Prospective candidates are wanting to grow, and to really grow we must all get out of our comfort zones because that is where optimal growth occurs. ‘A’ Player job candidates want to grow with you, and they desire to grow for you. Eric Butterworth argues to not ‘go’ through life, but to ‘grow’ through life. According to The KnowHow Team, authors of Why Workers Quit, in a recent survey conducted on the restoration workforce, to attract strong candidate prospects, today’s employer needs showcase current team members that experienced growth opportunities, developed their talents, and increased their qualifications while employed at your organization. It is encouraged to showcase the positive impact that direct leadership, mentoring, and cultivating a culture of continuous growth and development had on one of your ‘A’ Player team members. Nothing is more attractive to today’s candidate prospect that wants to know and believe that you place a high value of importance on training and developing the leader within; within them and within each other. Regardless of our professional career path goals and anticipated trajectories, we as worldly humans have an innate desire to further advance our capabilities, develop our skillsets, cultivate better habits, and yearn for continuous learning retention and knowledge growth in our fields of expertise. In the wise words of Author, Pastor, Speaker, John C. Maxwell who specializes in defining leadership principles and how successful people think, “If you want to lead, you need to grow. Good leaders are always good learners.”
Becoming 1% Better
One of my favorite Core Values at Southeast Restoration is “Leave it better than you found it.” The term ‘it’ can mean anything! Cleaning up after a meeting, having a tidy workspace, providing new technology ideas, but more importantly we need to ask ourselves how we can leave a fellow team member better than we found them? That is what today’s prospective candidate and active workers want to know; that is what they want to see lived out, feel within their being, and innately believe in their hearts. How are you going to pour into them, how are you going to transform them, how are you going to make them better? Afterall, just 1% better and small incremental changes every single day yield big results over time.
Investing in Team Members
Today’s worker desires a structured framework and a well thought out and developed plan to ensure that they are set-up and equipped for success in their new roles. How do you currently invest in your team members, and did you know that online training and boosted workplace morale go hand in hand with one another and have a direct correlation to your team member’s happiness and to your overall bottom line? Creating memorable online learning experiences in small digestible informative chunks for your team members can have a positive impact on their job performance by enhancing productivity, increasing efficiency, boosting confidence, as well as reducing employee turnover rates, which are currently at an all-time high. A high turnover rate can be extremely costly due to job posting expenses, hiring expenses, and the cost of re-training brand-new team members because we all know, time is money.
Investing in team member’s professional and personal development helps with team member retention, and the team members that you do retain are more valuable to your business because they are now invested to your company culture and core, and most importantly they care. When you invest in your team members, they return the favor and invest in your company. When you invest in others and show them your ‘why’, your compassion, and your heart, fellow team members will buy-in and give you their hands and their commitment, because they too want to make a difference and leave a positive impact on the lives of others. When team members feel valued, their contribution and performance level increases. “Clients do not come first, employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.” – Sir Richard Branson.
Defining & Connecting With Your WHY
Another key factor of investment that plays into the success of team member retention is adopting a culture of continuous learning and training opportunities. It is no secret that training, whether on-the-job or virtual, is one of the top challenge areas amongst many cleaning and restoration companies. But the great thing about providing training opportunities is they create consistency, efficiency, systemization, and allow team members to be more effective in their roles which allows them the space and ability to leave that positive impact on others that they so greatly yearn to do. While providing training experiences is a challenge, it is also proven that top talent will stay at their jobs when they are challenged, involved, trusted, and on a mission to impact the core. The restoration industry is constantly evolving and is an unashamedly growth-oriented industry and we must establish training opportunities in which new hires can learn the ‘why’ of your business and you can instill the importance and alignment of your Core Purpose, Core Values, and Core Competencies. As an Instructional Designer and Technical Content Developer, my ‘why’ is simply to get team members home faster to their families. I have a genuine deep-rooted passion and belief that a well-developed training program can save time throughout the day by cutting down on emails, reducing unnecessary conversations, answering questions before the question is asked, and has a direct impact and implication to promote a healthy work-life balance. Field work isn’t easy, dealing with challenging customers isn’t easy. It is imperative to provide a balanced, well-designed training atmosphere in which team members can have training, learning modules, and reference pages at their fingertips to help them succeed no matter what kind of restorative job they are performing, technology system they are attempting to utilize, or navigating a challenging customer conversation with their fostered and developed soft skills. I challenge each of you to find, define, and most importantly connect with your ‘why’ and your personal Core Purpose every. single. day. Once you do that, work won’t feel like work anymore because at some point you realize that work has transitioned into something that you love and something that you passionately want to share and cultivate with others.
Taylor Carmichael
Taylor Carmichael is the Director of Systems at Southeast Restoration, where she leads the integration of technology and operations across the cleaning and restoration industry. With a Master of Information Systems and over a decade of industry experience, Taylor focuses on streamlining workflows, improving communication, and driving scalable solutions. She’s passionate about making technology practical by bridging innovation with day-to-day execution to help restoration teams work smarter and grow stronger.
Related Posts
