Invest in Low-Wage Workers If You Want to Grow Your Business.

Designed by Taina Cunion

---

Your Path Coaching and Consulted is committed to helping Small Business Owners attract, develop and retain employees. If you are looking to improve your people management strategy, visit our website. Or click this button to schedule a meeting

Start building your ideal culture

---

Low-wage Workers Make Up a Significant Portion of the Labor Force

More than 40% of US labor force contains low-wage workers (Harvard Business)

Attracting and Retaining Employees Can be a Challenge

Companies facing the hardships of understaffing turn towards short-term incentives to fill in low-wage roles, such as sign-on bonuses or slight wage increases, yet why does turnover continue?

Employers' Beliefs Versus Survey Data

Common narrative regards workers as “fickle” people who constantly change jobs but the reality is that low-wage workers would rather stay with the companies that employ them.

• Harvard Business Study surveys shows 51% of low-wage employees had remained at their company for over four years

• 62% say that a promotion or higher pay would motivate them to stay

• 9% say they would like to stay if the employer offered them more skills training

• 6% say they would like to stay if the employer offered them more responsibility

• 22% agreed with the statement, “Even if my company doesn’t offer me higher pay, skills training, and more responsibility, I would prefer to stay at my current company”

• Changing jobs causes a disruption in a person’s life, which may not be a viable option depending on their financial situation.

  • No state offers a minimum wage that is in line with the living wage (CNBC)

  • 181,891 low-wage workers studied in 2012 found 60% of them remained stuck in such positions five years later (Harvard Business)

  • Americans who are employed in long-term low-wage work tend to be Black or Hispanic, are more likely to be women, and have less than 12 years of education, the researchers found (CBS News)

• Low-wage workers will stay at jobs longer if they have easy transportation access

• But when people feel trapped, it has rippling effects on the business

  • Low retention

  • High absenteeism

  • Low morale

  • Low productivity

• As temporary employees go in and out, more pressure is placed on long-time employees who stay. Eventually, they may burn out taking on extra responsibilities while management struggles with staffing

• Low-wage workers are thought of as easily replaceable, but there is a cost to constantly recruiting and training people

  • “At most companies with which Good Jobs Institute has worked, employers are pouring the equivalent of 10 to 25% of their labor budget on replacement costs—the costs to recruit, train, and reach baseline productivity, only to start all over again when employees leave.”

  • Senior living, call centers, warehouses, retail stores, and restaurants have to replace their entire frontline workforce annually, with more than 100% employee turnover (TIME)

Programs that are working

Sam’s Club- reduced hourly workers’ turnover by 25%, productivity increased by 16%, customer loyalty increased by 7%, and sales grew by nearly 15%.

Quest Diagnostics- reduced hourly turnover by more than 50%- At Quest, overall costs decreased by $2 million, $1.3 million of which came from ideas from the reps

Mud Bay- Mud Bay reduced turnover by 35%, 12% higher sales per labor hour, and 25% higher sales per square foot (compared to the 9% industry average at the time)

Eligible employees, after 90 days, can enroll in Disney Aspire, which provides full tuition payment for a high school diploma, degree, or vocational skill

• Of 14,000 hourly employees enrolled in Disney Aspire, 50% are working on a bachelor’s or master’s degree

  • 3,500 have graduated since it started in 2018

  • 2,800 graduates and students have been promoted internally

    • Of those enrolled in the program

      • 50% are people of color

      • 60% are women

The Path to Prosperity

If employees were set up for success from the beginning with full training, a livable wage, and support options for upward mobility, morale, and productivity would go up, and employees would be more likely to stay and grow within organizations.

Ensure Benefits are known

• 33% reported they were unaware of any opportunity to progress in their organization

• Only 55% of workers reported they’d ever had a supervisor or mentor who helped them succeed

---

Your Path Coaching and Consulted is committed to helping Small Business Owners attract, develop and retain employees. If you are looking to improve your people management strategy, visit our website. Or click this button to schedule a meeting

Start building your ideal culture

How do you invest in better employee relationships?

If you are a hiring manager or a business owner, you probably know the importance of investing in your employees. After all, they are the ones who make your company run and grow. But how do you make sound investment decisions around employees? Employing a long-term strategy around developing your employees is the best way to ensure you have the workforce you need to achieve your company goals.

Invest in Employees for the long-term

One way to think about it is to imagine that your employees were stocks in your retirement plan. How would you behave differently if you treated your employees like company stocks? If you treated your employees like stock, you would likely.

