I shared a few things with him which I am glad to say were published in this month’s magazine along with some other good, insightful thoughts from both local and national employers.

If you don’t receive Business Connect Magazine (which I strongly recommend), you can read Peter’s article online here: How to Retain Your Employees.

Just for fun, I’ve listed the more verbose responses to some of what Fretty asked me:

What do you see as the most effective means of retaining employees?

The most-common reason people leave their jobs is because they don’t like their boss. This takes on a lot of forms from not feeling challenged, to feeling micromanaged, passed over for opportunities, or not being trained well. It’s regular for new managers to completely change over much of their staff within a year after they take a new post, generally because of these personality factors.

It’s not about the money, it’s not benefits, it’s not getting a shiny car for being employee of the year like Doba did last year*. At the end of the day, the employee’s direct supervisior has more power and ability to help and employee feel liked and encouraged or disgruntled and dissatisfied than any other thing a company can do.

We all know that the cream rise to the top, and in business, the superstar talent will always keep their eyes and ears open through active and passive networking. Even the least-talkative or outgoing employee likes to work where they feel liked and appreciated, and even they will seek new opportunities when they feel their relationship with their direct supervisor is strained. Superstars are savvy enough to not complain about their boss around other people, but they will sing their praises, and your company’s, if they like what they’re doing, and they feel satisfied with their job.

That being said, the best boss in the world will lose employees hand-over-fist if the company is not:

• Paying well (by the way, which means ahead of the curve, not right at the median pay-range),
• Doesn’t provide adequate (read: liberal quantities of) tools to help employees succeed at their jobs
• Misses opportunities to praise and reward employees for the hard work they do (recognition is more important than money, but money talks very loudly).
• Provide all of the required and some over-the-top benefits to make sure their employees (and their families) feel appreciated as more than cogs in the machine.

What mistakes do people commonly make when trying to keep employees?

1. Hire the wrong bosses.
   People are promoted to management for the worst reasons. They look the part, they have the right degree, or they’ve been there the longest. Just like a brilliant doctor without any bedside manner, the most accomplished, credentialed, superstar manager will fail miserably if she can’t incite enthusiasm and success in her employees.
2. Don’t give bosses tools for retention.
   Corporate policies always play their heavy hand when employees want flex time, or to try out a special project, or even take an extra day of vacation to see their kid’s last soccer game of the year. Google’s 20% rule, where employees get one day a week to work on any approved project of their choosing has produced some of their best creations. Why not?  This is much better use of “water cooler” time anyway, isn’t it?
3. Don’t ask people what they want to do next.
   People will jump companies in a heartbeat for new challenges. Companies are usually horrible at actually helping people accelerate through their careers internally. Challenge them, ask them for help with special projects, allow them to be creative and try new things with your blessing.
4. Pay exactly the “market rate”.
   Duh. This one is easy to fix, but hard to approve through management. Yes, employee costs are high. But replacing an employee costs up to 70% of that employee’s annual salary. It’s your choice: You can lose them every 8-16 months (current averages for non-executive transitions), or you can pay them an extra 10% or even 30% over the market, with regular, meaningful raises.
5. Stifle creativity by maintaining the status-quo.
   Doing more of the same, but hoping for something different is the definition of insanity. People will either go insane or go somewhere else if you don’t allow them to have input to your processes and take on difficult projects. Toyota championed this, allowing any factory line worker to stop the whole plant if they saw something that needed to change.
6. Don’t Talk.
   The old joke is, if you hear from your CEO more on CNN than in your own business, there’s something wrong (See GBAT #16).  Maybe your CEO isn’t ever on CNN, but this is the age of transparency, and if your employees don’t know what’s really going on behind the brass-handled doors of the C-suite, they will go elsewhere.
7. Don’t Listen.
   Gatekeepers, assistants, and other executives are great at keeping the bad news and feedback from getting to the top. That’s bad. Engage in conversations. Real, honest, and serious ones. Your staff will respect you for listening, and likely respect you even more when you recognize where you’re wrong, admit it publicly, champion the better ideas, and make sure you always pass credit where it’s due. Likely, when people know that if they talk to you, you will act… they will make sure they only talk to you about really crucial things in the first place! P.S. If your employees blog, comment on them!
8. Don’t Relax.
   Companies that let their hair down once in a while and do something fun–take your employees to the premier of a new movie, send them to lagoon for a day, host a staff retreat that’s actually about retreating–will retain employees longer because people will like working there.  Do something once a quarter… maybe two smaller events and two significant onces. Make them memorable, fun, and for everyone.

