What do your employees mean to you?

Early in my career, I heard the statement “Your employees are your biggest asset.”  I spent many years of my work life trying to live by this mantra and instill this as a main point in helping to drive positive company culture.  However, several years ago, it became clear to me that if you think of and treat your employees as assets, you are doing them and your business a huge disservice.  The flaw in that thinking is, that from an economic standpoint, assets in most cases, depreciate over time. This thinking has led to an unconscious (at least I hope) trend of treating employees as commodities to be used up and then replaced. So, how should we think of our employees?  Employees should be your biggest investments.  If you make the correct investments, that value should increase over time.  As the value of your employees increases, your business should benefit from that knowledge and experience as well as their own sense of worth and value to the company.  This, in turn, will help drive a positive culture and employee retention.  Most employees don’t leave companies because of money or the product, they leave because they feel under-valued and under-appreciated.

What has been lost in our bottom-line business thinking is that employees who feel appreciated will be more motivated and more productive and will be less likely to return the message from the recruiters who call them.  Can you imagine the benefits of a happy, motivated employee base?

This does not mean that you continue to invest in all employees.  As any financial investor will tell you, sometimes you make the wrong choice.  If you purchase stock (invest) in a company and it is costing you money and you don’t see that changing in the foreseeable future, you cut your losses and move on.  You don’t wait until that investment has zero value, you get back what you can and write it off.  The same can be said for employees. Not every person you hire will add value to the company and in some cases a toxic employee will negatively impact the business and bring down the value of other employees.  Smart investors identify that early and cut their losses in order to invest in other entities which will, hopefully, have a more positive impact.

So, as I move onto the next chapter in my career, I will move forward with this in mind and try to help those that I work with to do the same.