Retaining the Best

If you are trying to grow your business, there are some key things you can do to help that process:

• Shift your focus from sales to hiring and retention.
• Pay attention to your brand and marketing that brand.
• Understand your brand and simplify it. It should be a simple promise to your customers and to your team.
• Find, recruit and retain “A” level players.
• Maximize your team.
• Figure out how to perform your company’s specialty better.

One thing companies are learning to do to attract and retain talent is to implement innovation. Your practical experience on jobs can actually help you think conceptually about innovations. It’s not necessary to overcomplicate the adoption of innovation.

While recruiting talent is important, there needs to be more emphasis industry-wide on retention. Since recruiting has a cost associated with it, you should be careful not to expend the time and money of recruiting employees just to have them leave prematurely. Therefore, employee retention is ultimately very important. The right hire can change your business for the better for decades to come. An “A” level player can potentially make 50 to 100-times the difference of a lesser hire.

You need to let your employees know you are invested in them as people, not just as employees. If you do, they will respond positively, catch your vision for the company and be more productive. It's important to emphasize your culture. Develop or hone the ability to inspire those around you. Take every opportunity to maximize your team.

Good culture especially depends on a couple things. One is setting clear standards and expectations. The other is communication. Employees should understand what’s expected from them and receive input about their performance. In turn, they should be able to offer input into the company’s management and processes.

Unless you are totally objective and can see discontent at its very roots, you should get employee feedback through anonymous surveys. The resulting feedback may give you time to correct things and bring frustrated employees back into the fold. People don’t quit on the actual day they depart – it’s a slow process during which little things add up to contribute to the decision to quit.

When it comes to attracting customers, it’s important to tell your story. In order to figure out what your story is, decide what your company does as a guide to help your customers do, find or achieve what they need. Most construction projects help people in multiple ways.

It may feel awkward to some people in the construction industry to publicize what they’ve done. Traditionally the industry is known for humility: “I’m just doing my job.” However, describing your achievements and accomplishments helps build your company’s credibility. It will profit you to be vocal about what you’re confident in, to express pride in what your company has accomplished.

Tune in to episode 170 to hear from Matt DiBara, owner of DiBara Masonry, co-founder of The Contractor Consultants and founder of The Undercover Contractor. Matt is dedicated to helping contractors make better decisions.