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Employee Satisfaction in 2022 and Beyond

December 20, 2022/in Alex Weaver, Guest Bloggers/by Caroline Slee-Poulos

Employee Satisfaction in 2022 and Beyond

Guest writer Alex Weaver continues the year-end reflections with a look at employee satisfaction in 2022 and beyond…

Recently we looked at measuring our business / commercial performance around four metrics:

Financial Performance
Market Share
Customer Satisfaction
Employee Satisfaction

In October, we discussed some factors influencing Customer Satisfaction and today’s marketplace.

At year end, let’s look at Employee Satisfaction. There is a lot of press recently concerning people of all ages and skills, leaving the workplace and not returning. Also, some younger potential employees are choosing not to enter the workplace.

In today’s challenging economy, the norm appears to be that dealers are continuously struggling to fill 10%, or more, of their jobs. And it doesn’t appear to be improving.

“Employee retention is important to any business: the expense of hiring and training new employees can be very costly. Another cost lies in the productivity lost while seeking to replace the employee who’s no longer there. In blue collar jobs, which are generally labor-focused, employee retention is often lower than in office and executive positions. High turn-over rates in blue collar occupations typically occur when employees feel they are under-appreciated, undervalued, and over worked. These perceptions can make employees feel unfulfilled and send them searching for better-paying jobs.”- IDI Workforce Management

Several factors or keys are frequently mentioned in employee retention.

Five Traditional Keys for Employee Retention

Competitive Compensations and Benefits – Pay employees what they are worth.
Provide Professional Development
Promote from Within
Improve Working Conditions
Provide a Positive Company Culture

Given today’s labor market we should look beyond the above core. What is our ‘Humanness” factor.

Listen to our employees – provide opportunities to listen, be an approachable communication culture. It is not all about formal surveys.
Prioritize Action based on Employee Comments / Suggestions
Provide a menu of additional Perks and Benefits. One size does not fit all.
What about flexible working hours or schedule?
What can we learn from the Covid Pandemic?

Where does our industry fit in today’s changing labor market? How do we recruit “human resources” that are interested in our industry? How are we viewed by younger persons regarding our industry, our machines, and the work those machines perform?

Does our industry provide a bright future for young and / or first-time employees. Is our workplace attractive? Do young workers seek a career or a job? Many of our grandfather’s sought careers and the gold watch recognition at retirement. Some worked for the same company their entire work life. At one time our industry was an attractive recruiting opportunity. I know of construction equipment career individuals that started out with a Tonka toy, or a scale model of a bulldozer. Transitioned from the toys to the real thing. A child in a sandbox to a career in our industry.

That was then, this is now. Looking to the future provides opportunities for creative career opportunities for all employees.

Provide incentive for employees that recruit new hires. The recruiting employee can serve as a mentor of the new hire. Both the new hire and recruiting employee receive incentives for career longevity and performance. Offer 10 year and 20-year incentives for recruiting employee and their new hires.

Be more flexible in determining new hire career paths. Think out of the box. I remember one company I worked for allowed a secretary to transfer to performing work on cylinder heads in the component rebuild shop. From desk and typewriter to bench and torque wrench. She was a successful supplier of shop labor.

Expand on traditional employee and community Open House events. Offer information on machines and performance characteristics. When possible, offer a machine demonstration. Inform and sell the “public” on the positive nature of what we do and how we do it. Host career discussions at Open Houses.

Involve employee family members by offering summer or vacation jobs to employee’s children. Create Intern Programs in all facets of career opportunities.

Today and tomorrow are more of the same, but some change and additions to how we view our family of employees. Employee satisfaction is fostered by a sense of inclusiveness and belonging to something important.

Last thought: Of the items discussed above, I think the best opportunity for quality recruiting is leveraging your current employees to assist in your recruiting efforts.

Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for a prosperous New Year.

Alex Weaver

Co-Founder – agiltiONE.com

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TESTIMONIALS

In 12 Rules for Life, clinical psychologist and celebrated professor at Harvard and the University of Toronto Dr. Jordan B. Peterson helped millions impose order on the chaos of their lives. Now, in this bold sequel, Peterson delivers 12 more lifesaving principles for resisting the exhausting toll that our desire to order the world inevitably takes.

In a time when the human will increasingly imposes itself over every sphere of life – from our social structures to our emotional states – Peterson warns that too much security is dangerous. What’s more, he offers strategies for overcoming the cultural, scientific, and psychological forces causing us to tend toward tyranny, and teaches us how to rely instead on our instinct to find meaning and purpose, even – and especially – when we find ourselves powerless.

While chaos, in excess, threatens us with instability and anxiety, unchecked order can petrify us into submission. Beyond Order provides a call to balance these two fundamental principles of reality itself and guides us along the straight and narrow path that divides them.

