This employee retention speaker and employee retention expert is rarely shocked by some of the crazy things I hear. However, yesterday, I was sitting in Starbucks and two young women were sitting next to me and they began talking about work. Based on their conversation, it became apparent that both worked in the healthcare industry. One woman mentioned that she was “on call” this upcoming weekend and it would restrict her from being too far away in case she was called in she would need to get to the hospital in a timely manner. When this was brought up, the other woman told her, “Just tell them, “No” you aren’t doing it.”
The other woman responded that she couldn’t do this because her job was a very good one, she did very well financially and liked her job and employer. Nonetheless the other woman was quite adamant and told her colleague she would not go on call if it were her. This truly shocked me that someone could be so entitled to think that she was “so good” that she had no obligation to perform a primary function of her job. She virtually was insisting her colleague quit her job she was that adamant. To her colleague’s credit, she stood her ground and didn’t let this influence her. In fact, she defended and praised her employer for being such a great place to work. Did she like being on call? No. But she also realized that all the perks etc. come with a price.
Now, let’s talk about what would happen if the woman who said, “No” worked for you. Most bosses would probably go ballistic. Certainly, that was what I wanted to do! Instead, as this employee recruitment expert teaches in his leadership classes you must be direct yet tactful and explain why “on call” is needed and that everyone ends up sharing this task. She is not being picked on or singled out. The rationale needs to be explained. If that didn’t work, I would point out the “on call” situation was explained to her when she was hired. Most of you are probably thinking, why should I have to do this? Unfortunately, employers often have to train employees like this because their parents never did.
When dealing with younger people today…and I am the father of three younger people…you must realize that many young people don’t have parents who talk to them about the realities of work. In other cases, they are influenced by a society that encourages this entitlement. From an employee retention perspective, these young people are not bad but are often just misguided. You, as the employer, may have to work with them more than other generations to teach them the realities of work if you want to retain them and have them be good employees. I’ve seen it done and it does work…no matter how frustrating it may be!
Is your organization desperate to retain people? If you are an HR Leader, General Manager or an owner of an organization, call me at 414-305-9626 or email me at jeff@jeffkortes.com and I can explain how the C.R.A.P approach can reduce your employee turnover by 40-80%.
