Employers Need To Start Keeping Their Word To Employees

The story you are about to read is based on my daughter's current and past employer.

It is no news that hiring right now is incredibly difficult. Labor shortages are widespread, young workers expect higher starting wages, and after employers hire and train a new employee, the risk that they will jump ship for a better-paying job?is rising fast.?The cost of turnover is high, but it has?always been higher?than many employers realize, and it’s probably bad for your firm’s?bottom line.

About six months ago, my 17-year-old daughter began a job at a local car wash making $12 an hour. The car wash hires younger kids under 18, and managers are equally young, around 21, to manage these kids. The managers order the kids around and make them do all the work while sitting on their butts. The turnover rate is very high among both managers and base hourly employees. Upper management are just as lazy but much older, with a medium age of 40.?

When my daughter was hired, she wasn't paid for the first five weeks, and most other hires told me the same thing. The company uses ADP for time clock and payroll. When questioned, they stated it was ADP's fault for delayed payments. As someone who uses ADP, I checked with my rep and found this was not true that employee's time wasn't put in for new hires until weeks later.

The company we will call Carwash X asked my 17-year-old daughter to be a key holder about a month ago. With this promotion comes a raise of $2 an hour. They trained her and gave her keys to the store to open and close. She is proud of her accomplishment and likes the new position but is stressed because without the raise she was promised, she can't save up for a new car as she hoped from this promotion.?

I told her to speak to her manager, and she has now three times without any movement. I went into the store per my daughter's request, spoke with management, and asked why she wasn't being paid correctly. I was told they have been having issues with ADP now for four weeks. I asked how it is possible if she is getting her current pay. They always have an excuse, but I know this is a lie. It appears again they are trying not to pay the monies owed for a promotion they gave her.

I cannot say anything about ADP as I shouldn't know, but being a large client of ADP, I have ways to find things out. She is disappointed but still does the job she is supposed to the best of her ability. She says she keeps telling them, but no one will get her the raise. They said they want to make her the manager when she turns 18 in 3 months. With that comes another raise of $4 an hour. She says she isn't sure she wants to take the new job as she hasn't yet received this raise after four weeks. She believes it's time to start looking for a new job since she can't trust her employer.

This company constantly complains about how lazy employees are and how they cannot find talented employees. I can't help but wonder if they treated their staff correctly and stood by their word if it would make a difference.

Previously she worked at Taco Bell, where they had a sign on the door that starting pay was $18 an hour. So she applied, and they said they would start her off at $10 for 30 days, then move her to $15; after six months, she didn't get the raise she was promised while new hires started at $12 because it was getting harder for them to find employees. This offended many employees, including her, who started lower and had worked for months only to see new people with no experience come in at a higher rate of pay. This made her and other employees quit, and I do not blame them. Was this because she was 16 then, and they felt they could lie to her, or was it something else?

You cannot promise, mislead or promote someone and expect them to do the job when you withhold the payment you agreed to. This company is to blame, not the employees, for quitting; their ability to find and retain talent is the company's fault. My daughter and the others who quit created multiple issues for Taco Bell, from cutting hours to closing earlier or making others work longer shifts. They blamed the employees quitting as the reason for their loss of business, but the choices the business owner made led to their current issues, not the employees who were lied to. Take accountability and stand by your word; none of this would have happened to this level. This business-like may lack integrity and therefore deserve what they get.

My daughter has decided to stay for now and do the job, and I hope she gets her raise soon. However, she was told they wouldn't retro the payback to when she should have received the raise once it finally goes through, which is also wrong. If ADP is genuinely a reason, why wouldn't she get the back pay?

I am tired of employers who blame employees and make their business failures the employee's fault when this is a clear example of why this place is failing. They are looking for a buyer and tell the employees this. I, as an employer, see what they are trying to do but find it wrong, and there is no labor board or way to hold them accountable outside of hiring an attorney.

This employer is only one of many who promises higher starting pay and raises but then don't follow through with their end and wonder why employees slack off or quit. Employers continually want to blame employees, but they need to start looking in the mirror and see they are the problem. Unfortunately, this is happening more and more at companies around the world.?

Like many others, this company is why we have many employees quitting today. Employers must stop calling it the GREAT RESIGNATION and start calling it the GREAT DECEPTION. Until companies stop lying to employees about starting pay, bonuses, or pay increases, they will continue to lose employees and get the work ethic they are paying for.?

What is your opinion on this topic?