Secrets to Reducing Turnover and Enhancing Team Dynamics

Discover the keys to transforming your contracting business by mastering talent acquisition and retention strategies that truly work. Ever wonder why some businesses thrive while others struggle with employee turnover? Uncover the secrets behind creating job postings that attract top-tier candidates and learn how behavioral interview questions can predict future performance. With my proven approach, onboarding becomes more than just administrative tasks—it's a strategic opportunity to integrate new hires through mentorship and clear career paths. And remember, leadership isn't just about delegation; it's about inspiration and fostering a culture of empowerment.

Tap into the power of diverse skill sets to build a balanced and effective team. Too often, businesses fall into the trap of hiring individuals who mirror their own strengths, missing out on the dynamic potential of a varied workforce. Embrace the idea of complementing, rather than replicating, your abilities to elevate your operations. I'll share my personal journey and insights, encouraging you to adopt this transformative strategy. Plus, explore practical steps like gratitude practices and referral programs that will ensure your hard-earned insights are put into action, opening doors to new opportunities and sustained success.

Chapters

• 0:00 Building Successful Contracting Businesses
• 14:54 Diverse Skills in Employee Selection

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:55

Welcome to the Successful Life Podcast. I'm your host, corey Barrier, and today, folks, we are going to be solo. I want to talk about one of the biggest challenges in our industry, which is finding and keeping great people. When it comes to hiring, you've got to be specific in your job postings. Instead of just listing out the required skills the bare bones information that most people put out. You've got to paint a picture of what success looks like in that role. For example, looking for an HVAC technician who takes pride in solving complex problems and leaving customers with a smile.

Speaker 1: 1:46

One of the things that one of the ways that you can find out how a person's going to perform and how they're going to behave, is by asking behavioral questions during the interview that you know that relate to scenarios specific to your business. For instance, tell me about a time that you had to deal with an unhappy customer. How did you handle that? And just watch. Watch their body language, watch how they respond, listen to how they respond. Watch their body language, watch how they respond, or listen to how they respond. Remember, the hiring process doesn't end when they accept the offer. You are going to want to have a comprehensive onboarding program that goes beyond just the paperwork work. I've seen a lot of success with people pairing new hires with experienced people within the organization, which helps integrate them into your company culture. Now you've got to be very careful that you don't pair them with someone who is going to teach them the wrong way or is going to be negative about the company. You've got to be very selective of who you pair these people with. And look, keeping your best employees is just as important as hiring them, and retention is a big deal in the industry, and one way that I've found as a good retention strategy is you want to create a very clear path for their career within your company. Show them. You want to show the team members how they can grow, whether that's moving into a leadership role or becoming an expert in their field. And as much as you don't want to do regular check-ins, it's crucial to the organization.

Speaker 1: 3:59

Schedule one-on-one meetings with each team member at least once a month. Use that time to discuss their challenges, their goals, their ideas for improving the business. Ask their opinion on what they think could be done better. That doesn't mean you have to take their opinion, doesn't mean you have to take their ideas, but it does mean that you get to ask them. You know it means that you're asking their opinion, and lots of times, people feel valued when you ask for their opinion. I mean, everybody wants to give you their opinion.

Speaker 1: 4:30

I believe, and this shows great leadership, and in the trades, leadership is not just assigning a task. It's about inspiring others on the team to do their best work, and you want to lead by example. If you want your team to prioritize safety, make sure you're always following safety protocols, even when no one's looking. You want to empower your employees by delegating responsibilities to them. Not only does this lighten your load, but it also helps the team members develop skills and they feel more invested in the company's success, and they feel more invested in the company's success.

Speaker 1: 5:21

In our industry. This helps build relationships, and relationships are everything, both with your team and with your clients and for team building. Consider organizing regular social events or volunteer activities. Rhino Strategic Solutions does a great job of this. Once a month, the whole team comes together in one spot and they spend a whole day helping, giving back. And so, if you want a good example, you know Chris Yano and Jeff Boab and Michael Benitez over there. They do a great job of this and it really does build that company culture. Or you can even do something as simple as have a barbecue each month, or you know. Or just order pizza in and have everybody sit around a meal and enjoy themselves.

Speaker 1: 6:20

And when it comes to client relationships, follow up after every job. Follow up after every job, follow up after every job A quick call to ensure they're satisfied can turn a one-time customer into a lifetime client. And look, I know that there's a lot of people that share the same feeling I do about networking with other professionals. And then there's a lot of people that won't network with other professionals in the trades. But I would argue that it opens up new opportunities. Join local associations or like the PHCC, or attend industry conferences to expand your circle of people.

Speaker 1: 7:06

So, look, here's some concrete steps that you can take to start implementing these ideas. Here's how I start my day. I start my day with a daily gratitude practice. I write down the things that I'm grateful for, and it could be as simple as just waking up. It could be as simple as getting the opportunity to get in that freezing cold ice bath. It could be gratitude for waking up feeling good. It could be gratitude that I just have a job right. It could be as simple as that.

