Would you like to know how to hire the
right employee and then how to retain
them? Welcome to Hero TV!
I'm Nate Woodbury, I'm here with Sydney
Jacques. We're going to talk about that
Hey everybody! it's Sydney Jacques. I'm
excited to talk to you today about how
to hire the right employee, and how to
retain that employee once you have them.
a long time ago, okay, about 20 years ago,
I was listening to the radio and they
were interviewing a man that was turning
103 years old. And in this interview, they
were asking all kinds of questions.
They're saying what, "did you eat what?",
"what kind of vitamins did you take?", "how much
water did you drink?", "what did you do for
exercise?", And this man I was
listening to on the radio he said, "you
know? I learned years, and years, and years
ago, the secret to life. do you want
to know what it is?" this is what he said,
he said, "a long time ago I learned the
secret to life is every day I get up, and
I look out my window, and I say oh this is
is just the kind of thing I was hoping
for!" He said, because I learned on the
outside sometimes it's raining,
sometimes it's snowing, sometimes it's
windy, sometimes it is a beautiful bright
sunny day, but I can't control any of
that. The only thing that I can control
is what's on the inside and that's me. So
he said, what I learned many, many years
ago, that is truly the biggest secret to
living a long and healthy happy life is
to just choose every morning when you
get up to have a good attitude and I
love that story and as I think about
hiring new employees as I've done many
times over the last 20 years in my
business, that is the number one thing
that I look for is, what attitude are
they bringing to me?
I can teach technical skills, I can teach
customer service, I can teach them even
how to work in a team, but to just start
the day and have a great attitude and
bring positivity to my team, that's
something that's a lot harder to teach.
So that is truly the number one thing
that I look for. And as you're
interviewing, and as you're getting to
know people, it's a little hard to figure
out. One of the things that I've done is,
if I choose someone to go on to a second
interview, I actually make that a work
meeting. Where they come in with my team
and I ask them to spend two to three
hours with us maybe it's creating a
proposal,
maybe it's putting together a plan for a
project,
but I want to know how do they interact with
us? What kind of attitude are they
bringing? What value do they have to add?
So, attitude is something that I think
that you just really need to figure
out. What kind of attitude are they
bringing to your team? because there's a
lot of things that you can teach but if
they already come with a great attitude,
then you're far ahead.
I remember when one of my older
daughters was going to college, and she
called me one day and she'd just gotten
out of a class, and they called it
something like current events and, and
they had given all these statistics
about all these kids that were
graduating from college and they had all
this debt ,and they couldn't find jobs.
And she was just depressed. She's like, "oh
what am I going to do?" and I said, "I
promise you Megan, if you will continue
to have the great attitude that you have
and hone your communication skills, you
will always find employment. You will
always be successful in your career
because attitude is truly more important
than the other things that you can bring
to the table.
Alright. So, as once we get
that employee and once we'd get the
right employee, then we want to make sure
that we can retain our employees and
keep them with us for the long run. Right?
So, on another episode of hero TV, I use
this model as I talked about our company
and how we gain more market share. Well, I
want to use the same model again and
talk about how we use it to retain the
employees that we have. So this is a
model that I call the 5s. And the first
one that I'm going to talk about is food.
Because the reality is, we all love food.
Okay, you probably know by now I baked
chocolate chip cookies for all of my
clients meetings workshops. Last year, my
staff and I baked over 20,000 chocolate
chip cookies. Alright, so that's my
thing but when I have staff meeting, we
have really great food in staff meeting.
So, thinking of this in terms of "how do
you retain your employees" maybe, it's you
know, some of the software companies
around where we live, they have, you know,
open kitchens full of food. Sometimes
they offer free lunch. Some of the
contractor
that I work with, they have big summer
parties. One of my favorite clients that
I work with, they invite me to their
summer party where we have Dutch oven
cooking and fishing up in the mountains.
