We are NOT hiring – How to keep employees long term

You’ve found and hired a new employee, good job! Maybe it’s your first one, maybe you’ve hired several this go round. You might have had an easy road of it with tons of responses of really qualified candidates responding to your job posting. Chances are, though, this is far from the usual or at least recently usual experience.

Qualified people are harder than ever to find in the current job market. There are a variety of reasons for this but suffice it to say, you probably worked hard to find and hire that person. You want them to stay with you and your company long term but how do you make sure that happens?

The unfortunate fact is that employees, young and old, are less loyal to companies these days and tend to move around frequently with very little provocation. This isn’t your grandfather’s employment market anymore; people are going to move around. You can’t count on someone staying with you for years and years but you can do some things to make sure they stay with you at least long enough for you to recoup the investment you made to find, hire and train them.

#1 Start them out right – Plan for a New Hire Orientation Meeting as quickly as possible

It’s sometimes easy to assume that new employees understand your company’s culture and what’s expected of them. I mean, this is just dog walking, right? How hard can it be? This is a huge mistake. A new hire orientation meeting will get employees started out right before they develop bad habits.

This should include the basics like how and when do they get paid, what company software will they be using, what benefits come with the job. This is also a good time to get that unpleasant but necessary government paperwork such as I9 Employment Eligibility and W4 tax withholding forms done. You need this paperwork completed out of the gate and the new hire orientation is a great place to get it done.

This should also include a review of your key policies and procedures. A few good ones to include are how to schedule vacation, how to report issues and what to do in case of an emergency.

And finally, the new hire orientation should lay out clearly what’s going to happen in the next week, then next month and beyond.

The goal of the new hire orientation is to make employees quickly feel like they know what’s going on.

#2 Get them engaged early and often

Whatever your field or classroom training involves, it’s important to get the employee up and running without delay. Even if you have a classroom component to your new hire training, I recommend getting the new hire out in the field first. After all, the best part of a pet sitters’ job is playing with animals. You want the new sitter, especially one that hasn’t done a lot of pet sitting in past to immediately see the fun side of the job. There’s plenty of time later to stress the less fun part of the job such as picking up poop, cleaning up messes and following ridiculously complicated care instructions.

If there’s too big a gap between the orientation and getting your new sitter out in the field, they will start to feel a bit forgotten and lost. Lots of handholding is important at this stage.

Another way to get them engaged early is to set them up with one or two of their own clients out of the gate. These might be clients that they will take on right after they’ve done their field training. This will give them something to look forward to and will create ownership.

#3 Make them feel like part of the team

There are a lot of ways to do this. One thing you can do is assign them a buddy. This is another more senior employee that is in a similar role as them. This is not a manager but rather someone that they can go to on an informal basis if they have questions.

Another way to do this is send them out on pet sitting visits with another more senior employee. Seeing how different sitters work in the field is great for picking up best practices but it also let’s the new sitter meet their fellow pet sitters. Pet sitting is a fun but very solitary job and anything you can do to make new sitters feel less alone, the better they’ll integrate into your company.

#4 Check in with them regularly

Don’t assume that everything is hunky dory. New sitters are most vulnerable to doubt and concerns in the first 2 months of employment. New employees don’t always ask questions or voice concerns for fear of appearing stupid or bothersome.

Some great questions to ask them when you check in include: are your expectations being met in this job, are you earning the money you need to make this a good long-term option for you and what would you change about the job if you were in charge for a day.

Again, you shouldn’t and can’t expect employees to stay with you throughout the life of your company but you can optimize the chances that they are with you for the long haul. Do these four easy things and you will bond your new employee with your company, yourself and your other employees.

Another great article you might enjoy

Are you desperately trying to Hire?

https://www.thepetbusinesscoach.dog/trying-to-hire/

About Eliza

Eliza is the owner of two successful pet related businesses; Preferred Pet Partners, a pet sitting and dog walking company, and The Pet Business Coach, offering coaching and resources to aspiring or current pet related business entrepreneurs. She maintains two awesome blogs. One for pet parents https://preferredpetpartners.com/blog/ and one for pet business owners https://thepetbusinesscoach.dog/blog-page/.  Eliza also supports various animal rescue and shelter organizations. Eliza and her husband have a growing pet family. Visit her websites: www.preferredpetpartners.com or www.thepetbusinesscoach.dog.