How to Keep Good Employees During Difficult Times

Jonena Relth, TBD Consulting

How do we find good people who will come to work for us when our states are losing hundreds of thousands of jobs each year? How do we convince workers that if they can sell their homes and uproot their families by moving to work for us, that we'll be able to guarantee them a secure position within our companies?

Each HR exec is grappling with finding, retaining and developing good people during these hard times.  It's easy to attract the best folks when the economy is ticking right along; house prices are holding steady or going up; business opportunities abound, and all is well in "HR Land."  The 'good ol' days' don't seem to be coming back any time soon and it's been a whole different business environment that we've been navigating since 2008.

Our topic this month is talent attraction, retention and development. All three components of finding and keeping valued employees are crucial for our business success.  But what do we do, especially if our companies happen to be located in the four worst states in terms of job losses?

Lists we don't want to be on are the "prestigious" unemployment lists [not] from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for 2008-2012.  Honestly, we can put our heads in the sand and listen to the media telling us that the job scene is improving, or we can take these stats to heart and begin changing our hiring and retention policies to help workers and companies survive and hopefully thrive in a down economy. 

Let's start with some statistics that give HR leaders heartburn.  Mike Sunnucks of the Phoenix Business Journal summarized some of the 2008-2012 unemployment data in his March 26, 2012 article, Arizona among four states with worst US job markets since 2008.

States that lost jobs since 2008:

• Nevada lost 12.7 percent of its jobs. That was worst among U.S. states. Arizona was next with 10 percent of its jobs lost, followed by Florida with an 8.5 percent job loss rate.
• California lost the most total jobs, shedding 855,200 positions during the 4-year time frame. Florida was next shedding 578,900 jobs. Arizona lost 225,100 jobs during that same time.
  • Those four states were hit hard by the real estate meltdown, rise in foreclosure and hits on hiring, population growth and tourism.
  • California also has suffered from the real estate decline as well as some businesses and workers leaving because of high taxes.

Only four states and the District of Columbia added jobs since 2008.

• Texas beat out Arizona for 3,600 Apple workers and gained the most jobs of any U.S. state with 139,800. Texas might have gained the most jobs but the state came in fourth in percentage growth at 1.59 percent.
• The other states adding jobs were North Dakota (41,200 jobs), D.C. (21,000 jobs), Louisiana (10,400 jobs) and Alaska (4,200), according to BLS data.
• North Dakota did best when it came to percentage jobs gains, growing its workforce by 14.3 percent since 2008.

So what can we make of this data?  Not much until we delve into other information telling what type of jobs are being cut and what kind of jobs are being kept or increased?  We also need to ascertain why so many people of any particular industry are being hit in any one area of the country; what is behind the drop in consumer spending; what factors need to change for our economy to pick up, etc. The analysis can be daunting, especially given the different interpretations by even the best economists.

One suggestion I have is to use a good CPA firm that has access to up-to-date business intelligence data and software that enables them to calculate your company's risk tolerances to the economy, hiring, keeping people during down times vs. letting them go, etc. They can also advise you on ways you can change your HR policies to make them more "employee friendly."

Additionally, look at ways to incentivize your existing people to stick with you during these hard times. Many of those people have spent much of their adult life at your company and their company knowledge is hard to replace - especially quickly.  It can be much easier and more cost efficient to keep existing, valuable employees than searching for, hiring and bringing new people up to speed. 

Ideas and programs abound, but I'd suggest you go to the source and find out what your employees want. Don't waste time designing incentive programs that will decentivise your people because they have no interest in what you're offering.  It will very likely not be more money -- it could very well be another day of PTO or the ability to work virtually instead of tackling traffic jams each day.  Whatever you do, be consistent and fair.  Some companies get in trouble by showing "favoritism" to one employee group over another.  Keep the playing field even and you'll never regret it.  You want loyal employees and nothing kills loyalty faster than finding out the guy in the cubby or office next to you gets bennies that you don't!

We're all looking for the one silver bullet that will help our companies do well in this economy.  If you find it, please let us know!

To do your own research, you might want to start online at the Bureau of Labor and Statistics:  Databases, Tables & Calculators by Subject 

Jonena

TBD Consulting has a 20-year, proven track record for ensuring employee performance improvement which translates to employee performance success. Whether you need help developing an in-house training organization or simply need "extra hands" to meet your deadlines or ROI goals, please contact Jonena. She and her qualified staff are here to assist you with your organizational development, coaching and training initiatives.

Corporate Office 602-263-1961. Email Jonena today!