"He was the same guy that came to our winery last year, and at least once sometime before that."

One of our customers asked me the other day how we manage to keep good people.  We had just concluded a multi-pronged service for this customer.  VA reduction, Pyrazine reduction, and UF concentration mixed and matched over many lots.  Every year they have us help perfect their wines right before bottling.  Business has been good for them, and they did this batch earlier than ever, because they have to get them in the bottle and out to distributors and customers ASAP. 

He was impressed that he has gotten the same employee providing our services the last few years.  This is partly coincidence of our schedule that he has gotten the same guy.  But it is partly by design, that we retain high performing team members.

So, how do we maintain high performance in this tight labor market?

It starts with treating people right.  Like most of our customers we are too small for polished "employee wellness" programs and we don't have ping pong tables or a bowling team. 

What we do have is a family atmosphere.  We really want our employees to succeed and feel appreciated.  Different employees want different things.  Take classes?  Bring their dog to work? New challenges?  Advancement? Time off? Just be appreciated?  Everybody is different, so we just get to know them and let them know us.  Then we talk openly about what they want. They stay, improve, and dedicate.  It is a small industry, so eventually word gets around that it is a good place to work.

This is how we keep the same high performers around.  In fact, sometimes, top performers seek us out.  We get contacted by people who have worked with filters and mobile service at a high level.  Sometimes we hire them if they are  a good fit. 

I explained all of this to the customer I mentioned above.  He just smiled.  So did I.