I have found over the years that many service business owners avoid firing their “bad fit” employees, even when deep down they know they should.
There are many reasons to avoid terminating an employee, but the most common reasons are
- Lack of documentation and fear of an unemployment claim.
- Wanting to avoid “confrontation” at all costs.
- Needing every warm body possible to complete the scheduled work.
So, what if you could keep the people you have, but set up systems that reward them for improved performance? And if they choose not to improve performance, those same systems will eventually lead the employee to self-exit, rather than you having to fire them.
In my ISSA Residential session “Keep Your People, But With Better Results: 10 Turn-Key Ideas to Improve Attendance and Quality”, I'll give you ideas that will move the needle to get the results you want. These ideas can be easily implemented and can be part of your employee systems with very little cost or effort.
We’ll discuss that you can use these ideas to fix a short or long term problem. Generally improving quality and decreasing absenteeism are a year-round chronic problem. Whereas, a problem with clocking errors, or maybe particular kinds of complaints might be a short term problem.
Seasonality-based Opportunities
An example of a seasonal problem that we seemed to have in the summer months was an increase in floor complaints. Morale would tank a little in the hot summer months. Most of our staff were single moms with kids at home during the summer. We inevitably seemed to get more floor complaints in the summer than any other time of year. And, as you know, floor complaints are generally caused by rushing and trying to get done faster.
Contests Drive Engagement
So, one of the ways we fixed our floor complaint problem was by having a contest. Every person who didn’t get any floor complaints during the summer months (we ran a separate contest in June, July and August), got some kind of reward. We had a variety of rewards, but some examples are waterpark passes, movie tickets, zoo passes, WalMart or Target gift cards for back to school shopping, etc. The key is knowing your employees. Like I mentioned, many of our employees were single moms, so we generally had rewards that catered to families. Whatever the reward, it needs to be something that the employees want and will work towards.
Another important component of these contests is keeping the excitement going through the time period of the contest and making sure to draw public recognition towards the employees who are in the running for the reward. It’s the public recognition part that actually separates the pack and quietly causes the employees who aren’t earning the reward, and never plan to, to leave the company. By not being publicly recognized as being part of the winning group, the “bad fit” employees are indirectly being singled out. After a period of time, generally those employees will leave. And when they leave, they’ll most likely blame it on your “dumb company rules”, “unfair contests”, etc, but ultimately you get the end result that is best for the company.
Reward Culture Year Round
When you start rolling with the year round ideas, and plug in some short term random ideas to keep things fun and fresh, you will eventually refresh your entire company culture. You will build a culture that rewards and recognizes the employees who are performing at top level, while creating an environment where “slackers” don’t want to stay because their behavior is no longer hidden, it’s highlighted by lack of inclusion.
Winners like to work alongside winners. Come to my session “Keep Your People, But With Better Results: 10 Turn-Key Ideas to Improve Attendance and Quality” to learn more about how to easily transform the workplace into a positive, rewarding culture where winners want to stay and subperforming staff improve or choose to self-exit
Continue the Conversation at ISSA Residential
Want to dive deeper into this topic? Add the August 12 special episode of Smart Business Moves to your calendar and hear more about Martha's upcoming session.
Join Martha Woodward at ISSA Residential for a complete, interactive session featuring additional strategies, real-world examples, and practical implementation guidance you won't find in this article. View the full ISSA Residential Schedule.
Session: Keep Your People, But With Better Results: 10 Turn-Key Ideas to Improve Attendance and Quality
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