* Don’t get me wrong, Doba did an AMAZING thing by doing this, but not everyone can/should.  I’d be open to it, personally though…

Sam’s Blog, Go Big Always, pushes the envelope just by its nature. He hits right at home when he says, “Companies are so highly matrixed and political that they make sticking your neck out nearly impossible”.

He gives 5 ways to GO BIG ALWAYS:

• Bravery
• Conceptualization
• Intuition
• Relationships
• Execution

I love the visuals, but what do YOU think of his message? Please comment!

How to do this?

LISTEN TO YOUR COACH

Your “coach” in this sense is your best advocate. They want you to win.

My usage of the term here comes from the Miller-Heiman sales training series where a “coach” is defined as a certain individual of particular influence in the “buying” process… here, the so-called sale is you-being-promoted.

The unique and very special role of a Coach is to guide you to your particular sales objective by leading you to the other Buyers (people with other types of influence on the decision) and by giving you information that you need to position yourself effectively with each one… Your Coach’s focus is on helping you make this sale. [The New Strategic Selling by Robert B. Miller and Stephen E. Heiman, p. 68-69]

The point is, find the person in your organization who wants most for you to win, and can introduce you to the other people who will ultimately make the decisions about your promotion, etc… the “buyers”.

Your coach might be:

• Your boss
• Your CEO
• The CEO’s admin
• Your recruiter
• An outside consultant
• Another team’s director
• The receptionist

When you determine who your coach is, ask for their time. Buy them lunch if you need to get them offsite, and let them know what you’re trying to accomplish and ASK FOR THEIR HELP and ADVICE.

Note: Make sure to give them the opportunity to back out. Coaching doesn’t work when they don’t really want YOU to win THIS promotion. If this backfires on them–if they even sniff that in the air–they will run from you like you have the plague.

Finally, remember the COACH watches from the sidelines. Strategy and Timing. YOU have to EXECUTE. Nobody ever blamed a coach when the receiver fumbled the ball. Don’t forget your part… execution.

GO, FIGHT, WIN!

1. Real and Wage Inflation
2. Intense Competition for Talent
3. Corporate cost-cutting
4. High Energy/Commute Costs

The hardest part to pin-down is that the economic indicators show a market that is schizophrenic. Utah’s high tech job market is part recessionary and part booming. There’s both signs of weakness, but signs of boom-cycle madness.

If there were ever a time to unveil the invisible hand and see what’s really going to happen to this economy over the next six-12 months, now is the time… those who navigate this juncture well stand to gain a lot of opportunity, while these massive icebergs of clashing forces might very well crush entire sections of our economy and workforce if we’re not paying close attention.

Real and Wage Inflation

The Fed won’t admit there’s inflation yet, even though everyone else is worried about it… but one trip to the grocery store tells you a dollar doesn’t go as far these days. This plays into issues 3 and 4, and is the driver for issue 2.

Bottom-line: If the same amount of money you made last year isn’t cutting it, talented people will demand higher wages for the same jobs they were doing a year ago.

If the company they currently work for won’t pay up, no problem, they’ll just move.

Intense Competition for Talent

As a recruiter, I use every tool I can find. The job boards, these days, are as silent and un-exciting as a Hillary Clinton rally in Payson. The war for top-talent has moved from remote, tactical operations using unmanned email probes and remote-controlled resume submittal to (continuing the analogy) hand-to-hand, street fighting. Candidates are being approached at every angle, from every recruiter, in very creative ways…. and they’re getting hired, too!

At the Blogger Dinner last Thursday, Steve Spencer quipped something like: This is just like the late 90s. It doesn’t matter if you can actually do any of the stuff on your resume, but if you have the right acronyms, you’re hired!

(And, yes, Steve’s company is hiring… tell ‘em I sent ya)

Corporate Cost-Cutting

Client after client of mine has issued cost-cutting warnings. Several more companies are putting in-place hiring freezes, readjusting their priorities, laying people off or closing down all together.

This hyper-sensitive focus on costs can be unacceptable to a workforce already in high-demand.

One jobseeker for a Salt Lake-based IT Outsourcing firm told me last Thursday that his current employer has”implemented a new performance-based pay plan where you get a “very low base wage” and, if you hit certain quotas every day, you will get paid more.

The story goes that these employees, if they are industrious little busy bees, can earn even more than they have been making, but the employees don’t quite see it that way.

“Its a joke,” my jobseeker friend told me. “I’ve done the math. It is impossible to make anything close to what I have been making. I am outta here.”

