Lots of blogs on retaining tenants.. Have there been good posts on retaining employees?

Question

Hi BP community..

I get the BP Blog alerts so I'm usually pretty current on the topics that bloggers are writing about.

I've seen some great articles on landlords retaining tenants. I just read a good one featuring 6 Tips that was written by Elizabeth and Matt Faircloth.

I haven't seen, that I can remember, articles on growing your business from a retaining employees standpoint.

@J Scott did a podcast with @Joe Fairless where he talked about his strategy for keeping his General Contractor or Project Manager happy by starting with an end (salary) in mind and then working backwards and providing a base salary + % of the profits.

Anybody else have great ideas or strategies for keeping key, long-term employees happy and wanting to work with you?

Particularly dealing with salary issues / incentives.

Feel free to PM me, too, if you don't want to post publicly.

As always, thank you to the BP community.

Robert Blanchard · Answer

Has anyone ever considered offering profit sharing or bonuses to your key employees tied to your companies revenues or profits.

It could be in the form of a bonus if your RE Business meets or exceeds its goals for a period of time.  In the long run, you will be making more income even after paying the bonus if your employees really work hard and help you break all of your goals.

Some employees will only work for you until they gain enough knowledge to go out on their own.  This makes it harder to retain them but you could offer a partnership of sorts once they "outgrow" their current position.  You could mentor them to help them become successful in exchange for a percentage of their deals.

Sometimes it is hard to know what type of compensation package is correct for a certain employee, but if you go to glassdoor.com, that website lists salaries for different positions at different companies.

During your annual performance review with your employees, you can ask them what they would change about their job to make it better for them.  Sometimes it is flex time if they have younger children at home.  You could even ask them what they think that their hourly or salary should be.  If they come up with a number much higher than what they are currently being paid, you can ask them why they think it should be that much higher and then explain that that number is not possible but this number is.

I do not have any employees but have been in the work force for close to 30 years.

William Pesce · Answer

I just had somebody ask me this the other day and my reply was that you have to treat people really good and don't act like they are your employees but instead treat them as part of your team. I know it sounds basic but it really is the truth that when I treat people how I want to be treated they work harder and better for me in return. It doesn't always have to be about paying the most money either it could be buying lunch for them or most importantly talking to them like they are a teammate as opposed to an employee. Ask them there opinions and let them be a part of the decision making process even if you don't do what they recommend they will feel like they are contributing to the overall success of a project. In my opinion too many people want to be "in charge" and they lose out on a very powerful asset they have right in front of them which is there employees

Daniel Ryu · Answer

@Robert Blanchard

Great tip on glassdoor.com - I'll check that out in the future.

I also like the idea of asking employees what they want.

Hopefully we get more answers about bonuses and incentives.

And @Elizabeth Faircloth

has written a few articles on team building which she was kind enough to point me to:

Team

http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2014/07/25...

First Hire

http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2015/02/06/guide-hire-first-team-member/

Daniel Ryu · Answer

@William Pesce

Great insights. I totally agree.

I'm also wondering, for people who do financial analysis, do they just pencil in a 3% annual increase as part of their overall budgeting and planning?

It seems like that's one way to go.. but since real estate is so filled with go-getters and entrepreneurial types, I wonder what other incentive strategies people have employed and how effective they've been.

I would consider: empowering employees, giving them autonomy, having a purpose, clear goals, great culture, etc, to be great strategies.. but after a certain number of years, won't people need a more money to keep up with cost of living? And how is that decided? How are real estate entrepreneurs aligning incentives financially?

Lots of blogs on retaining tenants.. Have there been good posts on retaining employees?

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