Over the past 20 years, Microlearning for Managers (MfM) has worked with hundreds of labor-dependent companies and thousands of supervisors.  Throughout this period of time, we’ve run countless surveys and engaged with employees from a wide range of sectors to understand points of frustration.  Our conclusion?  The #1 reason employees leave an organization is pay.  As one client recently shared, they had a 25-year-old lineman (working for a rural electric coop) who resigned to accept an offer from a contractor that provides services to the utility.  His decision was prompted by a $4 dollar per hour increase in pay, routine overtime, and a liberal per diem package.  In exchange for the near-term boost in pay, the young worker walked away from a far superior long-term benefits package that included a pension.  For anyone wanting to increase recruitment and retention rates, we strongly suggest offering competitive pay.  To eliminate compensation as an obstacle, we recommend positioning yourself in the top one-third for hourly rates or base salaries among those you compete with.

First impressions are lasting impressions.  As such, your onboarding and orientation process either works for you or against you.  This underappreciated opportunity to attract and retain top talent is a perennial top-five recommendation for those wanting to become and remain an employer of choice.  Making new hires feel welcomed, conveying a sense of belonging, and helping them connect with the organization’s mission and purpose are objectives well worth pursuing.  In addition, providing post-orientation support to help employees successfully integrate into their roles throughout the first year or so is a practice easily implemented and often overlooked.

As previously stated, traditional management practices that once worked, no longer do.  Gen Z employees prefer team-based structures and collaborative environments.  They want to work for coaching-oriented leaders they know and trust and prefer mentorship over management.  They want to be involved and have input into decisions that impact them.  They migrate toward workplaces where these cultural attributes exist and avoid those where they don’t.  Organizations wanting to improve recruitment and retainment of the next generation of workers must adapt to these preferences and adopt an entirely new set of people-centric skills to practice.  In labor-dependent industries, this translates to redefining how frontline resources are prepared and equipped to lead the next generation of workers.

Employees working in skilled trades require tools, equipment, and materials to perform their jobs.  Recognized as ‘basic needs’, these items should be maintained in good repair and be readily accessible when needed.  A dichotomy exists of profound significance relative to this topic.  While subpar employees might migrate towards an inefficient workplace, that’s not the case for high performers. Employees exhibiting independent or interdependent work ethics, characteristics employers value most, are the ones most frustrated by breakdowns in basic needs.  They want to work and have little to no value for sitting around waiting on tools or equipment.  Where this environment perpetually exists, top-tier workers seek employment elsewhere.  Recognize the importance of providing for your employee’s basic needs and make sure they are consistently being met.

Gen Z has an affinity for learning.  More so than any previous generation.  As digital natives, they’re adept at learning new skills when confronted with a recognized need to do so.  Whether it’s removing wallpaper, repairing a dripping faucet, or wanting to impress a special someone by making an authentic chicken cacciatore dish – they readily seek answers to questions and lean on the internet to find them.  For those wanting to attract and retain the incoming generation, offering continuous growth and development opportunities is not only important – it is essential.  In practice, this involves learning in the flow of work.  Simply stated, it’s a process whereby collaboration, coaching, and mentoring are used when learning opportunities arise.  Information sharing is valued and appreciated, not as a means of finding fault, but in offering multiple perspectives needed to enhance understanding.  Where learning opportunities are integrated into daily routines, performance outcomes improve.  In addition, levels of engagement from the emerging workforce rise.  This subtle, but important, point provides a profound opportunity to attract and retain the next generation of workers.