GETTING AND KEEPING GOOD STAFF
The attracting, hiring, and the keeping of good staff, has a lot to do with the attitude of the owners and executives toward staff.
When staff members are only tolerated because they are necessary ingredients for the company to produce its products, there is often a high staff turnover.
In order to attract good staff, there has to be opportunities for their personal growth. Just as you as business owners and execs want expansion and improved futures, so do personnel.
When I hear a lot of criticisms about personnel from business owners and execs, I usually find that there is very little staff training occurring, little to no opportunity for advancement, and very often no bonus system in place.
It takes the whole team to build an ever-expanding organization. This means that all staff has to have an opportunity to personally do better and feel like they're going somewhere in their life.
When business owners like people in general and want everyone around them to grow and do well in life, especially financially, their businesses will most likely expand and flourish. When they don’t like people or don’t think that their staff would like opportunities to do better, they will have a hard time hanging onto team players and drivers.
When business owners have built their businesses to provide a certain lifestyle for themselves and their family, the expansion will level off at that point they’ve achieved that lifestyle. Try as they may, that level will be hard to crack unless they decide they want all their staff to reach their lifestyle goals as well.
When you help others become successful and help them achieve their goals, you cannot help but become even more successful yourself.
An HR person that had worked for General Electric told me that they promoted each staff member every two years. I realized that this was a great policy because I have observed that team players that have been on the same post for about two years often become bored and lose their enthusiasm for what they are doing or begin looking for another job. The two-year itch starts setting in.
I remember a doctor attending one of my workshops with two of his staff, and they had been having a problem with one of their receptionists. They all had something negative to say about this person. The doctor did not want to let her go because in the past she had been a great receptionist. A couple of weeks later I was talking to the doctor, and he asked me if I remembered the receptionist that they had talked about. He said he was opening a new office and offered this receptionist the office manager position in the new office. The receptionist accepted and has been their best staff member ever since. I thought to myself, “you’re a very smart doctor.” She just needed a new challenge. The reception post was not challenging anymore.
You have to have continuous expansion in any business to accommodate the needs for expansion of all your staff. They have to have an opportunity to better themselves and achieve their goals.
I hope this is data is helpful. Don’t hesitate to email or call me for advice on your next steps to create expansion for your team players.
Sincerely,
Graham Payne