There’s bound to be losses when a company needs to refocus. A recent article by Tiffany Hsu in the Baltimore Sun explains this very well:

“It costs a lot to let someone go,” said Don McNamara, president of Heritage Associates Inc., a management consultant company based in Laguna Niguel, Calif. “So we’ve got to circle the wagons and pull in a little bit.”

Businesses, he said, can cross-train employees in multiple roles to boost productivity and restructure to remove inefficiencies…. but employers can’t cut too many expenses and perks without risking driving workers away.

“You’ve got to be sensitive to your people and make sure morale isn’t one of the things you cut,” McNamara said. “If this comes as a surprise to them, they might be tempted to update their resumes at another company.”

High Energy/Commute Costs

Even thinking about high gas/energy prices makes me exhausted, but the simple fact is we are receiving regular calls and updates from our candidates seeking more commute-friendly work options, telecomuting, shorter commutes, or other benefits to offset the incredible rise in fuel costs this last year has seen. For once, the State has taken a lead here, generating (I predict) pressure on many new fronts to allow employees to have more control over when, where and how much they work.

On the flip-side, a lot of people who otherwise want to keep their current job are interested right now in part-time, flexible, contract-based work options too. That is an unforeseen consequence of these higher prices.

Summary

At the end of the day, companies are asking their employees to do more with less, while these same high-demand employees are not afraid of feeling out their options and making a more lucrative move if needed.

I fear, for companies too cost-conscious, this will become a race to mediocrity unless they very creatively examine their work demands, and be very open and honest with their employees. Find out what they need/want and even while cutting costs, you can make work fun and, heck, maybe even more productive.

The change will apply to about 17,000 employees, roughly 80% of the state workforce, [Utah State Governor] Huntsman says. Public universities, the state court system, prisons and other critical services will be exempt. Residents still will have sufficient access to state offices, many staying open from 7 a.m.- 6 p.m., and more than 800 state services are available online, he says.
[USA TODAY: Most state workers in Utah shifting to 4-day week]

The move, which will have employees working the same number of hours, but just cramming those hours into a 4-day week, should help save state employees money, keep some cars off the road, and reduce the other energy expenses they have just to keep doors open and lights on.

The green work blog, TreeHugger, noted the states’ move, as the first state in the US to try and do this across the board:

By shutting down 1,000 buildings statewide on Fridays, an estimated 3,000 metric tons in carbon emissions will also be cut. Admittedly, though the energy and fuel savings is not as great as telecommuting, the idea of a four-day work week is probably more appealing to reluctant employers who are willing to test more moderate, but still viable, alternatives.

My thoughts on the 4-day work week move is that, as long as crucial state services are still available when needed, this is a good thing. For a long time, the biggest problem I personally have with the “public good” is that there is so much over-availability required to make sure that services are always available to everyone.

It does make sense, however, to keep offices open later than normal 8-5 business hours… I have often been annoyed that I need to take time off work to take care of something at the government.

What do YOU think about the 4 day week?

These are generally very talented individuals who like their current job/employer, but are looking for additional work to take on.

Likewise, these same people are usually willing to take a decrease in their “day-time wage” for a flexible work opportunity because of the, well, flexibility of it.

Some are cutting their pay-rate down as much as 75% of what they would deserve in a day-time/full-time gig because they are not looking for just income, but additional income.

If you are a software development manager and I was willing to experiment with adding flexible/additional staff (especially if you’re already considering outsourcing where there are time-differences anyway), this might be the time to seriously consider bringing on a swing/night shift (your programmers are already there all night anyway, right?) and acquire some excellent talent at a discount.

Of course, finding the people to do this is what we do all day (at SOS Engineering & Technology, where I work). Even if you had your own person in mind, contracting them through an agency like mine (so you would not have to hire them permanently, or deal with 1099 messes) can remove a lot of headaches and legal issues down the road.

If you’re curious about how an agency like mine could help you, please feel free to contact me.

If you know of companies that are accepting candidates for non-traditional work hours, and you want to share, please feel free to leave a comment!

Well, lets just say what I read was, um, more of the same:

• Take the bus
• Carpool
• Ride your bike
• Telecommute

With oil predicted to hit $150/barrell in a month, and prices at the pump currently over $4/gal in most parts of the US, what real, significant improvements can be made to these ideas?

At the pump, the national average price of a gallon of regular gas rose 1.8 cents overnight to a record $4.023, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Prices first moved above $4 nationally on Sunday, though they’ve been higher than that in many parts of the country for weeks.

