A Must Read for Business Owners with Employees
A while ago, Sandra contacted me for new headshots for an upcoming book she was writing. She is CEO of Human Power Solutions, providing training and consulting to businesses looking to improve employee retention. In both good and bad economic times, employee retention is critical for any successful business – having worked in “industry” for most of my career, it always amazed me that many businesses did not take retention seriously. The combination of losing a talented, experienced employee with the costs associated with finding/training a replacement (some research says up to 33% of the annual salary) would seem to make retention a no brainer. Moreover, the majority of people who leave do so not for higher pay.
Sandra’s book title, “People Profit: How to Improve Your Bottom Line By Investing in Those Above It” and the first few sentences in the Introduction struck a chord with me: “…In various environments from restaurants and retail businesses (whatever the product) to service calls – it often felt like genuine care for customer needs was missing…..This lead to a deeper question: How much of this gap stems from a company’s internal culture?”….
Just the other day I went to shop for food at 2 supermarkets, and in each case I asked for assistance for products that were not on the shelf. In the first instance, the person I asked treated me like I was asking for the moon and disrupting his day – he grunted, took his time (stopping several times along the way to check the stock room). When he finally came out with the items, no smile or anything – he just opened the box and I took what I needed. In the second store, the person immediately dropped what they were doing, said “let me check downstairs for you sir”, returned in several minutes with multiple options with a smile on his face. The funny thing is, those respective behaviors are typical of the employees at each store. I may send a link for the book to the owners of the first store….
In addition to having a wealth of experience, Sandra’s energy and enthusiasm comes thru in her headshot – talk about amplifying your brand! She comes across as genuine, knowledgeable and trustworthy. It was a great collaboration and I’m sure her book will be a success! Congrats Sandra!!!
You can find the book on Amazon.
