THE PROBLEM

Why do employers go to so much effort to hire “good” employees? Regardless of the economy and the unemployment rate, employers should never struggle to find “good” employees. In fact, employers should be able to find and hire “great” employees. Most employers simply don’t understand what it takes to find “great” employees. I know what it takes and the exact reasons why employers fight.

Bottom line: Employers are terrible at getting people to want to work. When I have a discussion about employers and employees, I usually place most of the blame on the employer. Just for the record, more often than not, the employees are to blame.

THE FACTS

Let’s start with two facts:

  1. Employers hire employees for a certain amount of money and expect a certain amount of work in return.
  2. Employees take jobs with employers and expect to do a certain amount of work and get a certain amount of money in return.

Sounds pretty easy, right?

THE PROBLEM

In the next two facts, is where the line begins to blur. Over time, the employer/employee relationship begins to change.

  1. Employers have invested their resources up front to train employees, so employers expect employees to get better at their jobs over time, making them more profitable for the company.
  2. As employees feel they were hired to do a certain amount of work and the cost of living continues to rise, employees expect to be paid more and more each year for doing the same amount of work they were originally hired to do.

It is usually at this point that the train leaves the tracks.

The employer begins to feel that the employee is a nuisance and that he no longer cares about the interests of the company. The employee feels that the employer does not appreciate his loyalty to stay with the company and always do his job.

THE SOLUTION FOR EMPLOYERS

This is how the employer should handle the above differences. During the interview process or early in the employment process, the employer must state: “We pay employees $8 per hour for the first 30 days, after that time we pay them what they are worth. If you are making double what What is expected of you, then you will be paid $16 an hour. If you are doing less than what is expected of you, you will be fired. Sounds fair?” (If you live in a state where you can’t fire an employee after 30 days, just let them know they’ll never get paid more than $8 an hour for below-average work. This means no raises, for any reason, ever!) !)

This simple conversation will save everyone a lot of trouble. Set expectations up front for both parties. This conversation will greatly discourage a “bad/lazy” employee from taking the job.

THE EMPLOYEE SOLUTION

This is what it looks like if the shoe is on the other foot, if the employee is trying to figure out if this employer will be a good fit. Before accepting the job, and perhaps at the second or last interview, the employee should ask the following: “How do you determine future salary increases? Are they standard or based on merit? Would you object to paying someone the double if I were doing the work of two people?”

The employee should expect a bit of shock and perhaps even a bit of irritation from the employer at these questions, but the potential employee can still say, “I’m not trying to be a pain in the ass, but I think employees should work like if they owned it.” the business. That means doing whatever it takes to improve the company. I was wondering how employees who work like this are compensated.”

This simple conversation sets you apart from almost every other potential employee and will also let you know if this is a place you want to hang your hat. He should be able to tell at this point what his future earning potential will be. And whether he likes the answers or not, he must face the truth before taking the job.

HOW EMPLOYERS GET FROM THERE TO HERE

So how does a company with an existing staff move to the above scenario? Before I get to that, here’s a quick example from a company I recently worked with. The company currently had 9 employees who were terrible at their jobs and had never increased the amount of work they could get done day after day. The employer spent about $18,000 per year on each of these “bad” employees.

I asked the employer, “Would you pay 3 people $54,000 per year if they could do the same amount of work?” It really surprised me when the owner of the company took several minutes of reflection to arrive at his answer “Maybe, it depends?” Are you kidding me? Does this employer really need to think about this? The employer would get rid of 6 employees who complain, who are late, who want raises, who cost their insurance, and who suck benefits for the comfort of 3 people who would work 3 times as hard to earn them money.

This is clearly a case of an employer not really knowing what they want from an employee. Doesn’t he think that three $54,000 per year employees would be of higher quality than nine minimum wage workers? If you have to think about that answer, you really didn’t understand the question.

Getting back to the story, I responded to the employer with a polite version of my earlier tirade. The employer agreed that the 3 employees would be a better formula for his business.

THE NEGATIVE ANSWERS

Every time I talk about this, some employer says something like “That would never work in my business, 3 people could never do the work of 9. My business has no measure to judge employees and their amount of work.” Basically everyone is saying “My business is different!”

I’m sorry to inform you. Your business is no different. You have customers, clients, prospects or patients. You have bills to pay, people to report to, or a budget to control. Your business is no different and these techniques and the others I teach can be applied to your business.