How to retain hourly workers, why women are leading in business and holiday shopping trends this season

Welcome back to Big Trends in Small Biz, a weekly newsletter bringing you the news, tips and trends to help you with your business. Click subscribe above to be notified of future editions, and follow the hashtag #LinkedInSmallBusiness to join the conversation.

The future of work is on everyone's mind these days. The gig economy is here to stay, people are concerned about how artificial intelligence will impact their industries and a tight labor market is changing the ways employers recruit and retain workers.

To further complicate matters, a slew of regulations have come down the pipeline in recent weeks in the U.S. classifying many gig workers as employees, making more workers eligible for overtime pay and enforcing predictive scheduling laws that dictates when employees are given their schedules.

Small business owners are often left on their own to navigate today’s tumultuous business world. To find out what is happening on the ground and some practical solutions for how best to maneuver through these changes, I spoke with Ashik Ahmed, CEO of Deputy, an Australian-based workforce management company that operates around the world. We talked about overarching global trends in work, how best to retain hourly workers and ways to create a positive work environment. 

Below is an excerpt from our conversation. Be sure to check out other small business news from this week at the bottom. 

What are the overarching workforce trends in the markets Deputy operates in? 

We have customers in 140 different countries, and with all of the challenges that people are facing in employing people, retaining people, and growing people, there’s a bit of vibration and uncertainty.

Let’s take the UK as an example. The uncertainty over there with Brexit, where much of the workforce are European Union migrants that are working in restaurants and shops. There’s a lot of people leaving the UK and that means businesses are not being able to hire or can’t hire people fast enough. I’ve met customers who tell me they put job ads up and not a single person have applied in over six weeks.

In the United States, all the laws and regulations that are changing, especially around fair workers and the law that recently got passed about full-time employees and overtime. Many business owners have no idea what this is. If you go and read the regulation, I had to read it three or four times to figure out what it means. What we have found is the way most people find out they are breaking the law is not because they willingly do so. They find out when they get sued, fined or have been audited. By the time it’s too late to turn it back. Here in Australia, we have a combination of both of those things. Every business and in space we play in, the average tenure of an hourly worker is only 9 months. In the United States, it takes 18 months to hire a nurse and their average tenure is 12 months. Recruitment and retention are really big challenges for businesses and on top of that, the world is getting more complex with labor complaints.

Hourly workers are hard to find in today’s tight labor market. How can businesses retain these employees? 

For the hourly worker, it feels very transactional. You just come in and get busy doing what you’re doing, end the shift and go home. A lot of businesses value operational excellence over creating an engaged community worker. One way of retaining them is constantly communicating to your people why they’re coming to work everyday and what makes it great. They are doing intense, high-level work but don’t actually get to know what happens in their workplace. Let people know what you expect from them. They come to work to add value, so make it less transactional and more human. 

Any other advice on what’s worked for you in creating a positive workforce?

Building a business is really hard. My fundamental advice to any business owner is to create community. It comes down to leadership and culture. One thing that I believe with every fiber is that every employee you hire is an extension of the founder or the CEO of the business. It doesn’t matter what level they are working at, and ensuring you get them aligned with your vision is really important. One of my productivity hacks is that everyone I hired until we were about 250 employees, I interviewed myself and got to really know who they are. Now, when someone is hired, they spend 15 to 30 minutes with me to understand how I see Deputy developing and getting them aligned in that direction. So my advice to small business owners is letting your workers know they are an extension of you, you want them to be able to reach out to you. 

What do you think of Ashik’s approach to hiring and retaining workers? What are your best hacks for keeping workers happy and productive? Join the conversation in the comments below or with your own post. Be sure to use the hashtag #LinkedInSmallBusiness.

Other news I’m reading:

Holiday spending up but not necessarily in stores:

The holiday shopping season is looking merry and bright for retailers, according to a new survey, with shoppers expected to spend 5% more than last year. The increase in spending does not mean more crowds, though. About 53% of holiday purchases will be made online, with 20% being bought on mobile devices. The shift could affect shopping holidays like Black Friday, with half of consumers planning to make their purchases that day online. | Here’s what people are saying

Women are leading in the business world:

Women-owned businesses accounted for the biggest increase in new companies from 2014 to 2019, according to a study examining Census Bureau data. While new businesses grew 9% over the five years, those with women at the helm increased 21%. The gains are even starker for women of color, who started firms at close to five times the pace of all business owners across the U.S. The surge in women-owned businesses isn't uniform, though. Some key regions are seeing the biggest increases and the one that popped out to me is Detroit, which came in as the No. 1 metropolitan area for women-led companies increasing their economic clout. | Here’s what people are saying

GM strike hitting small businesses:

The effects of the GM strike are beginning to be felt throughout Michigan’s economy, with small businesses that operate near the carmaker's factories reducing employees' hours and reporting a decline in sales. The Wall Street Journal estimates that the state has already lost out on $400,000 in income-tax revenue for every day of the United Auto Workers strike, which began earlier in the month. Part manufacturers that supply the factories are also starting to lay off workers, and economists warn the closures could soon impact the region. | Here’s what people are saying

Don't miss each edition of Big Trends in Small Biz: Click Subscribe above or below to be notified.