Recruitment and retention are some of the greatest challenges of doing business right now.  What do you do when you find it almost impossible to recruit and retain the right employees?
 When you are facing the prospect of letting good customers down, you might be tempted to hold on to employees who no longer serve the business or to employ candidates who aren’t right, but who are willing to take the job. You probably know in your heart that both these options will only create problems farther down the road.
 The scarcity of good people is a topic that is cropping up with greater frequency. At our peer-to-peer forums, I’ve heard all the stories, from the leaders who are irritated by the good employee who has been fully trained up now heading off to Australia for a few years to those frustrated at not even being able to attract enough good candidates to hold interviews.
 Success story
So common is this problem that at a recent forum it became the central theme. It turned out that one of the business owners at the session had been working on this issue for some time and had had some success. We decided that, rather than follow our usual process whereby one person presents a case (a problem or issue) and the others pool their wisdom to help the case-giver find solutions, we would instead hear the success story.
This employer, like so many others, had struggled to both attract and retain the type of employee he knew would ensure the ongoing success of the business. He had learned at his very first peer-to-peer forum two years previously that change had to start with his perspective. It was on the basis of this insight that he approached the recruitment and retention problem.
 
Treat your employees as your customers and your culture as your product
“How am I seeing the problem?” he asked himself. His light-bulb moment came when he reflected that if a customer had a problem with his product or service he would not blame the customer but engage with them to understand their issues and needs better. As a result, he decided to treat his employees as his customers. He asked his employees – his management team, his key loyal employees and those who had handed in their notice –what they wanted.
 What they wanted was nothing to do with salaries and bonuses and everything to do with job satisfaction. They wanted to work for an organisation that treated them as partners rather than resources to deliver a service that made a profit.
 He realised that the problem was not about finding potential employees that would keep the business successful but reviewing the culture he now believed was no longer fit for purpose.
 Over the remainder of our day together the forum group discussed with their peer how over the course of two years he had solved his recruitment and retention problem. I’ve summarised below his actions and insights and some observations of the group. As these are just bullet points and deserve so much more attention, I will elaborate on them over the next few months.
  The business owner realised that the top down organisation model where management knew the answers and employees implemented their instructions was no longer fit for purpose. He is working out a new model built on the belief that everybody has their own wisdom. It would be his new role to find an approach to tap into this well of wisdom.

• Rather than trying to plan, predict and control the future in meetings and group communications, everyone is more focused on noticing and understanding what wants to emerge, what purpose needs to be served.
• Mission and values are no longer created from the top down but are created and owned by those at the operational level.
• Job titles and anything that rewards ego or creates unnecessary boundaries and distinctions have been removed and replaced by more fluid roles that are based on individual strengths that contribute to the collective well-being.
• Decision-making is more decentralised and generally occurs where the problem occurs.
• Employees have greater freedom to be themselves and bring all of themselves to work. At the same time each employee is expected to take full responsibility for contributing to the success of the organisation.
• The owner listens to understand others’ different points of view rather than just defending the status quo. One member likened this to listening better to your opponent or listening to what you don’t like.
• It’s about knowing that when you try something new you don’t need to know all the answers but you need to trust that the answer will make itself known as you come to each blockage.

All the members of the forum agreed that transforming a culture to this degree is a big aspiration and involves a gradual approach for management and other employees. Everyone – owners, managers and employees – have to adjust their usual style of interacting with each other. Management need to get used to not assuming all the power and responsibility and other employees need to get used to taking more responsibility for the areas they are accountable for. The initial change has to start with the key leader. He/she needs to start the journey without knowing how it will develop. How thrilling and exciting is that?


How are you adjusting to this more competitive employee environment? What is working well and what could you start to adjust to make the culture more attractive?