It’s Not Always About the Money

To keep your staff, offer a future and up your management game

By Sharon Elaine Thompson

(Originally Published by MJSA June 2023)

Hiring good staff is a challenge. You spend time and money advertising, interviewing, and training people. It’s frustrating when those people turn around and leave, whether it’s after months or years. Finding and keeping good employees is especially challenging in the years post-pandemic, as workers have changed their relationship with work. Even offering employees more money may not tempt them to stay if other factors aren’t right, such as benefits, opportunity for growth, and good management that supports them.

“It has never been more difficult to attract people into the jewelry space than it is now,” says Peter Smith, author and retail luxury industry consultant in the Boston area. One reason is that the jewelry business as a whole has “largely done a less than stellar job communicating, both to existing folks and also to the candidates we’d like to have come work in the industry, that this is a good career choice.”

For example, someone applying to a company, such as Target or Starbucks, whether or not they intend to stay there, he says, is offered a comprehensive benefits package that may include medical, vacation, flexible hours, and education reimbursement. In contrast, in the jewelry industry, employees may be offered an hourly wage and as little as one week’s vacation in the entire year.

“There may or may not be medical and dental and vision care,” says Smith. “There may or may not be a 401k or profit sharing or tuition reimbursement or any of the above.” Instead of offering a $15 an hour wage, he says, businesses need to demonstrate that the employee has a future. By offering the opportunity for growth, including growth in earnings—whether in salary, bonuses, or profit sharing—and a decent benefits package, you’re showing the employee that their position with the company can be a very viable career, giving them the ability to start a family, and then take care of that family. Without that clear vision of a future, an employee may simply use their jewelry employment as a steppingstone to someplace else. “If it’s much more beneficial for somebody to go be a mechanic, or an electrician, or whatever, than what you’re paying them to be a good jeweler, then something needs to be done there,” says Smith.

Establish Expectations During Onboarding

According to New York–based workplace strategist, coach, and author Erica Keswin, retaining staff for the long term “is linked to very intentional onboarding. You really have to be thinking about retention on somebody’s first day of work. That’s the opportunity to give people a sense of the bigger mission of the organization, how they’re connected to that purpose, how the company thinks about learning and development. You’re teeing it up in the beginning to say, ‘Look, you might decide to be in this role forever, but we love the opportunity to promote people here or to even to move them across.’”

Retaining employees for the long-term starts during the onboarding process by establishing clear employee expectations and connecting the employee’s role to the organization’s mission.

That first day is also the time to talk about their possible exit, adds Keswin. “Say to people, ‘Look, we know you might not be here forever.’” With a good exit process in place, good managers can leave bridges intact in case an employee wants or needs to leave and come back. Perhaps a skilled young salesperson wants to leave to start a family; in 10 years’ time, she might be ready for work again. A valued bench jeweler or casting technician might need an extended leave to help a recently widowed parent in another state downsize and relocate. He, too, might want to return when his parent is settled again. By being realistic and thinking about an “ecosystem where people might leave and come back and leave and come back,” you give people more control over their lives and their work and give them a reason to stay with you for the long term—even if it’s intermittent.

Match People to Positions

Retention also depends on matching aptitude and personality to the position, says Smith. There has long been the idea that everything can be fixed with training. And while, “you’ll never hear me say that training is not important,” says Smith, it’s not going to work unless the person has the aptitude for the position and the personality for it. Your inventory controller has different skills than a salesperson, whose abilities are different from those of a manager.

This became clear to him when he read Mac Anderson’s book You Can’t Send a Duck to Eagle School. “One of the questions he posed in that book was, if I told you that your mission was to climb a tree, would you train a horse or hire a squirrel?” The answer is, you’d hire a squirrel because you can’t train a horse to climb a tree.

While effective and repeated training is essential to building good staff, that’s not necessarily it’s most important function, says Smith. Learning a new set of skills or the company’s operating procedures and policies is not necessarily the best argument for training. “The best argument is that I care enough about you, as an employee, to want to spend some money to bring some people in or to send you someplace for your professional development. Whatever you get out of that, or you don’t get out of that, is almost sort of secondary to the idea that as an employer, I care enough about you to do it.”

