Loyalty or what?
Evergreen
39 Posts
Hello all.
I am venting mostly, but wondering what everyone's seeing for retention these days. I have lost 3 ee's in the past 2 months due to pay. I have a competitive plan, at least I think I do. I order yearly comp plans from a national organiztion and we review all positions annually.
We cannot afford 6 figure salaries, especially when comparable salary surveys say otherwise.
Am I naive, or is loyality only limited to money these days? Additionally, are companies kissing off salary standards and making exceptions for the "star players"?
As owner of my firm, I watch this site a lot. I don't have a HR staff, as our firm is too small. But, I do value all your input and see all you posters as level-headed HR professionals (most of the time, heh-heh).
Thanks,
signed...still reeling
I am venting mostly, but wondering what everyone's seeing for retention these days. I have lost 3 ee's in the past 2 months due to pay. I have a competitive plan, at least I think I do. I order yearly comp plans from a national organiztion and we review all positions annually.
We cannot afford 6 figure salaries, especially when comparable salary surveys say otherwise.
Am I naive, or is loyality only limited to money these days? Additionally, are companies kissing off salary standards and making exceptions for the "star players"?
As owner of my firm, I watch this site a lot. I don't have a HR staff, as our firm is too small. But, I do value all your input and see all you posters as level-headed HR professionals (most of the time, heh-heh).
Thanks,
signed...still reeling
Comments
perhaps it is a blip, it just kinda stings.
Perhaps you should take a look at your complete compensation package, both direct and indirect. What are you offering your employees that a competitor is not (or vice versa)? What else are you uncovering during your exit interviews?
Gene
The surveys are gauged to the state, West coast, and business sizes. They seem accurate, I think it's just the blip as said earlier.
"Surveys are gauged at the state, west coast and business sizes"
You need to also look within your locality. Statewide surveys, in my case, mean nothing. I need local data. Also consider surveying your industry (if possible), not just business size.
"Exit interviews are good, but all they have pointed to is the money"
We may be on to something here.
"65% increase in salary"
Again, if the job is comparable in terms of industry, field (as G3 pointed-out), etc, then see answer above..
Gene
One thing you may want to look at is to make sure you are hiring the right person for the right job. Some folks want the "large company" atmosphere, others like working for a smaller operation where they have a more personal input. Also, you might want to sit down and look at all of the benefits you offer your employees. Something good to review with employees before they are hired. May be you can't pay a higher salary, but what does your time off program look like or are you willing to provide more flexible hours than other places, or are you closer to where they live, or do you support the community and encourage employees to do the same. There are a lot of non-straight salary things that you can highlight and let employees know about.
I agree that looks as if this employee may not have given it a chance. However, they may have applied for the job they eventually took when they applied with you and nothing was available. I hope they are taking it for the work they will be doing and other items other than just straght money (even though a 65% increase might be hard to turn down, other things the same.)
Don't beat yourself up too much.
I am the type of person that has to "agree with" where I work because I am very loyal. One of my old companies changed drastically and the President/CEO told the employees if they wanted loyalty, get a dog!! It was a good thing that I had left this job because I would have started looking with this comment.
Younger folks are different than their grandparents. We have to learn to appreciate them for what they are and can give.
E Wart
If by "loyalty" you mean the willingness of your employees to maintain their employment with you, I'd say that relationship definitely has its price, regardless of how they feel about you. As Michael Corleon said, "It's just business." I currently work for two of the finest people I've ever been associated with in my 25-year professional career. But if the right opportunity came along I'd leave, no question. By "right opportunity" I mean the right combination of compensation, work environment, and duties. As to your second question, I'd say that making exceptions for star players is how you keep a competitive edge. In fact, being able to accurately identify the star players is a hallmark of effective leadership.
Great perspective - very much appreciated.
Looking for and finding jobs is definitely an under developed skill for most of us. It could be that the EE in question just took your job as a temporary parking spot - needing some level of income while he/she continuted to search for better utilization of an existing skill level, or..
He/she could find out that this job pays higher for a very bad reason - lots of travel, lousy conditions, high performance expectations that take an 85 or 90 hour week to meet - things like that.
People in my dad's (the greatest) generation typically worked for one employer for almost 30 years. The staggering statistic I see today (although I'm not sure I believe it) is that the average worker will change jobs eleven to fifteen times. In the trucking industry, people will change jobs literally based on the color of the Freightliner tractor or for 1 cent per mile. People in the finance business will change jobs due to a looser dress code. Others will change due to a twelve minute shorter commute. Some will change if the new building is a paler shade of neutral. There is no such thing as loyalty in the context you framed it.
Disclaimer: This message is not intended to offend or attack. It is posted as personal opinion. If you find yourself offended or uncomfortable, email me and let me know why.
Its funny how ee's cry out for loyalty from employers, but when it's them - it's a different tune. True, Don, that ee's have become very ficle when it comes to employers and can change on a whim. As a business owner, I'm not sure how business in the USA can sustain - with lawsuits, turnover, high pay, etc.
Some of my associates source work to Romania, where 100 people apply and 98 are viable and willing to work for 1/2 the pay (for a full week nontheless) and no lawsuits or grief. When they post the same job in NYC, they get 10 applicants, none are qualified and they all want top dollar and sue for discrimination.
tsk tsk - and we wonder why business is off-shoring!
Disclaimer: This message is not intended to offend or attack. It is posted as personal opinion. If you find yourself offended or uncomfortable, email me and let me know why.