1. Do research before investing. Before you hire someone, you should do some background research on their skills, experience, personality, and goals. You should understand who they are as an individual, what their goals are, and whether they are a good fit for the role and your organization. Hiring an employee that is not a good fit for your organization is bad for you, and it is bad for the employee. The employee is harmed because they are robbed of the opportunity of finding another job where they can excel, and you will waste time trying to get a square peg into a round hole.

2. Make consistent incremental investments over time. Once you hire someone, you should continually invest in them. You do this by providing them with regular feedback, coaching, training, and recognition. This will allow them to grow their skills, confidence, and competency. This will enable them to provide more value to your organization. Helping employees develop, showing appreciation, and providing advancement opportunities will motivate them to do their best.

3. Monitor progress. Just as you would monitor the performance of your stocks, you should also monitor the performance of your employees. You can do this by setting clear and realistic goals and expectations for them and measuring their progress regularly. These goals should be known to the employee, and you should have a cadence for meeting with them to discuss performance and plans for improvement. This will help you celebrate wins, identify issues or problems early and collaborate on solutions.

4. Take a balanced portfolio approach. When you invest in stocks, it’s a best practice to diversify your portfolio. The same should be done with your team. Building a team with a mix of people with deep industry experience and individuals new to the industry can help you balance risk and manage labor costs. It would be best to seek a diversity of race, gender, and other variables to help you have a well-rounded team of professionals. Diversity brings strength because it protects you from groupthink and other biases that tend to come from a homogeneous workforce.

5. Divest employees that are not helping you achieve your goal. Sometimes, despite your best efforts, some stocks might not perform well or meet your expectations. They might lose value or become irrelevant or obsolete. In such cases, you might need to sell or replace them with better ones. Likewise, sometimes, despite your best efforts, some employees might not perform well or meet your expectations. When this occurs, it is essential to consider the opportunity cost of continuing to employ someone who cannot deliver what you need. Plans should be made to help the employee move into a role or a company where they can be successful.

Employees are more valuable than stock

Of course, this analogy is not perfect and has its limitations. People are not stocks; they are humans with feelings, dreams, and emotions. They are not commodities that can be bought and sold at will; but individuals that deserve respect and dignity. As you work with employees, it is best to be candid about expectations and seek mutually beneficial relationships.

Do you feel your company adequately invests in developing employees?

• yes
• no
• unsure

Employees who do not meet expectations frequently carry stress and anxiety, leading to low self-esteem, poor job performance, and health issues. Helping employees identify when a role is not a good fit for them and identifying another role or opportunity where their value can shine will help them and your company. Great companies help employees build great careers, whether within the organization or not.

You should pay attention to your employees’ needs, preferences, and aspirations. In addition, you should listen to their feedback, suggestions, and complaints. The more you can empathize with their struggles, frustrations, and fears, the better guidance you will be able to provide them on building skills, developing themselves, and pursuing opportunities that will grow their productivity and your bottom line.

In short, you should treat your employees in a way that they feel valued and respected as humans while simultaneously focusing on how you can help them and your company achieve its goals.

Summary:

This blog post explains why investing in building relationships with employees is crucial for hiring managers and business owners. It suggests imagining that your employees were stocks in your retirement plan and considering how your behaviors would change if your retirement were based on their success. It encourages hiring managers and business owners to invest more time into people development, providing quality feedback, and helping employees to grow. In addition, it encourages managers to remember that this is only an analogy. Employees are not stock but humans with feelings, dreams, and emotions that should be considered when making decisions around upgrading talent or divesting roles.

---

Thank you for reading this blog

Dorian Cunion is an Executive Coach and Business Consultant with Your Path Coaching and Consulting. He is a former retail executive with over 20 years of experience in the retail industry. He is a Co-Active coach who focuses on helping professionals, and small business owners overcome insecurities, knowledge gaps, and lack of direction. He does this by assisting clients to tap into their values, recognize their strengths, and develop actionable strategies for growth.

Have you been trying to improve your career or business on your own but are not seeing success as fast as you desire?

Book a free discovery call to discuss your goals and how I can help you accelerate.

Talk with Dorian

Have Feedback Send me a note at

Email: dcunion@yourpathexecutivesolutions.com

For daily tips on leadership and professional development, follow me:

LinkedIn

Facebook

How can better communication reduce workplace anxiety?

Anxiety is a common problem for many business professionals, especially when they feel like they are not getting timely feedback from their coworkers, boss, or employees. This anxiety can be heightened when a company is not meeting financial goals or after organizational changes like downsizing or restructuring.

Common Sources of Workplace Anxiety.