Grow Your Growth Opportunities

Small businesses often think they have little to offer to employees when it comes to a corporate ladder to climb. However, “the best employees in any given position are the ones that love to be in that position,” says Kate Peterson, the late president and CEO of Performance Concepts in Montgomery Village, Maryland, a business consulting and training development company specializing in the jewelry industry. “What they really need are ways to grow within what they love to do, and not to have to change jobs.”

Employees who are encouraged to learn something new and are being challenged to use that knowledge have more reason to stay with a company that is keeping them engaged.

One way to support an employee is through ongoing education, whether it’s taking them to conferences and shows where they can see new trends and new technologies; sponsoring them for training on new equipment, inventory software, or advanced jewelry making or computer design techniques; or reimbursing them in their studies for a degree in business, design, management, or accounting. A business owner should never assume, says Smith, that just because someone doesn’t have an advanced degree, that they aren’t interesting in learning.

For example, taking top salespersons to industry trade shows, says Smith, where they can talk to key vendors, means they learn what the best sellers are, what’s working, what’s not working, what new products are coming down the pike, what new brands could be interesting. Not only would they be re-energized about their work, but they’d also provide excellent suggestions because, as top salespersons, they know what their customers are more apt to respond to. “Sending [employees] to learning environments doesn’t happen enough,” says Smith.

Growth and education opportunities can happen within a business, too. Some companies offer cross-training opportunities, giving employees the chance to move laterally if there is little perceived vertical movement. This is a strategy that can not only spur employees to discover new ways to improve your business, but it also provides thoroughly trained staff that can step into another position when the workload or staff illnesses require it.

“Organizations today are much flatter than they were,” says Keswin. Rather than ladders, managers and business owners should think in terms of lily pads, she says. “People now are sort of hopping around.” If there is no place for them to hop within your organization, they may hop somewhere else.

When it comes to education, some companies may cap the reimbursement amount, require an employee be with the business a certain length of time before the education benefits kick in, or require they finish a course with a passing grade before the company reimburses them. However, Keswin notes that because younger workers are hopping around much more, especially to new growth possibilities, “smart companies [are giving] people early and often opportunities to grow and develop. Ideally, that becomes a reason why people stay.” It’s best to talk to employees “really early and often” about their growth and development needs.

“You might hear that somebody doesn’t want to stay forever, [that] this is a part-time job,” she says. “But you might end up with people who see themselves wanting to stay in an industry or wanting to become the plant manager. If you don’t have these conversations, you’re never going to know. Frontline managers need to be trained and reminded to have these conversations.”

An engaged staff, people who are excited about coming to work because they’re encouraged to learn something new and are being challenged to use it every day, have more reason to stay with the company that is keeping them engaged.

Adopt Better Management Practices

Lack of career growth and opportunity may be one reason your staff turns over frequently. However, the cause of poor staff retention may rest higher up the business ladder, with management. “The number one reason people leave has nothing to do with money,” says Peterson. “It has everything to do with the management of the organization and the management of [the employee] individually.”

In fact, in her Harvard Business Review article in December 2022, Keswin quoted a GoodHire survey of 3,000 American workers that “found 82 percent of [employees] would potentially quit their job because of a bad manager.”

Good management means treating people fairly and equally, giving them a clear understanding of their role, and instilling them with a sense of purpose and control.

Good management means treating people fairly and equally; giving them a clear understanding of what is expected of them, regular support and communication, respect, as well as some control over their working environment; and instilling them with a sense of purpose.

“First and foremost,” says Peterson, “people expect to be treated fairly.” If they’re not treated fairly then no effort to retain them is going to work. Fair treatment starts with even-handed employee practices outlined in a written employee manual and clear job descriptions.

“The employee manual is critical from a legal standpoint as well as just for practicality’s sake,” says Peterson. The manual should outline things such as customer service expectations, dress code (if any), probationary period, vacation and sick time, profit sharing and bonus plans, review schedule, dispute resolution, and disciplinary actions.

