My job provides me with a fantastic opportunity to learn from many smart and successful leaders. Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting Ralph Stayer, owner of Johnsonville Foods, headquartered in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin. I was presenting at NCH Healthcare System in Naples, Florida, and he was in the audience.
Johnsonville Foods started as a small butcher shop. Today it has more than a billion dollars in annual sales and offers products in more than 45 countries. If you have ever attended a Milwaukee Brewers baseball game and watched the mascot sponsored by Johnsonville Foods, it is something you will remember. (Ralph and his wife, Shelly Stayer, are part owners of the Brewers, which is a Major League Baseball franchise.)
While waiting to speak, I was introduced to Ralph. Because I was thinking about my presentation, I did not connect who Ralph was until afterward. I did notice Ralph during my presentation. He sat up front and took copious notes. My thought now is, Here he is 80 years old, much more successful in business than me, and he was taking notes! Great leaders are always looking to learn.
After my talk, Ralph and I discussed the presentation. He shared that Johnsonville Foods has implemented some actions with coworkers that have helped them stay fully staffed (unlike many other businesses). They met with the workers and shared with them how many new hires do not stick. This is a common challenge in all sectors. It’s typical for new hires to leave within their first three to six months. Often, this happens in the first 60 or so days. When meeting with employees, Johnsonville Foods leaders connected the dots, explaining that when people leave, it puts a burden on other workers. This resonated. Over time, the employees came back with some actions they can take to help new employees want to stay.
When the student is ready, the teacher appears. Mr. Stayer is a great teacher. I quickly ordered both of his books. The first one is How I Learned to Let My Workers Lead. It sits front and center on my desk. I also preordered Love Your Neighbor: A Spiritual Defense of Capitalism and Freedom in a Hostile Age, which is a blueprint for transformation based on Ralph’s decades of experience as one of America’s most successful CEOs.
Since that day, I have increasingly researched how to improve the retention of all staff, with a major focus on new employees. This issue is not new to me. Over the years, I have written on behavioral-based interviewing, peer interviewing, and meeting with new hires around their 30th and 90th days. These are still good items, but today they are not nearly enough. Even organizations that do all those things have higher new employee turnover than they would like. That’s why, thanks in part to Mr. Stayer’s ideas, we’re in the process of creating our Emotional Onboarding™ tool kit, which helps organizations improve their odds for retention by helping new employees feel connected to their coworkers early on.
This experience has reinforced one of the points explored in The Human Margin: Building the Foundations of Trust, the book Dr. Katherine A. Meese and I coauthored. The data shows that an effective way to build trust is to ask others to help. Asking employees to help own retention gets great results.
In summary:
Take time to meet with current staff members and share the data. This does not mean all areas. Some may have great retention. Focus on the areas with the highest turnover. Have the staff share how departures impact them. This creates the why (meaning “why we need to do better”).
Ask if they feel better selection could help. Ask them for ideas for the organization. What do they feel they can do to attract more applicants? What characteristics do they have (since they have stayed) that should be looked for in applicants?
Discuss what type of questions should be asked to help increase selection success.
Next, move to onboarding. What actions can current workers take that may help decrease turnover? This leads to a great discussion on actions that may be impacting the new hire. Is everyone welcoming? Usually, the decision is made that the “assign-a-friend” system is not working well. The current employees may create an entire process to assure the person feels welcomed. Coworkers have a lot of influence on whether new employees stay or leave.
Rethink the 30- and 90-day new employee check-in. If it is working, keep it. If it is not, time to rewire. For some people and in some areas, a one-, three-, and seven-day check-in may be needed. Leaders are smart and know their areas. Try different things and see what works.
Celebrate milestones. Have fun as the new employee achieves milestones. If someone stays 90 days, it increases the probability they will stay 120 days. This then increases that one-year anniversary.
I was so fortunate to meet Ralph Stayer and to have read his first book. I look forward to his new book due out in May. One must be an incredibly successful person, who at 80 is still on the journey to learn more and impact others in a positive way. It is my hope that what I’ve learned from him will benefit others as well.
