Business experts give tips on finding, keeping employees

Here’s the big question many businesses are facing: How can businesses attract and keep employees? Here are the possible answers:

• Find people to hire who share your same “passions” in the business world.
• Hire great managers. Those managers will make it much easier to keep great employees.
• Be flexible when it comes to work hours. Offer work-from-home opportunities and creative paid time off options.
• Be a company that has a “retention mindset.” That mindset will be noticed in the community.

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Those suggestions – and many others – were offered up Thursday afternoon, Sept. 7, during a panel discussion called “How Do I Keep My Workforce Engaged?” The panel was one of the key features of the 2023 Immigrant Entrepreneurs Summit and Multicultural Open House held at the Vibrant Arena at The Mark in downtown Moline. The event was presented by the Immigrant Entrepreneurs Summit (IES) and the Black Hawk College Multicultural Entrepreneurial Center.

It attracted several hundred people and its aim was to help immigrant-run businesses to do better and bigger business. Some of the summit’s workshops and discussions included: small business financing, legal business basics and leadership development.

“We want to create a space where they can learn how to grow,” said Catherine Tran, IES executive director.

Ms. Tran added that the summit is especially vital this year because this is a tough era for many businesses. The times are made even tougher with many federal and state pro-business, post-pandemic programs for businesses coming to an end in addition to inflation, supply chain issues and especially, employee issues.

The subject of getting and keeping employees was the centerpiece topic of the luncheon panel discussion.

During that discussion, four business experts tackled a series of questions centered on how smaller businesses can get and keep top employees. Those panelists were:

• Ying Sa, CEO and managing partner of Community CPA, a firm that offers accounting, payroll and other services.
• Mitch Thomas, the executive director for MRA – Western Illinois and Iowa in Moline, which offers human resources services and other resources.
• Chris Caves, vice president of business and economic growth for the Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce.
• Brett Carter, manager director of The Jacobson Group, a recruiter that hires people for the insurance industry.

Mr. Carter said that his business is especially concerned about finding employees. That’s because while the national unemployment rate is about 3.8%, that rate in the insurance industry is about 1.6%. That means that just about everybody who wants a job in insurance, has a job, he added.

He said one of the keys to finding workers is to be flexible and “be creative.” He suggested employers be flexible with work hours, offer paid time off and, when possible, offer work-from-home options.

Mr. Carter added that employers also need to “be inclusive” when it comes to hiring. He gave the example, saying how many employers put a requirement of five years of leadership experience for potential employees. The real goal, he added, is to get an employee with leadership skills; that five years of experience requirement could hurt companies’ efforts to find the right worker.

Employers also need to keep up with the ever-changing technology in the world. Those changes are bound to eliminate some jobs and create other new positions.

“Gone are the days when you can give and order and slam your fist down. .. The landscape and world continue to evolve. We also need to evolve,” he added.

Ms. Sa said the key to finding employees is to find people who “share your vision” for the business. Once an employer finds that “shared” match, they may not have to worry about paying top wages and benefits to an employee. That’s an important factor, because small businesses can rarely match the wages and benefits offered by larger companies, she said.

“People coming in (to my business) share the passion with me. … Be mighty in your own way,” she said.

Ms. Sa also offered this “simple formula” for hiring an employee. If an employer hires a worker for $3,000 per pay period, make sure you (the employer) have at least $3,750 in the bank to cover that employee. That extra $750 will be needed to cover the various benefits and expenses for the employee.

Mr. Thomas said that even though there might be a temptation to hire the first person who applies for a job, “don’t settle. Hire the right person, even if it takes you a little longer.”

Some of his tips for getting that right employee include: cast a wide net to attract as many candidates as possible; “shorten the requirements” the company puts on its job notices; know your company brand; and make sure you know what the competition is doing in attracting employees.

He added that these steps are vital because one good interview with a candidate perhaps nets one good employee. But one bad interview with a candidate could mean three to five would-be employees who will not move forward in the interview process and work for your company.

Much of the summit’s discussions also focused on keeping good employees. The Quad Cities Chamber’s Ms. Caves told the crowd that a key factor in that issue is to “hire great managers.”

She added that those managers are often the deciding factor in whether an employee stays or goes.

It’s also important for a company to have a “retention mindset.” That is, having a strategy and goal of keeping your current employees on the job because it’s often more expensive to hire new workers. Once the community sees that an employer has this mindset, it becomes easier for the employer to attract and keep workers, Ms. Caves added.

She added that getting those employees may take extra efforts such as apprenticeship programs, working with high schools and colleges to get employees, working with veterans’ groups, and “targeting one of the largest groups that left the workforce during the pandemic – retirement-aged people who decided to leave their jobs,” she said.

“Make sure you have a line in every one of those buckets,” Ms. Caves added.

Mr. Carter said employers should also target another growing group – high school graduates who have no plans to attend college or trade school. These people have the goal of finding full-time jobs right out of high school. “These people have that hustle. Go out and find them,” he added.

The event’s presenting sponsor is CommunityCPA.com. Other sponsors included: Ascentra Credit Union, WVIK Quad Cities, IH Mississippi Valley Credit Union, SCORE Quad Cities and State Farm, agent Juan Gonzalez.