Activities and social gatherings are just some of the strategies that can helpboost productivity.
At Budds’ Collision Services, one of our main objectives is to create a positive culture for our staff. The idea behind it is to not only help create a winning team but also build camaraderie and the concept of a family.
What I mean is that we encourage our employees to get to know each other beyond their professional roles, so that they are essentially vested in each other. Therefore, when a problem arises, other team members won’t hesitate to jump in and help out.
Often discussed
The concept of culture is often discussed, but in reality, it tends to be much harder to implement. One way you can promote it is by organizing regular team get togethers, whether it’s going out for dinner at an exotic restaurant, hosting barbecues or pig roasts, or even organizing a friendly bowling competition or golf tournament.
In fact, in our case, beyond the collision centre, our dealer group organizes golf tournaments for the entire network which not only encourages our staff to get to know each other outside the shop, but also the dealers and their staff that we do business with every day.
And when you’re able to help build relationships, good things can happen. Employees that genuinely feel part of something tend to stay and that sense of value builds confidence, which reflects not only on your employees but the business overall. And with that comes better productivity, better profitability and better results.
If you think about new hires to a company, what comes to mind with these two scenarios? In scenario A, you have a new hire and they end up working alongside somebody who has been there for 10 or 15 years. How do you think they feel working alongside somebody who is happy and has been there a long time? On the flipside, Scenario B sees that same new hire working with somebody who has only been there a few months and in fact most of the people they come in contact with have only been there a short period of time too. Based on those scenarios, in which case do you think your new employee is most likely to stay and have confidence in the company?
Easier to retain
As the saying goes, it’s much easier to retain an existing employee than to hire and train a new one. High turnover not only costs a lot of money, it also means that as a business owner or manager you’re spending less time on things that will grow your business such as implementing processes or looking at new or improved revenue streams.
That’s why successful business in the collision repair industry and others make a point of creating a sense of community and rewarding their staff for loyalty and hard work.
And often, it’s the little things, that cost very little that make the biggest difference. Let’s take an example of celebrating each staff member’s birthday. You provide them with a cake, and for 20 minutes everybody stops what they’re doing to celebrate with that person.
You might think that doing something like this would lead to a loss in productivity, but in reality, the opposite tends to be true. By taking a break and joining together, it provides a sense of camaraderie which raises the team spirit and the frequency of each individual. Consequently, when they go back to work, they are happier; more motivated and far more productive.
Sometimes, by taking a step back, you take a quantum leap forward.