A simple trick to retain good team members

Finding good staff is consistently the top three priorities for small business owners, Callum Laing writes in Tech in Asia

“Finding good staff” is something I’m hearing more and more about.  It’s consistently in the top three priorities for small business owners.
 

Having hired, fired, been amazed by, and let down by hundreds of team members over the years, a few lessons have slowly started to sink in.
 

One thing that has made the biggest difference to my team turnover is “The First Month Daily Email.”
 

Like most small business owners I’ve got a few things to do.  This meant that when I did finally find someone who was crazy enough to want to work for an entrepreneur, they got thrown in at the deep end.  If they were lucky, one of the other team members would take some time to show them the ropes.  Or at least where the toilets were.  But often they were pretty much left to fend for themselves.
 

 

Turns out I’m not alone in this approach to on-boarding. This wasn’t a very strategic or smart approach, just a lazy one, and meant I was contributing to the chances of losing that staff member early on.
 

I employ a simple four week strategy for all new team members working with me in any capacity. For four weeks, at the end of each working day, the new employee has to send me an email. In this email are the answers to four questions:

1. What actions did you take today?
2. What results did you get?
3. What problems did you have?
4. What questions do you have?

This strategy has not only allowed me to keep many talented staff who otherwise would have left, but also to see very early on those that are not a good fit. (Hint: if by the second day they have decided to stop sending the emails, they are not a good hire!)
 

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This is an excerpt from Tech in Asia. You can read the full article here.