with having to replace departing employees) is 25% of that person’s annual salary? Believe it or not, the business that delights in squeezing its employees is sending an additional 25 cents up in smoke for every dollar they pay their people. Furthermore, the constant turnover makes relationship-based marketing impossible, meaning that this mythical business is a living example of “penny wise and pound foolish."
I’d like to propose a radical idea: Instead of wasting 25% of your labor costs on hiring an endless stream of people who don’t give a damn about you or your customers, I encourage you to invest that 25% in providing your employees with every reasonable incentive to hang up their hats and stay a while. Your bank account will thank you for it.

You may find yourself in the position of wanting to do more for your employees but not able to cope withAt the dawn of the twentieth century, Henry Ford had the revolutionary idea that the people who worked for him should be able to afford the products they built. Fast forward to the dawn of the new millennium when the CEO of one of the largest makers of computer printers and other accessories pronounced that Americans had no innate right to a job. Where benefits, living wages, and long careers were the norm, today’s trends are towards wringing every last cent of cost from labor overhead. Seems the industrial cycle is coming around full circle. The golden age of companies actually caring about the people who work for them is all but over. It should come as no surprise that the era of people caring about the companies they work for is dying almost as quickly.

Today I want to ask you a very simple question: Can you afford to join the herd in slashing costs to the bone in order to boost your perceived bottom line?

I think not. I think you owe it to yourself to invest in doing your part to ensure that your employees receive true living wages and a solid benefits package. I will even go so far as to assert that you must treat your investment in the people who work for you just as seriously as you treat any of your other investments because doing so will have a profound--and positive--impact on said bottom line.

Would you believe that there is a hardware store in San Francisco whose employees’ average stay is measured in years? I know many people who have been there over a decade. These people receive living wages, health benefits, paid lunch breaks, vacation time, sick time, the whole package. Are the owners being generous? Certainly. But make no mistake about it: Their generosity is rooted in the same business values and mindset that I have been promoting all along. They know that their business depends on forging ongoing relationships with their customers and on being experts at what they do lest their clientele opt for the big box retailers whose one selling point is price (though not as often as one might think.)

Each of these employees is a treasure trove of knowledge about her or his assigned area. They share this knowledge freely and, in so doing, provide not only hardware but a complete solution. Need to replace your faucet washers? They will take the time to select the proper washers and rebuild the faucet stems, then show you how to reassemble everything properly. Need to paint a room or your whole house? They’ll have you painting like an old pro within minutes. Sure, they want to sell you washers, paint, brushes, and more. They also want to make sure you get the fullest value from your purchase. At that store, it is not uncommon for customers and employees to know each other by name and for customers to ask for specific employees, even to schedule their visits around the employees’ schedules.

I don’t care what business you think you’re in because ultimately you are in the relationship business. Build real relationships with your customers and they will come back time and time again, turning that first $1 sale into $5, $20, even $100 or more. Would you rather have $1 today or a steady stream of dollars for the foreseeable future? I firmly believe that one reaps what one sows. You cannot possibly build lasting relationships with your customers unless you build lasting relationships with your employees.

Did you know that the average cost of employee turnover (the costs associated with having to replace departing employees) is 25% of that person’s annual salary? Believe it or not, the business that delights in squeezing its employees is sending an additional 25 cents up in smoke for every dollar they pay their people. Furthermore, the constant turnover makes relationship-based marketing impossible, meaning that this mythical business is a living example of “penny wise and pound foolish."
I’d like to propose a radical idea: Instead of wasting 25% of your labor costs on hiring an endless stream of people who don’t give a damn about you or your customers, I encourage you to invest that 25% in providing your employees with every reasonable incentive to hang up their hats and stay a while. Your bank account will thank you for it.

You may find yourself in the position of wanting to do more for your employees but not able to cope with o the bone in order to boost your perceived bottom line?

I think not. I think you owe it to yourself to invest in doing your part to ensure that your employees receive true living wages and a solid benefits package. I will even go so far as to assert that you must treat your investment in the people who work for you just as seriously as you treat any of your other investments because doing so will have a profound--and positive--impact on said bottom line.

Would you believe that there is a hardware store in San Francisco whose employees’ average stay is measured in years? I know many people who have been there over a decade. These people receive living wages, health benefits, paid lunch breaks, vacation time, sick time, the whole package. Are the owners being generous? Certainly. But make no mistake about it: Their generosity is rooted in the same business values and mindset that I have been promoting all along. They know that their business depends on forging ongoing relationships with their customers and on being experts at what they do lest their clientele opt for the big box retailers whose one selling point is price (though not as often as one might think.)

Each of these employees is a treasure trove of knowledge about her or his assigned area. They share this knowledge freely and, in so doing, provide not only hardware but a complete solution. Need to replace your faucet washers? They will take the time to select the proper washers and rebuild the faucet stems, then show you how to reassemble everything properly. Need to paint a room or your whole house? They’ll have you painting like an old pro within minutes. Sure, they want to sell you washers, paint, brushes, and more. They also want to make sure you get the fullest value from your purchase. At that store, it is not uncommon for customers and employees to know each other by name and for customers to ask for specific employees, even to schedule their visits around the employees’ schedules.

