Respecting, training, and retaining your current employees is cheaper than starting over again and again. By Duke Barnhill #000354

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Retaining Employees

By Duke Barnhill

Hi! My name is Duke Barnhill, I’m a former retail manager for about 25 years and today we’re going to talk to you about employee retention. One of the biggest things that can affect any business is losing an employee. It affects morale, it affects work ethic, it affects the entire group and culture. Is one of the most important things that a business can develop and the development comes from the top and it filters down. So if you manage a business you’ve always got to be what you expect of your employees. You’ve got to be that person.

Employees watch everything that a manager or a business owner does and then they emulate that. There’s an old saying that goes attitude reflects leadership. And if you don’t reflect what you want out of your employees you’re not going to see that in return. So, if it’s going the extra mile, if it’s putting in a little extra effort to make something spectacular, then you’ve got to hold yourself accountable as an employer to get those results from your employees.

Employees again like I said they watch everything a manager does. One of the most important things is recognition. Recognize the work that they put in the hard work, the extra effort and it will give you returns that are just astronomical. Treat your employees the way that you want to be treated, the golden rule. Ensure that as you walk through your day, they have specific direction.

Employee retention is thwarted by employees who have too much time on their hands and if they feel like they’re not completing a task, or they’re never given the opportunity to show off their work then they won’t feel appreciated. Don’t move them from one task to the next to the next to the next without ever giving them the opportunity to complete something. Completion is very important for most people, they want to see a job start to finish. They want that sense of accomplishment just like we all do. So ensure that you’re giving them the opportunity. Now if it’s phase work and they understand that, that it’s a step process and this is just part of that step and that’s clearly defined then you won’t see a lot of the grumbling that might occur with being pulled from one project to the next.

Don’t punish your performers. Try to keep an equal expectation with everyone. One of the major downfalls of most employers is they find an employee that really shines and they’re hungry and they go out and they try to do a lot of things just to please the boss and other employees become jealous and they don’t get that recognition. So things that I’ve learned from corporations that I’ve worked for, small businesses, large businesses is that everybody needs a paycheck at the end of the week but the money is kind of irrelevant if they have a great place to work. So set the tone as the operator, as the owner, set that tone.

Challenge them in ways with competitions, who can do this the best, who can do this the fastest and then throw them a little kicker from time to time whether it be money or a free dinner or bringing breakfast to give them some kind of incentive that shows that you really appreciate the hard work that they’re putting in for you. Is there a process that you go through before you fire somebody? Do you have a warning system? There is, when you lose an employee based on typically it’s productivity, failure to follow direction, you know, if you give clear direction on something that needs to be done and that employee just doesn’t do it, one thing that you’ve got to do first is maybe evaluate their skill sets. Did you set them up for failure from the beginning? Did you give them enough information about the task at hand to be completed? So always before you give constructive criticism or feedback always look at how you presented this to your employee because you may have failed them.

Typically, most employers say that when an employee leaves the company or the business that somewhere along the lines the business failed that employee before they decided to cut ties. So one simple method that I have adopted over the years is called the TSDR method. It’s tell somebody what you want done, show them, give them a little example, do a little bit with them and then go back and reflect upon what they’ve done. TSDR, Tell, Show, Do and Review. That’s an amazing acrostic, that’s an acronym for how to keep things in line. Don’t ever give them too much. Give them a little bit of a glimpse of what you want and you can do so much with five employees if every day when you have an opportunity to talk to and walk with that employee and say I have five things I want you to do today. You write them down, have them write them down, carry a little notepad with you if you can and then that way they have something to reflect upon. They can take notes and then you can go back and talk about it together, talk about the successes though, really build them up continue to motivate them through recognition and acknowledgement. That is one of the most important things besides their paycheck. They can go anywhere and make a paycheck, so make sure that you are recognizing your employees for the job well done that they do and that leads to better retention rates. Just a little you know, words to the wise and I’ve learned from multiple failures in order to be a success. So take with it what you can and hope you’ve learned something today, and best of luck to you guys!