For those of you who have been following our now 4-part series on employee retention, thank you for following through all the way and taking in everything we have to say. We spent a lot of time on this topic because it is one of those central issues where, if you focus on it, your entire business will improve.
This is our very last post on the topic, and we’re going to wrap it up by answering this one question – why should I care?
There’s a stereotype that successful business leaders are psychopaths. That taking care of your employees cost money, so the best way to save money is by not giving a damn about them. But that is not true.
Sure there are examples of CEOs who are notorious for making money off of employee abuse, but they only got away with it because they started with a business that’s big enough to have major effects on whole communities and politics.
Small businesses don’t have that luxury. To build a business from the ground up requires that you create something that the community agrees is valuable enough for them to support.
For this post, I want to tackle 4 myths and prove why they don’t work for a small business, and how they end up being evidence for, not against, caring about employee retention.
Myth #1: You Always Want New Talent Coming In
This is true, you do always want new and fresh talent, but not at the expense of seniority and expertise.
The myth part is that it assumes that the new talent must always replace old talent. It’s a common tactic for big businesses, but it’s not as helpful for small businesses. The reason why is because businesses can hire new consultants and experts at whatever price they want. Small businesses don’t have the reasons for an expert consultant at $100+ per hour.
To build a business from the ground up requires that you create something that the community agrees is valuable enough for them to support.
Instead, you need to rely on your employees who gain expertise through experience. You need them to be there for you to help keep your business up, and to mentor new employees. This way, you create a mentorship system. You can bring in new talent through growth and reorganization.
That new talent and growth can then be trained through mentorship and only when they gain enough experience in your business to take everything they learned and be able to add their own ideas can you then be in a good spot to hire more new people and help the older folks find another, better job than you can offer. By that point, they will be experienced and expert enough to be on good footing in the job search.
Myth #2: Keeps Older Employees From Slacking Off
The idea that the longer someone stays in your business, the more they will slack off is a myth based on laziness in management. As a manager, it’s your job to know that slacking off is a natural tendency of all people, and you can’t rely on a new employee’s desire to make a good impression to be the only incentive to work hard.
Instead, it’s your job to put new incentives in place so that good work is always rewarded. You need to know that working for your business for 5, 10, or even more years is incredible loyalty and dedication. If they leave that means you did not value them properly.
Myth #3: Low Employee Retention Allows You to Keep Labor Costs Low
This is only true for very specific business. And those businesses have to be huge, dependant on physical labor, have a ton of AI, and have to depend on quantity over quality.
You need to know that working for your business for 5, 10, or even more years is incredible loyalty and dedication. If they leave that means you did not value them properly.
No small business will ever meet those criteria. Instead, low retention for small businesses is incredible expensive.
- It requires a lot more training, which costs time and money
- Any customer can see a lack of expertise
- Your business will not be able to stay organized
- Your customers will move to cheaper alternatives by these same large businesses you’re trying to emulate. You can’t compete with their prices, so why are trying to look exactly like them but without any resources?
Myth #4: It’s Better Not to Care
If you believe this, then that means you already made a conscious decision not to listen to anyone explaining to you that owning a business is not an excuse to be a bad person. So instead of trying to appeal to your humanity, I’m just going to explain what will happen if you flaunt unethical business practices.
- Big businesses have the resources to continue profits through a strike or a boycott (unless it’s massive). You don’t. Your business will crumble.
- People don’t go to small businesses because they’re cheaper. They go because they would rather deal with a human being in their community than with an unrelatable business that plopped in out of nowhere. Without that, your customers have no reason to come to you.
- Is that really the reputation you want to have?
We are in the start of a new era where businesses, or even individuals can no longer hold secrets. While we can lament on this fact all we want, it’s best to use that information to make sure your employees are genuinely happy. Because customers are going to be upset by a lot of other businesses, and they are going to be very happy to support a business that treats their workers right, and very very disappointed if they hear about any mistreatment.
There’s a stereotype that successful business leaders are psychopaths. That taking care of your employees cost money, so the best way to save money is by not giving a damn about them. But that is not true.
And if you’re worried about false accusations, then I think you don’t need to worry that much. False accusations almost never work, because it’s as difficult for the accuser to keep a lie than the accused, and sooner or later the truth will be found it.
The future is based on truth, so let’s be honest with our workers.