I don’t care what business you think you’re in because ultimately you are in the relationship business. Build real relationships with your customers and they will come back time and time again, turning that first $1 sale into $5, $20, even $100 or more. Would you rather have $1 today or a steady stream of dollars for the foreseeable future? I firmly believe that one reaps what one sows. You cannot possibly build lasting relationships with your customers unless you build lasting relationships with your employees.

Did you know that the average cost of employee turnover (the costs associated with having to replace departing employees) is 25% of that person’s annual salary? Believe it or not, the business that delights in squeezing its employees is sending an additional 25 cents up in smoke for every dollar they pay their people. Furthermore, the constant turnover makes relationship-based marketing impossible, meaning that this mythical business is a living example of “penny wise and pound foolish."
I’d like to propose a radical idea: Instead of wasting 25% of your labor costs on hiring an endless stream of people who don’t give a damn about you or your customers, I encourage you to invest that 25% in providing your employees with every reasonable incentive to hang up their hats and stay a while. Your bank account will thank you for it.

You may find yourself in the position of wanting to do more for your employees but not able to cope withame business values and mindset that I have been promoting all along. They know that their business depends on forging ongoing relationships with their customers and on being experts at what they do lest their clientele opt for the big box retailers whose one selling point is price (though not as often as one might think.)

Each of these employees is a treasure trove of knowledge about her or his assigned area. They share this knowledge freely and, in so doing, provide not only hardware but a complete solution. Need to replace your faucet washers? They will take the time to select the proper washers and rebuild the faucet stems, then show you how to reassemble everything properly. Need to paint a room or your whole house? They’ll have you painting like an old pro within minutes. Sure, they want to sell you washers, paint, brushes, and more. They also want to make sure you get the fullest value from your purchase. At that store, it is not uncommon for customers and employees to know each other by name and for customers to ask for specific employees, even to schedule their visits around the employees’ schedules.

I don’t care what business you think you’re in because ultimately you are in the relationship business. Build real relationships with your customers and they will come back time and time again, turning that first $1 sale into $5, $20, even $100 or more. Would you rather have $1 today or a steady stream of dollars for the foreseeable future? I firmly believe that one reaps what one sows. You cannot possibly build lasting relationships with your customers unless you build lasting relationships with your employees.

Did you know that the average cost of employee turnover (the costs associated with having to replace departing employees) is 25% of that person’s annual salary? Believe it or not, the business that delights in squeezing its employees is sending an additional 25 cents up in smoke for every dollar they pay their people. Furthermore, the constant turnover makes relationship-based marketing impossible, meaning that this mythical business is a living example of “penny wise and pound foolish."
I’d like to propose a radical idea: Instead of wasting 25% of your labor costs on hiring an endless stream of people who don’t give a damn about you or your customers, I encourage you to invest that 25% in providing your employees with every reasonable incentive to hang up their hats and stay a while. Your bank account will thank you for it.

You may find yourself in the position of wanting to do more for your employees but not able to cope withmake sure you get the fullest value from your purchase. At that store, it is not uncommon for customers and employees to know each other by name and for customers to ask for specific employees, even to schedule their visits around the employees’ schedules.

I don’t care what business you think you’re in because ultimately you are in the relationship business. Build real relationships with your customers and they will come back time and time again, turning that first $1 sale into $5, $20, even $100 or more. Would you rather have $1 today or a steady stream of dollars for the foreseeable future? I firmly believe that one reaps what one sows. You cannot possibly build lasting relationships with your customers unless you build lasting relationships with your employees.

Did you know that the average cost of employee turnover (the costs associated with having to replace departing employees) is 25% of that person’s annual salary? Believe it or not, the business that delights in squeezing its employees is sending an additional 25 cents up in smoke for every dollar they pay their people. Furthermore, the constant turnover makes relationship-based marketing impossible, meaning that this mythical business is a living example of “penny wise and pound foolish."
I’d like to propose a radical idea: Instead of wasting 25% of your labor costs on hiring an endless stream of people who don’t give a damn about you or your customers, I encourage you to invest that 25% in providing your employees with every reasonable incentive to hang up their hats and stay a while. Your bank account will thank you for it.

You may find yourself in the position of wanting to do more for your employees but not able to cope with with having to replace departing employees) is 25% of that person’s annual salary? Believe it or not, the business that delights in squeezing its employees is sending an additional 25 cents up in smoke for every dollar they pay their people. Furthermore, the constant turnover makes relationship-based marketing impossible, meaning that this mythical business is a living example of “penny wise and pound foolish."
I’d like to propose a radical idea: Instead of wasting 25% of your labor costs on hiring an endless stream of people who don’t give a damn about you or your customers, I encourage you to invest that 25% in providing your employees with every reasonable incentive to hang up their hats and stay a while. Your bank account will thank you for it.

You may find yourself in the position of wanting to do more for your employees but not able to cope with rapidly spiraling healthcare costs and/or unable to match the benefits offered by larger companies. The good news is that there is something you can do about it. That’s next week’s topic.