The Four Pillars of Employee Retention

Hello everyone. Thank you for joining the second webinar of our 2017 series for Cleantelligent. My name is Randy Anderson and I am the senior Software coach here at cleantelligent, and I've been really excited to talk to all of you today because I'll be sharing a lot of beneficial information on a topic I'm particularly passionate about. Also, just so you all know, this webinar is being recorded and will be available to watch on our website. In our last webinar, Adam Mears discussed several ways to improve company growth, and I actually find that to be a great segue into today's webinar. This month we are focused on employee training and retention. Over the past year or so, we have interviewed and surveyed cleaning business leaders and found that this is one of the most important topics they're concerned about. Which is why the title of today's webinar is the Four Pillars of Retention. But before I get started, just a little bit about me. I've been a coach in the customer support department at cleantelligent for almost five and a half years now. I've been working with cleaning companies like yourself throughout the country to help them improve their business processes and make things more efficient. Cleantelligence and my goal is to help make life easier. When a company comes to us, I try to learn as much about their organization as I can. I focus on what their employees do each day and try to incorporate what we offer to make things easier. I want to see companies succeed, and catering to their most valuable asset, their employees, is a huge part of that. With company growth, there comes a greater need for dedicated and happy employees. Turnover can be very common in this industry, but it doesn't have to be. That's why today I want to talk about a few ways to help improve employee retention. So just to outline our roadmap today, I'll start by going through each of the four pillars, which are culture, processes, communication, and technology. I'll also talk a little bit about how clintelligent can help with employee retention, and then I'll finish up by talking more about the details of our special ebook we offer. So let's get started. Our first pillar is culture. With culture, we're referring to the people who are, who are, or who could be working for us. This is our first pillar because it's important for us to understand the goals and desires of those who are currently and who may potentially be a part of our workforce. And currently, Millennials are the majority of that workforce. From much of our research with regards to what Millennials look for in any employment, we found several interesting ideas. First, I want to share a statistic from an article I found on learning and development that I thought was very interesting. It was that a whopping 91% of millennials plan to stay at a job for less than three years. I thought that was kind of crazy, but when I thought back to when I first started this job, my current job, I remembered that I actually thought the same thing. I didn't plan to be here for more than two years. I thought it was just going to be a job to help me get through school. The article continues by saying that this is because Millennials often feel that most organizations don't invest in their knowledge and skills. And I think I may have thought that myself when I first started. It's just not something you expect from any employer because it hasn't been that common in the past. Most jobs I've had just want you to come do the work and that's it. One more statistic from the same article is that 78% of employees would stay with their current organization if they knew their career path. I thought that was interesting as well. We also found that for a high percentage it isn't just about a bigger paycheck, which I think for most people hearing that is a little surprising at first, but it's true. While earning more is definitely a motivation, it isn't the top priority. Millennials want to invest time in acquiring skills and knowledge that will help them grow professionally. For many, growth and fulfillment are factors they look for in a long lasting career. They want to be inspired. They want to be a part of social causes and have a sense of purpose. And if they can find an organization that wants the same for them, they will be more likely to stick around and be more committed. Investing in their knowledge and helping them learn new skills isn't the only way to improve employee retention. Offering more or unique and desirable benefits is another way to attract new employees and tend your current employees to stay longer. One benefit that is more possible these days because of technology is a more flexible schedule. Because it's not so much about filling the hours to get the paycheck, but more about getting the work done and getting it done right. With that in mind, a flexible schedule just makes sense. I'm not saying people should just be able to come and go when they please, and most of us are under some kind of time constraint. But having the option of flexibility eliminates some of the stress that comes with a job that can build up over time, a couple other benefits could include English as a second language courses or providing greater chances for advancement within your company. Both are great ways to show how invested you are in your employees. Being a company where people want to work and can see themselves committing several years to is definitely important, but another factor of employee retention is finding the employees that will be the right fit with your company. You can offer all the amazing benefits in the world, but they might not be worth it if the employee just isn't compatible with the culture of your organization. This might seem pretty obvious, but it's surprising how often it happens that someone you thought would be a good fit ends up quitting or needing to be let go and wanting to avoid those things. You do all you can to make it work, but you end up just wasting valuable efforts. So what can we do to prevent this from happening? What can we do differently to find employees that are the best fit? This leads me to our second pillar which is processes. What processes can we add or change to improve employee retention? One idea from a cleanlink article is to perform personality tests when hiring new employees. A test with questions that gear towards finding their strengths and weaknesses. I did some extra research to find what kinds of tests have been most successful, just because I was curious. And I found a Forbes article that talks about different popular tests employers use. A couple examples include the Caliper Pre Employment Assessment, which looks for both strengths and weaknesses. And there's also the Gallup