If you are focusing on recruiting new employees but don’t have your retention strategy solidified, then you have your priorities out of order. That was one lesson shared during The Harvest Group’s Bill Arman and Ed Laflamme’s Landscapes 2015 workshop “Don’t Let Them Quit! Strategies to retain & grow your good people.”
The duo shared 10 areas you should focus on in your company to retain quality employees.
1. Culture: Laflamme said he worked with a company that had a maintenance and a construction division. He said the construction division was losing money because the company didn’t have the type of take-charge personality needed to run the construction division, which was losing money. Laflamme asked if the company wanted to hire someone with that personality. The leaders decided against hiring a person to run the division because of culture and dropped the construction division. In addition, you can do something simple to do to create a good culture like learn your employees’ names and use them when addressing them.
2. Leadership. Arman recited the quote, “People hear your words but believe your behavior” from Mark Sanborn. For instance, if you are complaining about a whiney customer, that’s going to stick with your employees. A good leader also needs to be present when speaking with employees. “Have eye contact and don’t look somewhere else or check email,” Arman said. In addition, make sure you arrive on time for meetings and end them on time. “People leave companies if they don’t have strong leadership,” Laflamme said. “When they sense strong leadership, they gravitate toward it.”
3. Employee engagement: Don’t just tell employees to mow a lawn; ask them about any challenges they have on a job or ways they think a job can be approved.
4. Opportunities and challenges. Create a career ladder that lays out all the positions at the company and what the pay range and qualifications are for each. This may also cut down on workers asking for raises because they know what they need to do to get one.
5. Clarity of expectations. Have a formal performance review in place and make sure employees can answer these five questions:
What am I supposed to be doing?
How well should I be doing it?
How well am I doing it?
What do I need to learn?
What should I expect if I learn what I need to learn?
6. Rewards and recognition. Along with giving away trips, gift cards, parking spots and other rewards to employees for doing a good job, you can also get a little more creative. Arman gave one example from a company he works with: When a worker loses or abuses a piece of equipment, don’t reward them with new equipment. Instead, give the abusers the equipment used by workers who take care of it, and give the new stuff to people who take care of their equipment.
7. Change it up. Give new assignments and responsibilities. Move to a new territory or add one. Maybe send them a sabbatical or a road trip to a conference that they can come back and report on.
8. Give a sense of ownership: Assign responsibility and authority. You have to give leaders the rules on when they can make decisions so they don’t have to wait on the boss’ approval. Foremen should have a budget to make employees and customers happy. “The good ones will be responsible,” Arman said.
9. Training and development. In addition to on-the-job training, give employees the opportunity to take classes and training online. You can also give managers books to read and then meet with them to discuss what they’ve learned. Laflamme recommended “First, break all the rules” by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman.
10. Competitive pay and compensation. While it may be hard to know exactly what your competition is paying, you can get a good idea when interviewing employees from the competition for a job. If they say $20, you can slightly lower that, as the interviewee may have inflated it a bit. You can also develop relationships with some of your competition. Having a friendly competitor allows you to share some information you may not share with other competitors. Arman also advised evaluating your pay scale and bonuses/incentives since the market is improving since the Great Recession. “It’s an employees’ market now,” Arman said.