Everybody wants the best employees but many employers are looking in all the wrong places to find them. Retail, restaurants and referrals are the three places we would start for front line positions. Every day we receive calls from employers wanting to find that perfect employee. In today’s marketplace, it’s just as important to become the perfect employer. We’re always looking for the best.
Today, the employee is as well and what they want is pretty simple.
I live in Campbellville and to be in Toronto for 9:00 am, I have to leave the house at 7:00 am. Under normal circumstances, I am 42 minutes away from Yonge and the 401. It takes almost three times as long to get to an office than it should. Guess what? Flex‐time can work in this business. If it’s taking me that long to get to work, I’m sure there are millions of others with the same problem. As an industry we need to look at our hours and modify them to satisfy a broader spectrum of the population. Why do head offices have to close at 5:00 pm? Why can’t we open earlier or stay later? Our world is changing. Millennial’s don’t like to get up until 10:00 am and today, they make up the largest percentage of renters. Maybe we need to conform to customer needs and help ourselves at the same time. Today I try hard not to even send people on an interview if they live more than one hour from the place of employment because the ideal for a daily commute is one hour or less.
Summer hours are a huge motivator for millennials particularly since they’re more interested in working to support their lifestyle. Summer hours, closing at noon on the Friday of a long weekend and closing the week between Christmas and New Years are all great benefits for new hires. Many will take a cut in pay if the time off package is attractive. Companies that support summer hours have a higher level of satisfaction within the industry. These companies also have the lowest turnover. When we call people about an interview and mention summer hours, we have people immediately fighting for an interview. Presenting bling or gift bags with the company logo to new employees on their first day makes a great impression – T‐shirts, earphones, mouse pads, pens, etc. just enrich a new employee’s first day and create a great sense of welcome. Think of a new employee the same way you would a new tenant. If a tenant moves in and there are issues or things aren’t organized properly on their first day, they’ll never be happy as long as they live in your building. Today, young professionals are apt to change employment if they feel they have a poor start or poor work experiences. Gone are the days when an employee will continue with the same company throughout their entire career.
Finally, if you want good employees start looking at the way you’re treating the ones you have. Sometimes a misunderstanding can have someone looking for a new job and you don’t even know why. We often hear the following: someone went “above and beyond the call of duty” and no one even said thank you; or, a company didn’t even send a card when their parent died; or, they were called continually while on vacation; or, no one ever wished them a happy birthday. Your employees are people and people have feeling that are easily hurt. If you want good employees you may already have them. Maybe they’re just not performing because you’re not treating them well. Then again, they may just be “rotten to the core” and if there’s one thing we’ve learned in this business ‐ if you have a bad
apple you’d better do something because it doesn’t take long to ruin or bruise all of the other apples.
For a second opinion or to discuss our comments please reach out to Bonnie Hoy at bonnie@bonniehoy.com or 416‐821‐9425.
