You may have heard of The Great Resignation, the “mass, voluntary exit from the workforce” that has been anticipated for months. Experts like those quoted in the article linked here suggest that it’s already begun.
As boat dealers, despite the wild sales success we’ve enjoyed of late, there’s a lot to be frustrated about in today’s economy. We came into the pandemic greatly understaffed. 
Now, The Great Resignation seems to promise to cause further challenges for our staffing levels.
If you read through the fine details of that Inc. magazine article, however, you’ll understand that there IS something you can do about your staffing situation. Quite simply, you can create a great place to work.
You see, the LinkedIn study this article quotes from points to employees leaving because of things like “dissatisfaction and fear caused by knee-jerk cost-cutting actions by their current employer in response to Covid-19.” It references “fundamental unfairness in holds on promotions, frozen merit increases and indiscriminate layoffs, which impacted poor performers and stars equally, particularly as they watched executive leadership refuse to participate in the pain.” AND, the article said, “many have simply had it with being undervalued and unheard by toxic, narcissistic managers.”
Wow. You may be thinking that our workforce is filled with highly entitled, sensitive and emotional people. Nope. They’re humans. They’re people just like you. They want to be treated with respect. They want to be valued. And they want to be heard. Collectively, they’re just now finding the guts to stand up and do something about it.
What can YOU do about it?
Too many people who earn the title manager or executive or owner believe that management means controlling people, using fear as a motivator, demonstrating who’s the boss, barking orders, or forcing compliance with personal preferences. That’s the narcissistic approach referenced in the article, and it is NOT what management or leadership is about. In fact, even the Golden Rule, which suggests you treat others how you’d like to be treated was formally challenged in the book “First, Break All the Rules,” by Marcus Buckingham. In it, he wrote that you should not treat others how you’d like to be treated. You should treat them how THEY want to be treated. But how do you know their preference if you don’t ask?
In an educational event I last attended recently, the speaker suggested that non-profit boards need to develop a “listening competency.” Here’s the secret: It’s not just non-profit boards. It’s ALL businesses that need to develop a listening competency. Most of us listen to our customers. Why aren’t we listening to our team members — those people on the front lines of our business who really control the day-in-and-day-out success (or failure) of the organization? Their opinion doesn’t just matter; it’s critical to our success!
There are many ways that you can (and should) engage in listening to your employees, but just like it is with customers, perhaps one of the best ways you can learn what they think, want and need, is through a satisfaction survey. For years, our team here at MRAA has been requiring our Certified Dealers to facilitate an anonymous (we field it for them) satisfaction survey of their employees. And just this year, we took a dose of our own medicine and rolled out an ESS for the MRAA staff. The Certification ESS process not only asks dealers (and therefore our team here at MRAA) to survey their employees, but also to meet with them, celebrate the wins and work collaboratively to develop solutions for any opportunities demonstrated by the survey.
What I learned from that experience has been immensely valuable. It is living up to the promise of becoming one of the most powerful ways we’ll continue to strengthen our culture. One of the most significant takeaways was that our team wanted more opportunities for feedback and growth. They wanted to know how they were doing and what they could do to improve and to grow in their roles.
Imagine that. Imagine if your employees were not interested in joining The Great Resignation, but rather their interests lie in how they can improve their performance for your dealership. And all you had to do was ask and respond.
What more could you accomplish with loyal, passionate team members who have a voice, who feel heard and who are rewarded with continuous improvement opportunities? What more would they do for you and your business? How would your business transform if you used it to create a great place to work?
There’s an old saying that suggests that your customer satisfaction will never be higher than your employee satisfaction. The best way to drive employee satisfaction and drive results in your dealership is to give your team a voice and let them know they’ve been heard. If we can help you do that through MRAA’s employee satisfaction survey, please let me know.