“What gets people in legal trouble more often than anything else is that they’re inconsistent,” she says. Without a written manual, it’s all too easy to end up having one policy for someone who has been with the company a long time—maybe a blind eye is turned when they take frequent smoke breaks, a longer lunch, or regularly come in 15 minutes late—and another policy for someone who just started. “You just can’t do that. You have to be consistent in your policies and having them documented is the best way to protect yourself, legally,” says Peterson.

Clear and consistent job descriptions also help ensure fair and even-handed treatment. Employees should know what is expected of them, including what tasks the job actually entails and the skills necessary to execute those tasks. A bench jeweler who thinks she is tasked only with repair is bound to be frustrated if entering findings inventory into the computer is suddenly added to her tasks.

Acknowledge Your Staff

Fair treatment also depends on equal respect for every job in your organization. In a retail store, praise and rewards are often heaped on salespeople who, admittedly, drive the profits of the store. Too often, though, despite working long hours during holidays, and ensuring that salespeople have product to deliver on time, bench jewelers, bookkeepers, and the administration staff that take care of logging repairs, maintaining inventory, and wrapping and shipping come in for very little acknowledgement and often little reward. As a result, they feel little commitment to the business.

Find ways to acknowledge every employee’s role in the company’s success. Smith worked at Tiffany’s where there were people behind the scenes who simply wrapped boxes, pulled product, or answered phones. No one noticed them. What Smith did, “was to find ways to use them in training, to find a way to value their contribution.” He’d introduce support staff to new hires and have them explain their work. “Just giving them a voice, giving them some daylight, was in itself a great form of respect.”

To keep employees committed to a business, their contributions should be regularly noticed and acknowledged no matter their role within the company.

One of the most important things, “in any professional environment,” says Smith, “is the idea that I have some control over my work, over what my day looks like, over what the actual specifics of my work might look like, over what the priorities ought to be.” Control over their working environment might include involving employees in decisions about how their benefits are used, whenever possible. Letting employees accrue sick time, use it to care for a family member, or add it to vacation time if it remains unused at the end of the year, are ways employees have more agency in their work life.

“[Benefits] like profit-sharing become extremely important, if people have some control over what goes into that,” says Peterson. “But if I have no control over whether or not items are discounted, or whether we have a 60 percent off close-out sale, or whether the boss decides to buy a new electronic sign for the front, then profit-sharing becomes less important because I have no say in how much profit there will be to be shared.”

Embrace Flexibility

The pandemic created tremendous upheaval in business throughout the world and made a huge difference in the ways that people think about work, especially in the desire for flexibility.

During the pandemic, employees had the chance to work from home, where they had flexible hours that allowed them to pursue education online while working, care for children or elderly parents, or even exercise on a regular schedule. Companies got creative about ways employees could work off-site, and that has changed the way people think about remote work.

“People keep thinking, it’s really just the knowledge workers who were able to work from home all these years,” says Keswin. “But what I have seen, even in industries where people do need to work in person, there really has been a shift.”

Companies need to be creative in finding ways to allow their employees to work off-site, even if it’s only on an as needed or part-time basis.

With some care and creativity, jewelry industry managers can accommodate someone’s need to work from home, even if only on a part time or as necessary basis. A bookkeeper could log into the business system from a home office. Bench jewelers or CAD designers with their own set ups could work in home shops. Your top salesperson might make her prospecting calls or connect with existing customers, update her sales records, and send e-mails from home at times when her child is sick. In manufacturing, someone who needs to be home to care for a failing parent, might work three long shifts in order to have a couple extra days off. Keswin points out there are apps in use in the restaurant industry that allow workers to switch shifts, giving them the ability to plan for family events or emergencies without having to use sick time that might leave the company short-handed.

While some jobs may not lend themselves to working at home, some organizations, says Smith, think that if we can’t do it for everybody, we can’t do it for anybody. “Which is nonsense,” he says. “If somebody would prefer to spend a day working off-site, and it can be done, I don’t see any reason why we ought not to be accommodating that.”

