Whether by email, phone call, text, or face-to-face, the "two-week notice" can come like a gut punch when it's one of your best employees.
We dread those moments, but they're inevitable in the business world. People pursue other interests. Goals change. Family situations require a move. It happens.
But here's what doesn't need to happen: Don't leave your employee retention plan to chance. Do everything you can to keep your "farewell" percentages low. A miniscule turnover rate has nothing to do with luck. It's all about action.
People work with you based on their value assessments. Are their needs being met in terms of compensation, work-life balance, words and acts of affirmation, camaraderie, and satisfaction in their tasks? Are they growing as a person or feeling stagnant? Do they feel their role has societal value?
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These are "employee value building blocks," and they should be arranged structurally through planning. Retaining employees is all about your front-end block building.
A low turnover rate starts with good hiring practices. Here at HireSmart, we spend a ton of resources, infrastructure, time, energy, and effort making sure we have good people, not just on our team but on our clients' teams.
We emphasize clear communication upfront. We have a specific set of core values serving as our compass for all actions. And so when recruiting, whether for us internally or for our clients, we have this company culture where we ring the bell and say, "This is who we are. This is what we're about. This is what we believe. If this resonates with you, please make the investment in us. If it doesn't, no harm, no foul." But if those core values aren't your values, you can't be a virtual employee (VE) with us.
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Our clients don't have to manage most of the heavy lifting required for a low turnover rate because when we commit to a VE, we're "all in!" We shower that employee with care. We provide free health and dental insurance to VEs as part of the low flat bill rate we charge.
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We provide educational scholarships for the children of our VEs. We have a VE support team to assist our employees with questions or issues. We provide 40 hours of certification training for our VEs to educate them on their client's needs before employment. We step up for our VEs in times of need, such as after Typhoon Rai in 2021.
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We're also there for our clients to answer questions before, during, and after onboarding. We want clients to feel secure every step of the way.
The bill rate for our clients is just $9.50 an hour. That's because the cost of living is much lower in the Philippines, and our wages for VEs are highly competitive in that market but a significant source of savings for clients.
That means you can save in the $30,000 range annually per employee hired through us versus a local hire. And you'll get such good people, too. That's the big joy of it. People don't understand this part until they do it. But the Filipino VEs we find are just a pleasure to work with. We hear this all the time from our clients.
Colleen Lloyd-Roberts, co-owner of marketing firm More Monkeys in Hats, loves working with her Filipino employees, Brenda and Abby, through HireSmart.
"Brenda is like, I can't even imagine," said Colleen. "If I could have 10 of this girl, my company would be so big. I can't even keep up with her. She's so smart, and she's so fast and so good. And I just love her. I could walk away and go on vacation, and I know our business is in great hands with Brenda and Abby. And Abby is communicating with all of our clients; our clients are communicating with Abby. It's beautiful. It's wonderful. It's perfect."
We love seeing our clients smile, and if you are interested in learning how you can find great employees and retain them, I would enjoy a chance to chat and hear about your situation. Click here to set up a time that works for you.