What Front Line Managers and Supervisors Can Do.
by Michael McCarthy, Quality
Leadership
Consulting
Two Questions:
1. “How can I get the people to staff my business?”
2. “How can I keep people once I get them?”
In today’s tight
labor market, this is the complaint of every business owner,
human resource manager, and production manager. Without people,
you can’t deliver goods or services to your customers. The
customer doesn’t want to hear about your staffing problems.
The customer will soon go elsewhere to meet her needs if you
can’t do it. Without people, your business withers and dies.
The direct cost of
finding, hiring, and training each new employee is currently
estimated at 1.5 times his/her salary. For jobs paying $18,000
a year, this is $27,000 for each turnover. If you are in a situation
of hiring three people a year to replace one position, this can
run to $81,000 yearly! If these people are retained, this money
can fall directly to your bottom line.
Add the indirect cost
that may be incurred by replacement staff just learning the job.
Cost from scrap, rework, lost orders, lost reputation, and lost
customers hurts more because it affects how your company is perceived
in the marketplace. An unhappy ex-customer repeats one negative
experience an average of seven times. A positive experience
is only repeated an average of three times. Negative word of
mouth can hurt your sales. A new cost of turnover is Intellectual
Capita1(or know-how). In our increasingly service-oriented economy,
know-how becomes more valuable than capital equipment and buildings.
One Wall Street analyst has said that as much as 60% of the value
of today’s companies lies “between the ears of its
employees.” If a company is bleeding people, it is bleeding
value.
Two Answers:
The first answer
is simple: Like other business functions, staffing can be
outsourced, allowing you to concentrate on your core competencies.
[Friday
Services’ three trademarks, Staffing, Technical and Professional,
continuously recruit quality candidates. We maintain a data base
of personnel that includes clerical support staff, industrial
workers, technicians, professionals and executives.]
The answer to the second
question is also simple: good managers retain good
people. People don’t quit companies, they quit managers.
While the answer is simple, implementing the solution is work.
In the largest research
effort of its kind, the Gallup Organization surveyed over one
million employees and interviewed 80,000 managers. They found
links between how the immediate supervisor treats employees and
four key business results: productivity, profitability, retention,
and customer satisfaction.
One key finding: the
talented employee may join a company because of benefits, but
how long he stays and how productive he is depends on how he
is treated by his immediate supervisor.(1)
Good, Better,
Best News.
This is good news,
because treatment by a supervisor is easier to change and control
than corporate policies and perks. The better news is that when
we improve how a supervisor treats his or her employees, we not
only improve retention, we also improve production, profitability,
and customer satisfaction. This is a four for one deal!
The best news is that,
using statistical correlation methods, the Gallup Organization
narrowed down the factors to just seven issues regarding how
someone is treated at work.
Supervisors
+ Co-workers = a Person's "Work Family"
The two groups who
have the most influence over these seven issues are the immediate
supervisors and the person’s co-workers. Together, they
form the “work family”. We don’t have to change
corporate policies in order to improve retention. We can build
a supportive “work family” that addresses these seven
issues.
Be proactive
in setting up success. If
you are a supervisor, make a list of what you personally can
do to provide positive answers. If you are a business owner or
manager, you can train and support your front line supervisors
in providing positive answers. Here are the seven critical issues
and what you can do to make improvements:
1. Do I know what
is expected of me at work?
Prepare a checklist of duties and expectations to cover with
new people. Build in time during the first week on the job to
discuss these, and review them a second time.
2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work
right? Prepare a checklist of tools, materials, and equipment
to provide to new people. Build in time during the first week
on the job to explain and train the new person on their use.
Schedule review sessions to reinforce the learning.
3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best
every day? Match the candidates’ skills and talents
to the job. [Friday’s
interview process and skills testing can identify applicants
whose aptitudes best fit the client’s needs.]
4. In the last
seven days, have I received recognition or praise for good work? Make a checklist of helpful
behaviors and practices. Use the checklist yourself several times
a week to “catch someone doing something right”. Tell
them exactly what they did right and why it is important to
the customer.
5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care
about me as a person? Schedule time to talk with new–
and old– employees for ten minutes every two weeks or so.
Ask, “How is it going?” Listen. For issues that can’t
be changed, just listen. If you can help, then help. If you see
the employee has made progress and is getting results, give positive
recognition.
6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
Ask your employees what other tasks or skills they would like
to learn, and what other jobs they would like to shoot for. Listen.
Arrange training (on the job or formal training) that moves them
closer to qualifying for the next job. Praise their progress.
7. At work, do my opinions seem to count? Hold brainstorming
sessions to get ideas for work improvement and problem solving.
Use your employees’ ideas and credit the person who gave
the idea.
1 Intellectual Capital,
Thomas Stewart, 1997 Currency/Doubleday.
2 First, Break All The Rules, Buckingham & Coffman 1999 Simon
& Schuster, p.12
To learn more, see book; You Made My Day, Creating Co-Worker
Recognition and Relationships by Mike McCarthy and Janis Allen. For more information, contact
Mike at One Unutsi
Court, Brevard N.C. 28712, phone 828-862-6558 or email
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