Step 3: Ask Employees What They Want One of the easiest and most effective ways to keep good people, Kaye says, is to ask them what’s important to them. “Instead of doing exit interviews, companies should start doing ‘stay’ interviews,” she says.
A strategy she uses in her own company, Kaye says a “stay” interview asks such questions as:
“Why is this so hard to ask?” she says. “Most managers say, ‘We’re afraid people will say ‘I want more money or a different job,’ and then we’re stuck because we can’t give it.’ Then nod your head and say the truth:‘My hands are tied on money. What else is critical? I really want to get to something to make you happy because I really want to keep you.’ When you give up too soon, you lose that precious data.”
Central Valley Builders Supply, based in St. Helena, Calif., has its 250 employees do self-assessments about what motivates them, human resources director Marybeth Sizelove says. For some, it’s money; for others, it’s recognition or the opportunity to develop new skills. The assessments are given to the employees’ supervisors to help create individual rewards and recognition that the employees will value.
Company-wide, employees are recognized for customer service and as employees of the month. Initially, only supervisors could nominate their staff, but now anyone can make the nomination. The nomination letters are posted in the employee lunch room for the month and the nominated employee gets a copy of the letter to keep.
Dunn Lumber has two formal recognition programs: an annual, no-expenses-spared awards banquet for employees and spouses, and an ongoing “Extra Efforts” recognition program in which anyone can recognize someone who went the extra mile. Thank-you cards include a token that can be exchanged for gifts or paid days off. George gets a copy of each card, and she circulates them to senior management.
“Employees love it,” she says. “You can walk by their areas and see where they have plastered their walls with their cards. It’s as much about getting the written thanks as the reward. The employees are actually reluctant to cash in their tokens because they like to display them. And it doesn’t cost us much at all.”
Step 4: Build Your Bench One of the top reasons that people leave a company is a lack of opportunity to grow personally and professionally. While dealers know that technical training is important to give employees the expertise that pro customers demand, many have discovered that relationship training makes employees feel connected to customers, improves their image, and can pay off in dramatic ways for a dealer, too.
Boone County Lumber trains all its drivers to say four things on every delivery: announce their arrival, ask where the materials should be placed, ask if there is anything that needs to be returned or if they need any additional items, and to thank the customer for his or her business. A driver did that one day when a customer was talking to a competitor’s salesman, Eiffert says. “The customer turned to the salesman and said, ‘See that? That’s what I never got from you guys,’” he says. “It’s so simple, just that personal, human touch. But if you didn’t train on it, it wouldn’t happen consistently.”
Supervisors also play a critical role in retaining employees, as most people leave their jobs because they are dissatisfied with their bosses, experts say. To help head off employee/manager problems at the pass, Central Valley Builders Supply trains its managers with the book “First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently,” which teaches them about giving their staff the tools they need to do their jobs, whether it’s access to a database, a flexible work schedule, educational courses, or a pair of safety goggles.
