StrategyDriven Article by Daryl Wizelman

Be Good to Your Employees and They Will be Good to You

By Daryl Wizelman
Published on StrategyDriven.com, July 21, 2010

The recession we have been experiencing over the past few years has created a strong upper hand for employers across many industries. Because getting a job has been very difficult, many employers have taken advantage of the climate and chosen to offer their employees less in the way of income and benefits.

In my experience, this strategy is a short-term solution and a short-sighted approach that will lead to reduced profits and poor company morale.

Companies show how much they care about their employees when they offer and pay for a part of every employee’s health, dental and vision coverage.

For example, we had an employee whose husband was going through cancer treatment at the time our company was searching for a new insurance policy. At the time, we employed over 550 people and could save tens of thousands of dollars on new healthcare. The only problem we had was that most insurance carriers wanted to exclude our employee’s husband from the new policy, thus leaving him with COBRA or no healthcare at all. This was unacceptable to us, so we kept the policy we had and paid the additional premium until the cancer treatment was complete.

This example is part selfless and part selfish. All of our employees knew why we had made the choice to stay with our healthcare provider, and that helped to improve our corporate culture and further showed how much we care about our employees.

Another example occurred in March 2008 after our company had been acquired in July 2007. As part of the acquisition, almost every one of our employees was guaranteed a position at the new company that had acquired us. This was a HUGE issue for me because many of our employees had worked so hard and been so loyal to our company for so many years.

The credit crisis was in full bloom, and, because of that, many of our former employees who had gone to the acquiring company lost their jobs in the economic recession. This caused me a lot of stress and anxiety because I cared so much about these people. The result of my tremendous stress was my being diagnosed and treated for shingles and spinal meningitis during a weeklong hospital stay. Luckily, I had excellent healthcare, and paying for treatment was one worry I was lucky not to have.

Thus, as the owner of a company and the provider of health benefits, if and when one or more of my employees got sick, I wouldn’t want healthcare to be a worry or a concern of theirs. Their focus should be on getting healthy.

Beyond healthcare, employers can also show their employees how much they care with the following:

Rewarding them for random acts of kindness and good work. The reward can be a small $10-20 gift certificate to a coffee house, restaurant or cinema
Buying employees greeting cards on their birthdays and employment anniversaries
Providing employees with face-to-face performance reviews twice each year

When employees are loyal to a company there are numerous benefits:

Because turnover is less, recruiting and training costs go down. This savings goes directly to the bottom line profitability of the company
Because turnover is less, vendors, clients, co-workers and influencers are speaking to and working with the same people month after month and year after year. This can lead to employees working harder for the company because the company has shown how much they care about the employee and how much they value their loyalty
Because turnover is less, it is easier to recruit new people to a company with confidence that those new recruits will have a long and positive employment experience. It is a small world. It is possible and even likely that the recruit knows one or more current employees at the recruiting company. The more positive the reviews are to recruits from current employees, the more likely the company is to attract high-quality recruits and employees

Although there is a cost to providing the various employee benefits I have discussed above, I believe strongly that this cost is much lower than the cost to recruit and train new employees to replace those lost to attrition. In addition to the cost, morale and corporate culture is improved by superior benefits and signs that employers care, and often helps build loyalty among co-workers and clients alike.

The lesson is simple: take care of your employees today and they will take care of the company for many years to come. Fail to take care of your employees today and, when the economy improves and jobs are more prevalent, your valuable employees will be working for companies who value and appreciate them.

About the Author
Daryl Wizelman is a leadership, corporate culture, emotional intelligence, life planning and work/life balance visionary. Daryl combines his inspiring story with some practical tools which can be implemented immediately to improve the lives, careers and companies that he touches. Daryl spends his time speaking, consulting and motivating companies, associations, professional athletes, sports teams and individuals all over the world. To read Daryl’s complete biography, click here.