The Talent Leak: How to Build a Business People Actually Want to Work For

Hiring is difficult, but stopping your best people from quitting is the real challenge. Samantha Smits breaks down why star employees leave when they feel they are 'failing' or overwhelmed due to a lack of systems. Discover how to build a 'sticky business' that protects your human resources and keeps your team's energy sustained through every season.

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Transcript

Speaker 0:00

If every six months you have a new team, you have a new business every six months. There is a reason why the department that cares of your people is called human resources. They are something to be tracked of, taken care of, and not to be wasted. Hi, I'm Samantha Smits and welcome back to the Sustainability Edge, Your Tourism Podcast. No Jargon, no fluff. We're breaking down sustainability and especially how to turn sustainability in a practical tool that gives you more profit, more time, stuff that's staying, and a business you can be proud of. Let's get started. Hello, hello, and welcome back. It is great to have you here again for another episode of the Sustainability Edge. In the last episode, I was talking about how efficiency will actually help your business, but how chaos is helping you to slow down. And now today I want to talk about the most important part of your business, arguably, your people. Because no matter what kind of tourism business you're running, from a lodge, a hotel, an operator, an agent, when you have employees, when you have people working for you, I hear this every week also that people are shifting the blame usually. Sam, I cannot find good people anymore. We train them, they're great for a few months, and then they quit, and I don't know why. We often blame the labor market or this new young generation, they hop all the time. But I really want to look at the logic and why your current way of working might be the very thing that is pushing your best people out of this door. Why you have this talent leak. So most tourism business they really try to hire super excelling star people who are smart, hardworking, passionate. You really usually have a lot of requirements for the employees you hire. But then when you put them in an environment where there is no predictable system somehow, there are no policies, everything is based on ah just do with whatever you see every day, which of course partly belongs in the tourism sector, but quite a lot can be ruled out. They actually end up dealing with all of the last minute and unpredictabilities instead of doing what they were hired for. And that is tiring. They are fixing double bookings, looking for lost equipment, apologizing to guests for mistakes that shouldn't have happened, that could be theirs or are not even theirs. And they're looking to actually succeed in your business and grow and have perspective, not just just survive today every day. And like explained in the last in the last episode, when you don't have these systems, actually, you're forcing your best people to work even harder, which is draining their energy. So they work hard just for a basic result because you don't see all the other things that they have to polish and get out of the way. And they will be getting so tired of this or so overwhelmed because they have to solve everything day to day and maybe don't even feel the recognition for this or the appreciation because they feel like they go out of their way beyond their basic job, but you only see the output of the basic job. That is definitely one of the reasons for this leak. Think about managers that have to micromanage and double check every single booking or every single room because there is no digital checklist for them where they can see the most basic things if they've worked out and then just choose a sample to check. That already would save them tons of time and sanity. Or think about the the guide that always ends up having to fix an itinerary error on the ground and just wing it. Of course, that's something they're probably very good at. But if they do that all the time, well, the clients then are upset with in this case the guide because they are front-facing and they have no clue that they was not the one responsible for what has been created at the back end. If they every single time get the blame for a mismatch, something the agent promised, and then on site it doesn't work out, well for them it's very obvious, but not for the clients so much. Huh. They'll also get very tired out of having to deal with that every single time. So when we look at the staff that keeps leaving your business, it is not necessarily always a hiring problem, sure can be, but also be critical and look in yourself, in your business. What systems do you currently have that make it attractive to stay and make the job actually easy to perform? There shouldn't be extraordinary, insanely hard work required for the same basic result that you expect. Basic result should require basic work. And you could blame the new generation and even me. I guess I could partly be part of that. But nowadays, the people working for you, they are more and more aware of their rights and of the standards. And if they feel like they have to work much harder than above their pay grade or above their task, they will indeed move on. And in that case, the promise of it will all be quieter in the low season will not be enough to smoothen them over. When you are looking to hire and to keep professionals in your business, you have to be able to give them clarity at any time in the season. It makes their job so much easier if there's a logic to follow with usually predictable results, or that it's predictable that some specific type of error, such as these double bookings, are nearly zero to happen. So here again, think about digital logs, clear SOP, standard operating procedure, an organized workflow. You really have to think about what can since you are the owner or the manager, what can I do to make this job as easy as possible for my employees? Because then it's when their job becomes much easier, when their energy matches the results you expect, they are much, much more likely to stay because it doesn't end up burning them out. There really is a focus on how can you remove this noise and the friction that they experience in their daily tasks. Because usually people leave their businesses where they are not gonna leave if they feel like what they do is successful, they feel supported, they feel well paid, they will leave when they feel they are failing because it's overwhelming them, the job is not worth it. That's usually that oh, this is not worth it, I'm gonna move on. So, how can you make everything worth it or much easier for them to go through? Here the logic and some organization is this foundation that's gonna build a happy staying