Welcome to episode 56 of Season 2 of Baktari MD! In this episode we talk about the importance of Employee Retention and how it can make or break your organization! Need to find out why? Don't wait, find out all of this and more in the full episode!
Welcome to episode 56 of Season 2 of Baktari MD! In this episode we talk about the importance of Employee Retention and how it can make or break your organization! Need to find out why? Don't wait, find out all of this and more in the full episode!
Understanding the environment. If the environment is not optimal for what you're asking them to do, it can hurt you. Hi. Welcome to another episode of Baktari MD. As you know, this season we're doing Crash CEO School, where we go over all the skill sets you need to take your organization to the next level. All right, well, a couple things I want to talk about. I've been asked a few times now by people around me how I come up with the topics for Crash CEO School, and whether I create the topics myself or use outside resources. By and large, I actually come up with the topics and my filter is what I would have liked to have known when I was starting out. So in many ways, think of this as a, a speech back to myself when I was first taking on leadership roles and things I wish I knew. And then the other thing is that I don't really use outside material. Most of the stuff I talk about is not rehash stuff that you're going to find in business books, but more practical things that you're going to need to survive and take your organization to the next level. Speaking of taking your organization to the next level, we're going to talk about probably one of the most important things any leader has to grapple with, and that is employee retention. We know that good employees are hard to find to keep, nurture, and grow. And often they can be the difference in an organization that really gets to the next level and thrives versus the ones that struggle. So we all have heard about how difficult it is these days to hire the right people and maintain and keep the same people. But in this video, I'm going to go over some key strategies about how you can retain your employees. What you can do to really make a difference, because the cost of replacing employees and training them is, is so much, not only in terms of just the cost of training them, but the lost opportunity. So I'm going to go through that. So let's talk about number one thing in employee retention. If you want to really make an impact on employee retention. Number one hire right. Meaning hire correctly. If you don't invest time in your hiring process. Employee retention is going to be impacted. I did a whole video on hiring and interviewing. I'll put a link up there. but take a look at that. But you know, often if someone's not right for a job, they don't actually even have the skill set necessarily for that job, but they're hired for whatever reason. Employee retention is going to be an issue. I think people can either invest up front in making sure that it's a good fit both ways, or you can find out later that it's just not a good fit and it's going to impact. So having said that, let's talk about the advantages of having a company that does really well with employee retention Before I tell you you know how to fix it. Number one, if you have employee retention, a high level of employee retention, you're going to benefit from the knowledge and experience that those long term employees and or staff or leaders give you. And they are going to be critical in terms of problem solving, crisis management opportunities that pop up. So it's not the same product necessarily. Oh, a person who has been with you for five- one year and a person who has been with you for five years, you may think they're putting out the same product, but really there's a lot of institutional knowledge and information, that the person who has been here for five years has often that the person new doesn't, and you're going to miss out on that. So if you’re constantly have a turnstile where people are coming in and out of your organization, you're going to miss out a lot. So number one advantage of having good employee retention is the knowledge and experience you're going to gain from those long term leaders staff. Number two, they're going to be a model for others. You know when people come to an organization they look around say, oh, everyone's new. It's like a revolving door. They already basically have made their exit plans, too. So long term employees set the culture and attitude that this is a great place to invest and grow, and it actually will impact other people who are just joining the organization. Next thing about employees that have been with you for a while is they become a really good breeding ground for recruiting management, right? Because who is the best person to lead a new department to lead a new, service you're providing? The best person would obviously be someone who has already been with you that you can promote in the ranks. So think of, employee retention, giving you access to a pool. it's like your own little mini indeed program, where you have a pool of people that you can pick from. So if a new client comes in and you have to open a new office, a new service, you can go to the pool of long term leaders and say, oh, well, you know, Bill would be great for that. Suzy would be great for that. So think about that. Now there's cost. So we talked about the advantage. But what about the cause. It's actually the reverse right. So there is a cost, as we all know, to hire and retrain someone who who's new. So that is the financial number, whether it's 15, 20,000, until they get up and running, you're going to have to pay that cost. So every time somebody leaves a position and you have to refill it, cha-ching cha-ching cha-ching cha-ching, you're you're hitting the cash register, you're losing money. You're losing money. And so it's not a win. Now obviously if the person is not a good fit. Yeah that does. Yeah. It's is time to part. That's fine because you're going to lose more money the other way. But all things being equal, every time you have to replace an employee, your it is it has a cost associated with it. Right. and then also when you lose that person, you lose their knowledge, their experience. They may know your vendors well, they may know your clients well and all of that experience will go out the window. Right. You've all seen that email that goes out. Hi. You know, I just want let all my clients know this is my last week working at so-and-so. And all those relationships that were built, you know, potentially goes out the window if you have a high rate of, you know, people leaving. And lastly, revolving door, you know, employees that come and go is really bad for morale because people just assume that this is not a great place to really invest in. So think about that. Let's now go through the meat of this video, which is what what do we have to do to get involved in employee retention. So there's several aspects. Obviously we're going to talk about having an employee retention program. But before we even get to that, let's go through the list of things that you may need to be aware of. You know, we already talked about hiring correctly. So if you hire wrong, none of this is really going to help. Right? Because persons' not qualified if it's not a good fit, if they really didn't want to work remotely or they didn't want this, or they didn't want that, you you're not going to be able to fix something that's simply not a good fit, right? So number one is pay and pay structure. You don't always have to be the highest paying, company for that position, but you certainly have to be in the ballpark and you certainly have to have room for growth. So their pay bonus structure or whatever else has to be in line. Now, you can use other things like, you know, more upside, other benefits, but you still have to really be in the ballpark and think of that. Number two is managing expectations. One of the most common reasons people leave their position, especially early on, is when they get started