The days of hiring people off the street and plugging them into a job with the sink or swim mentality are over. That was old school. It’s a new day. People are coming out of school without the very basic skills they need to perform on the job. They don’t show up on time or are absent all the time. They can’t read a blueprint or for that matter even a ruler much less a blueprint and a micrometer. In many cases, they can’t drive for you because they have a DUI on their record. These were the exceptions rather than the rule when I first started in “personnel” in “the day.” Now they are the norm.
So, as an employee retention expert and employee retention speaker, I tell my clients it’s time to stop whining and time to do what the schools and the family aren’t doing. Most people don’t want to be losers but they have never been taught how to be a winner i.e. to be successful. You have to talk to them about being on time, why it is important to the business and how it affects their co-workers when they are late of gone. In the old days, their parents told them that…I know mine certainly did. Now, as an employer, that’s your job if you want to be able to have employees to run your operation.
We hear about the skills gap. People may not know how to read a ruler or a micrometer. You have to teach them. Is it cheap? No. Is it a pain in the ass? Yes. Is it needed to survive as a business and get product out the door? You bet it is! Work with your tech schools to teach skills or, God forbid, teach them to your people yourself. Back in the day, we taught most of our people on our own and, guess what, worked.
The time is NOW to shift our thought process and rely on our own ingenuity to come up with answers because the schools and the family are not doing it for you as employers. If you want employee retention strategies that work, you have to get creative, take action and make things happen which includes helping make people successful. If not, you will not have the workforce you need to survive in the next decade much less thrive. And remember: C.R.A.P Works!
