How to Keep Good Employees
How
To Keep Good Employees
by Tom Egelhoff
One of the most difficult tasks of running any
business is the day-to-day communication with
employees. Most businesses can point to their
very success or failure in the marketplace by
their ability to develop and keep loyal employees.
There is a tremendous cost involved in high employee turnover. Lost time and profits due to mistakes, slow production output as they learn the ropes and costs of retraining. In this article I want to discuss some ways that you can develop good employee relationships and keep them happy and loyal without breaking the bank.
What do you expect of your employees?
Most employers would say, show up on time, do your job correctly, don't goof off and don't complain. And my answer to this would be, why should they do these things? Your answer would be, because I'm paying them to do these things. Yes you are, but is the dollar the way to keep loyal employees? If the money is the only incentive to work then I guarantee that your employees will depart your little family as soon as they can find a higher paying position.
But aren't they always going to do that? you ask. Some always will of course -- but many will not if there is an even greater incentive to stay. And there are many incentives that are much more important than money. Let's examine a few.
What do your employees expect from you?
They expect to be laid off if business is bad. They expect to be paid as little as possible to perform their job at their highest level. They expect to have their pay docked if they have to leave work for a family emergency. They expect to be rarely recognized for the times they catch mistakes or save the company money. They expect to be fired if they make a mistake or miss work due to illness.
Do these points sound harsh? Maybe some are but these are the very points that employees have told me over the past 30 years. There is no employer/employee relationship like there were 50 years ago. People in the 1950's and before would spend their entire working life with one company. It was not unusual for someone to go to work out of high school and rise to the executive level. So what has changed in the past 50 years of so? Why don't employees stay with companies as they once did? Let me tell you why I think they don't