Retaining Great Employees

I get fairly disgusted when a CEO says “Our people are our most important resource” and then commences with laying people off. I’ll bet that the CEO who says this doesn’t go to the IT department and throw computers out the window! The reality is that people, for many companies, are to be used to obtain what they want. And this attitude is a large part of the reason these companies are losing money and prestige.

If you want to thrive during recessionary times and kick butt during boom cycles, start with your people. The time and aggravation that goes into replacing one loyal and competent employee that company policies have torqued off one too many times is enormous, not to mention the financial cost of Churn. So start with some basic principles in your business and you will find that you will be a sought-after company to work with.

1). Understand that if your employees ar unhappy, nobody is happy. This includes your customers. Employees who are treated well and are happy help you keep customers. I know this is new and interesting information to some employers out there.

2). Kill bureaucracy. The piling of rules upon rules is unnecessary. The reaction of many companies to something going wrong with ONE employee is to write a rule about it. Kick out he rules-based people at once. Handle the problem with the one employee rather than making it global.

3). Make things easy and employee oriented. There is no real reason why an employee should have to fill out 5,942,853 forms in triplicate to go to the bathroom. It is some idiot on a power trip that puts these things in place. Make it simple as possible to access benefits, take care of family emergencies, and so on. If you have a desire to control other people, you don’t belong in management at all. Go be a prison guard or something where being a control freak might actually be O.K…though I doubt it, even in that situation.

4). Pay your employees as well as you can afford to. I am absolutely disgusted by companies where the difference between the lowest paid employee and the highest paid employee is 9000%. Let that CEO make less, and the people in the trenches make more.

5). Let everyone have the same benefits. Our employees get exactly the same benefits as my wife and I, the principals, do. Exactly.

6). Put management in the trenches. Grease Monkey is a great company. Executives at Grease Monkey have to lube cars, and every other job that everyone does before they can make even one executive decision. Imagine what it would do for morale if the CEO of GM worked on an assembly line a few times a year.

7). Share the pain. If things have to be cut or reduced, make sure that management has AT least as much pain as the lowest paid worker.

8). Share the success. Companies where the employees get a slice of company profits or bonuses based on what the whole company does have employees who really understand the concept of “teamwork.” Many companies talk about “everyone is part of the team,” but what they really mean is “you’re my slaves, now go make me money.” DOGBERT’S MANAGEMENT SECRETS is the most honest management manual on the market. Buy it and do everything the opposite of what Dogbert recommends. Make your employees truly a part of the team. Share the winnings with them.

9). Don’t treat them like children. Most people are honest and want to do a great job. They just discouraged by the office politics, the power-hungry managers, low pay, and gross inequities. Companies that have remedied these things have loyal employees who will do anything for the company. Treat employees like responsible adults and they’ll usually behave that way.

10). Involve them in decision making. Companies who involve their employees in decision making have much happier, and much more reasonable, employees. No one likes to be ordered around or have something forced on them from the top. I’ve found that employees will do things to their own detriment if they’re involved in the process and see it is for the company good.

11). Give them detailed information. In the companies I’ve run, the books are completely open to every employee. When I make a job offer, I run a spreadsheet showing the prospective employee exactly what I’ll make or lose on them, and how much he or she has as total cost to the company. Companies are generally too paranoid and security conscious. While trade secrets should be kept quiet, finances should be generally available to all employees. This will eliminate lots of arguments, unless, of course, employees are getting shafted so management can enjoy undeserved benefits. The more information you give employees, the more involved they feel in decisions that effect them. Be open and above board in every piece of information possible, including what everyone is making in the company. If you’re ashamed to do this, maybe you should evaluate what you’re making a bit.

12). Be generous. Do things for employees that are generous acts of kindness. Google and other companies that do this have very productive employees who never leave.

13). Throw “do more with less” out the window. It is insanity to have employees working 80 hour weeks, or all weekend long. It is also very bad business. Well-rested employees with balanced lives are more competent and more productive than exhausted and burned out employees. Whatever idiot keeps telling companies to make their employees do more with less should be knee-capped.

14). Pay employees for giving back. Hourly employees should be paid their hourly rate for giving back to the community. Companies that have programs like this have very high employee retention, and excellent PR. Pay employees for 25 – 40 a year working for charity, their religious institution, or community service work. This doesn’t cost, it pays. And give them time during the business day to do this community work.

The above are some of the “best practices” that proactive and successful companies are taking. Companies following these best practices have great employee morale, unbelievably low Churn, and higher productivity per employee. If you are still operating in the 19th Century and treating employees like recalcitrant children, get over yourself. Time to come up to the 21st Century and succeed!

J.