Schedule Regular Check-Ins

Communication and support are vital to good management. That means paying attention to what employees are doing and coaching and correcting—and praising—when necessary. How might a sale have been closed? What behavior has caused a possible security issue? What is going on in an employee’s life that might be causing their work to fall off? What ideas does an employee have that might improve the way they track inventory? What kinds of training or experiences might put new life into an employee’s desire to stay with you?

These conversations with employees should be frequent, say both Smith and Peterson, not once a year, or even once a quarter, but every month. “If you schedule a 30-minute meeting with every employee once a month,” says Peterson, “a lot of the communication issues go away.”

Talks with employees can take place in a manager’s office, but they could be “as simple as, ‘Let’s go for coffee out of the store,’” says Smith. “It doesn’t always have to be, ‘What are your career goals and aspirations?’” he adds. “It’s just checking in on a fairly regular basis, in a formal way.” You want to get a sense of what’s going on with the employee, what is affecting their work. You don’t want to wait months—or even years—or until the day the employee hands in notice, essentially saying, says Smith, “I’m going to leave because you don’t give a hoot. And you show me you don’t give a hoot by just not making the time for me.”

Connect with Employees

Another thing managers need to be aware of is the shift in the attitude toward work which began with Millennials but has become even more important among Gen Zers. “Younger people coming into the workplace want something more than just a paycheck,” says Keswin. “They want to feel connected to purpose, to something bigger.” She tells a story about John F. Kennedy, while in a hospital, asking the janitor what his job was. The janitor told him, “I save lives,” because the cleaner the hospital, the safer it is, the greater the chance the patient will go home.

Managers should schedule monthly check-ins with employees to review their performance as well as to learn about an employee’s ideas for changes or improvements.

In the jewelry industry, someone making or selling wedding rings are “participating in what might be the best moment in someone’s life,” says Keswin. Someone repairing, restoring, or restyling an heirloom or another cherished piece of jewelry is helping keep memories safe.

Making these kinds of connections, says Keswin, “is not rocket science. But if you’re not really intentional about making them, it’s not going to happen.” And the people responsible for making those connections, and reiterating them regularly, are the business’s management team.

Turn Over the Management Reins

If this sounds overwhelming for a small business owner, it is, says Peterson. That’s because most small business owners, on hearing the word “manager” immediately think “me.” However, says Peterson, “effective management is much more hands-on than what most business owners can do directly.”

Business owners typically have a lot more to do than handle day-to-day operations. They are marketing, dealing with the care of the physical plant, growing the business, making equipment purchasing decisions, managing cash flow, and so on. They can’t be on the sales floor, in the warehouse, on the manufacturing floor, or in the inventory room all at once. This is why any business employing more than 10 people needs a manager, says Peterson. “The failure to put someone in charge of handling people on a day-to-day basis,” she says, “is often what creates problems.”

“The manager is really on the front lines with all of the entry-level people that are interacting with the customers,” says Keswin. It’s the managers who are responsible for the monthly conversations, for being alert to an employee who is unhappy and thinking of moving on, for helping employees see their larger purpose, for being creative in giving employees agency. “Sadly,” she says, “many of them haven’t really been trained to do it.”

Just as running a business or selling jewelry demand certain skill sets, managing people requires another set of skills. The manager needs to be hands-on, working with people, mentoring them, encouraging them, every day. The business owner can’t do what she has to do and stay on top of employee issues as well.

One mistake many companies make is to take their best salespeople and promote them to a manager’s position. “That’s the biggest recipe for disaster, at least on the retail side,” says Peterson. “You ruin a good salesperson, and you create a maybe moderately effective manager, probably mediocre at best. Then you wonder why they don’t succeed.”

Attracting and retaining good workers isn’t rocket science. In fact, the recipe is pretty simple. Treat people fairly and consistently, starting with an employee manual and solid job descriptions, equal pay, and benefits. Follow that with consistent and frequent training in a career that has potential for growth. Top it off with well-trained and skilled managers who listen to and value employees, and the chances are good you’ll have a strong, powerful staff that stays with you for the long term.