So you want to turn your company into a talent magnet?
If so, you're savvy. You realize that the best companies attract, keep, and continuously inspire the best people - and that everyone else gets the leftover people, and so the leftover results.
Let's stop right here to think about that, shall we? As a once and future employer myself, I'd rather pay double the going rate for top talent than any amount for leftover staff who lack the skills and drive to make my company successful. In fact, when we ran our language school we did better than that: we paid more than triple the going rate for our part-time teachers, and were far more generous than the market required for our full-time staff as well. Far more. Our CFO wanted to hate it, but the results were impossible to argue with.
What results? We had our pick of the best teachers in the Boston area, which meant we crushed our competition in the results we delivered our clients and, thus, we kept winning business from our competition, while never once losing an existing client to our competition.
Sound like the type of results you'd like for your company? Don't just do as I say - talk is cheap, and nowhere cheaper than on the web. Do as I did, and as I will happily do again when I launch my next endeavor.
But as I said, pay is a threshold issue only. If you really want to Build a Talent Magnet, read the post by that name I wrote recently for the Achieved Strategies blog. Then come back tomorrow for part 3 of this series, when we discuss the role of fairness in business. (Hint: it's everything!)
WOW! That'll sting some ears! Thank you Ted- such a refreshing post and one that I most certainly subscribe to. Bit by bit...the world can be changed!
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Ted. When planning your business, I agree you should always budget more for your employees than the "national average". Even if you don't end up paying them a higher salary directly, employees do love monetary rewards. There's nothing that says "You rock" better than a small bonus. As you know and pointed out, it's only one part of the recipe to attracting and attaining super employees.
ReplyDeleteOh, and this post reminded me of a great video if you haven't seen it already about the surprising truth of what motivates us. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc
ReplyDeleteHi Ted, That is exactly right it is about the value we bring to the market place, it is at the end of the day the ROI of what I do. I am in sales, I see most of sales people (shall say most of ALL people) are average at most, for example in sales - most "sales" people do not read a sales book in their lives, never take a training in sales, never invest in the themselves, they expect the companies (their employers ) to do it for them. While a the same time they complain why of some many lay-offs? What is first the egg or the chicken? To me - it is simple and easy - I first bring value before I demand. I first invest in myself before I get any ROI, I have to bring value to my company or employer before they pay me well. In the absence of VALUE money becomes an issue!
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