To combat labor turnover that accelerated in the aftermath of the pandemic, leaders can help shape company cultures that foster loyalty through communication, trust, and understanding of team members’ core needs and career goals, panelists shared during the People Over Production: How to Make Your Business Growth POP education session at the 2023 International Builders' Show. While labor retention has been a long-standing issue in the construction industry, the pandemic-induced Great Resignation presented a larger challenge as many individuals reevaluated their goals and quit their positions.
“Quitting is contagious. When people start to quit, we have a domino effect of other people [in the same company] quitting,” said panelist Taylor Burtner of Louisiana-based Manuel Builders.
Burtner said at the base level, many employees quit because of uncertainty, in both the overall construction market and in the business. Employees also quit because of a misalignment of expectations for work-life balance. The unrealistic expectations can either be the result of the employee’s own ideas or a leader’s inability to communicate direct expectations of the role with the individual, Burtner said. Unrealistic expectations can lead to employee burnout, which has impacts in an organization that go beyond the employee experiencing burnout.
“When you have folks that are burnt out, they tend to slack off a little bit. For team members that have bought in and want to do an exceptional job for the organization, they are having to pick up the slack of those people that are burnt out,” said panelist Ingrid Prince, the co-founder of Shared Drive. “That creates more stress and more burnout.”
Employees can also be motivated to quit because of a lack of understanding of how to advance in their careers or dysfunctional teams, Burtner added.
“Whenever people don’t know how to advance in their business, the job becomes monotonous, and they don’t want to do it,” Burtner said. “And then they have dysfunctional members of their team that creates frustration every day, which leads to quiet quitting. You don’t even know that [this employee] is going to leave until the day they walk in the office and say I’m done.”
Most important, poor leadership disproportionately contributes to employees quitting their positions, Burtner said. When the leadership in an organization and internal team is strong, the issues related to uncertainty, unrealistic expectations, career advancement, and team dysfunction can be alleviated to create an environment employees want to work in.
Panelist Craig Neal of Tennessee-based Goodall Homes said the role of leaders can set the tone for the culture within teams and organizations. While understanding the values and needs of employees is important to success, leaders must also understand themselves to present their best version to their employees. Neal said before leaders can expect employees to put their best foot forward on behalf of the company, they must first be able to better themselves. He added happiness filters down within the organization. Resisting the expectation that employees always should be working helps create a more functional team and allows individuals to create healthy boundaries between work and home life.
“If everything is urgent, nothing is urgent. You only have so much of yourself to give, and if you’re draining that constantly by treating everything as urgent, you’re not giving your full self to anyone,” said panelist Beth Russell of Stylecraft Builders.
When looking at employees, the panelists stressed the importance of understanding that everyone has different goals for their job. While some employees see growth and success through promotions and external recognition, many employees desire to better themselves within their existing role, Neal said. Understanding what employees value and want from their role can help leaders increase retention and create a more meaningful experience for everyone within the company.
