Employee Retention and Attraction, the new paradigm

The challenges that keep our clients up at night are employee retention and attracting great employees. At WorkRocket we have the advantage of learning about and from the culture of thousands of companies. Our clients range from small businesses to large global organizations.  We engage clients with questions such as “What is working at your company?”  Most companies answer this question by talking about their employees and their great “corporate culture”. Too often we hear the cliché “Our people are our greatest asset”.  The reality is that they are not. The sooner companies understand this fact the better.

The business definition, is that an asset is an economic resource. Anything tangible or intangible that can be owned or controlled to produce value and that is held by a company to produce positive economic value is an asset. Assets fall into two major asset classes: tangible and intangible. Tangible assets are objects such as inventory, buildings and equipment. Intangible assets include goodwill, copyrights, trademarks, patents, computer programs, accounts receivable, bonds and stock. People are not assets. What is true is that some intangible assets exist because of people. Because of the minds, imaginations and physical efforts of current and past employees.

It’s interesting to note that for most companies today over 80 percent of their value is in their intangible assets and in most cases those intangible assets were created by, that’s right, people. So the next time someone inside your company starts to say, “Our employees are our greatest asset” think about what they are saying. Employees cannot be owned, taxed, depreciated, or disposed of as machines or other tangible assets. So don’t classify them as such.

Your employees are, when you think about it, investors. Your employees freely choose to work for you and do so as long as they get what they perceive to be a fair return on the investment of their time. The next time you are faced with employee retention issues or attracting top talent, take a minute to ask yourself this question. “Why would someone invest their life in our company?”

Want to find out more about how WorkRocket can help your organization attract and retain top talent? Drop me line at Paul@workrocket.com or call me at 804-332-6396