Managing Your Workforce: Culture, Communication and Retention Strategies
Management defined is setting goals and objectives and guiding a group or an individual towards those goals. Accomplishing those goals in the restoration industry requires a skilled and unskilled workforce. Managing that specific workforce requires a diverse set of skills, abilities and management systems, as leadership navigates the needs and wants of both parties. With five generations functioning in the workforce, a one-size-fits-all management mentality can limit some extremely good talent.
Company Culture
The cornerstone of effective management is company culture. Value and Mission Statements look great on the wall, but do those guiding principles translate into actions and attitudes that employees see, feel, embrace and promote? In small startups, culture is easier to control, but as you add employees and delegate tasks and projects, it becomes more complex. It is crucial to define, promote and control what the culture of your company is.
Recruiting, Hiring and Retention
Having a solid culture will allow the recruiting, hiring and retention processes to find and keep those that best fit your company. If they fit in with your culture, managing your company becomes a lot easier. The management systems in place that regulate these three functions are extremely important. They all serve different purposes as they feed the growth and career path of your future and current employees.
Communication
Great managers are effective communicators; good employees love stability, consistency and transparency. Clearly defined expectations, a chain of command and communication are just some of the key factors that contribute to the foundation of effective management. For example, communication through consistent feedback, evaluations, coaching and rewards are fundamental to those who hold management positions. Without these pillars in place, inefficiency, confusion and high resignation rates can set in.
Ongoing Support
Since your employees are your most valuable asset, having personnel management systems in place shows a well-planned process of investing in that resource. For example, research shows that employees rate salaries as the eighth most important reason to stay with a company. So, focusing on high salary alone to retain employees will likely end in high turnover. If the average small business owner spends approximately $8,000 on recruiting, hiring and training an employee, personnel management systems must be in place. This means ongoing support to employees after initial orientation and training. Ongoing support allows managers to set expectations, measure, control and acknowledge the productivity of their workforce. With that information, smart business management decisions are made.
Develop Your Managers
Through the years, I’ve talked with and coached many small business owners in the restoration industry. Many focus heavily on the technical side but pay little attention to training and further developing the management staff. I encourage owners and key managers to evaluate how much management training takes place on a regular basis. Seek experts both inside and outside of your business to conduct your training. The training should clearly draw parallels between profitability and management accountability, thus producing higher levels of productivity and career satisfaction among all employees. We are living in an age of management that we have never seen before. With five generations in the workforce, we all need quality managers to perform at their peak.
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