Advanced Retention: Keep your best employees working for you
Advanced Retention: Keep your best employees working for you
It’s your turn to prove how good you are — let your light shine!
This concludes our four-part series featuring Mel Kleiman, a writer and speaker who specializes in presentations on all aspects of finding, recruiting, and retaining hourly employees. His best-selling book, Hire Tough, Manage Easy, is available through most booksellers and can be obtained directly from Humetrics, as can specifics on speaking engagements — at (800) 627-4473.
"Remember, your competition wants your best employees more than they want your best customers," says human resources expert Mel Kleiman, president and founder of Houston-based Humetrics Inc., and managing partner of the Hire Tough group. "If they hire your best employees, they can easily acquire many more best customers."
Kleiman points out that discovering just who your top people are usually poses no problem at all. "How many times have you walked into a place and seen a picture of the employee of the month on the wall with the person’s name on it?" he asks. "I love putting up employee of the month signs. But in today’s tight labor market, I think it’s very risky to announce such rewards in public view. I’ve decided that when I want a new employee, I’m going to make it a point to find out who my competition’s employee of the month is!"
Be sure you make a good first impression
In addition to refraining from flaunting your best employees before the eyes of your competitors, Kleiman emphasizes that employers must approach retaining good employees every bit as conscientiously as they did recruiting, interviewing, and checking references.
"The No. 1 key to retaining people is orientation," Kleiman advises. "And the key to successful orientation is how well you as an employer handle your new employee’s first day. This is your chance to shine."
He makes the analogy that when we go to a restaurant where the food and service are great, we go back for more. "Have you ever gone to a restaurant that you found out later was one of the best around, but on the day you were there the food wasn’t good and the service wasn’t great?" he asks. "You never go back. But if when you return to the first restaurant, and the food and service slipped maybe just a little, you’ll give them another chance because they made such a positive first impression. If you make a bad impression on your new employee’s first day, how are you ever going to get it straightened out? Sometimes you can never turn a bad first impression around, no matter what you do." He adds that if you make that first day great, you’ll be good in your employees’ eyes for a long time.
Make orientation a positive experience
Kleiman suggests that the first thing you do after hiring a new employee is send a letter confirming the job and start date. The letter should be upbeat and welcoming, as in, We’re really looking forward to having you with us. And to make your first day the best we possibly can, rather than you having to come in and fill out paperwork, I’ve included all your pre-employment paperwork with this letter so you can fill it out before you come to work. That way, we can start on a very positive note by doing those things that can really help you get acclimated to the company.’"
This not only avoids a paperwork-caused delay on your new employee’s first day, but you’ve got them working on their own time. "What did you just do? You became a little bit better than all the competition out there," he says. "It’s the little things that make the difference, that make you stand out."
"Remember," Kleiman says, "if I’m willing to work in the home health care field, there are lots of places I can go. I don’t have to work for you."
Be prepared to make a new employee’s first day as positive as it can possibly be. Are you prepared for your new employee to walk in the door on that first day? If that person needs a desk, is it ready? If she needs a phone extension, is that ready?
Most people have new employees start first thing on Monday. "What’s it like in your business first thing Monday morning?" Kleiman asks. "Chances are it’s hectic. Don’t start new people then." He stresses the importance of telling new private duty health care workers why the job is so important.
Orientation, he points out, is telling new employees about the company, letting them understand why the job is important. He emphasizes the importance of counseling employees on the need to make caring for people a positive experience. "You have to convince new employees that your company is a positive place for them to have a positive impact on others’ lives, and that your company as an organization cares not only about your customers, but even more about your employees because they’re the people who are making your customers important."
To assure your new employees’ orientation will be a positive experience, Kleiman recommends assigning a buddy to them, someone to whom they can go when they need help and you’re not personally available. Make sure the buddy is an upbeat, positive person. And always have the manager debrief each new employee at the end of the first four days to make sure they have a positive work experience. Ask, "How did it go? What kind of problems did you have? How can we be more helpful to you?"
"It doesn’t take more than a few minutes to touch base, but it makes a big difference," Kleiman says. If possible, at the end of the first week, the manager’s manager should spend a few minutes with the new employee.
Accentuate the positive
Recognition is the biggest single motivator for good work performance. Kleiman stresses letting your employees know the positive difference they make: "Thank them frequently for the work they are doing and how much they are helping you to take care of your customers." He points out that the best recognition is positive, the second best is negative, and the worst kind is no recognition at all.
"During an employee’s first week or even month, most managers will give their new people positive recognition," Kleiman says. But by the second month, the manager has learned to expect the employee to do a good job and doesn’t tell the employee anything. If you’re really good, you get taken for granted."
Not only do the best employees not get continuing recognition, he points out, but they are usually assigned to the hardest cases. "So four months later, your great new employee is ready to quit. She’ll tell you she’s quitting because you aren’t paying enough, but that’s not all of it. The key is you’re not paying enough for all the extra stuff she’s taking. So pay her more. Your best people are worth more money to you. They don’t cost you money. They make money for you!"
Keeping your people motivated people means rewarding them in the way they want to be rewarded. Sometimes employees are not rewarded by getting more money, but by getting to choose the shifts they work.
Are we having fun yet?
"Have more fun," Kleiman counsels, and notes that more than 70% of the workers in most industries will seek another place of employment if they think working there is more fun. "How much fun do you make working for you? Find reasons to celebrate."
He notes that a private duty home care aide caring for a super-cranky client, or dealing with difficult family members, or working in a super-messy house isn’t having any fun at all. It’s often not particularly pleasant work. "You can’t make the work itself fun, so you’ve got to make working for you fun. Birthday parties, pumpkin-carving contests, biggest month, biggest week, most grotesque customer — it doesn’t matter what you celebrate, what matters is that you celebrate. Remember, you are putting people out there alone, and that’s often very hard."
It should go without saying that you must respect your employees. Lack of respect for privacy and physical boundaries are practices unworthy of any employer. However, employers often need to be reminded that respect and psychological spaciousness are inextricably linked. Kleiman notes that such spaciousness provides precisely the same benefits in the metaphysical environment of relationships as it does in the physical environment of work. It creates a sense of comfort and ease, and allows people room to move without getting in each other’s way. "Respect is more than just treating your employees with consideration," says Kleiman. "It includes nurturing their confidence and allowing them the psychological space they need to keep on doing the good and very difficult work they do."
• Mel Kleiman, President, Humetrics Corp., 8300 Bissonnet St., Suite 490, Houston, TX 77074. Telephone: (800) 627-4473. Fax: (713) 771-0501. E-mail: [email protected].
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