Disclaimer: This message is not intended to offend or attack. It is posted as personal opinion. If you find yourself offended or uncomfortable, email me and let me know why.
Disclaimer: This message is not intended to offend or attack. It is posted as personal opinion. If you find yourself offended or uncomfortable, email me and let me know why.
A wise old man once said, "Money may not be everything, but it's way ahead of whatever is in second place."
Obviously a narrow viewpoint, but anyone would be fooling themself to think it does not play a big role.
Unions have played an important role in our way of life.
My economics professor always compared the need/power of unions to a pendulum on a clock. It could go too far in either direction.
"Just remember, companies with unions have prospered and made money and companies with no unions have gone broke." That's your comment, not mine. I have no idea what you base it on. I have worked in union shops and know of many others that went broke. I have worked in non union companies that are 8 billion dollar organizations. Unions do not equal a business of prosperity. That sounds like a good organizing slogan though.
The last time I sat at the negotiation table with the IBEW, the international rep for the union said, in his opening remarks, "Well, we sure don't want to see y'all close down and go to Mexico, but we do want a 23% increase in wages." What a comment! His demand for a 23% increase is precisely why that company will eventually go to Mexico. The owner is Chinese and he sure as hell cannot continue to manufacture television cable in this country with those demands.
Disclaimer: This message is not intended to offend or attack. It is posted as personal opinion. If you find yourself offended or uncomfortable, email me and let me know why.
I, for one, love the old work ethic that played a part in making our country great. Whatever the reasons for the change in the work ethic, it has indeed changed.
I went to a store to buy an Iron last night - Bed, Bath and Beyond. I took my 20% off coupon thinking that I could afford to pay a bit more for an American made iron - even if I was paying more for the same quality. Guess what, I did not even have the choice of an American made iron. Germany, France, China, and Taiwan were my choices. Even the Black and Decker was foreign made.
For whatever the reasons, we are getting our butts kicked at the consumer level - it's a global market out there and the Union Contract is one of the reasons we cannot compete with the $20 per day Chinese worker.
I don't say this to start an arguement, and I agree with the assessment that corporations long ago spent the loyalty coint out of circulation - but I don't believe there was another feasible choice.
I worked for a company that I was planning on being loyal to for the rest of my career (however long that may be). I was sorely underpaid for what I was doing, but I didn't care.
The company had a strong mission and focus, the people were phenomenal and the owner was the best boss I'd ever had. I probably would have worked for him for free (if I didn't of course actually need a paycheck).
I don't think loyalty is about money. I think it is about how an employee feels about their job, their company and their co-workers.
At my former employer I felt appreciated, acknowledged and accepted. I was held accountable for my work and was recognized by my boss for what I did - once in front of the entire company during his annual Holiday Party speech.
You can't buy that kind of job satisfaction - you can't fake that kind of environment and you definitely can't expect a multi-billion dollar enteprise to offer such a close knit group of highly cohesive workers.
If you are a small firm owner and you find people are leaving for more money, then you aren't doing enough to keep them - regardless of what you pay. It doesn't have to be in benefits or bonuses or salary. It doesn't have to be in cheezy recognition programs. You need to ACKNOWLEDGE their hard work and dedication. You need to APPRECIATE their commitment to you and your company and you need to ACCEPT them into your work environment as if they had already been there for 10 years. Nobody ever wants to feel like an outsider.
You can't grow your business without people and you can't grow people if you without acknowledging them. Start there - worry about money later.
BTW - Nobody EVER left that company for more money, even though they could have easily made it elsewhere.
From any statistics I've ever seen, and from all my experiences in HR, the number one reason why people stay with a firm is because they feel Appreciated, which you reiterated so well.
Evergreen, if your staff feels appreciated, and given that their compensation is at least livable, chances are you will begin to have less turnover. You may have problems with a manager and not know it. Since your a small firm, employees may view the relationship between you and your managers as closely-knit and unapproachable. Take a look at your managers and do a few 'tag' interviews about how things are going.
The old addage is "People don't leave bad companies, they leave bad bosses."
I have often thought about asking my hairdresser (he and his wife have a very nice shop with about 6-8 other hair dressers) if he had ever thought about teaching a class on how to treat your employees. I love to go there and just watch him work. He has the nicest manner with his employees. People must fight to work there. He has had folks for years. He compliments his employees in front of his customers, he thanks them for everything they do, he stops what he is doing to show them how to do something (but not in a critical manner), he will send someone out at different times to pick up food for everyone and pay for it himself, it goes on and on. These are the types of things that make a great leader and makes others want to work for and with you. Sometimes I don't know if they can be taught but just innate in an individuals personality.
E Wart
Also do you make the work environment fun? Pick up chips and salsa before your next meeting, or better for no reason at all. Make it a point to every day let at least one employee know you appreciated what they are doing...... JM is right nothing compares to that kind of recognition. BUt day in day out, to stop an employee who has been giving a little extra and say I have seen the extra effort and appreciate all the you are doing......is worth its weight in gold. Even occassionally a gift card to the movies, don't have to make it a formal program, it is the thought that counts.........
You want to create a work environment that people enjoy........
Okay stepping down off my soap box. Oh Evergreen I am not implying that you don't do any of that, just emphasizing it. I dont know how large you are company wise, but when is the last time you cooked hamburger and hotdogs for friday lunch for everyone..........did a little potluck you pay for buns & meat?
My $0.02 worth.
Balloonman...........