I like that food. We always have to think
about, where does the food fit into our
culture? because it does make a
difference to people. The second thing is
freedom. So what kind of freedom can you
give your employees? Now obviously it
depends on you know what your work
situations are. But in this day and age
with our electronics, we have so many
more opportunities that we can allow
people to maybe work from home at least
part of the time or maybe we can allow
them the freedom of choosing their work
schedule. When I very first started work
as an engineer, I was working up in the
mountains surveying and designing
campgrounds and I worked four 10-hour
days and had a three-day weekend every
week and I loved it.
So, look at different options that you
have and ask your employees, what kind of
things could you do? maybe it's even just
staggering the start and the stop time
to their day. Or the days of the week
that they work. every business is
different but this is something that I
think you'll be surprised if you
actually open up this conversation with
your employees and ask them, you know, are
there ways that we could provide more
freedom to you? more flexibility in your
time? in your schedule? so that you will
be more apt to want to stay here because
we want you here. Alright, so I guess
we're jumping ahead to number five which
is the future. We always want our
employees to know that we intend to keep
them here for the long run. We want them
to be a part of our future.
So how do we do that? I have one client
that I'm working with and when they gave
me a tour as a contractor and when they
gave me a tour of their facility, they
actually on their walls they have
everyone that's been there ten years or
more. They have this big picture on the
wall with the date that they came to
work for the company and then it goes
along. And you can see it's amazing
the longevity of the employees there.
So, something that celebrates their
anniversary, something that is increased
benefits, the longer that they've been
there. You have to figure out, what is it
that will make them want to be a part of
their future? and how do you communicate
to them so that they know you want them
to be a part of their future.
Going back here, this which was number three, is
fulfillment. How can you help your
employees feel more fulfilled than the
work that they're doing with you? One of
the things that we do in my company is
we have four days a year that I pay my
employees to go do volunteer service.
Sometimes they choose projects and they
go do it on their own, sometimes we work
together as a team. We've done Habitat
for Humanity projects. This last summer,
we worked with the city that we live in
and we donated date and we all went out
and helped to build a new playground
that's designed to help children, the
aring wheelchairs and have disadvantages
physically. And, we had a great awesome
day with all of our team working
together. Find ways that you can fulfill
them maybe even bring their families in
to some of this. But volunteer service is
something that bonds people together and
helps them be excited about where they
work four days a year a volunteer
service. That's a great perk. And, the last
one that we're going to talk about is
financial. So of course, we all have to
figure out if we want our employees to
stay, we have to figure out what is a
what is a competitive pay rate? what can
we offer as far as benefits? but, one of
the things that I learned from a client
of mine is that, when they did year end
bonuses, they encourage their employees
to use that specifically for a vacation.
Now, that could it be a vacation for you
in a significant other, or vacation for
your family. I adopted this and when we
did our bonuses and I asked people I said,
"I can't tell you what you have to do with
your money, but I strongly recommend that
you take this money and instead of just
using it to pay your utility bills and
buy your groceries and you never
really notice it was there, because it is
extra bonus, set it aside and do
something". One of my families, they took
all of their kids and grandkids to
Disneyland, and Six Flags, Magic Mountain.
Do you think they were happy for that
bonus? and is that something that they're
going to remember back on the company?
"Oh! everybody in that family loves our
company" right? and so there's different
ways that we can use our financial
rewards, but doing it in a way that helps
them want to be a part of the future in
your company. As we put all these things
together, as you recruit the right
employees, you find the ones that have
the great attitude, and then you treat
them well while they're there. You'll be
able to recruit and retain quality
employees and that will have a direct
effect on your bottom line.
So go to work, get it done and let me
know how I can help you.
If you found
this video helpful, make sure to LIKE and
subscribe and thanks so much Sydney for
sharing this wisdom with us. You can find
out a lot more information about Sydney
if you go down in the description below.
Make sure to share your comments, ask any
questions. And remember, to live on
purpose, make a difference,
and be the hero!