When the pandemic first hit, fear and panic set in, and a lot of companies downsized immediately.
I was fascinated to watch as one company that I follow let huge amounts of people go only to hire new people for the same positions months later.
Whatever money they had initially felt they needed to save by cutting people, they ended up using to hire again.
In the interim — between the firing and rehiring — the people who remained took on additional roles to keep business moving. I’m willing to bet those folks weren’t compensated for the increase in work.
It doesn’t take pandemics to see similar trends.
Think of anyone you ever worked with who ended up leaving a company because they were given way more than they signed up for and were never valued or compensated for their contribution.
Those people originally came in with one idea of what they were agreeing to. Over time, they were asked to do more. Until finally, after not receiving any additional benefit or reward for their effort, they walked out altogether.
So is the cycle of employee turnover – pandemics or not.
This happens because business owners forget WHO (not what) helped them build their companies to begin with.
They forget who originally championed for their brand and what they created well before customers had the product/service to promote themselves.
Business owners often fail to see their team members (be they full-time, part-time, or contractors) are the greatest asset they have.
We tend to bend over backward for our customers and clients but forget about the people on the inside of our businesses.
Yet it’s the people inside that have the power to exponentially grow our business, foster our big dreams, and reach our goals faster.
Which means, they also have the power to destroy it if we take advantage of them.
We need to focus less on our profit and loss and more on the relationships we’re building. When we foster our relationships, our P&L will also grow.
Here’s the 3-2-1 on this aspect of relationships.
3 TRUTHS
- If we forget about our team, we can forget about our business. One won’t survive without the other.
- When we look at our people as liquid assets (who we can just fire and hire at will), we lose sight of the real impact those people have on our business which impacts the money we make every time.
- The people inside our businesses who are treated like people instead of just workers (or minions) and who feel engaged and appreciated, will go to the mattresses for us every single time. They’ll help us grow our companies, and be ambassadors for our brands.
2 ACTIONS
- Investigate whether your team members are fulfilling more than one role for your business and whether you’re compensating them for that additional effort.
- Develop a plan for assessing the culture of your company so you can determine the internal experience of those who work for you and your business.
1 QUESTION
- Am I recognizing all the contributions of the people inside my business?
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To your impact and legacy,
