Use this Powerful Strategy for Attracting and Keeping the Best Employees for Your Contracting Business

September 24, 2018
Category: Build an Accountable, Self-Sufficient Team,Hiring

Having some trouble finding good talent? Attracting and keeping a great team is one of the biggest challenges many companies face today. To solve their hiring challenges, most companies focus on improving their hiring process by uncovering better places to find employees and promoting the company more effectively.

I’m here to tell you this is only one piece of the puzzle.

In today’s hiring world, demand for great employees far outstrips the supply. Put differently, you’re in serious competition with other companies for the same great employees. To attract and keep the best employees, you need to add a second strategy to compliment your improved hiring process. You need to make your company a highly desirable place to work.

You need to become what I call a “preferred employer.”

There’s a solid business case for making your company a preferred employer. Research shows it enables you to hire better employees by helping you attract a bigger pool of quality applicants.

Being a preferred employer also means you keep good employees longer. Longer tenured (good) employees will improve productivity and reduce your future hiring needs.

Five Ways to Make Your Company a Preferred Employer

When competition for great employees heats up, most companies resort to offering more money or benefits. While competitive pay and benefits helps, it won’t make you a preferred employer. There is more you must do to attract and keep the best employees.

Here are five important actions take to transform your business into your area’s preferred employer:

1. Create a Culture of Caring and Fairness

Employees want to be treated like people. Companies which treat employees as a replaceable part in a machine have higher turnover than those who genuinely care about their employees.

I have this client with 40 painters. This client knows everyone in his company—by name. He knows most of their families too. He talks to his employees regularly and knows what’s going on in their lives.

If an employees has an issue in their professional or personal lives, they know they can walk into their boss’s office whenever they want to discuss. And most importantly, they know their boss will bend over backwards to help them. It sounds so simple, but in talking with the employees there, it’s powerful stuff!

2. Recognize and Appreciate Your Team

Research shows, recognizing and appreciating employees is a strong motivator. If an employee does good work, take the time to celebrate their successes. This is, hands down, one of the most effective ways to improve employee satisfaction, motivation, loyalty, and retention.

Yet as business owners, we naturally spend our time looking for what needs to be fixed. By focusing on what’s not working right, we neglect the opportunity to achieve the exact same ends in a more positive, constructive manner.

Recognizing and appreciating your team doesn’t have to be complicated. A simple “thank you” for a job well done works fine! Even better, have a pizza party when your team hits its goals. Deliver sodas or ice cream to your team on hot days. The key is to do it frequently and to spread the love around.

3. Be a Good Boss

There’s a saying in human resources, I’m sure you’ve heard it: “People don’t leave bad companies, they leave bad managers.” If you’ve ever been in a situation where you’ve had a bad manager or boss, you know how miserable it can be!

So, it’s important you train your managers know how to manage positively. You need to be a good boss by helping your managers be good managers. Teach them positive ways to motivate their team, give constructive feedback, have difficult conversations, coach employees, and give recognition for good work.

Being a good boss means making sure you AND your managers are going right by your employees.

4. Make their jobs “Winnable”

Your best employees want to do great work and one of the major reasons they will leave your company is because their jobs set them up to fail. I call these jobs “unwinnable jobs.”

Unwinnable jobs are disorganized, lack procedures, and don’t give your employees the support, resources and tools they need to do succeed. And if your best employees can’t succeed at your company, they’ll be the first to leave to find a place where they can.

5. Develop your employees

Many of the best employees (although not all) are attracted to possible growth opportunities within your company. To attract and keep the best employees, show them their possible career paths, give them development plans and stretch assignments to keep them motivated, challenged, and growing.

Your next steps

Becoming the preferred employer is not a quick fix. Your hiring challenges won’t immediately disappear if you implement this 5-part strategy. But if you dedicate yourself to implementing the five actions I’ve described here, your efforts will pay dividends for years to come. You’ll attract and retain better employees and improve your sales and profits as a result.

So the next step I recommend for you is to sit down with your team and map out your action plan for implementing these five ideas. You’ll be glad you did!

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