Senior leaders I work with frequently communicate frustration because their employees do not seem to understand what is important and fail to prioritize and execute the things that would provide the most value to the employees and the company. They harbor anxiety around having difficult conversations about performance and what will happen if employees decide to quit and leave them understaffed.

Conversely, employees I work with frequently feel overwhelmed and unsure of where to focus their attention. Often they think there is a disconnect between the work they are being asked to do, their professional goals, and the company's mission. Occasionally I also hear insecurity around not having the knowledge and skills to do a job and a fear of communicating that insecurity because of the perceived risk of vulnerability.

In both cases, fear and insecurity get in the way of candor. The uncertainty around being honest about needs, expectations, and wants gets in the way of communication and collaboration that would improve business performance and reduce anxiety.

Poor Communication is the Problem

In a world where employees and bosses communicate through emails, texts, messaging apps, group meetings, and one-on-ones, lack of communication is not the root of the problem.

Overcommunication and micro-managing do more to create anxiety in the workplace than nearly any other force. If you want to reduce anxiety and improve effectiveness, it is crucial to identify ways to improve the economy of communication by having less but more effective communication.

How would you describe the level of communication at your workplace?

• Perfect
• Under-communication
• Over-communication

7 Tips for Reducing Workplace Anxiety

Initiate regular check-ins. Having quality one-on-one discussions can go a long way to improving communication. Establishing a regular schedule for discussing current priorities and checking in on needs, expectations, and wants can strengthen relationships and reduce uncertainty.

Using a shared document to capture wins, obstacles, options, and commitments is a great way to ensure both parties are aligned coming out of the meeting.

Be honest and respectful. The people you work with have multiple responsibilities, competing priorities, personal lives, and their own anxieties that they are dealing with. Strive to be clear, direct, and considerate in your communication. Focus on being candid about problems, but also do your best to collaborate on solutions. The better you are at helping the people you work with, the more value they will see in you. When you are kind and helpful to others, they are more likely to mirror those behaviors back to you.

Listen actively. Pay attention to words, tone, and body language. This is especially important if you are on a remote team. Ask questions to clarify and confirm your understanding. If you feel that things are not going well, be direct and ask. Assumptions can be dangerous. Always seek facts.

At the end of conversations, summarize what was discussed to help avoid miscommunication. This is a great way to demonstrate that you care about getting things right and are invested in pursuing alignment.

Be brief. Everyone has limited time and energy. Be considerate of how you use the time that people give you. Before you meet with people, take a moment to determine your purpose in the meeting. Writing down key points or goals for the conversation can be helpful.

Demonstrate gratitude. You will not always receive the information you want to hear during conversations. When you encounter a different perspective or difficult feedback, show gratitude to the person for being candid. Then use the information to learn and grow. Anything that is not of value to you ,disregard it. It is better to be aware of other people's thoughts and perspectives than to be mis or uninformed.

Ask for support when needed. Be vulnerable and communicate what you need to be successful. Hiding problems is never a good long-term solution. When issues are not surfaced, they tend to fester and become more challenging to solve. Identify and communicate issues early, and seek assistance finding solutions.

Seek solutions, not blame. Multiple people are typically involved whenever things do not go as planned at work. Quickly identify why things did not go as planned and identify ways that performance can be improved in the future. There is more to be gained from solving a problem than avoiding being blamed. The heroes of stories are not the ones that make excuses but the ones with the courage to name and take action against a problem.

Putting tips into action

Communication is vital for any successful working relationship. Following these tips can improve communication and trust within your organization.

Now it's time to put them into practice. Start by choosing one tip you that will help you to reduce your anxiety. Then, plan how you will implement it in the next week. For example, you can

• Start holding one-on-one meetings

• Communicate an obstacle that you need help with

• Request training on a new technology that has been challenging for you to use

Whatever action you choose to take, make sure you follow through with it and observe the results. You will be surprised by how much better you feel once you improve communication with the people you work with.

---

Thank you for reading this blog

Dorian Cunion is an Executive Coach and Business Consultant with Your Path Coaching and Consulting. He is a former retail executive with over 20 years of experience in the retail industry.

He is a Co-Active coach who focuses on helping professionals, and small business owners overcome insecurities, knowledge gaps, and uncertainty. He does this by helping clients to tap into their values, recognize their strengths, and develop actionable strategies for growth.

Have you been trying to improve your career or business on your own but are not seeing success as fast as you desire?

Book a free discovery call to discuss your goals and how I can help you accelerate.

Talk with Dorian

Have Feedback? Send me a note at Email: dcunion@yourpathexecutivesolutions.com

For daily tips on leadership and professional development, follow me:

LinkedIn

Facebook