…

At $150 a barrel _ the Morgan Stanley price prediction that helped ignite Friday’s oil rally _ gas would cost about $4.40 a gallon, [Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service in Wall, N.J.] said. [Source: marketplace.org]

What is a real, seriously CREATIVE way to cut your commute costs?

Please reply, below!

A few days ago, I wrote about how hard it is for good, employed job seekers to search for new work while retaining anonymity.

But what if a candidate is not really “looking”, but also wouldn’t pass up the right opportunity if it, well, fell in their lap…?

Sometimes the difference between someone “happily employed” and “happily employed… but listening” isn’t very much.  As an employer, how can you be attuned to those subtle shifts in perception of both your company as an employer, and their outlook as a candidate?

As far as I can tell, there is no way for someone to easily, passively and privately tell a company, “yeah, if you had something great for me, I would be interested.”

Is there?

It’s a pretty funny ad, but you instantly… I mean INSTANTLY get what it’s saying… while you’re laughing about it.

• We (the radio station) are the benevolent guardians of good rock-n-roll.
• We share it freely with all those who tune in.
• Listen to us. We rock.
• If you do, you will rock, too.

(The guy walking by here MAKES this image work)

What does this have to do with RECRUITING and RETENTION?

Well, its my blog, so it doesn’t have to mean anything other than I like it. But, I did take the time to post it here to maybe cause you to think of a few things about your company culture:

• What is UNIQUE about you?
• What cool/oddball/funny things do people do with your product, brand or product?
• What do you STAND for?
• It’s likely that there are people out there that would LOVE to be a part of that. Use it to attract them to you:
  • Comcast gives free HD, Internet and Phone to their employees. Duh.
  • I was the man my senior year in HS because I worked at a movie theater and I could get all my pals in for free.
    • (Full disclosure: I was still a geek, but I felt like the man)

Why not lighten up and have a little FUN with what you do for people? Then, maybe your top talent will stick around a little longer and burn-out a little less often.

“Which book has had the greatest impact on your leadership style”

I thought a compilation of their answers might be interesting: When page loads completely, the links below will take you to more information about the book

• The Papers of Theodore Roosevelt — Jon Huntsman, Utah State Governor
• Opportunity Knocks Twice by Don C. Hale and Mark R. Hale — Scott Anderson, President and CE, Zion’s Bank
• When Genius Failed by Roger Lowenstein — Todd Crosland, Chairman and CEO, Interbank FX
• Miracle at Philadelphia by Catherine Drinker Bowen — Larry H. Miller, CEO, Larry H. Miller Group
• Good to Great by Jim Collins.
  • Lane Beattie, President and CEO, Salt Lake Chamber
  • Alan Hall, Founder and Chairman, Grow Utah Ventures
  • Matthew Godfrey, Mayor, Ogden City
  • Richard Nelson, President and CEO, Utah Technology Council
  • Nicole Toomey Davis, Director, Centers of Excellence Program, Governor’s Office of Economic Development
  • Will West, CEO, Control4
• Straight From the Gut by Jack Welch– Josh James, CEO, Omniture Inc.
• Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore — James Lee Sorenson, Vice Chairman, Sorenson Companies
• Blink by Malcolm Gladwell — Jason Perry, Executive Director, Governor’s Office of Economic Development
• Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky — Jack Brittain, Dean, David Eccles School of Business; Vice Presiden, Technology Venture Development, University of Utah
• Rules for Revolutionaries by Guy Kawasaki — Dinesh Patel, Managing Director, vSpring Capital
• The Age of Discontinuity by Peter F. Drucker — Ragula Bhaskar, President and CEO, Fatpipe Networks
• International Business by Michael R. Czinkota — Lew Cramer, President and CEO, World Trace Center Utah
• Peak Performers by Charles Garfield — Jack Sunderlage, President and CEO, ContentWatch Inc
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick M. Lencioni — Jill Miller, Managing Director, Sundance Institute
• Competitive Advantage by Michael E. Porter — Craig Bott, President and CEO, Grow Utah Ventures
• One Minute Manager by Kenneth H. Blanchard and Spencer Johnson — Becky Potts, President, Morris Murdock Travel
• A World Waiting to be Born by Scott Peck — William A. Sederburg, President, Utah Valley State College
• Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan and Charles Burck — Bret J. Brockbank, President, Intermountain Staffing Resources
• The Extraordinary Leader by Jack Zenger and Joe Folkman — David S. Layton, President and CEO, Layton Companies