Speaker 1: 7:43

The second one is implement a structured employee referral program. Offer bonuses for successful new hires. Schedule your first round of one-on-one check-ins with your team members. Create a mentorship program that pairing experienced technicians with new hires. But you got to have this stuff set up and set up a project management system to improve the communication and efficiency. Remember, building a successful contracting business is about more than just technical skills. It's about creating a positive environment where you can thrive and your clients feel valued. And the best way to do that is to start implementing these things that I've talked about today.

Speaker 1: 8:33

And look, I'm not saying this stuff's easy and I'm not saying you're going to be able to just start implementing all these things today, but implementation is the chokehold for most businesses. You may go to conferences, like I mentioned earlier, and you may get a ton of information, but what are you going to do with that information? Are you going to implement or are you just going to write it down in your book and do nothing with it? Because that's what most people do. Most people go to conferences and they talk about all these things that they're going to do and then they go back and do nothing, and I would argue that's a waste of your time. Now, if your intention is to go there and build relationships, that's one thing and you should do that. But you should also take down the information these leaders are freely giving. I say freely giving.

Speaker 1: 9:25

You have to pay for the conference, but at the end of the day, you're getting more value than what you're paying for, guaranteed. You know it's conference season right now. It's hard to choose which conference to go to and which conference not to go to, and they're all valuable. You just got to pick which one's best for you and go there with the intention that I'm going to find one or two things out of this conference and I'm going to go back and implement those one or two things. It is vital to the success of your company. It's vital to you being able to sell out.

Speaker 1: 10:01

If you're going to sell to PE or you're going to pass it down in your family, you got to have systems and processes in place, and if you don't have those in place, you're you're likely not going to be able to sell. Likely, you're sitting on a business that's really not even a business, it's just a job, and I know that might be hard to hear, but it's just the truth. And listen, there's a lot of companies out there that go to sell and they don't have any value within the organization because they don't have systems and processes. Look, al Levy's got a whole program the seven power contractor, like check his stuff out. He is a titan in this industry and Al Levy is also a good friend of mine and I value him tremendously. But he realized early on without systems and processes he wouldn't be able to scale to the level he did. Look at Tommy Mello. He scaled and sold 41% of his company for a very sizable amount of money and the guy kept 59% of it. That's pretty impressive. That was actually usually pretty unheard of, but he brought people in like Al Levy, to help him build out the systems and processes that he didn't have.

Speaker 1: 11:27

It's okay to admit that you don't know everything. It's okay to bring people in and get advice and pay people to help you with the things that you're not the best at. A lot of people are great at turning wrenches but they suck at doing business and if you're one of those people, you've got to find people in the industry that can help you, and there's a million out there. There's also a bunch out there that will not help you. They'll tell you they're going to help you but they're not going to. You know, they're just going to take your money and you've got to figure out who those people are. Al Levy is not one of those people. He is going to help you and his programs work. Doug Wyatt if you're looking for sales help, he can help you.

Speaker 1: 12:11

You can listen to other people's podcasts, like Brian Burton and Nate Minnick.

Speaker 1: 12:15

They've got Waste-O-Day podcast.

Speaker 1: 12:18

We're obviously already listening to this podcast. You should probably subscribe to it if you haven't already. Um, look, the industry's changing. You know we've got a lot of things that are happening right now that if you don't wrap your head around AI especially, you're going to be left in the dark, and I don't want that for you. I don't want you to be left in the dark. I don't want you to show up empty handed when you go to sell your company and you realize I don't have anything to sell, because I've been working at a job for the last 25 years Thinking I was building a business and you're not.

Speaker 1: 12:55

If you don't have systems and processes in place, if you don't have memberships in place. If you don't have the shit in order, you're going to be screwed. Look, josh and Laura Kelly over at Clover, they can help you get a lot of this stuff in order. They know what they're doing, they're industry leaders, and look, I could talk till I'm blue in the face. But if you don't do anything with this information then you're going to be right back where you started and you know, I'll just tell you that it's not going to be a good feeling. You know, I'll just tell you that it's not going to be a good feeling. And the last thing I'll say you know I started this conversation out about, you know, hiring retention. Figure out how to get ahold of this stuff, because it's costing you a freaking fortune to cycle through employees, like you probably are, and I know it's getting into shoulder season.

Speaker 1: 13:54

You think, well, corey, I don't need to hire right now because it's about to be slow. This is the time to hire. This is when people are looking for a change and you've got people that you know are. They're ready, they've worked their ass off this summer and they're ready for a change. And if you don't get a hold of this hiring process, you're going to be left with a bunch of crappy employees and if that's what you want, then you're going to get the same thing you've always been getting. But if you want something different, there's options out there and, of course, I'm going to plug WhoHire, because that's where we're making a massive, massive difference in the industry. By streamlining your hiring and onboarding process, we're able to automate all of this process to where it takes you out of the loop, takes the emotion out of hiring.

Speaker 1: 14:54

You know, I've hired people that are just like me and they don't work out. But I hired them because I liked them, because they're just like me. That doesn't mean they're going to be a good employee. That just means that they're like you. You don't want 12 people that are just like you running around running your business. You need people that have different skills than you do. So I appreciate you guys listening If you would share the show. Thank you very much and we'll see you on the other side.