During the COVID-19 pandemic, many employees re-evaluated what work means and how they want to spend their time.
Some left high-stress jobs. Others found jobs with better pay.
Almost . And that trend continued in 2022.
In late March, showed 44% of employees are “job seekers,” with 33% actively job hunting in the fourth quarter of 2021. The survey showed another 11 percent planned to look for new jobs in the first quarter of 2022.
According to the survey, the top reasons for job searches are:
- Pay: 56%
- Health benefits: 39%
- Flexible work arrangements: 31%
Colorado has surpassed pre-pandemic employment rates and with the state’s unemployment rate hovering just below 4%, employers know keeping their best employees is critical.
Keeping employees happy
Dale Easdon, president and chief executive officer of Custom Made Meals, may joke that the company locks its doors to keep its best employees, but in reality, it focuses on training and higher pay to keep them.
“We want them to stay with us, so we look for ways to make sure we’re creating the culture that adds value and makes them want to stay with us.”
The company is creative with bonuses and incentives. For example, earlier this year Custom Made Meals provided one of its younger management employees with a bonus to help buy their first home. “We think it’s important to take care of the individual,” Easdon says.
Stacie Staub, West+Main founder and CEO, says fortunately her company experiences little turnover.
“We have really high retention rates and happy employees,” she says. “Our main goal is to give people a cool, supportive place to work, so we have never have to recruit.”
Matt Hudson, Colorado Home Realty CEO, says his company encourages its employees to “live the most remarkable life they possibly can.”
But doing that sometimes means losing good employees. Earlier this year, a longtime employee announced she was leaving her job, selling everything, and moving to Mexico with her husband.
“We recognize everyone is on their own journey,” he says. “We want employees to think about the job they are doing and consider, ‘Am I doing what causes my soul to sing?’ If not, we want to discuss how we can encourage and guide you to discover what will.”
Dale Petrillo, Supreme Lending regional branch manager, says retaining good employees takes effort.
“We work hard to get everyone involved to create the perfect job for them,” he says. “This does not look the same across all employees – itap not a one-size-fits-all approach.”
Matt Hudson, Colorado Home Realty CEO, credits collaboration and support for employee retention. The company holds live monthly meetings, training webinars every two weeks and has one staff member who focuses on planning employee events and parties.
“That creates social connections and makes people feel connected,” he says. “We are a tribe and want everyone to feel involved. If people don’t want that engagement, they’re not a good fit.”
Recruiting new employees
Alan Smith, RE/MAX Professionals broker-owner and one of three partners, says although the company experiences some turnover, it enjoys relative longevity with employees staying at the agency for about 16 years.
“We have a great culture and longevity creates efficiency,” Smith says. “We’ve become more of a family than a team.”
Whenever possible, the agency prefers to hire new employees who were recommended by existing staff.
“We’d rather hire people with a warm invite than start cold,” he says.
Bill Goldberg, Home Mortgage Alliance president, agrees and says although recruiting high-quality employees always poses a challenge, the company relies largely on employee referrals.
“Our employees are our best recruiters,” he says. “Most of our recent hire recommendations came from people on the team.”