course that you can take to find what you need to know about your possible employees. The idea is that you mainly want to ask questions that will give you insight into their behavioral traits with certain situations. So there may be no right or wrong answers, but each answer could tell you what kind of position they'd be best suited for. On the other hand, some very common tests you might think would be beneficial have actually proven to be not as much. One of those tests that you may have heard of is the Myers Briggs Test. This is a popular personality test that looks at where you fall in certain categories like extroversion versus Introversion or senses versus Intuition. While it might be interesting to learn these things about a person, it isn't the most telling or even valid information when in the hiring process. Hiring someone based on the answers to those kinds of questions might actually cause you to miss out on some great candidates. And on the other side of that, hiring someone purely based on their credentials could do the same thing. A well strategized personality test could give you more of the info that you really need to know I actually have a personal story I wanted to share related to this. It's not the happiest story, but it illustrates my point pretty well. A friend of mine was recently part of the hiring process to fill a position in her department and she told me that they mostly focused on credentials throughout their deliberation, which like I said, is important. It doesn't tell you everything. They interviewed a young woman that looked great on paper and must have given a good impression, so they ended up hiring her. But now, several months later, they are finding that she is often distracted from her work and just isn't invested, which is disappointing on both ends. She obviously isn't engaged in the work and is most likely not feeling fulfillment and the rest of her co workers have to pick up the slack, lessening productivity on the work they could be doing. I unfortunately don't know how things ended, but it sounded like the best option for both of them would be to find a better fit. Now I'm not saying this will never happen even after following all the right steps, but it definitely would happen a lot less often. Another process that helps employee retention is actually after the hiring process. This is a process with new employee onboarding and training. I've had a job or two in the past that basically left me alone to watch videos and learn things on my own. I'll admit I think figuring things out on your own can be a good thing under certain circumstances, but in this case it would have been much more efficient and helpful for everyone if I had been walked through everything by someone who knew well all the correct methods the position entailed, rather than me stumbling through procedures unsuccessfully and causing more cleanup than necessary. One thing they did do that I discovered later was pretty smart was the fact that they had a separate area for training. It's good to immerse your employees in the work environment when they're ready, but giving them an area dedicated to learning in the beginning will help them get there quicker. So these are just a few great processes that will aid in retaining your employees. Now I'd like to move on to our third pillar, which is communication. I personally find this to be one of the most important pillars because communication in any relationship is key and it's the same with any company. Communication isn't just important because it helps the work get done properly, but it also keeps you aware of your employees needs and concerns. And that's what is most important with employee retention. Recently, several of us here at cleantelligence started reading a book called the Speed of Trust by Stephen Mr. Covey it's been an amazing read so far, so I highly recommend it. But in it, Stephen tells a story of when he joined his company Covey Leadership center with Franklin Quest to form Franklin Covey. Soon after this merger, there was obvious friction between the two company cultures. Many from both sides had complaints about how the other company did things and there was just tension throughout. Both companies had great employees but were struggling to combine business strategies. There was a lack of trust between the two, which caused a lack of communication. Steven and the rest of the leaders decided to hold a meeting where anyone and everyone could share their concerns and frustrations. A dump session is what he called it, and management's goal was not to comment or to advise, but just to listen. Everyone that wanted to could bring up things they weren't happy about and concerns they had without any corrections or even having to give context. The idea was just to let everyone get it all out on the table. This meeting lasted for 10 hours and they even had several meetings, several similar meetings after that. From these meetings though, they discovered quite a bit. A lot of concerns that were brought up were actually just assumptions. Most of them weren't even accurate. In this situation, communication was crucial. Good communication could have prevented most, if not all misunderstandings and opened up a positive opportunity for uniting the two organizations. Now, with everything out in the open, they could begin amending these misinterpretations and continue down the road they had intended in the first place. For Franklin and Covey, a long meeting where everyone could basically just vent seemed to be exactly what they needed. Although it probably isn't necessary for many of you to spend 10 hours straight listening to all your employees at once. I hope that this story at least helps show how important communication is and if you're interested in something a little less on a little on the simpler side, I have a few other ideas to help you receive helpful feedback, avoid miscommunication, and help your employees see their value. The first idea I found is to have your employees take quick surveys on a regular basis. Surveys can be simple yet super effective. We often take surveys here at my company to give feedback on anything of note going on in the company and sometimes just about work in general. Afterwards, I always feel empowered because I've been given a voice that I know my employer takes into consideration or else why would they create the survey? Another idea is maybe setting time aside in a department meeting to listen to concerns and opinions of the group. I say this because you tend to get different kinds of feedback from a group versus just One individual. Both are great. Something my department does is schedule a time each month to talk one on one with our manager about how things are going. We get to discuss