simplerich

There’s a saying in business that nobody’s indespensible. That every employee can be replaced. It’s true. In the past two years the company I work for has changed ownership I think 3 times. If even the owner of a company can change I think it’s a sure bet that an overnight janitor at one of the smaller locations can change, regardless of time with company or even quality of work. Everybody can be replaced.

Earth Day is about conserving and the difference between Disposable and Replaceable becomes important. I’ve owned a Dodge Dart, Monte Carlo, a Mercury Sable, a Renault Encore, a Ford Escort, and a Suzuki Forenza. All of them were replaceable but none were disposable… well maybe the Dart, but I only paid 200 bucks for it and it was a LOT of fun – three on the tree transmission! But I digress.

Just because something can be replaced doesn’t mean it should be treated as disposable. I’ve got a coffee cup I refill every morning on the way to work. It saves me fifty cents and saves the convenience store a cup. One day I’m going to lose this cup as I do and I’ll get another one. But until then I take care of this one. I don’t throw it on the ground and I don’t leave it unwashed. I treat it as if I intend to keep it for the long term. I really do hope to do that. But history tells me that at some point something will happen to it. I may lose the lid. I may leave it somewhere and not be able to find it. I may leave it in a hotel room. Sometimes people and jobs grow apart just like me and my coffee cup. But that doesn’t mean I hasten either one of those things along.

My employees and I can be replaced. My guess is that in a year nobody would notice we were gone, I may flatter myself. It probably wouldn’t take that long, but hey, I think I’m great so go with it. But that doesn’t mean they’re disposable. I want them to stay for the long haul.

Employee retention is a money saver for a lot of reasons. It saves us money in training and it saves us money by the employee knowing more than their replacement will know. The mall here has a book store in it that has had the same 3 core employees for at LEAST 10 years. I know if I ask them a question about a book or an author they’ll know the answer. If I see a new person there… I typically wait until I find one of the lifers. I like getting the old timers. They just know things. I want my stores to be the same way.

I want my employees to be the ones customers wait to see. There will always be some turn over. It seems every store has one position that rotates through someone every three months. For the life of me I can’t figure out what it is that causes it (I have a theory). I work every day to try and convey to my employees the value they bring to me as an employer and to the company for whom they work. I set my expectations high and then try and help them live up to them. I give them too much credit and then let them show me I was right to do so. Most of the time that works. It doesn’t work for banks or mortgage brokers, but it can work with managers.

So yeah, we’re all replaceable but we’re not all disposable. Today is Earth Day. Make sure your people know they’re not disposable today and every day.

The Replaceable isn’t Disposable by Rich Griffith, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.