How to Retain Employees
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And make more money every day. Welcome to Material Retail Dumps, episode 32. This is the second episode in a three-part series about finding, retaining and promoting employees. In the last episode, we spoke about a few ideas of how to find employees. So if you haven't listened to it, go back and listen. Episode 31. Um, so let's jump into retaining employees. So, you know, retaining employees comes down to a few basic concepts. Number one, the employee needs to be happy and feel respected and feel important, and just, you know, overall have positive feelings about the job. Number two, the employee has to feel excited about what, what they're doing. And number three, the employee needs to like, or maybe a better word for that is enjoy the manager. So let's jump into each of the three things. So number one, let's talk about, you know, keeping your employees happy.
So on a basic level, that means, you know, treat them with respect. Don't talk down to them, don't yell at anybody, don't embarrass anybody. Just like kind of have, you know, basic human courtesy. If someone asks for a day off, unless you really, really have a reason why you need them or they're, you know, they don't have a good reason why they're asking for a day off. You know, give them the day off. Even if they don't have a good reason, give them the day off. Um, just like very basic human concepts, I think go a very, very long way in retaining employees. Nobody wants to come to work where they feel bad at the end of the day. Nobody wants to come to work when they feel like they have to. Nobody wants to come to work when they feel like they're missing out.
And that just leads to a whole lot of resentment. Resentment for the job, resentment for the manager, resentment for the company, just resentment in general. And that just starts a downward cycle. And you could have the best employee in the world, the most talented individual out there. And you know, that cycle of resentment starts and it just, and it just never ends up working out. Another really important thing to keep your employees happy is to pay them fairly. Now, I'm not saying that you need to pay overpay your employees, but what I'm saying is you should not be underpaying your employees. If McDonald's is offering $15 an hour to work for McDonald's in your town, and you are currently paying your employee $12 an hour or $13 an hour, you better believe that that employee is not going to pay be happy every time they see a commercial from McDonald's.
Every time they see their friend who works at McDonald's, every time they walk past McDonald's and says, make 14, $15 an hour, they are going to be unhappy. They're going to resent you. So keep in mind, pay is a really, really big thing and really important when it comes to retaining your employees. The second thing we're gonna talk about is having your employees be engaged in the company and excited about what you're doing. So this is really important because at the end of the day, people do what they like to do. So there's a few different ways you could keep your employees engaged in the company and kind of, you know, liking what they do. Number one, it starts when you're hiring people. So the best thing I'd say is you wanna try to hire your customer. Um, you wanna try to hire the people that like your brand already.
Um, a because they'll be the best salespeople for your brand. But b, because you know they like what they're doing. If I'm really interested in fashion and I love shopping and I'm in your store every week, chances are I'm gonna enjoy working in your store. I'm going to enjoy talking to the customers, I'm gonna enjoy outfitting customers, I'm gonna enjoy setting up the racks, making everything pretty, and it's just something I'm gonna enjoy doing. Cause I like fashion and it's something I like to do and that's extremely important. But we could take it a step further, and I think this really, you know, speaks to people with, you know, a, a bunch of employees in the store or a bunch of employees in the company, is that you need to have your employees doing what they're good at and what they enjoy doing. For example, you might have one employee who really enjoys changing the mannequins in the window and another employee who really enjoys talking to customers.
If you have those two employees working on the same day in the store, it would be silly to have the employee who enjoys talking to customers changing mannequins. And it would be silly to have the customer who enjoys changing mannequins talking to customers. Now, I'm not saying that these people have to do exclusively what they like to do. If you kind of keep that, you know, philosophy in your head and try to keep giving employees things that they like to do and things that they're good at, it'll just end up working out naturally. The employee will come to work excited, they'll continue to enjoy what they're doing and they'll continue to work for you. Because at the end of the day, what people want maybe just as much or more than money is they wanna enjoy what they're doing. The third thing we're gonna talk about is kind of enjoying working for your manager.
And you know, there's a few basic concepts here that I wanna touch on. Number one, if you are the owner of the clothing store, everybody works for you. So it's very important that you realize that your employees are working for you. Yes, they're working for the company, but they're working for you as a manager. Same thing. The employee is working for you. Yes, they're working for the store, they're working for the company, but at the end of the day, they're working for you. They take direction from you, they listen to you, they follow your lead. So it's very important that you create an environment that the employees enjoy and the employees can kind of look up to you and say like, you know, and think like, maybe this is what I wanna do in the future. Or it doesn't even have to go that far.
It's maybe I respect this person. I see that this person works really hard, so I'm gonna kind of do my best to support this person. And, you know, respect those both ways. If you respect them, they'll respect you. If you treat them well, they'll treat you well. If you give them raises when they deserve it, they'll work hard to get raises so that they deserve it more often. And I think so much of retaining employees, just to go back to the beginning, I think so much of the battle of retaining employees comes down to just treating employees fairly, understanding that employees have options. Understanding that employees are not just going to work for you because it's their only choice. If an employee doesn't like what they're doing, they could probably find a new job in two weeks and maybe even a higher paying job. So I think it's very important to just treat everybody with respect, create an environment that people love to work at, and just keep everybody happy. And, uh, you know, that's basically it. Looking forward to the next episode. We'll talk about promoting employees and it's kind of similar to retaining employees. So it's gonna be a fun one. Uh, see you next time.
