Want to keep intact the top-notch team you’ve labored to put together? (That’s a rhetorical question.) Of course, you want to keep them! On your team and not working for your competitor. “Here’s a radical concept,” says Sarah Patterson. “Treat your employees as well as you do your best customers, and your business will reap rewards beyond your wildest imagination.” “Employee loyalty begins with employer loyalty. Your employees should know that if they do the job they were hired to do with a reasonable amount of competence and efficiency, you will support them,” notes Harvey Mackay. Loyalty in the employee department also translates into customer loyalty, for a number of reasons. A consistent workforce provides a better product and/or service than does a revolving one. And customers like to know the employees at their regular haunts are satisfied. They like to see the same faces over the long haul. Leaders of most thriving companies have this in common. They value the well-being of their employees and back up their words with action. They understand that employee retention must be an everyday consideration, not something that appears on the boss’s calendar twice a year or even once a quarter. Conscientious bosses pay close attention to: 1. Work/Life Balance Rigid rules that don’t allow the flexibility to handle family responsibilities will push many employees to “greener pastures.” Rather than encouraging folks to slack off, establish policies that acknowledge flexibility tend to make employees more diligent at getting their tasks completed. When guidelines are already in place for handling these inevitable disruptions, management sends a clear message that they consider the employee’s responsibilities outside of work to be important as well. 2. Management Choices Not everyone is cut out for management. While some people possess excellent leadership skills, others are followers who would drown under the responsibility of management. And they’d disgruntle a lot of good employees along the way. Two of the must have characteristics for success in leadership/management roles are well-developed and varied communication skills and “people” skills. These soft skills tend to be intuitive rather than taught, although they can be enhanced and brought out with training and mentoring. Only promote or hire into management those who’ve demonstrated an ability to do the job and do it well. 3. Overall Company Culture Bob had serious reservations only hours into the first day on his new job after not one or two but three fellow employees told him, “it won’t be long until you hate this job as much as I do.” By the end of what turned out to be a very long shift, Bob had decided this wasn’t the job for him. His search for a different job began the very next morning. The overall vibe a workplace exudes plays a critical role in the level of satisfaction the workers' experience. Are people happy or stressed out? Is there a spirit of teamwork and cooperation or negative competition and back-biting? Do the employees quake in fear or look forward to the boss stopping by? Employees appreciate an environment that promotes transparent communication, accessibility to approachable management, and a climate of respect across the board. At the end of the day, the best advice a boss can heed is to be the kind of boss he/she would want. For more than 20 years, MPS Technical has been connecting the best of the workforce – from entry level to management – with the best precision manufacturing companies in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Check out how we can partner with you to bring quality candidates to your open positions.