“Flex Time”
by Chris Reinhardt, feedlot specialist
Recently, I had an interesting conversation with a friend and former student who now is a line manager for a large agricultural enterprise. He told me they had a critical opening because they had lost a good shift manager to a competing industry where he was certain the employee would earn less money, but have more time off, work shorter days, and work a shorter week.
Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon story, and becomes more normal every year. As the economy works its way back into the black ink, job opportunities improve and increase, making for some very tempting situations for good employees.
Here is the age-old challenge for employers in any industry: your good, conscientious, hard-working, dedicated employees are going to have options; your less reliable, marginal team members probably don’t. The good ones leave and the bad ones stay.
If your salary and compensation package is “in the ball park” with the rest of the industry and competing industries, keeping good employees won’t be about the money. And if they say it’s about the money, it’s not. Workplace satisfaction and quality of life can’t be bought for another couple of bucks an hour. It will be about something else entirely.
The reason my friend lost a good worker is for more time with his family. If the worker had been the sole bread-winner in a household with children, leaving for a pay cut might not have been an option at all. But if Mom had a decent paying job, even if it’s only part-time, the family might not feel pressed for disposable income, but definitely will feel pressed for family time. In order to both have time with his family and be flexible to work around his wife’s work schedule, time was worth more than money. Wow, what a concept.
If you want to get ahead of the game and keep good employees around, there are 2 admonitions here: (1) you’ve got to start getting creative with scheduling, and (2) you’ve got to be proactive. If the employee is loyal to your team and really doesn’t want to leave but feels pulled, he’ll likely give you a chance to tweak your system. The problem is that this will be an uncomfortable experiment for all involved and will likely experience some hiccups. Start experimenting now. As The Great Jack Welch said, “Change before you have to.”
This isn’t easy stuff; nobody said management was easy. It’s lonely at the top. And times have changed from just two decades ago when another 25 cents an hour would steal a good employee from the neighbor and buy their loyalty for another couple years. Chances are your lowest paid employee has a car, cable television, microwave oven, warm clothes and good shoes on the kids. A few bucks won’t change their life.
You can play this game and win. But the rules have changed. Take the time to learn what the playing field looks like today, spend time with your people to know what their needs are outside of your operation, and bend your own rules to make them fit the new reality we live and operate in.