Keeping quality staff in your business was one of the talking points at this year’s Business Education Conference at Lakeland College.
Key presenter, Sara Hurtubise is a human resources consultant and owner of Lakeland HR Solutions based in Bonnyville. She spoke about employee engagement and the use of leadership skills to increase employee engagement to assist with raising productivity and worker retention.
“The data shows that engaged employees stay longer and are more productive,” says Hurtubise as she noted one study indicated that it costs about $41,000 per employee per year when factoring the loss of a staff member and the need to recruit and retrain for that role.
She says businesses need to start at the top as they seek to have better retention of staff.
“Make sure your leaders are set up for success. That they are there for the right reasons. That they have the skills. They can have those difficult conversations. And set up a space where employees feel safe to go to leadership. So, you get ahead of things before it’s too far gone.”
Things like loud quitting and quiet quitting were also part of the conversation. A Gallup poll has suggested that two-thirds of workers have quietly checked out of the job even though they are still showing up for work. Hurtubise feels that could be too high.
“If you notice a disengaged worker, have that conversation. Leaders must have that trust in that relationship in their team. And it really comes down to showing that they care. And also, the skills to lead into those conversations because I know they often get avoided,” says the human resources consultant.
Speaking on the importance of organizational values, Hurtubise challenged the business audience to “use them and operationalize them. If they are just a poster on the wall and nobody knows what the poster says or it’s a fancy thing on the website, then it’s not doing the job.”
Lakeland HR Solutions provides training and human resource services to several companies including mediation investigations and consulting for policy development. The company will be holding leadership training sessions in Bonnyville in May.
The Business Education Conference was put in by Community Futures Lloydminster and Region, Lloydminster Chamber of Commerce, City of Lloydminster, Startup Lloydminster, Lloydminster Construction Association, Lloydminster Learning Council, Alberta Works, and Lakeland College.