It has been almost a decade since our economy was on fire. One of the effects it had on our businesses was that we couldn’t find employees. Once we did find the right employees, we had a hard time keeping them.
The phenomenon was seen across a variety of industries in the United States. Ski Resorts couldn’t fill open positions for jobs ranging from ski instructors to food services. Trucking companies were hampered by a shortage of diesel mechanics. High-tech companies lobbied the Federal Government for changes in our H1B visa polices in order to bring in more software developers and programmers.
Despite the heated economy, good employers chose not to play the pay game and opted to focus on other factors that were important to employees. During the past recession, since giving raises was nearly impossible in all industries, finding other job satisfaction-employee retention methods became even more important.
One of my favorite business books is a Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evan’s book entitled Love ’em or Lose ’em. The book focuses on employee retention. As a part of their efforts, the authors keep a live, ongoing employee satisfaction survey on their website titled “What Keeps You?”
Since the book was originally published in 2002, the survey is now on its ninth year, which spans both our heated economy as well as our recent recession. Where do you think pay ranks on the scale? Pay ranks sixth on a scale of thirteen factors! The two most important factors are challenging work and a supportive boss.
The brilliance of the Jordan Evans Group is that you have to take the survey to get the results. I’m going to honor that and not post the results here. If you want to better understand factors that will help you retain your employees, visit the site and take the survey.
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