Finding and training your employees is only half the battle. Once they're all settled in, you need to know how to retain them.
In some cases, losing a good employee can be worse than never finding them! There goes all the time and money you've spent on finding, hiring, and training them if they leave.
In this Gabfocus Spotlight, Tommy and Melissa talk with Terry Campbell (Copper Storage Management) and Sue Haviland (Haviland Storage Services) to learn how they retain good team members!
Question: "How do you make sure you retain your employees?"
Check out the video clip below to hear their answers:
In this Gabfocus Session: Maximizing Your Team, Tommy and Melissa were joined by Sue Haviland (Haviland Storage Services) and Terry Campbell (Copper Storage Management). They discussed all things hiring and managing when it comes to self storage team members.
Check out the full Session to dive deeper!
Don't want to watch the clip? Here's what Terry and Sue had to say:
Well like you said, starting off it's got to be the right person.
It's got to be the right person with the right values in the right seat. And that want to be part of the organization because then they're going to want to do what it takes to get it done.
But of course you have to take care of them.
We make sure that our pay scale is in line with what it is. We try to afford as much flexibility, especially being remote, that we can. Being a younger company, one of the things is setting up incentive programs and bonus programs within the company based on the role and not just based on the company's profitability because that can be a little unfair.
So I want to try to set up bonus programs and incentive programs that are directly related to their role and how they affect profitability and growth for the company.
So those are some of the things. We offer vacation. We offer health insurance and things like that, 401K and dental. We offer sort of the standard package. But that's something—the incentives and bonuses [are] something that will be coming down the road as we continue to grow more profitable.
Again, being the age and size that we are, we're still growing into that, and if that happens we're going to share the bounty."
—Terry Campbell
"For me, a little different approach because a lot of the people that I manage, they're single store owners, so they don't have the numbers to do the health insurance.
A lot of things have changed in the last couple of years. I tried to do a group one, and a lot of the places that used to do the group ones now don't. They all have to be individual, so then the premiums go up so much higher.
Then I have owners that will say well I'll offer so much money towards health, but they have to get health insurance. But I can't make them.
So I have to get creative sometimes. We have sick pay, vacation pay, bonus. All my staff are included in the bonus program. Not just the managers or the storage company. My maintenance crew, because if the maintenance guys or janitorial guys don't keep the properties up then our product doesn't look good to sell. So they deserve a piece just as much.
It's a quarterly, goes into a pool.
It's funny sometimes when you're trying to ask for money for your property. So they get a birthday check for their birthday to go do something.
I have a quarterly treat yourself. They can take money out of petty cash. The only rule is for the dollar amount, they got to send me a receipt and they got to send me a photo either at what they applied it to, using it or something.
And it can't be used for a bill, gas. It has to be something they treat themselves that they wouldn't normally do because they wouldn't have the money.
I do manager meetings I'm getting ready for. I've got the strong alone, unstoppable together. I'm nacho average employee. I've got bags, and I'm getting ready.
They'll have gift cards.
I buy birthday lunches.
I send out birthday photos to all the teams of everybody.
Doesn't take me that much time because sometimes people are like, oh, I'm too busy. I'm like, you know what? You put them on your calendar.
You have photos of all your staff, you send them out to everybody, and then everybody else within that group sends them a happy birthday, and they're remembered.
And that costs me nothing. And it just feeds to how you treat them. So when I don't have the big health insurances or 401Ks, I just try to get creative to show how much I appreciate them for their hard work, and I'm always striving to have the best pay per hour in the area.
A good bonus. If they grow the revenue, their bonus grows."
—Sue Haviland
