Attracting and retaining top talent remains a challenge for almost every kitchen and bath showroom. While most showrooms understand the need to recognize their team members, recognition has become increasingly difficult especially for businesses with hybrid work schedules. Reflective recognition is a new technique to provide a well-deserved pat on the back to outstanding efforts, performance and individuals.
The Great Resignation wrecked havoc on compensation and benefits for many kitchen and bath showrooms and design build businesses and just about every other industry, making it difficult to attract and retain top talent at all levels. Wal-Mart, McDonalds, Bank of America and others offered pay scales and benefits that most small and medium-sized businesses could not match, making it even more difficult attract and retain team members.
What does it take for a kitchen and bath showroom to go from good to great? You may believe that you need the best designers, a great marketing strategy, best-in-class production and exclusive product offerings. To be successful, those qualities are necessary, but they are not exclusive to one showroom versus another. Many showrooms have similar qualities and traits. The difference between a good showroom and a great showroom is how your team feels about working there. How many businesses do you know that their team members are only there to collect a paycheck versus making a difference?
Have you noticed that many extremely successful, high-profile, high-net worth people are not particularly happy. Lady Gaga sent her fans into a frenzy after she claimed that “fame is prison.” If money and fame can’t make you happy, what can? That’s a question that best-selling author and New York Times columnist Arthur C. Brooks answers in his new book From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life.” Don’t let the subtitle mislead you. The book offers guidance to anyone regardless of age.
At the recent 2022 BKBG Conference, it was impressive to observe how the Gaylord National staff approached their jobs. An elderly team member who struggled to bend his knees, nonetheless, bent over multiple times in a short time period to pick up scraps of paper and trash. The housekeeping staff would say hello to every guest who passed by in the hallway with a smile and a warm greeting. The catering staff took extra care to remove dirty dishes promptly and quietly as to not to interrupt the program that was taking place. It was an impressive performance because everyone seemed to care about how the property looked, was maintained and functioned.
Marketing gurus have been telling us to produce great content. The problem is that many experts took that advice and are producing great content. They are producing so much content most people are in sensory overload and don’t want any more. Smarter brands have moved from content production to true storytelling. The difference between the two is that prospective residents and customers use their own imagery and imagination to visual the message. Simply producing content does not provide the same opportunity. Content is the byproduct of the content producer and does not really involve the audience. Content is designed to be absorbed whereas stories are collaborative efforts between the teller and the audience.
Management consultant Del Poling is a genius. Poling uses the term 4-year-old behavior or passive dependence to describe those who don’t and won’t take responsibility for their actions or always blame others if something goes wrong. Del liked to point out that if you walked into a room and found a cup of juice was spilled and the only person in the room is a four-year-old, typically the child would respond to the question, “who spilled the juice,” by saying “I don’t know.”
The oldest of the Millennial Generation has just turned 41. This group, contrary to popular belief, is not debt ridden, unemployed and feeling entitled. The Wall Street Journal found that Millennials have fewer credit cards than the national average and the debt on cards that Millennials do have is 40% less than the national average. Another Millennial misnomer is that they don't want to own a home. According to the National Association of Realtors, Millennials now account for 43% of all homebuyers.
I recently celebrated a milestone birthday that caused me to reflect on a lot of things, especially what I do every day and to ask if what we do makes a difference and if so, what difference do we make? I tell our team all the time, that our goal is to make members feel good about their industry, their profession and their BKBG participation. Is that difference making?
Providing meaningful work is one of the new buzz phrases becoming increasing popular in blogs and management consulting. And for good reason. Most people spend most of their waking hours at work or thinking about what they do for a living. Research and common sense show that individuals who derive a sense of purpose and personal fulfillment from what they do are more likely to be successful, healthier and happier. For years, many owners have lamented the fact that showroom staff might not view their positions as a career. Their impression is that whether they are a consultant or customer service representative, what they do is just a job that generates a paycheck.
