Hiring and Retention Advice: Latest MLG from WPA
This month’s WPA online session focused on hiring and retention. It featured insights from three industry-leading panelists. They included:
Beatrice Vasquez – Oxnard Pallet Company,
Kathleen Dietrich – Commercial Lumber & Pallet Company and Priority Pallet
Brint Walker – Coastal States Insurance
Hosted as usual by Glenn Meeks, he started with a fun scenario involving a fictitious pallet. business, WPA Pallet Company. In this parallel universe, the company is owned by Meeks and Dave Sweitzer, WPA Executive VP.
WPA Pallet Company has been a successful operation for many years. More recently, however, it has experienced declining demand, reduced profitability, and financial constraints. “We want input from you guys,” Meeks said to the Zoom participants. “How do we approach these types of challenges for our company?” And so the MLG began.
Here are some of the thoughts shared by the panelists and other attendees about hiring and retention in a flat market:
Network: While business is typically slow coming out of the winter holiday season, this year, the soft market conditions did not improve. Thanks to a network of relationships within WPA, one participant quickly found out that the situation was being felt at large across the industry. It helped shape their respose.
Cut Overtime and Communicate: “Payroll is a biggy,” one participant observed. With slower business, there is pressure to lay off employees. Companies, which only recently hardpressed to find employees, are trying to avoid doing that because it is so hard to find good people.
“In our opinion,” another participant said, “our Number One is to maintain our employees. Our key is to maintain those key employees who have been with us for so long and to assure them that we're going to be there for them in the good times and the bad. And so employer being transparent, is key. It’s okay to let your people know that you’re slow right now.”
Someone else said they hold regular meetings with staff to update them on market conditions that are affecting the company.
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