is not clearly defined what their, they'll be doing. I had a friend of mine who recently said, you know, I got this new job and I'm really unhappy. And I said, why? He goes well because they didn't tell me there would be this much sales involved. I thought I would be just more managing. Hearing him talk, it made me think, you know, had someone said to him, you know, 30% of your job is going to be sales and he if he was emotionally prepared, I'm not sure it would have been the same or not the same, but it's certainly had a better chance of working if the expectations of what the job would be potentially the hours, who you'd be interacting, where you would physically be. Will you have your own office? Will you have a cubicle? Will you have help? Managing expectations is really something that requires time. And even during the interview process, you have to repeat that once they start. So there's no misunderstanding because often in a heat of an interview, people don't necessarily ask follow up questions. But definitely by the time they're starting, you need to re drill down saying, okay, well, listen, 30% of this job is going to be sales, like we said during your interview, and let's help you get prepared for that portion of it. So managing expectations is number two. eNational Testing makes getting a simple laboratory test as easy as ordering something online. With three simple steps, you can have your test ordered for STDs, general health, allergy testing, diabetes screening, blood titers, and more! 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But remember, culture means that people feel that the organization they belong to has certain values, and that is, and some of the most leading values are that one. They're respected. They are not taken for granted. They're not a widget in the organization. You're not just churning that, you know, employees. And there could be any warm body that's needed that you have to make an effort to value people genuinely. And part of that, and I, I've talked about this in some of my other videos, is not to have a top down, decision making where everything comes from the top and goes to the bottom without having people involved having a stake in decisions. So all of that, you know, goes to contributing to culture. If you can create a thriving culture where people feel respected, valued and and genuinely cared for, I think you're going to see that that dramatically impacts employee retention. Number five is enrolling people into vision. I find that organizations that have a vision of what they're trying to do, the a difference they're trying to make in the world, a part of the sector, a sector that they're trying to, you know, get into so they can grow this and they can grow that. If you communicate the the vision effectively. Often that gives people a sense of purpose. They realize we're all in the same boat, we're fighting for the same thing. And that can make a big, big difference. The next one is room for advancement. If people feel like there's no room to grow. Right. If someone can, you know, start at the bottom and work their way on top, that's ideal. But if they feel that there's a glass ceiling, that really can impact all the above that we talked about, people have to believe that if they come in and do a great job, that they are going to make an impact. So having said all that, these are the ingredients of an employee retention, but then you actively have to go out and have an employee retention program. And let me tell you what that's going to mean, or how we're going to outline an employee retention program. So I think when most people think, of, of a format for an employee retention program, they kind of think like, oh, we're going to just, you know, do something nice for the employees, which is true. So we're going to talk about employee, program. And one of them is to have outings, right. That typically what you think, you know, take have the staff go out once a month or have lunch brought in or do things that, they do collectively. That's not work. Right? So having employee outing is really, really important. especially of course, during the holidays, but even throughout the year to have different types of outing. Next thing is employee recognition. Do you have a system in place which acknowledges people for doing amazing work or getting to a certain point? It's very, very important that, you know, when people go the extra mile that obviously a thank you and appreciation, but having some sort of employee recognition program is really, really important. Number three is remembering milestones, right? It's very, very important whether it's birthdays, anniversaries, whether they have a new kid, they're getting near retirement, whatever. It's very, very important that you celebrate milestones together. Right. So I think that is just one the right thing to do is the decent thing to do. But I also I think it communicates a sense of community that we're all in it together. The next one I'm going to tell you is the most important one, which I saved for the second to last, because I don't think I've ever lost an employee or not. Not really. If deploying this strategy, which is especially for new employees, which I would say is once a week, if I can use a medical term to take their temperature, meaning have a conversation with them, not about any topic at all, just in general. Sort of take their temperature. Because here's the thing. If someone is unhappy that unhappiness normally brews over time, but it does just very few people say, oh, I hate this place or whatever, or I hate the whatever. It usually is a build up of the things. And what happens is no one is taking the person's temperature. If the thing is brewing week after week after week after week, and then at a certain point, obviously it just gets past the point of being able to be fixed. So one of the things I say is whether you and the people you're managing or your leaders on the people they're managing is to have a program where once a week you sit down with a person with no agenda, like and a lot of open. So how's the department going? How are you feeling? anything you want to share, anything I can do. How can I help you in any way? Really vague, open ended stuff to just take their temperature right. And see how they're doing. I would argue it's almost, next to impossible to lose someone that you're the direct supervisor of. If you're meeting them with a weekly with no agenda. I'm not talking about a client not talking about, you know, feedback on their work, whatever, simply to take their temperature. So think about that. That's probably the most important thing. And if you can teach that to your senior leaders and the people they're managing, and you could teach that to the people below them and the people they're managing to once a week to really sit down with everybody and take it. And it could be just walking by their their cubicle or their office poking your head in, say, hey, do you have two minutes? Just want to say hello. How was your weekend? Anything you want to share with me? Lastly is an exit interview. So when it doesn't work out often you want to hear why. So I think, a lot of companies are really good at that. Some are not. But to, you know, find out what the issues were because sometimes you'll find out it just wasn't a good fit. Right? It's just for whatever reason. But sometimes you do find out something that you can theoretically address. So that's, you know, that's important. And a lot of people maybe don't want to invest in it, but when you really look at employee retention globally, what you realize is it involves management, investing time in the people that they're supervising, right? And investing time in them, coaching them, helping them, understanding them. But I think that that, along with everything else we talked about today, goes into having a very successful employee retention program. Okay. So that's the video. Thank you so much. If you have any comments please leave them below. Also, don't forget to like and subscribe and we will see you on the next video. Take care. Bye bye.