it’s not salary

How to make sure employees stay? Spoiler alert; it’s not salary.

Jack Parsons once said: “the employee who leaves a company because of the salary can return because of the culture, but the one who leaves because of the culture will never return because of the salary”.

Excellent job culture and company culture aren’t just valuable for current employees, it’s a powerful magnet to attract new candidates, as well as re-attract ex-employees.

Building a company culture, bottom-up, starts with job culture. One employee after the other. Making sure the match is right, both on a hard-skills – and soft-skills level creates an upward spiral that serves as a coil for the above-mentioned magnet.

hero

Everyone is necessarily the hero of his own story. This powerful quote by Franz Kafka potentially reveals a lot about us humans.

I believe that many of us are necessarily the hero(in) of our own job.

When employers, specifically managers and leaders, fail to recognize, respect, and empathize with their hero(in) employees, expecting them to be involved and engaged is unrealistic.

thank you

Thank you. These two words and their impact have been researched thoroughly, with tons of new research appearing every day.

When managers thank their employees for their contributions, acknowledge their achievements, and give credit where credit is due, employees are four times more likely to feel engaged.

Whom are you going to thank today?

doctor translator

When you get your blood checked at the doctor, they don’t just forward the lab results. Most of us are laypeople, medically speaking, so we need a couple of things from the doctor.

We need them to translate the results. All these numbers, exotic-sounding terms, and ratios. What do they even mean? Not a whole lot until our doctor interprets the results for us. This number here, dear patient, means your cholesterol is too high. This number indicates you have a vitamin D deficiency.

We need them to guide us on how to improve specific metrics. Once the lab results have been translated, we need them to provide us with actionable advice on how we can improve our situation. Make changes to your diet, or take some supplements, for example.

Businesses looking to hire top talent often use assessments in the process. Those results need to be translated as well, alongside practical advice as to how to improve based on those results.

vip’s

Sixty percent of job seekers report having a negative candidate experience with the employers they engage with.

Imagine sixty percent of customers having a negative experience leading up to purchase with a particular company. How long would it take for that company to go bankrupt?

Signing with a new employer is arguably a more significant life event than most purchases of goods or services. Hence, candidates considering an employer should be treated as vip’s.

hostile acquisition

Companies get merged all the time. More often than not, the employees, who are about to be merged, are forced into a rather passive role.

They probably didn’t have a say in the process, to begin with. It’s hard for them to imagine what the new, larger company will feel like. What about the new colleagues and managers? Naturally, some doubts arise.

Mergers typically bring about a wave of people resigning, devaluating the merger from the get-go. Maybe the employees preferred the old, smaller company. They might be uncertain as to what’s expected of them in the new company. Uncertainty doesn’t quite boost employee engagement, au contraire.

Successfully completing a merger is an excellent trigger to re-establish employees’ expectations with regard to their jobs. Merging a small team into a larger company is manageable. Merging a large corporate into an even larger corporate requires tools, models, and frameworks to discuss these expectations, preferably in a scientifically sound way.

our own hero

Everyone is necessarily the hero of their own imagination. That’s what Franz Kafka once said allegedly.

Everyone wants to be the hero of their own job. When employers, more specifically managers and leaders, fail to show recognition, respect, and empathy, employee engagement is no longer an option.

fifty percent gone

Almost half of the intensive care unit nurses are thinking about quitting. How could they not? They’ve had to endure immense pressure during the past couple of years.

Throughout the entire labor market though, the number of people thinking about quitting their job during the first year of employment is the same, almost half. Reason why? Mismatch in expectations.

A moment that’s typically well-suited to re-establish job-fit is when the context of the job changes due to a pandemic, for instance. To avoid the old; wait a minute, this is not what I’ve signed up for, or worse.

Seven things HR can learn from hospitality

Human resources departments and the hospitality business have a lot in common. Here are seven things HR can learn from hotels.

Hotels, especially chains, understand how vital CAC (customer acquisition cost) and LTV (lifetime value) is. When they provide a (new) customer with an excellent experience, the chance of that customer rebooking a stay with the same hotel (chain), in another country, on perhaps a different continent, increases significantly. Over a customer’s lifespan, they’re likely to spend numerous nights in hotels, so securing repeat business is crucial.

