Every month we talk to hundreds of agents of different shapes and sizes, primarily about their ‘supplier challenges’.  Often the conversations deviate away from tech onto other challenges in the business - low fees, lack of instructions, all the usual stuff.  However, recently we have witnessed one common theme that many agents seem to be suffering from and doesn’t seem to be going away, and that is recruitment and staff retention. Whilst we don’t claim to be experts in the recruitment arena specifically,  I would suggest that recruitment companies or ‘culture consultants’ would be far better positioned to give you advice (and we have plenty of supplier partners who can help you with this), between us we have employed and run a number of businesses so thought that we would share our advice.

When we enter an employee’s market, I think some of us are guilty ( I certainly was) of employing and retaining staff who, in an employer’s market we would have ‘let go’. Whilst I can’t claim the below was my idea ( I think it is known as the Jack Welch model- who was the CEO of General electric for 20 years and is often heralded as the greatest leader of his era), it is something that I reviewed with my managers every six months.

Before reading any further, draw two axis and number them 1-10, name the vertical axis ‘competence’ and the horizontal axis ‘commitment’. Now plot every member of staff on the chart based on where you feel they score for commitment and competence. Whilst everyone has a different opinion, I believe that commitment is: Love of the job, love of the company, dedication to the business, will go the extra mile.

Once you have completed this task, draw a line as to where you feel you should set your standard as a business, mine was always 8 & 8, all of your staff will now appear in a box, and number the boxes 1-4 clockwise starting in the top left.

You now have four combinations of staff and each can be dealt with accordingly.
The first box we will look at is:

Box 2 - Competent & Committed- This is ultimately what we are striving for. We called these our stars!
As a business, how and what are you doing to retain these stars? You need to reward, share vision, and put their name in lights.
- Does that person know you consider them a star?
- Do they get the recognition, rewards and praise of being a star?
- Are they aware of the growth and opportunity for them?
- Are they being paid in line with what a star should be?

Box 4 – Committed & Not Competent- Future stars! The key here is to encourage and mentor. It is far easier to try to increase competence than recruit new staff. Spend time training them in one area rather than overloading them with too much information, start with one high value behaviour, skill or action that will have the highest impact on their role. At some point you will have a member of staff who you will have spent endless time training and doesn’t become competent, you will then need to make a decision about them- have you got another role more suited to them, if not, you will need to let them go.

Box 1 – Competent but Not Committed - These people were possibly previous stars but could easily become terrorists in the business. This is the most challenging category to deal with. From experience the first stage is to get to the bottom of this and understand the root cause of misalignment. Is there anything that I can do to connect and commit? If you do not believe you can regain their commitment then maybe it is time for you to part compay. These people are often experienced and respected staff members who will have influence within the business, so this comes with it's own inherent risks. 

Box 3 – Not Committed and Not Competent – We called these weeds and unless they were new starters, we got rid of them. Ultimately you have someone in a role where they:
- Don’t have the capacity to do what’s required
- They don’t believe in the business or your vision
- They don’t want to be there

By implementing the above processes, we found that we were not only able to retain the best staff but also were able to concentrate on increasing the competence of the committed staff. We also found that by getting rid of the weeds and terrorists, the culture improved significantly throughout the business.

As a final thought, part of the recruitment issue is solved by having loyal staff. So what are you doing to create loyalty?

I believe that you will only get my loyalty if:

- You make me feel included
- However junior my role, I feel important
- You catch me doing the right things and acknowledge my achievements 
- You treat me as a human being and show personal interest