I’ve built teams successfully for the last twenty years and learned from some not-so-good outcomes. When I’ve got it right, I’ve had massive positive outcomes, which lead to significant business results.
We all know that having the right people means:
- Better culture,
- Increased efficiency,
- Better client outcomes,
- Higher profits, and
- Easier to manage teams.
Unfortunately, many business owners in the trade sector grapple to find the right people and have high employee turnover.
Poor company culture is often at the core of the problem.
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast” is a famous quote from legendary management consultant and writer Peter Drucker. He proves that if you have the right people operating in a high-performance environment, they will outperform any other team.
But culture is often misunderstood. You won’t achieve a high-performing culture with fruit bowls, birthday cakes, and picnic days.
People respond best when they know what is expected of them and have everything in place to enable them to perform their job at a high level.
Let’s first look at what destroys culture:
- Not winning – client complaints, losing money, failed audits.
- Unorgainsied workflows of worksites.
- Wrong or poor-quality tools.
- Lack of planning.
- Rework due to someone else’s mistakes.
- Incorrect or incomplete materials.
- Not enough time to complete the job.
- Too much paperwork.
People working in the trade contracting sector have a desperate desire to be able to do their job and do it well. They want to be able to turn up to work and do a great job every time. As a manager or business owner, you must ensure they have everything they need to enable this.
When assessing your team’s culture, look in the mirror first. Start with ensuring the basics are done.
Retention – What about keeping the ones we’ve got?
Another critical issue I have observed is that the best people don’t make a lot of noise and are often overlooked or neglected. Once you have established a high-performance culture, you need to very deliberately do whatever you can to hold onto your top performers.
Praise in public – reward at home. When you can acknowledge a team member, jump on it. Make sure the reward goes home. Sending recognition and rewards home engages your team members’ families. Try sending a voucher to a local restaurant to your employee’s home address so he or she can take his or her family out for dinner. Imagine the difference it makes when someone’s child finds out their Mum or Dad is rewarded for being great at work. Other ideas for the home include:
- Movie tickets,
- Hampers,
- A night’s accommodation,
- Fun Park tickets
The extreme version: I have worked with a business that took this very seriously. The firm paid for a family vehicle for a star performer. Knowing that this person often has offers from other companies and headhunters, they were prepared to spend some money to keep this particular individual. Instead of paying a bonus or giving a pay rise, the business provided a family vehicle for personal use and a work vehicle. His partner very much appreciated the new family car. Can you imagine how the conversation goes when he comes home after a bad day and talks about leaving?
It seems excessive, but the cost of losing that person and replacing them far outweighed the expense (FBT included).
The cost of not having the right people is hard to see. Lost opportunities and unhappy clients are out of sight and not visible until it’s too late.
Building a good culture happens slowly and then all at once. It’s flywheel, and it’s hard to stop once it’s moving. It is okay to lose some people; that is part of the process. In most cases, the people who leave were not the right fit.
Build the right culture, and you attract good people, and good people attract more good people.
A happy team will always out-perform
Summary – Advice for attracting and retaining the right people
Not about pay
Culture is not what you think
Be remarkable – operational excellence
Reward staff and their family
Play the long game – that way, you’ll be hard to stop
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