My husband and I are having to re-do some of our landscaping due to a bitter winter climate and some ravenous deer. That process began yesterday and I was surprised by the amount of work accomplished despite the last minute changes “yours truly” requested.
No complaints, no whining, and cheerful workers giving me suggestions on the best flora to plant in my particular geographical region. I accepted, got them involved in the aesthetics and thanked all of them for most of their ideas.
I had a chat with the owner of our landscape company today and turns out we both used and use the same strategy to get “low-skilled” workers to do the job correctly:
- Don’t over hire. Pay the best employees a higher salary ( we paid 3x minimum wage) but expect more from them in terms of their responsibilities. This seemed to work- fewer employees, better salaries and more responsibility. I truly believe these latter two concepts are welcomed by those who want to get ahead.
- Thank you, thank you, thank you. Can’t say that enough!
- Openly admire and compliment them on their skills.
The company we hired understands this and their employees are all local and obviously English speaking natives. Whenever I hear that Americans “won’t do certain jobs,” I respond: “You are not running the personnel aspect of your business properly.”
In short, less (hiring) is more but paying well and providing opportunities for the ambitious to advance builds a company. 🙂
ST UnWoked & UnVaxxed! 
Liz, this idea could save America, if enough employers implement it.
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Thank you Judy. It’s so simple to implement, it’s annoying!
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P.S. I got this “radical” idea from driving down roads in the middle of construction that often took years to complete. I always noticed there was one person working and six standing around doing nothing. This infuriated me!
I kept wondering why the city couldn’t hire 3 workers instead of 7 and pay them higher wages to get the job done in a timely manner. This is so obviously a win-win for both parties…
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Liz, you’ve just described the building-blocks for a tight-knit family, a successful business, and a forward-looking country: Brava!
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I so agree with you. This crap about “jobs Americans won’t do”…all work is fulfilling nd satisfying if one is paid well AND given reinforcement (“Thank you!”)
I remember my daughter, about 3, once when our child-care/housekeeper was leaving for the evening. She said, mommy I’ve noticed you always say thank you to Ellen. I said, in Ellen’s hearing, just think how much she does for us, to make our lives nice! I’m very grateful to her!
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Big hit today! I asked workers this a.m. what kind of music they like (I have 1,000 CDS) and speakers outside and I was thrilled to hear them request Ed Sheeran. 🙂
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