More Than Just a Paycheck

It doesn't matter what part of the country you are in, if you look around right now, hiring signs litter busy streets. With technology making it easier than ever to find opportunities, employees have lost their loyalty to the companies that pay their paychecks.

This leads us to wonder why is turnover higher than it has ever been in the United States. Well, if COVID has taught us anything, it is that people want more from their employers than just money. They want to know that they are more than just an employee. Heck, even before COVID, employees were demanding more from their employers. If you didn’t already know, let me be the first to say, not only do they demand more, they deserve more.

What do I mean when I say that they deserve more? Time is finite and none of us know how much time we really have on this earth. The average person will put in more than seventy thousand hours in their lifetime working. That is a lot of time to be miserable and unfulfilled. So, as the employer, it is your responsibility to work on your culture and provide your employees with more than just a paycheck.

Today's Tidbit

The first thing that you should be providing your employees with, outside of payroll and benefits, is mentorship. In the 2012 Presidential campaign, Barak Obama made a comment about business owners not building their business. Though it was wildly misconstrued by his opponent, what he was trying to point out is that behind the most successful people in not only our country, but the world, there are mentors, leaders, and people providing assistance. I would love to meet the person who built their company with no guidance and no assistance from anyone. All of us are smarter than any one of us, after all. Take time to mentor those who report to you and require the same level of mentorship to those who report them. Work to create a culture in which everyone has a mentor and everyone is a mentor to someone else.

The next thing that you should be providing today’s employee with is opportunity. Today, opportunities are everywhere and with a growing economy, opportunities continue to be everywhere. If you are going to win the war on retention, your people need to know that their careers are going where they want them to go. If they feel stagnant they will go looking for growth in another position at another company. Take time today to really look at what opportunities you can provide for your employees as next steps in their career. When employees feel that they are able to move forward and grow, so will your company.

Lastly, is the element of flexibility. People are done working forty hours a week. Instead of this archaic metric of productivity, give your employees a task list and let them crush it! If the task list only takes 20 hours, fill the other 20 hours with items that will help them achieve their ultimate goals. Don't fill it with nonsense bureaucracy. If they have personal items to cover in those other 20 hours and there’s nothing left that needs to be done, let them take care of their personal items. If they are providing quality, efficient work, they shouldn't only be rewarded with more work. That’s demoralizing. Think through how you can be flexible with your employees and watch their allegiance to you and your company deepen and grow in meaningful, game-changing ways.

These are just a few of many ways in which you can provide for the people you call your employees. You should never look at them as just your employees. You should look at them as people who have trusted you enough with their time to help them go through this crazy thing we call life. So take care of them by providing more than just a paycheck and watch them take care of you!

Enjoy!