With the lowest labor participation rate in 30 years you would think finding and keeping good employees would not be a big issue for construction companies. But that’s not the case. The struggle to find and retain employees is a real one. This topic always surfaces in industry surveys as a top concern and my construction clients talk about it regularly.
Creating and sustaining a culture where employees feel like the company-employee relationship is more than transactional is a key to growing and retaining employees … and ultimately your company’s financial success.
Employee recruitment and retention woes have created a cannibalization environment where companies just keep stealing employees from each other. This is especially disheartening when you’ve invested significant energy and training costs for a promising employee who jumps ship to a competitor.
While you can never absolutely prevent a good employee’s departure, since each person is unique and has different motivations, there are some things you can do to protect your investment in your company’s most important asset — its employees.
Create a Culture of Trust
Perhaps nothing will cause a breakdown of communication, dysfunction in teamwork and disengagement within an organization than a lack of trust.
If this is true, then nothing likely contributes to the bottom line of an organization more than trust. This is the conclusion of Stephen R. Covey’s book, The Speed of Trust.
Maintaining integrity is a difficult but important imperative and is always at risk of being lost in a moment. Trust has many facets, but one key idea I have tried to keep in front of me is to not assume the worst motives when it comes to an employee’s actions. Often, someone’s motive is not as bad as we think. My son Henry recently came up with what I thought was a good idea: cars should have an “I'm sorry” horn to blow when you accidentally cut someone off on the highway. This might reduce road rage, and it would surely let others know that your motive was not malicious.
Honest and consistent feedback, in both directions, within an organization will go a long way to achieving a culture of trust.
Communicate Your Mission Or Purpose
I think as human beings we have an innate need to belong to communities. This need to belong goes beyond just matters of personal self-interest, while not denying that they do and should exist. It's incumbent upon the leadership of your company to clearly communicate WHY you exist in words, and consistently model it in actions over time.
An excellent video that gets at the importance of this is Simon Sinek’s TED talk, Start with the Why.
If you have not created a true mission or purpose statement, or think it should be given a fresh look, take the time to get it done this year.
Establish Standards, But Allow Freedom
No matter the area of construction you are in, you no doubt require employees to adhere to some universal standards and procedures in order to deliver the service your customers need.
Your ability to maintain these standards while at the same time allowing for the unique talents, creativity and personalities of each employee to shine is a key to helping them succeed within your organization.
If you are my boss and you are a micro-manager and believe that everything depends on your input and your own approach, I would not be inspired to continue working at your company. I would leave.
As you look at the policies and procedures within your organization, ask yourself these questions about each one:
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Is it contributing to my company’s highest priorities?
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Will it allow my employees to give their best?
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Does it enable my employees to operate independent of my leadership?
If you operate under the paradigm of “treat everyone the same,” I would ask you to reconsider. People are not all the same. It’s true that all employees need to be held accountable and meet clarified expectations. But how you motivate and grow each employee can be very different and will require knowing them as unique individuals. Anyone who has ever coached a team will get this.
The competition for employees will continue to be a major challenge within the construction industry. The business owners who figure out how to motivate and retain quality employees will be the most successful in the long run.
Need Help?
Our Construction & Real Estate Group can help. Contact us online or call 800.899.4623.
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