Competing for Employees in Greater Minnesota
by Judi Rubin
President
Small to mid-sized businesses hold the trump card in the “retention wars” is a good relationship . . . one where the employees know and respect the business owner—because that owner knows and cares about each employee. Taking a minute to ask about their family, a hobby or how they are doing on the job—and being interested in the answer—is what keeps people loyal. All things being close to equal—employees will stay or come back—if they feel like they are an important part of the team. It’s a lot easier to know your employees when you have 10, 30, 50 or 100—than it is when you have 500!
Greater Minnesota has many benefits for employees—getting away from traffic jams and hour-long drives; easy access to hunting, fishing and other outdoor sports; family-friendly communities where you know your neighbors and the cost of living is lower. While cities have seen tough competition for employees—people often return to their roots when they get ready to start a family.
Even tougher competition comes from the manufacturing industry and according to a recent article in the StarTribune, even offers of employee stock, double overtime pay, quarterly bonuses, running job fairs, ads, partnering with technical colleges and raising average wages to $61,000 a year, buying apartment buildings, providing health clinics and daycare centers has not been enough to feed the swelling demand for workers at bustling factories in outstate Minnesota. For the full article see http://tiny.cc/q2a4ay.
Interestingly, some of the ways electrical contractors are finding and/or retaining employees include:
- Buying other contracting businesses to increase the number of licensed electricians and add specialized skills,
- Heavily promoting the fact that they pay full tuition for apprentice and other kinds of training—with no demand for repayment if the employee leaves.
- Providing family services like finding or setting up daycare facilities close to the shop and subsidizing up to 30% of the costs; providing expanded health care benefits including health savings plans and employee assistance programs; and more.