Time Value of Employees

By Tim Kolacz

I’m in a couple of meetings yesterday and two stats jump out at me due to their similarities, from two people in completely different industries. The stats were this, 80% of all employees are open to a new opportunity and 60-65% of people will listen to a new opportunity on any given day.

Holy crap, you are in trouble if you own a business.

What these two figures mean is that about 70% of companies are not engaging their employees to know what their work does in supporting the bottom line of the company. Because once you get above about 6 or 7 people in the company, what the receptionist does on a day-to-day basis may not be fully understood. And this is bad. Because what the president of the company, and for that matter the receptionist, may not realize is that the receptionist is the face of the business that the company is presenting. And the receptionist may not realize that what they say in those first two seconds when the soon-to-be biggest client the company will have, walks in the door will set the stage for the meeting that the CFO, President, Sales guy has with that client.

If they are sleepy, rude, angry, pleasant, happy-as-a-clam, whatever it is, it can be hard to overcome even for the most outgoing of person that follows. This goes the same for the President, CFO, Sales guy; if they are a bit grumpy and it takes a few minutes to get going in the meeting, but if the receptionist had them laughing and enjoying themselves, the meeting can go much smoother based on that conversation.

What the reality is though, is that everyone in the company needs to know that they are crucial to the success of the company. If they don’t know that, when that recruiter calls and says, “Hey, this really cool company down the street is willing to pay you less than you are making now, it’s farther away from your house, and traffic kinda sucks, but you are going to be integral to the success of the company,” what do you think that person will say. I know that you are going to be hitting the job posting boards looking for a new employee.

People leave companies because they want to be somewhere where they are wanted. Where they feel important. Where they feel like they matter. People leave companies because their boss is non-existent and they need to be led. It’s also why when an employee comes in and turns in their resignation, and you counter offer them with a bunch more money and tell them things will be different, things don’t change; other than your payroll went up and you still have a dissatisfied employee. And then they still leave six months later.

But here’s some really good news ; making your employees feel important is easy, and cheap. Don’t throw a party, down give them a new tech gadget. Walk up to them and thank them for the work they did yesterday. Tell them what they are doing daily helps you worry less about what they are in charge of so that you can go do your job better.

The only thing it costs you is time; which is the most valuable thing in the world. So give them some of yours. We’re not making more of it, spend it wisely.

Tim Kolacz provides his clients with his most valuable asset, his time and attention. He’s willing to share some of it with you M-F, 951.779.8370. On Saturdays his time goes to his really cool Triathlon bike.