by Emma King (@EmmainSA) Businesses in our industry have two assets: the talents who work for us, and our name (or reputation). All the rest — the work we do, the client relationships we have, the awards we win — stem from the former, and dictate the later.
So it’s surprising when I see stats, such as recently reported in UK’s Design Week, that “62% of UK creative and marketing businesses have no strategy in place to retain talented employees”. What???
Shortsighted
How damn shortsighted is that? We know what a turmoil it is to train and upskill people, and we know how insecure clients feel when they constantly have to deal with new people — not to mention the financial (and emotional) burden of ongoing recruitment processes.
So why the hell aren’t we placing more focus on retaining good people?
I don’t think looking after employees needs to be rocket science, and I believe it can be easily distilled down to three basic principles: Are you making them rich, famous and happy?
Bear with me while I explain.
1. Are you making them rich?
This doesn’t need much explanation but it goes without saying that, if you are not paying talented employees at least what other people are willing to, or giving them benefits they could have, they are going to be tempted away.
If your staff members are LOVING their work and your business, they may overlook this. But not for long.
People don’t work for the love of the commute, the office hierarchy and the crappy open-plan office. They work to get paid so they can do the things they want to when they are not at work.
2. Are you making them famous?
This means, loosely, are you letting them do work that excites them and are you letting them be brave? At the extreme end, it means letting them (and pushing them to) do work that will be recognised and rewarded. But is also means giving them the opportunity to create work and operate in a way that is meaningful.
Good talents want to be in an environment where they can do work that matters, work that is important — that they can be proud of, and which challenges and excites them. With clients who respect them.
And they want to be recognised, whether by the industry at large, or internally through career progression or peer and colleague acknowledgment.
3. Are you making them happy?
This is all the fluffy stuff — a decent amount of leave, good equipment to work off, an office environment that is not like Mordor. Not having to sit next to and deal with douchebags… bullies… psychopaths…
This part is probably the easiest to get right but it’s surprising how many agencies don’t.
I heard of a local one that, without warning, cut all its employees’ salaries (without reimbursement) for a couple of months due to ‘cash flow problems’. The directors, meanwhile, took full pay and showed up soon after with brand new BMW ‘company cars’.
Another one only allowed the management team to have good coffee from the cappuccino machine. The rest of the staff had to drink Ricoffy and bring in their own milk.
Is this for real? And they wonder why staff doesn’t want to stay in conditions that would make a Dickensian poorhouse embarrassed…
As with anything in life, as employers, you often can’t do it all. But if you can’t make them rich, famous AND happy, at least try to tick two of the boxes. Tick none, and maybe you should start to worry…
Emma King (@EmmainSA) is head of PR at The Jupiter Drawing Room (Cape Town). She contributes the monthly “The Dissindent Spin Doctor” column on PR and communication issues to MarkLives.com.
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