how we're feeling about our workload, what goals we'd like to accomplish, and what we've accomplished so far. I feel these meetings have been very beneficial because it's not only a way to keep me accountable to myself and to my boss, but it's also a way for me to see how essential I am to the team and see that the work I'm doing means something which is pretty fulfilling. This kind of communication is something that would be great to do from day one. Maybe instead of the first day being full of paperwork and going over safety rules, it could be more focused on introducing them to the other employees to make them feel more comfortable and help them get to know the culture of your company. And then maybe you could move right into what their job entails and why it's important. Spend a good amount of time letting them ask questions and discuss what they hope to achieve at this job. Maybe even talk about their personal goals and how they plan to reach them. This actually goes back to our second pillar processes. This would be a great way to start their training off right, you know, to get them excited and motivated. And now our fourth pillar is technology. For decades, technology has gradually revolutionized the way managers in the cleaning industry stay connected to their employees and clients. Regardless of the extent of your technological background, task management has never been easier to organize, assign, and track. Utilizing simplified technology directly combats the overwhelmed employee by eliminating information overload and improving communication. Matt Strazz, in his April 2016 Entrepreneur article called Want a Better Employee Experience? Start by Simplifying Tech suggests that when companies stick with a single technology platform, it can prevent employees from becoming overwhelmed. He says when employees need to access programs for work management, communication, benefits, calendars, and reminders, they do not want to be lost in a maze of different resources. Today, employees are implementing more and more platforms in the hopes of simplifying everyday tasks. But as Strauss says, it's not about more technology, it's about simplified technology. We want to get rid of the unnecessary steps between everyday tasks, like switching from one platform to another, and make the day more productive. We want more time to get done what really needs to get done, rather than dealing with the hassles that too much complicated technology can sometimes bring. Ultimately, when people feel less overwhelmed, they work better. Our jobs will always bring stressful situations, especially in this industry, but the programs we use shouldn't increase the stress, they should lessen it. That rounds up the rest of our pillars. So just to recap, I want to go over some things that we learned today. First, we learned about what the people in our workforce today look for in a long lasting career. They look for a place to learn and develop new skills. And it's really not all about the paycheck. We learned a few ways to find the employees that are the best fit for your company, like performing personality tests during the hiring process. And we also talked about how important communication is and some effective ways to improve that, like creating surveys for them or dedicating time to listen to their concerns. And lastly, we learned how using simplified technology can help eliminate stress from your employees and just create a better work experience as a whole. Each of these pillars are great to consider with employee retention, but I just want to reiterate why you should take action. Why is this important? I'm sure most of us can relate to this on some level, but I personally can say how much of a difference it makes. When I feel fulfilled in my work, it's exciting to learn new skills to help me achieve my goals. And when I feel valued by my employer, it makes me more passionate and motivated about the work I'm doing. When which in turn produces more results. And when I have the resources I need to be more efficient, I can accomplish a lot more, which is the main goal, right? When our employees are taken care of, they stick around. When turnover goes down, more manpower can be used to produce results. And when we produce more results, we grow. That's all there is to it. And with that, I have an assignment for you. I'd like to encourage you to find a way to get some helpful feedback from your current employees. Maybe create a simple survey that they could submit to you with questions about their goals or maybe concerns that they have. Just something for you to get more familiar with the needs of your employees and then you can take it from there. Before we finish up, I want to show you just a few ways that cleantelligent can help. Like I briefly mentioned in the beginning of our webinar, mine and Cleantelligence goal is to help make your lives easier in the workplace. And we offer a couple really awesome tools that are meant to reduce the pain points we've been talking about today. One in particular is our job scheduling. This is a great organization tool that helps keep the flow of your day to day activities smooth and productive. It sends you reminders so you don't have to try and remember the list of things you need to get done in the day or week. It's also a great way to keep a record of the things you've accomplished over any period of time. It just makes life easier. And as we talked about under our technology pillar, the software we use should lessen the load while still accomplishing just as much Something one of our customers said about job scheduling. His name is George Brodnicki. He said we are able to schedule all work projects in Cleantelligent for over 150 grocery store locations. This turned a messy job into an easy click of a button. Scheduling helps us to stay completely organized as we track our progress and improve. Keeping people happy has never been easier. I think that's pretty amazing. Here are just a few resources from some of the information we talked about today and I encourage you all to take a look at these articles. They've got a lot of pretty insightful information. And lastly, like I promised, you will all be receiving a free ebook about what we went over today and you should get that in an email within the next week. Well, that's all I have for you today. I hope that you're able to benefit from what we've discussed and I want to thank you all for joining and listening Again. My name is Randi Anderson and feel free to contact us if you have any questions at either of these number Sales department and Customer support. And here's my contact info as well. Also, please follow us on our social media, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Thanks again and have a great day.