When Carol Mixon, president of SkilCheck, Inc., in Tucson, Ariz., is having issues with a manager, she talks to the employee and then typically enacts a 30-day to 90-day plan to correct the issues, hoping she can retain the employee.
Why try so hard to retain a manager? According to the Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM), the average cost per new hire is $4,700, so the decision to hire (and then let an employee walk) can be costly to a self-storage business.
It may seem that you cannot control what your employees do or think about seeking new employment or you feel you’re powerless to prevent issues that result in the employee being terminated, but experts within the industry say you have more power than you might think. Here are six ways to retain employees.
Finding the right candidate for your facility can seem like a daunting task, but Christina Rita, COO for Walnut Creek, Calif.-based StoragePRO Management, Inc., says retaining good employees starts at the hiring process. “We talk to our current employees who are doing a good job and who enjoy working for us,” says Rita. “They will refer friends and family who they think may be a good fit. We just hired two people in the home office who were referred by other employees.”
Many companies then go through a multilayered interviewing process that involves one-on-one and committee interviews. Diane Gibson, president of Cox’s Armored Storage in Phoenix, Ariz., says her company involves managers in the interviewing process who would be working directly with the new hire. “We want them to be compatible,” says Gibson, “and we find there is a lot less turnover if the person at the store handles some of the interviews.” This process also helps her managers feel empowered in decision-making.
When it comes to what they are seeking in a candidate, it’s less about prior experience in self-storage than it is about finding the right qualities, such as salesmanship and customer service abilities. “We’ve hired our best managers who may have been living out of their cars,” says Gibson. “It all comes down to the interview process.”
Randy Weissman, COO for Pogoda Properties in Farmington Hills, Mich., says one other important quality they seek in a new hire is the ability to work on their own. “It takes a special person to be motivated to work unsupervised,” he says.
If it appears the candidate is advancing in the selection process, it’s important to do your own homework. “Probably the most difficult thing is the hiring process,” Mixon says. “You can’t know everything about your applicants, but there are many ways to find a lot of information.” She advises doing a background check, which includes cross referencing prior addresses on reports; this may reveal an employer within the industry they excluded from their application. It’s very important to check references as well. “Believe it or not, I’ve called many references who had previously fired an applicant,” Mixon says.
Once your new hire comes on board, you must ensure you do everything possible to set them up for success, says M. Anne Ballard, president of marketing, training, and developmental services for Universal Storage Group in Atlanta, Ga. “A well-trained employee makes a more confident and comfortable employee,” says Ballard. While you may have a good training program that shows all the processes and company policies, Rita says that it’s very important to tailor your training program.
“Communication is very important in the training process,” says Rita. “Our learning and development director answers questions and keeps in communication with our new hires. We also realize there are different kinds of learners, and we try to meet their needs on their level.”
“You have to bonus your managers,” says Ballard. “It doesn’t have to be complicated, and your managers should know exactly what they need to do to receive the bonus. We have a saying regarding our bonus structure, ‘Keep it simple, stupid.’” Universal Storage Group’s bonuses are based on one half to one percent of the Gross Potential Income (GPI) for the property. “Once they help grow the property and GPI increases, it helps them as well as you.”
However, in most instances, money isn’t the only way to help keep your employees motivated. It helps to empower your employees to make decisions. “Allowing the manager to make some decisions without having to run to upper management gives them autonomy and ownership and helps them feel empowered,” Weissman says.
Personalizing incentives can keep employees motivated too. “Know their interests,” says Mixon, “and if they have an interest in golf, for example, give them a golf-related gift certificate. It not only helps keep them happy and motivated, but it also shows your employees you care about their interests.”
You can only personalize incentives if you take an interest in their lives, and there is a fine line between developing a healthy employee/employer relationship and not allowing them to interpret you as “friends,” but Mixon says it can be done. “You must have regular interactions with them, which will also allow you to note behavior changes or if their production slips,” says Mixon. USG regularly interacts with its employees through monthly meetings, where employees can share personal news and announcements and birthdays/anniversaries are celebrated. The news is once again shared in an emailed newsletter. StoragePRO’s newsletter spotlights different employees each month, enabling management as well as other employees to get to know them.
Don’t just tell your employees you have an “open door policy” and let them go, say the experts. “You have to keep them informed; you can’t just treat them like a mushroom and keep them in the dark,” says Ballard. “But open communication also means listening to them. Get their ideas; empower them to not just present problems but solutions to you.”
One way USG keeps communication open is through surveys and performance evaluations that require employees to evaluate their own performance before talking to their manager. “We all learn a lot through those self-evaluations,” says Ballard.
Gibson says listening is a very useful tool. “My employees know I’m a listener and I’m open to all suggestions,” says Gibson. “If someone suggests something and we cannot implement their suggestion, it’s also important to explain to them why.”
Rita says their survey once revealed that their employees weren’t happy with the medical insurance. “We found a great plan and decided to absorb the costs,” says Rita. “It’s very expensive to replace an employee; it was worth a few hundred dollars to improve the insurance plan.”
If issues arise with an employee and their performance, USG first talks to the employee to try to pinpoint the source of the issue. “We also start by telling them what they’re doing right and then move onto what they need to improve,” says Ballard. If they have been doing all the other steps to keep employees, no one should be blindsided. “We always tell our team a good employee doesn’t become bad overnight,” says Rita. “We train our managers to try to identify issues early and act. It may be more training, but whatever it is, we try to be very nurturing and build them up rather than beat them down; we get their buy in for improvement that way.”
Sometimes, it may be as easy as transferring a manager to a different store. “They may not be a good fit for whatever reason,” says Mixon. “They may need a fast-paced environment and they’re in a slower store, or it could be the neighborhood.”
Other times, a situation just isn’t going to work out, says Gibson, who adds that employees must be willing to give 110 percent. “I tell them if they are doing that, we will row with them, but if they aren’t willing to do it, I will not sink with them.”
The most important thing is to follow all the steps to help motivate and keep them happy, especially communicating with them. “I always tell my employees, if you’re going to be relieved of duties, it will not come as a shock.” However, following the points presented in this article has served her and our other experts well. “By far, I have more employees who have been with us for 10 years or longer than not,” says Gibson.
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Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell is a freelance journalist based in the Ozark Mountains. She is a regular contributor to Messenger. Her business articles have also appeared in Entrepreneur, Aol.com, MSN.com, and The Kansas City Star.