Employees are the life and blood of any organization they represent. In knowing this, it is my personal belief that they should be treated and compensated as such. If you do this they will shower your customers with more love and respect. Without your customers and employees your business is back the beginning stages. Richard Branson swears by this. Howard Schultz also said this. But if you don’t think Virgin and Starbucks are brand worthy scripts to follow you can hit the X in the top left corner.
Treat your employees so well they never want to leave. After all, employee retention can save your company millions of dollars when you factor in training, losses in transition, and the set backs that occur to catch a new employee up to speed. And that’s just considering newer employees, the losses are even greater for tenured employees and can harm client retention.
Quick – do the math: there are 168 hours in a week. Subtract 56 hours for those lucky enough to get the daily recommended amount of sleep at 8 hours a day. That leaves an individual with 112 waking hours of productivity. At 40 hours a week for a full time job, that means more than 1/3 of your time is dedicated to the growth of something benefiting someone else without factoring in commute time, and extended work hours. If the company culture and moral don’t support the lifestyle of the employee the losses are even greater. Things like kids, pets, family additions and losses, further education, commute times and the list goes on and on. The company should cater to the employee because they are the blood that flows through the company veins. Without strong blood you risk diseases and a weakened immune system, same with your brand.
America is one of the longest working hours country on the global map. And there isn’t a person alive who can work for 8 hours straight unless you’re a fast ultra marathon runner. If your company had a nap pod, the employee could work less and actually be more productive. Please refer to my previous post about shortening an in office workforce to three days a week at fewer working hours. It produces better work, period.
As a full time employee, in the ‘greatest country on earth’, it is repulsive to have to work an additional job part time job just to make ends meat, sometimes two. There are a lot of other countries who lay out better working packages for employees than the ones we have in the ‘USA’ even for minimum wage. Here’s a look at what should be the standard for ever working metropolitan city with populations greater than 250k.
Job Benefits Guarantee
The ultimate HR guide to work health balance
The obvious
Insurance – health, dental, vision
401k match – up to 10%
Life insurance
Pension plans
Stock options
Time off
First year – 3 weeks off
Every 2 years – add 1 week off
At 11 years employment – 8 weeks off
Paid parental leave – 1 year maternity and paternity
Company holidays off
Birthday off
Sick time – PTO
10 days – sick
2 days – dental
2 days – doctor for physical
8 days – mental health
Healthy Lifestyle Budget
Gym membership
Quarterly massages
Quarterly acupuncture
Dry cleaning $100/month
Coaching sessions
Therapy sessions
Additional
Further training classes
Company CPU
Internet paid
Company vehicle
Cell phone bill paid
Short and long term disability insurance
Subject matter books and podcasts reimbursed
Subscriptions to news and subject matter magazines
Lunches provided or stipend
Volunteering time off – 5 days
Performance bonuses
Childcare voucher or company services
It’s been proven that unlimited PTO does not work. It looks good on paper and makes employees apprehensive to take days off when they really need it. If you incentivize your employees, use all of your resources to train them effectively, and shower them with gifts for their performance, they will perform leaps and bounds while generating more revenue than the above programs. When you treat your employee as a number that is replaceable prepare to lose them to another company who realizes their real value.
Companies can either provide those services in house, or find partnerships at discounted rates. The more you provide the happier the employee will become. Taking advantage of the services saves the employee time. Time that can be focused on reaching their company quotas. As a result, you will find that happier employees turns into elated customers. A stronger brand reputation equals higher profits. As a marketer you must convince the accounting officer(s) to stop pinching pennies and trust the higher return on investment. The best investment is a self investment. If you take care of your body (brand) you will be rewarded with stronger blood (employees) resulting in stronger relationships (customers) to nourish the vitality of your brand.