Free upgrade

“Because this is your first time staying with us, I went ahead and upgraded the room.” Free, proactive updates are always a pleasant surprise. A stunning view as opposed to no view, a bath instead of a shower are generally things that are appreciated.

In most companies, the predominant idea seems to be that if you want to get a raise, you have to speak up and ask for it. Some employees are more vocal than others, but all employees deserve to be acknowledged for their performance pro-actively.

Unexpected little things

Little things make a big impact. After a long journey, some mineral water, high-quality coffee, and tea — provided free of charge — can work magic. Excellent (apartment) hotels even provide magnets to cover digital (oven) clocks. They know that the light of the display could be bothersome at night.

Many companies are already tapping into this principle by providing their employees with drinks, fruits, and snacks. So much so that it has become the Olympic minimum. What other initiatives could your company come up with? Celebrating an employee’s birthday, wishing them a happy Ramadan, some extra time-off for a father with a newborn child…

Help you navigate

“Is this your first time in the city? Do you need help getting around?”

Helpful hotel reception employees will ask you if you need any help navigating. Depending on your request, they can provide you with a standard map or a custom explanation on how to get to a destination you have in mind.

Navigating through an office space for the first time can be confusing. Provide a tour through the building and perhaps a map of where people are located.

Early check-in

There are two types of early check-ins. Arriving early is sometimes inevitable, and the longer the journey, the harder it gets to time your arrival precisely. Type one; upon arrival, either the room you booked isn’t ready yet, but they’re willing to proceed with the check-in procedure and perhaps offer you a drink in the lobby while you wait. Type two; the room is actually ready, and the hotel will allow you to check in a couple of hours earlier.

In many companies, after a candidate signs a contract, that’s it. Radio silence until the first day of work. This creates dissonance and even remorse. Did I make the right choice, though? Perhaps I should have stayed.

Consider pre-boarding initiatives where your company allows future employees to check in earlier. This way, they’ll feel included right from the get-go.

Early check-up

“Hello, mister Benaïcha. This is Samira from the hotel reception. I just wanted to make sure everything is in order?” Good to great hotels will usually call you shortly after entering the room. In rare cases, something might actually be wrong. For instance, towels could be missing due to an early check-in (see the previous point). An early call prevents the guest from growing frustrated and allows the hotel, in this case, to rectify the situation swiftly.

In many companies, you’ll hear things like; my door is always open.

Being available isn’t sufficient. Reach out to employees pro-actively to see how they’re doing.

Personalized welcome

Intelligent hotels will ask you, up-front, if your stay is related to a special occasion. When you surprise a loved one with a city trip for their birthday, arriving in a room with balloons and a personalized cake makes a lasting impact.

In some companies, there is no welcome procedure. Not even a brochure.

First impressions matter. Welcome new employees in a personal and custom way.

After check-out

“Do you need us to hold on to your luggage a little longer?” Most hotels will happily hold on to your luggage after checking out. Often a very welcome and practical gesture for guests parked in or near the hotel and still have some things to do before leaving.

In some companies, once you’ve announced your departure, that’s it. Nothing happens.

Grasp the opportunity to see how you can provide value as a company when an employee checks out. Consider exit interviews and proper off-boarding initiatives.

Conclusion

HR and hospitality both provide services for people. Acquisition and retention are challenges that, again, both industries share. Without investing in customer-centric initiatives, hotels are doomed to suffer in a highly competitive market. Why should HR reinvent the wheel when they can borrow inspiration from hospitality.

training is the new hiring

Training is the new hiring. Labor market scarcity is evident by now, unfortunately. A natural reflex is to lower the criteria (among other initiatives). We’ll hire people and train them on the job, so they can grow to become the full-fledged employee required for the job.

Train for what?

A new type of IV treatment, not yet taught in nursing school, has to be explained on the actual job. Controlling a cluster of instrument panels in the port has to be preceded by training. But what about the non-technical skills, the soft-skills?

Without understanding the base skillset, regarding soft-skills, of a new employee, only 50% of the spectrum is taken into account.

Map soft-skills on the talent – and job side to bridge the gap. Gaps between the soft-skills of today and those required for the job tomorrow.