A lot.
The surge of companies offloading the ‘clunkers’ from their most important asset, employees, is a primary driver for our recession. Other terms used are right-sizing, down-sizing, re-aligning....layoffs.
If you could offload the clunkers among your employees and receive $4500 for a newer, more efficient, employee...would you?
What if you’d invested in that employee’s training?
What if you’d invested in incentives that were:
A. meaningful to them;
B. rewarded behaviors meaningful to their company’s goals?
What if this clunker, as you call them, understood the purpose of their company and their role in fulfilling it?
What if you understood their purpose in spending the majority of their waking hours with you, everyone else, at work? Was it to pay for their mortgage, their kids education, their alimony, a new car, their parents healthcare costs, their own? Do you know?
What if they knew you knew?
Would they be a clunker?
What if you answered yes to every question, but the previous one. Would they be a clunker? Probably not. Neither would your brand, I bet.
Tony Hsieh, CEO for Zappos, decided to pay new employees $1000 to leave. Right after they finished their training Zappos would offer them $1000 to leave. If they didn’t want to be part of Zappos, didn’t buy into its culture and the required commitment...here’s $1000. See ya. Thanks for stopping by.
Think about it. Would your employees take $1000 to leave your company? Would they take $10,000? If they say yes to either then you have a problem.They think their company is a clunker.
And they might trade you in for cash. They WILL trade you in for cash. You, your leadership. You're a clunker because you failed them by not recognizing their talents, their dreams, their goals. And how closely they mesh with yours, if you'd let them.
Eventually, companies will start hiring. And talent, human assets, will be recognized correctly as a brand’s ultimate differentiator. Hiring bonuses and big pay days will resume for more than Goldman Sachs’ bankers. And they’ll take that cash and trade in their clunker. Just like you would and maybe did.
Luckily, you have some time. You have some time to invest in your employees. Invest in their training, their healthcare, their health. Invest in ways to showcase their strengths. Their strengths on display are your brand's strengths on display. Talk with them. Find out who they are. What are their dreams? How can you help them achieve those dreams? Where do your dreams and goals overlap? Where do their talents shine in areas where you lack talents. And vice versa?
Now's the time. The Cash for Clunkers program has proved very popular
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