My Human Capital is Walking Out the Door Again

Out the door she walks, leaving you to hold down the fort, or at least her station. Another one bites the dust. This time one of your stars. You ask yourself yet again, "how does one attract and retain employees?"

Although you'd never gather it behind all those employee smiles, the standard annual employee turnover in the hospitality industry is 50%. It's a question that is asked all the time.

It's difficult for people to quit jobs they love. Here is one business consultant's suggestions, John Hendrie, via Restaurant News Resource on steps to help your human capital (aka people) love the business and help you better retain them -- with a little embellishment from me.

1. Respect is the foundation of preserving a good relationship. Outwardly wondering after last week's screw-up how an employee's parents could have such a faulty gene pool is generally not a good idea, Add that company policies and procedures must be seen as consistent and fair.
2. Rather than a typical top-down pat on the back from the boss, set up employee peers to frequently recommend appropriate recognition to star performers, even if they only have $5 in discretionary budget. Besides, bosses always can pat star performers on the back when recognition is given.
3. Pay for excellence -- not necessarily as base pay but awarded frequently as a bonus. "The busy worker is a happy worker -- until she finds out the lazy worker is being paid the same or more."
4. "Money spent on the brain is never spent in vain" -- unless they walk out the door shortly afterwards taking all that wonderful training. Besides developing better employees, ongoing training and development programs help employees feel like their growing professionally. Timeliness is important and motivational.