If you registered for the ISSA 2020 Virtual Show, you might have been a little overwhelmed by the sheer number of talks and presentations. I know I was. I didn’t know where to start. This article is intended to act as a taste of the actual presentation. Taking an hour out of your day to watch a video might not sound like a good use of your time as a business owner. So, by the time you read this, you might decide for yourself if you want the full experience. If you weren’t sure if you wanted to attend the virtual show itself, then this article will serve as a way for you to definitively decide. Many of the presentations and products on display will be available until March 31st, 2021.

This presentation was given by Debbie Sardone, about the importance of retaining good workers, and how to keep them in your company.

Debbie started off with how you can get the best staff possible. This is made effective by her 3 step process. First of which is creating “The Irresistible Job”. The irresistible JOB is actually an acronym that stands for Joy, Opportunity, and Benefits. Debbie goes into detail about what each of these points requires including company culture, better pay, and the various benefits of working for her company.

The second step in Debbie’s plan is creating “The Irresistible Pitch”. Debbie insists hiring is as much a sales job as anything else. As an employer, you have to sell your job to your potential employee. What this means is pitching top level 3 pay, full-time pay, the advantages of working for you, and not the policies. Making the job you are hiring for sound amazing.

The third step is to Live Up to the pitch. This means making sure your employees are paid well. Debbie says, “You can’t attract GREAT PEOPLE with LOW pay”. This also means no drama. Having systems in place to reduce chaos is vital to keeping good employees. Drama and Chaos are the #2 reasons good employees leave. Debbie noticed many new employees leave before the training is complete. If you can figure out a way to make that training run smoothly, you’re sure to retain more employees.

Debbie made a point to express something in particular. She says the best way to hire is to hire integrity, and then train skill. This is something she makes a point of throughout her presentation. What she says is that sometimes people, who you might want to hire because of their experience, sometimes lack integrity. You might want to hire someone because you’d hardly have to train them. But what about the cost they present if you have to fire them, or they leave?

Debbie even went as far as to calculate the cost of losing and having to constantly rehire new employees. She figured, for her business at least, it cost $700 to $900 to train a new hire. But what about the cost of losing repeat customers due to turnover? If a customer is annoyed that new people are constantly in their house they may decide they don’t want your business altogether. That could cost you around $3,200. In total that’s nearly $3,900 you are losing from not being able to retain good employees.

Part of retaining these employees comes down to training. Debbie says that there are 3 main steps for successful training. These steps are training the owner first, the trainer second, and the employee last. If all these steps are met, then the owner knows what to do and can train the trainer properly, therefore allowing the trainer to train new employees in the correct manner. Debbie goes into much detail about each of these steps in her ISSA presentation.

This presentation was full of very helpful material especially if this was a topic you’ve been struggling with. Debbie goes into much more depth than this article can show. If you want to watch this presentation click the link below.