Richard Branson, head of Virgin, once said a business owner should train an employee so well that he could leave him. Then treat him so well he wouldn’t want to.
I have seen this principle at work so often, usually in a negative way. It’s incredible to watch a company invest time and money and sometimes years getting an employee all ready to walk across the street and go to work for the company’s competitor. Or even worse, to start their own competing company with their newfound expertise. All because, having invested in the employee, the company then insists on failing to value him. Low pay, little stature, few benefits, punishing work schedules.
The competitor across the street takes notice of the man’s value – in a small town, especially, word gets around – and hires him away from the place which gave him his start and his skills. The competitor is happy to be able to take on the fully trained but undervalued employee, allowing them to bypass the otherwise-necessary apprenticeship. The competitor treats the man well and keeps him.
Meanwhile, Company A repeats the mistake over and over and soon falls behind, often going out of business in the end. Penny wise and pound foolish.
All companies are only as good as the people they employ. It is amazing how often true value is chased out the door to save a few bucks. I patronize a business in my town which has kept a steady and happy workforce for years. It’s the most solid enterprise I’ve ever seen. A chance meeting with the owner tells the story: That man is a gem.
In Canada, as elsewhere in the world, we are locked in constant argument, it seems, over what is an appropriate level for a minimum wage. When I got my first job on construction in 1967, I was earning a hefty $1.65 an hour and I felt very snooty because my high school buddies were working as chicken catchers (yes, there is such a job) for the minimum wage of $1 per hour.
Over the 42 years since then, of course, the minimum wage has continued to increase and the terrible apocalyptic predictions of those opposed to the raises seem somehow never to come true. Whatever the effect on an individual business higher wages would seem to produce, the fact that workers have more money to spend on articles and services being produced seems to offset that. Economies never seem to crash after minimum wage increases. There are many economic ills in our societies but they seem too often come from the top down and not from the bottom up. Corporate greed, rather than worker greed (if it exists), seems to be more destructive than any other factor.
If you own a business, for the sake of all that is holy and good, treat your employees well. They are all you have. It might be worth remembering that you are not all they have. If you won’t value them, someone else will. Or they will get together, start their own enterprise and have you putting a sign in your window: “Going Out of Business Sale.”
Your choice.
©2016 Jim Hagarty
[the_ad_placement id=”top-of-page”]
