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I recently shared a cup of coffee with a friend of mine who owns a hair salon. She lamented the fact that her business had such a high turnover rate, and concluded that there must be something wrong with today's generation of employees. I knew that this salon owner did not pay particularly well and offered virtually no benefits to employees. "Did you ever think that maybe the problem is you?" I asked. "What do you mean?" she asked in astonishment, incredulous that I would make such a suggestion. I explained that if she decided to pay her employees a livable wage, employees wouldn't be so eager to quit their jobs. She laughed, and wouldn't even entertain the notion of being responsible for the high employee turnover rate. A few days after our meeting at the coffee shop, her entire staff walked out. She is now out of business.

All too often, employers ask their employees "What can you do for me?" It must never cross their minds that employees are wondering the same thing about their employers. As much as you may hate to admit it, an employee's main goal is not to make you rich. In their lives other things come first: feeding their families, paying the rent, and paying the bills. Your wants and needs will always take a backseat, and if your employees are not able to meet their basic human needs by working for you, they will go somewhere else. And who can blame them? Ask yourself this question: If I were looking for a job, would I want to have someone like me as a boss? The answer just might surprise you.

Obviously you cannot afford to increase the salaries of all your employees, but one thing you can do is to get in touch with your human side. Practice empathy, or the ability to see things from other people's points of view. Have you been in charge for so long that you can no longer remember what it was like living paycheck to paycheck? Has your own sense of pride and accomplishment blinded you to the basic needs of those who work for you? The key to being a successful businessman is to stop thinking like a businessman every once in a while and start thinking like a human being.

Once you get in touch with your human side, the solutions to your employee turnover problem will be clear. Give employees a reason for wanting to come to work. If you can't afford to pay them more, then at least make the workplace fun and exciting. Lighten up a little. Is it really going to hurt your bottom line to let your employees wear jeans once a week? Is it going to put you in the red to pick up a box of donuts on your way to work once a month so that the employees can enjoy a free mid-morning snack? A few little gestures of humanity can go a long way. Spending a few hundred dollars a year to keep your employees happy is going to cost you far less in the long run than being chronically understaffed. What it all comes down to is the human touch. Be good to your employees and they will be good to you.

Learn more about this author, Marlin Bressi.
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