team. So, even in the high season, no matter what season, always check in with them if you're at the office or per call or however, try to ask them how can I make your job a little bit easier today. Always be sure to know how they are feeling, also energy-wise. It'll be so much appreciated that you at least show that you care, and it will give you all the insights also about your business because your employees are representing your business, they are doing the tasks. Here, I also see very often that certain companies they are they care, of course, we all want good results, but that at times they give their employees the freedom, hey, I want this result, I don't care how you do it in sales, for example, just make it happen. And of course, a certain degree of freedom is very good to have this input and to try new options for your business, but at the same time, when the stress and the friction does come and they have to default try to go to some kind of default mode, there is no default mode for them to resort to. Because that is the whole thing when stress really hits and when they're you're at your full occupancy and everything, what can someone resort to when their brain capacity is much lower and they're just trying to survive and to go by the book when there is no book? So, of course, for some leave things free for interpretation, but do provide some kind of structure. But then how does all of this actually link to your sustainability strategy since I am a sustainable tourism consultant after all? And again, I've said before people is a big part of sustainability. If you think about this model of people, planet profit or people place prosperity, there are so many different definitions, but one always stays the same: people. Because without people, there's no tourism, without people, there's no business, and if we talk about sustainability of not wasting resources, of not wasting time, not making things go dry because they cannot be replaced, the same goes for employees. I mean, yeah, yeah, you can hire someone again, but it's it's gonna be very costly, it's gonna take you a lot of time, and it's much more rewarding to have the same person for a longer time. And it's mainly their energy. If that takes a big hit early in the high season, that one is much harder to replace. Because first of all, you're not going to replace employees in the middle of the high season, but also you want their energy to also be sustained during the high season and to not extract or waste time that they could spend on actually having your business grow or having the proper customer service. And when they actually go dry, when all of their energy and passion and will to even represent you is wasted, they will leave because they want to find a place where they don't get fully dried out. And here again, hiring and training someone new will always cost you so much more rather than investing the time and keeping your current staff. Think about the recruitment fees, all the knowledge build that you're losing that's leaking also elsewhere. And this deep understanding only comes with time when people stay with you for a long time and they can help you build these systems, they can identify what's needed. And when a good person leaves, your entire business in general gets weaker because this person was part of why your business was good. So basically, the sustainable business is a sticky business because it keeps the knowledge and your people on the inside. Your employee life is also sustaining itself. Think about how long did it take you to train your current team or to hire them or for the marketing and all of that. Can you imagine that every high season you have to do that again because people keep leaving because they don't want to work another season with you? And think about when you know how much money and of the time you cost, how much it would cost you in time and money when you actually focus on retention and sustainability or in improving work conditions or better pay or building these systems that makes the job easier for them. That usually is cheaper, and especially on the long-term decision, because all of them end up staying. If every six months you have a new team and you have to go through this circle, every six months, huh? It will tire you out too, because that takes a lot of your time as well. And it makes your business inconsistent, the service delivery will be inconsistent. An absolute nightmare. Sustainability, it's about making something durable. That's of course about the resource in your destination, and your destination, the people in the future, as in your grandchildren or your friend's grandchildren, can see the same beautiful destination that you're selling today or that you have seen, but also by the people it possibly the same people or the generation of these people that's not every six months. If every six months you have a new team, you have a new business every six months. So when we talk about resources earlier, there is a reason why the department that cares of your people is called human resources. Resources might sound a little bit oh, people are just a number. Definitely not want to look at it that way, but they are something to be tracked of, taken care of, and not to be wasted. If you want to keep your best people, give them a business that's worth staying for. And even here, next to the policies and predictability that sustainability can bring, sustainability is also a core business value that can add to the passion of your employees to work for. Just an extra reason that makes you different from other businesses, which can really add in a reason for your employees. Oh, but this company I'm making a difference. So, in short, stop looking for better people, but start building a better business that people want to stay working for. Make it attractive to work for your company with good working conditions and diversify your company with the core value of sustainability, but also don't waste a human resource. So, here, if you feel this is something worth thinking about or you want to share a little bit more about how this specifically works for your business, I'm super happy to hear your story and to discuss this matter with you. Please do book a call or do find me on LinkedIn. All of that is in the show notes, and we're gonna find out what would be the first next step for you to get this issue sorted. Would be so happy to help you forward and see you next time. Thank you for listening and congratulations on investing your time today to think strategically about your future, to make sure you never miss a step to understand sustainability better, how to grow your competitive edge. Follow the podcast right now, and if this was helpful, please leave a five star rating. It will help other people like you to find these tools. I'm Samantha Smits, and I'll see you in the next episode.