speakers Association; a certified speaker, trainer, and coach with the John Maxwell Team; a certified trainer of Crucial Conversations; a Senior Certified HR Professional (SHRM-SCP); a certified Professional in Human Resources (PHR) and a certified DISC consultant.
Colene was not alone in this endeavor. Her husband Jim has been there from the beginning, supportive and excited about the possibility. From the start, his level of work involvement was gradual but always increasing.
Jim is Colene's right-hand man. First and foremost, as her husband. That is primary. But also, as Colene's full-time partner in running the business of Retention Architects. As Director of Content, nothing makes it into a video, keynote, blog, or workshop without first passing over Jim's desk or originating there.
As the business grows, so do Jim’s responsibilities. He is a certified consultant in the DISC Model of Human Behavior, training leaders and teams within organizations to achieve high performance through greater interpersonal understanding.
A graduate of the Indiana University Business School, Jim spent some time in the corporate world, working as an inside salesman for Ryerson Steel in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It didn’t take long, though, for Jim to realize he preferred working for himself. From Chattanooga, he made his way to Atlanta, where he began what would amount to 20+ years as a professional musician writing, teaching and performing on guitar.
In 2006, after meeting Colene on eHarmony, he moved to Tallahassee, where they married. Operating his own music studio in Tallahassee for 15 years, he began working part-time with Colene in Retention Architects from its inception. When the call came to work full time with Colene in Retention Architects, it was a natural fit for a guy with an entrepreneurial spirit.
While Colene is more the face of the company, Jim and Colene together are delivering some of the services that Retention Architects has to offer.
Colene and Jim are certified consultants in the DISC model of Human Behavior. Together, they train leaders and teams within organizations to achieve high performance through greater interpersonal understanding.
Together, Colene and Jim facilitate the meetings within organizations, that lay the foundation for high performance teams.
Click to read video transcript
Hi, I'm Jim Rogers. And I'm Colene Rogers, and we are Retention Architects. We help organizations become the one that employees never want to leave by developing leaders that people want to follow.
So, Colene, in 2017, you left corporate America and you started your own business. Colene Rogers and Associates. That's right. So after being in Human Resources for 20 years, predominantly in the talent acquisition arena, I got frustrated watching great talent leave after I spent so many hours finding them. So I started the company to help other organizations find, retain and engage that top talent.
And I was there from the beginning. I was excited about the possibility of this new company and we always knew I was going to be involved in some level. So I began to study the content Colene was training on. Then I began to create content for the business and then in late 2021, I joined the business full time. That's right. And now we're Retention Architects.
So why Retention Architects? Well, the name came from our book Retention: Key Mindsets to Retain Top Talent. Yeah. Let me share with you how this book came to be. So Colene was speaking with Louisiana State SHERM about being the keynote at their upcoming conference. And I was aware of this. And one day I come home and she's excited and she says, "Hey, Jim, I'm going to be the keynote for Louisiana. Oh, and by the way, I promised that our book was going to be ready."
And so I was very surprised because we'd been talking about writing a book, but we hadn't pulled the trigger because we knew it was going to be a heavy lift. But that's what we did. We found a publisher. We wrote that book and in the book, Retention: Key Mindsets to Retain Top Talent. this is where we first presented our solution, which is Retention Architecture.
So we work with our clients through speaking, workshops, training, company retreats. We do executive coaching and we do consulting. Yes, we'll work short term with clients if that's what they need, but we also work longer term, sometimes up to a year to install all those components of Retention Architecture. So we really enjoy getting in there and getting to know the company and the clients. That's right. And by the way, that book was delivered on time for that conference.
So people often ask us, how is it that you work with your spouse? Because they tell us they never could And we answer. We don't know. It just works.
It might have something to do with how we met. We met on eHarmony, and if you know anything about eHarmony, you answer about 500 questions. And the goal is to match you with someone who is most like you on many different aspects. But for example, Jim and I are both creative artists. I'm a theater actress and Jim is a professional musician.
And we have our differences, too. So I think of the DISC model of human behavior. And Colene and I are both DISC certified. We go into companies and we work with teams and leaders to help them work more efficiently and produce more. So within DISC, Colene is a D personality. She's driven, determined, decisive. She really wants to get results and every company needs that type of personality, that type of leader. I, on the other hand, I am a C personality within DISC. I'm more conscientious, more careful. I really want things done right. And so together, our two personalities really complement one another, and they help us deliver a good service to our clients. That's right.
So how can we help you? It begins with a discovery call. We figure out what's your needs are, we design and implement a plan so that you can become the employer of choice.