Welcome to the third in a series on furniture employee retention.
Your company is where it is today because you understand customer loyalty. “If we don’t take good care of our customers – someone else will,” is a well known and wise business maxim. Now translate that directly to employee retention and it reads: “If you don’t take good care of your employees – someone else will.” Employee retention is more than getting the right people on board, and keeping them. It’s so much like developing customer loyalty, that savvy business owners know the importance of developing BOTH.
No crew member wakes up with the thought, “I don’t have any loyalty to this company anymore.” They just slowly lose interest in the company, then they disengage, then they leave. Effective and progressive companies have their ears to the ground to keep in communication with the level of employee engagement. This engagement is the basis of all productivity and is given freely by loyal employees.
But where does it start? Pride is the foundation of loyalty and is ignited through the company’s reputation. Employees want to be aligned with a company that has a reputation. A good reputation. What are you doing to develop and crow about the great things you’re doing? For your community? For the environment? For employees? Increasingly, consumers are leaning toward those companies whose environmental practices are benefitting the planet. Likewise, more and more employees are seeking out companies that fit with their environmental or social values. Your commitment to environmental and sustainable practices is an example of an important element in developing employee loyalty.
If your company has a steadfast commitment to social responsibility, you have yet another reason for employees to be a proud partner in your company. Just as in developing responsible green practices, your ‘walking the talk’ in contributing to your community holds major currency with both customers and employees.
Lastly, employee loyalty is gained through a clear understanding of your vision for the company and how that vision is aligned with employee values. Your overall vision is greater than the sum of what your company “does”. A compelling vision provides a bigger picture, a greater purpose that provides meaning for just about any employee in any job category. Take a look at how the Herman Miller Co. describes themselves… “Herman Miller, Inc., works for a better world around you. We do this by designing furnishings and related services that improve the human experience wherever people work, heal, learn, and live. Our curiosity, ingenuity, and design excellence create award-winning products and services. These, along with our innovative business practices and a commitment to responsible leadership, have established us as an admired global company.” Now to any new employee who thought he was assembling parts – this certainly creates a more compelling vision of what it’s really all about!
Ignite the loyalty as part of your orientation program, then keep it burning by treating your employees as you do your customers. Loyalty is currency in small business. The opposite to loyalty is mutiny, and next week – we’ll look at how best to avoid mutiny!
By - Dawn McCooey, Author, “Keeping Good Employees On Board”. For more information on this new book, visit...
http://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Good-Employees-Board-Strategies/dp/1600376541/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262699933&sr=1-1