The owner of a multibillion dollar Australian tech firm turned to me and said: “Tom, I often dream about firing everybody and just having one big computer. Wouldn’t that be paradise?!” This pretty much sums up how most business owners and CEOs think about their people: like a necessary evil, a nuisance, or a stone in their shoe.
People: your best capital
A business is nothing other than a group of people. One of the best things you can do to make your organization future-proof is to take good care of your people, give them plenty of opportunities to grow, and attract a never-ending stream of new top talent.
The Human Resources (HR) head of one of our clients told us in confidence that they had a serious turnover problem. This was no issue if only bad people were leaving, but a lot of good people left as well. When I raised the high turnover with the family who owned the business, it became clear to me that they cared. They wanted their business to become a magnet for top talent.
Turnover is serious business
Most of the time, top management and CEOs do not take enough time to listen to each other, let alone to their people. They do not know what their employees actually want. In the example above, we conducted confidential one-on-one interviews with selected employees across all ranks. When we found out what they wanted, it was surprisingly simple: some food vending machines for the ones who stayed late and worked overtime; better transportation for the ones who lived farther away from the head office and had to do two-hour commutes every day; clearly laid-out career paths and growth opportunities for the top talent below 30, who joined the business straight out of university.
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Then we presented the best solutions that would have the highest positive impact and could be implemented right away. The result? Our client saved millions of dollars over several years because turnover decreased dramatically.
Money matters less than you think
Besides being chair of Tom Oliver Group, I am also an MBA professor lecturing at some of the world’s highest-ranked business schools. The top talents in my classes frequently tell stories that confirm the phenomenon that employers rarely understand the real needs of their employees. One of my students, a bank executive from New York, was working at a top bank but felt miserable and utterly unappreciated. The reason? Her boss treated her badly, had a horrible temper and lashed out at her frequently. But instead of changing anything about his behavior, he kept throwing more money at her. The result? She left.
