Cocktails with Carl
Reducing Employee Turnover
We’ve recently had a couple of employees decide to leave the Company. It happens, even in the best-run organizations, but it’s still hard to admit out loud. As a business owner, I take these departures to heart so it bruises my ego when someone tells me they no longer want to be a part of something that I am leading. This rejection is painful and anyone that tells you differently is lying.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t end there. In fact, the hardest part of employee turnover is just beginning. Losing talented and valuable team members is expensive. It costs both time and money to search for, find and train a great replacement. It’s also a big interruption to your team's continuity.
While eliminating employee turnover altogether is an impossibility, there are a number of things we can do as business owners to reduce employee departures. Below are some suggestions to help you retain your most valuable assets, your team members.
Create, publish and adhere to a clear set of values. What does your company believe in and what is guiding its decision-making process? A written set of values will provide a roadmap for everyone to be on the same page, or perhaps to help them realize that they are not (and that’s ok-see below).
Hire (and fire) right. Once the values are established, stay 100% disciplined in following them. This means challenging both your current team members and any potential new hires to evaluate their fit in relation to the values. Is there alignment? If not, move on. It sounds counter to what we are discussing, but removing the people that are not a good fit can sometimes be the best move to help retain your most valuable employees. I call this addition by subtraction.
Offer competitive pay and benefits. This one is obvious but can be surprisingly difficult in a small business environment with limited resources. Certain shortcomings here can be made up for with other perks that larger companies may not have the flexibility to provide. There are a lot of options; flex time, generous PTO, quarterly incentives, food, and beverage, etc. Get creative. The important thing is to do your market research and communicate effectively with your employees about their expectations.
Listen to your employees and implement their ideas to improve the culture. As owners, we don’t always have all the answers. For example, we’ve recently gone to a full flex schedule for our team at their urging. We’ve also implemented summer Fridays where the office closes at noon every Friday between Memorial and Labor Day. At one point I was resistant to these ideas but am now happy we have enacted them-and more importantly-the team is too.
Encourage active learning and help prepare employees for advancement. The best employees want to make sure they are moving forward. The challenge is competing against large businesses with budgets to fund grad school tuitions, vast internal training programs, and structured layers built for climbing. Small businesses generally can’t offer these things. The key here is to emphasize real hands-on experience and trust-building over a scripted process attached to a job title with restricted responsibilities. Our team members are learning at a much swifter pace and with much more at stake. Their decisions have a lasting impact. While that informality can be scary and there is definitely a risk for the business, the reward for the employee is accelerated experience and growth, placing them in a much better position to succeed in the future. That’s a big advantage.
The good news is that following the above steps will most certainly help create a healthy, thriving culture that your team will want to stick around to experience. The bad news is that eliminating employee turnover completely is a futile exercise. People are inevitably going to leave. So until then, control what you can and embrace the uncertainty. And finally, if someone does decide to leave, take my last piece of advice and say to yourself, “this is another opportunity for us to get better”. Then start the process of finding the next difference-maker for your company.
Good Luck.
August Cocktail: Tito’s Transfusion
I discovered this great summer drink on the golf course this year and have become quite fond of it. Give it a try.
What you will need:
2 ozs Tito’s Handmade Vodka
2 ozs Ginger Ale
1 oz Purple Grape Juice
¼ oz Fresh Lime Juice
Lime Wedge Garnish
Fill a highball glass with ice. Pour in the Tito’s, grape juice, lime juice then top off with the ginger ale. Stir. Garnish with the lime wedge.