ALEXANDRIA, Va. — It’s not easy to find, hire and keep good employees.
During a recent Textile Rental Services Association (TRSA) webinar, Kelly Saliba, SPHR, vice president of human resources for Economy Linen & Towel Service in Zanesville, Ohio, shared that turnover is one of the biggest challenges in business today.
“It seems like just a few short years ago, we placed an ad in the local newspaper, and we received about five times the applicants that we needed to fill the positions that were open. People stayed a long time and pretty much focused their efforts on processing the linen in our plants,” says Saliba. “That’s no longer the situation.”
She notes that some turnover is desirable, especially if an employee has stopped working but remains on the payroll. However, turnover is always costly in terms of training and productivity.
Raising wages may seem like a step in the right direction, but Saliba says that throwing money at the problem doesn’t always help. Likewise, traditional recruiting methods aren’t cutting it.
She says that businesses in the laundry and linen industry need to have a retention plan in place. A basic retention plan covers five areas: recruiting, hiring, training, employee treatment and tracking the numbers.
TRAIN RIGHT
Communication is vital to employee retention, according to Saliba. Launderers must be able to communicate how the job is to be done and how valuable the employees are to the business.
“You should train them on not only the production standards but the safety and quality standards as well,” Saliba says. “If you train your employees correctly, then they will feel like they’ve been given a fair chance to be part of your team.”
Cathy Warrin, vice president of human resources for Nixon Uniform Service and Medical Wear, New Castle, Del., adds, “Consider having someone assigned as a buddy. Put together a group of associates to be a buddy and give them some simple tips for what it’s like to be a buddy. This will help to reinforce the culture and company values to the new hire.”
Again, for Saliba, in order to train employees right, the business must have supervisors who can train effectively. That includes ongoing training.
“Just because someone maybe meets production standards doesn’t necessarily mean they are effective in communicating, explaining and teaching others how to do the same,” she says.
Training must be a deliberate process. There should be training checklists for all positions, Saliba says, and once an employee is trained, have them sign off on it.
It’s during the training period that companies have the chance to manage non-performing employees, according to Saliba. If a launderer doesn’t manage and further train those employees, the workers could potentially be rewarded for lackluster performance through raises and even union protection.
If a laundry does have an employee who doesn’t meet expectations, she says, it only means that the job isn’t a good fit for the employee’s skills.
TREAT THEM RIGHT
Again, Saliba points to the value of communication when it comes to treating employees right. The most important relationship an employee has is the one with his or her immediate supervisor.
Supervisors need to connect with employees and treat them with dignity and respect, she says. Communicate often and openly, and recognize employees for their efforts to make them feel like an important part of the business.
Treating employees right also means firing them right, says Saliba. If an employee is not performing, apply discipline fairly and equally.
Firing right also help retains good employees, she explains. Companies will lose good people if the “bad fits” remain employed.
“If someone is fired right, and they should have been fired, the odds are that the people around them knew it should have happened a while ago,” says Steve Kulchin, vice president of Human Resources for Mission Linen Supply in Santa Barbara, Calif.
“You have to fire when necessary,” adds Saliba. “When you realize that you’ve made a bad hiring decision, the best thing you can do is reverse that decision.”
TRACK YOUR NUMBERS
Saliba suggests tracking the numbers on every aspect of the recruitment process, including the effectiveness of your recruitment sources and the average length of stay for employees.
“If the turnover that you are having is averaging, say, at the end of the second week or third week, then that’s where you have to put more of your efforts into,” she says. “If you can find out the point where you’re losing the people you’re losing, you can focus your efforts there.”
Track training, and don’t just assume it’s being done. Use exit interview forms to track voluntary quits. However, while exit interviews are important, a “stay” interview can be just as important.
“A stay interview is interviewing and getting feedback from the people who decide to stay,” says Saliba. “What makes them decide to stay? What do they think as a company you can do to get people to stay within your organization? They’re the experts, and they usually have really good insight.”
Track turnover by department and by reason, and make supervisors accountable for their turnover numbers.
But all of this tracking will mean nothing if the launderer doesn’t act on what the numbers are telling it.
It takes time, effort and money to train, develop, motivate, and listen to employees. But, Saliba asks, which is more expensive—the cost of doing what it takes to retain employees, or the cost of losing and replacing them?
“You can manage turnover with a retention plan, or you can let it manage you.”
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Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Matt Poe at [email protected].