April 2, 2024

Continuous Learning - Learning Without Scars' Centers of Excellence

In this week's installment of our blog on Lifelong Learning, our guest writer Steve Johnson gives us this cutting-edge blog post of the way our education programs are taking shape: Continuous Learning - Learning Without Scars' Centers of Excellence.

Why continuous learning should matter to you...

The Learning Without Scars website makes the statement that, “we know that 'better' is the enemy of 'best,'" and “that everyone needs the knowledge, skills, and tools to continually elevate their own personal and professional development while contributing to the success of their companies and careers.” Learning Without Scars’ business is all about continuous learning: lifelong learning.

Continuous learning is essential for those employees who want to remain valuable to their employers, and advance both personally and professionally. That’s true whether you are climbing the corporate ladder, developing in-depth expertise in your chosen career field, or just want to be a better-informed human being. There are many reasons for you to invest your time and money in yourself through continuous learning.

Keeping your skills and knowledge current strengthens your value to your employer. If you are not always learning, you’re not even treading water: you’re actually falling behind. In any work environment, development of new information and technology is rapid, and that pace keeps accelerating. At some point in the future, you could find out that management no longer feels you are relevant to attaining the company’s goals. You could find out that the job market feels the same about your resume.

Continuous learning provides you with more professional resilience both at your company and in the broader business environment and marketplace. It ensures that you have or obtain not only the knowledge and skills requirements for your current job, but also lays the foundation for the next steps in your career path. It can help you stand out among your peers as an important part of the future of your company. It’s not a bad thing to be one of the “go to” people. Sometimes it can be easy to get caught up in the day-to-day operations of your company and lose the big picture of the environment and markets within which you work. Continuous learning can ensure that you exit that cocoon and keep informed of current trends as well as what may be impacting you in the future.

Your company may be an excellent source for continuous learning, especially in such areas as company culture, products, IT systems, and best practices. They may have both formal and informal opportunities to develop your interpersonal and management skills. It makes good sense to pay attention in your day-to-day work for learning moments, and also for occasions where you can get out of your comfort zone and learn. Networking in your company will allow you to track the pulse of important activities, events and company direction. Networking through professional and industry organizations will give you a feel for the pulse of your industry and the economic environment.

Take advantage of it when companies offer to enroll you in formal training, within or from outside the company. Alternatively, you can seek out specific education that aligns with your individual needs and goals. For example, I’ve read that many consider one’s personal oral and written communication skills to be critical to career success, and the importance of those skills increases as people pursue their career paths. Maybe “Toastmasters” is in your future.

Learning Without Scars’ Centers of Excellence

Our efforts to encourage greater continuous learning in the industries we serve continue. A recent focus for Learning Without Scars is developing relationships with public higher learning institutions where these schools will also function as our Centers of Excellence (COE).

Online, you will find a number of definitions for a COE. Wikipedia says it is a “team, a shared facility or an entity that provides leadership, best practices, research and support or training for a focus area.” It also can be a “network of institutions collaborating with each other to pursue excellence in a particular area.” The Cambridge Dictionary defines a COE as “a place or an organization that is known for doing a particular activity very well, and that is involved in new developments, new ways of working, etc.” We can add to the above, but I think you get the idea. Learning Without Scars is working to develop a network of schools to achieve the above goals and offer excellence in delivering education where it is needed.

Our plan is to have ten of these Centers in the U.S. and Canada. Courses include new online certification programs offering comprehensive content in equipment dealer parts management and service management. The courses are applicable for heavy equipment dealers, including construction, heavy truck, mining, forestry, light industrial, and agriculture. We are working to soon provide automotive aligned versions of the programs. In the near future, we will also be able to provide dealer sales and marketing programs. Benefits of the new programs include:

High quality comprehensive curricula from a well-known industry expert; accredited by the International Accreditors for Continuing Education and Training (IACET); and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant.

Content that is current and reviewed annually with IACET.

Assessments are delivered throughout the learning process to measure learning progress.

A Learning Management System available to dealer employees/students that allows both self-paced progress and 24/7 access to courses.

Programs that result in industry credentials to employees and students upon successful completion.

As a final note, make continuous learning intentional and give it high priority. Continuous learning is your responsibility, not the responsibility of your company, your supervisor or anyone else. To be able to effectively manage your career, you need to plan your future, that is, identify your goals and chart your path for reaching those goals. An important part of that path is going to be continuous learning. Plan your educational future now. In doing that, we encourage you to explore educational opportunities at Learning Without Scars for high quality industry- and position-specific education.

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For our course lists, please click here.

November 21, 2022

Employee Satisfaction in 2022 and Beyond

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For our course lists, please click here.

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