A Different Way to Compensate Employees

Heart shape woman people's hand collaboration isolated on white background for humanitarian aid, cooperation, donation and support concept

In 1972, the owner of the floor covering store I worked for posted a sign on the bulletin board that read: “New incentive program! Work or be fired!” It’s not 1972 anymore. We must be better than this if we’re going to attract and retain quality people.

I saw an ad for Bambas on TV the other day. The ad described how Bambas has One Purchased = One Donated policy. In a nutshell, for every “essential clothing item” purchased, Bombas donates an equal item to a homeless shelter. That reminded me of a company I owned for more than 32 years.

At my company, we did a lot of things really well. We also were not immune to messing stuff up, so please don’t let me give you the impression that we were perfect. However, one of the things we did right was to create an organization that attracted good people. We were pretty good at retaining those people. When I sold the business, the average employee had been with us for over eight years. Needless to say, I was (and still am) pretty proud of that. So how did we do it?

One of the things that brought our team together was a common goal to help others. (Those of us in the disaster repair business must have this in our DNA.) Simply being in the disaster mitigation and repair industry gave us daily opportunities to help people, but we got paid for most of it. I’m talking about the fact that we always seemed to have a “special” project going on that helped people who couldn’t help themselves—financially, physically, or otherwise. Let me give you a few examples.

We learned of a young father who had been swimming with his kids in Lake Tahoe when he dove into some shallow water and broke his neck, rendering him a person with quadriplegia. The carpeting and narrow doorways of his house made it impossible for him to navigate his wheelchair. We discussed this at a company meeting, asking if anyone would be interested in donating their time to install hard surface flooring throughout the house as well as widen the door openings. Not surprisingly, almost every hand in the room went up. We were able to get our suppliers to furnish the materials, and our team did the rest. Needless to say, we all felt pretty good about getting that family some genuinely needed help. Another note about this story is that one of our technicians brought this to our attention. He knew he worked for a company that would want to help if we could.

In another instance, an insurance adjuster whom with we frequently worked called me one day and said he knew we liked to take on projects in the community and wondered if we could help an elderly couple whose insurance claim he could not cover. Their bathroom shower had been leaking for years, resulting in the tile shower, walls, and flooring being on the verge of collapse due to the extremely long-term leak. Their only source of income was Social Security, and they didn’t have the funds to fix the problem. Again, our team jumped at the chance to help, and we were able to give this elderly couple a new, safe, and functional bathroom.

Another example is that of an Army sergeant who also had damage to his home that wasn’t covered by his homeowner’s insurance. He was worried about getting his home repaired for his family and how to pay for it. It was even more critical because he was being deployed to Iraq within the next two weeks. By now, you should know how this story ends. We were able to tell the sergeant how much we appreciated his service and not to worry about his house getting repaired. The team again jumped in, and while he went to Iraq, we went to work and fixed his home—at no cost to him.

So, why did I just tell you about Bombas, the young quadriplegic father, the elderly couple, and the sergeant? It’s because the idea of giving back to the community we work in seems like a no-brainer for a host of reasons. First, we’re helping someone truly in need. Next, it simply feels good to help others. To expand on this, how do you think working for a company that gave back to the community made my employees feel? It made them proud, for sure.

Employees can be compensated in a lot of ways. Being part of a company they can be proud of is one form of compensation. Maybe, just maybe, that’s one of the reasons my employees stayed around for so long.

Bill Prosch

Bill Prosch, CR, is a Business Development Adviser for Violand Management Associates (VMA), a highly-respected consulting company in the restoration and cleaning industries. Prosch is a leading expert in operations and a Certified Restorer. He has a deep understanding of entrepreneurial challenges having owned and operated a successful restoration company for more than 30 years. Through Violand, he works with companies to develop their people and their profits. To reach him, visit violand.com or call (800)360-3513.

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