Have you ever invested so much time, money, and energy into a new employee only for them to quit after a short amount of time, leaving you bewildered as to why?
Or maybe you hired someone who you thought was a perfect fit only to discover during onboarding that they were not a fit and you have to let them go, sometimes within their first few days, weeks, or even first month?
It is the worst isn’t it? In fact I had two people in two days send me emails about “burning through employees” or having to let someone go after THREE days… shesh. While I have yet to dig in deeper into why, my gut tells me it is a few simple tweaks at the beginning that could have made all the difference which was the inspiration for this series.
I will be the first to admit that hitting the bullseye with new hires can be a challenge – that is if you don’t know how to ready, aim, fire – which is why I know today’s edition is going to be so valuable for you.
Welcome back to the biz doctor newsletter, today I am going to share with you part 1 of my series on employee retention to help ensure your new employee sticks.
Let’s start at the beginning and get clear on what great employees want from you so you can avoid missing the mark and falling into potholes with your people.
If you’ve been in my realm for a while you know I talk alot about the difference between a player and a worker bee and today I am going to focus in on them and how to keep them happy which will trickle down to the whole organization.
First – autonomy
As you’ve heard me say time and time again. Players come with a plan. That is why they are SO valuable and give you your time back. They know the end goal and are going to use their expertise (you know the very thing you hired them for) to get you there in the most successful and efficient ways they can which are also a win-win for everyone. This means that if you try to overly control things or micromanage them more than they need (everyone needs direction and leadership, I am not saying set them free to run wild) they are not going to stick around for long.
Second – acknowledgement and appreciation
This one should really go without saying because we are all human, but here goes. Everyone needs to feel valued and like they are part of something bigger. It is easy to focus on the gaps and improvement areas which – as a recovering perfectionist – I get, but if you want someone to stick around, make sure they know how much you value and appreciate them; and acknowledge them often when they do great work. Heck I am known for doing it out of the blue and just saying thanks for being part of my team, I am glad you are here. If you don’t then resentment can start breeding like bunnies in love and pretty soon that player you counted on for so much has said sayonara.
Third – trim the fat
I hate to say this but when you are growing your business, especially when you get to the scaling stage, and you have a high performing team, players won’t tolerate people who don’t pull their weight or mediocrity – and frankly neither should you.
If you are tolerating people dialing it in or mediocrity in the team for whatever reason – sometimes I see this masquerading around a lot as business owners saying that they are being loyal to people who built the business – it is time for a good hard look in the mirror. Listen, I get it. They got you to where you are and we can appreciate their contribution along the way, however, in many cases they are not the best fit for the next iteration of the business. I have seen it more times than not that they just might be the anchor that is prohibiting you from getting (and STAYING) at the next level AND they will be one of the reasons that causes your top players to start jumping ship. And, forgive me, this might sting a little, when that happens you won’t have anyone to blame but yourself.
Let me illustrate the importance of this with this story:
I had a client recently who was dragging their heels letting someone from the “old guard” go and let me tell you…. it was painful to watch. But when he finally ripped the bandaid off it was a HUGE sigh of relieve to everyone. He felt better because he didn’t have this sword of Damocles hanging over him. The team started working together again and not avoiding this department. And the biggest win was the clients felt it too and started paying their invoices on time and not avoiding this person because of the friction they were causing. Talk about a win-win-win.
Forth – crystal clear clarity
The other big reason people don’t stick around revolves around clarity – or rather the lack of it (this is also the reason I created our most downloaded resource, the scorecard, and why the first of my 7 Cs to a high performing team is CLARITY.) If you are not clear on their role, how they fit, their expectations, path to success and growth, then my friend you have a recipe for mismatched expectations and frustration… not to mention leaking profitability and eventually resentment on one or both sides. If they can’t clearly see where they are going and know how to be successful in their role, they are going to go somewhere else.
Don’t make the mistake of skipping this step and falling into the trap of reactively hiring – I promise that if you take a beat and get crystal clear on the role and how it fits in (all things on the scorecard) so you can proactively hire it will make all the difference across the board.
Now that I have introduced you to the scorecard – the key to unlocking clarity in your team – the other thing I see causing employees to run for the exits is an onboarding process that rivals those corn mazes at halloween. You think it might be fun and you’re excited, nervous but excited… however in reality you have no idea where you are going and there are surprises around every dang corner.
Don’t be like that. Don’t throw your employees into the maze and hope they can fumble their way out. Have a plan – a simple, effective, onboarding plan… which is what we are going to dive into in next weeks edition –> keys to onboarding success.
Until then!
Lauren
p.s. Office Hours are NEXT WEEK starting at 10am CST ☕️
Got something stuck in your craw or keeping you up at night? Pop in August 17th, anytime between 10 and 11am CST to pick my brain – I’ll put on my COO hat and help you problem solve about anything having to do with business operations, teams, profitability, leadership, or scaling your business.
