Category: Business

When someone says my employees do not last long or they leave without prior notice, the first thought comes to anyone is that the company might not have offered enough cash. People work for cash for sure but that does not drive them every single day. I myself is an employee and have worked for Americans, Indians, Italians and Bangladeshies. I have worked around 6 years for Bangladeshi companies on their actual offices and Been working remotely for 3 years. So I have enough insights to say that

Money does not drive people

I am a big fan of Simon Sinek and his “WHY Series“. In some of his writing and talks, he said that money is just a result. If you work, you get paid. That creates a temporary happy feeling. It does not create a feeling of fulfilment. It will not get you excited to wake up every single day and go to the office.

I totally agree with him. Even luxury cars or apartments cannot make people happy or stick to a job for a longer period.

What Gets People Excited?

This is the time of millennials. From the office to schools, shopping malls, CEOs… they are everywhere. They have a certain type of behaviour and thinking process. I am not saying you should go full-on hipster and buy PlayStations and beanbags etc. Having a pingpong table or foosball creates a good vibe in the office and the new recruits think that these people are quite nice. At least the bosses are not into cannibalism. They don’t eat people.

Here’s something serious that some of my classmates and seniors in the university found about millennials, their expectations and how the company owners can align with them-

1. 1. Communication
      Communicate with them as much as possible. Give them brief instructions, tell them specifically what you actually want, what is the end target and what process they should follow. Don’t just leave them with a vague idea and later get frustrated with them for not meeting your expectations. Neither the employee nor the boss likes to get disappointed to disappoint either one. So make sure your managers are careful about communicating with their executives. As a CEO or GM or MD, you should talk to your employees and team leads to check if everything is going right.
   2. Quality Management
      The people on the management level needs to be really sharp and always be alert about who is doing what and how is their daily, weekly and monthly productivity. If the curve is going downwards every single day and remains for a week, they should check all the possible reasons and sit with the person immediately and fix that. Waiting for the employee to come up with a complain never works. They come with a resignation letter or don’t come at all.
   3. Branding
      People want to be a part of something greater than themselves. This is human instinct and that is why we have been building groups, communities and tribes. So branding your company locally or internationally will not only help to grow your revenue, it will also help you to find the quality human resource and retain them. Actually, there’s a saying that if you take a good care of your employees, they will take a great care of your clients. So it helps both ways.
   4. Community Involvement
      Community events, especially for IT companies, can help them in many ways. If they encourage their employees to attend conferences and speak at one at least once in a year, that will make them learn new things, connect with a bigger group of people and represent the company as well. So sending an employee for a full days workshop at home or abroad is not actually a loss in productivity, it is an investment for your human resource.
   5. Empowerment
      Letting the employees to always come up with a new idea, thinking about new solutions or optimizing the workflow are always exciting. A software developers job always does not have to be about writing software code. He can spend a day at a school understanding how things work there, what are the problems and how they can be solved. A technical writer can spend a couple of hours at twitter reading tweets about the issues people are having today and come up with an analysis. A change in tasks or letting them feel that they are free to do anything they like will always excite them and bring positive results. My point is let them do whatever they want to, discuss with them how they want to do it and as a boss, add your two cents to get some results for the company (wink wink).
   6. Make them feel special
      I know you have mentioned “performance bonus” on your job advertisement. For god’s sake please do not forget that. Award them for the small things they do or when they go beyond their responsibilities. Sometimes give them treat or buy a small gift for no reason. It creates a feeling of belonging. You can do these things in front of the entire team or in your personal room. Change their job title once in a couple of years. Focus on the small things to keep them engaged.
   7. Build the future with them
      Nearly 70% of the millennials dream of having their own company one day. This is one of the major reasons why they change their jobs frequently to gather more knowledge, experience and network.
      Most of the big companies have in-house incubation program for startups created by their current or ex-employees. They invest in those startups, buy shares and if they are making good progress, sometimes acquire them. So they actually become a family member for you. You support them to go ahead and stand on their own feet.
      Even if they fail, they will have a trustable body to take care of them.

Summing it up

Employees and bosses both feel like having an immature girlfriend to me. We always have to be alert, take the best possible care and think wisely every possible step. Yes, things will go wrong and that’s totally normal. There’s no concrete bible about how you can stop people from leaving your company and keep them until they die. Humans will always be unpredictable. So do your best, always keep an eye on the stories about other companies, how they manage their human resources, recent studies and books.