EDUCATE
SAVE TIME AND MONEY WITH
EMPLOYEE RETENTION HIRING COST MONEY
A
s you’re looking at ways to save time and money with your landscaping business, one area that’s often overlooked is employee retention. THE RESEARCH
According to research from the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM), it can take as much as three times the offered salary to recruit a new employee. This means if you’re offering a position that’s going to pay $45,000 annually, it can cost your company up to $135,000 to staff that position. That figure doesn’t include training your new hire. Research done by payroll firm ADP showed the average to train a new employee across all industries was $1,886 in 2017. It’s more expensive when you’re talking about lower-wage, hourly employees. The Houston Chronicle’s Small Business section cites
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Pro Landscaper USA South July/August 2022
research showing it can take over $9,400 to train a replacement for a lower-wage, hourly employee. WHAT TO DO ABOUT THIS?
As I mentioned, keeping the employees you’ve got is a fantastic starting point. There are several factors that contribute to employee retention. This isn’t an exhaustive list, but these items are critical to successful retention. PATH TO ADVANCEMENT
One study showed that 60 percent of employees who have been with your company for less than one year value the opportunity to advance more than they value training. Stated another way, these employees would rather you show them how to get ahead than invest time and money helping them become better professionals. I would suggest the two are not exclusive. You can create a pathway to advance through the
organization with some intentional focus. Start with your frontline workers and create a list of measurable, achievable goals that any person in that role would need to accomplish in order to get promoted within their department. Once you’ve done that, keep moving up the organizational ladder all the way to CEO. Showing your people how to advance will keep the most ambitious people in your workforce engaged. GIVE THEM PURPOSE
Creating, defining and communicating your company’s core values will do several things for you. It tells your current and future employees what your company stands for and what values are most central to how you run the business. It also helps people who are not a good fit “self-eject” from the company. These are people who would have created problems of
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