INTRODUCTION

People, people, people.

Attracting and retaining great people is becoming more difficult. This has become both a challenge and a risk for the growth of businesses. According to the 2024 edition of the KPMG report 'Keeping us up at night', one of the top issues right now for most businesses in Australia is how to find the right people, retain them and get them to perform the right tasks well.

People discovered during the pandemic that they have more career options than they might have thought. Working from home and virtual working models became the norm, and the demand for skilled people began to outstrip supply. There is a high degree of burnout in many industries as people's resilience has eroded away. And throughout and following the pandemic, the world has witnessed a 'Great Resignation' period, where millions of people started to quit their jobs.

As a result, attracting and retaining great people has become stressful and expensive for many businesses. The cost of bringing a new hire from the hiring stage through to delivering a high-performance output can be up to five times their salary, depending on your industry. This is extremely high and for many businesses can make or break your business.

Your people can be either assets or liabilities

At some point in your life, you made a decision to step into being a business leader or owner.

You may have yearned for more freedom, more influence, better systems, better marketing, better leadership and better management of what should be your biggest asset - your people.

Many businesses believe that people are their number one asset. You might also share that belief. In my experience, however, people can be either your biggest asset or your biggest liability.

You may have some people without whom you cannot run your business or manage your people. Some people jump on problems straight away and, in some instances, they may even be able to predict that a problem is arising. They are eager to fix the issue as quickly as possible so that your business can run faster and better. These people are your assets.

And there are others who you may wish just weren't there as they cause you more work than they produce. These people may have the skills to solve a problem, but they may be reluctant to fix the problem. They want to blame others for why the problem exists in the first place, blame the system, or even blame you as the business leader or owner. These people are your liabilities.

When people do the right things, are motivated to work hard and are passionate about the work they do, these people are your assets. They are the people that you love working with. They are the ones that you hope will stay in your business forever. But when the challenging, noisy people that are liabilities are in full force, it can cause you stress and maybe even sleepless nights. I know. I have had them!

You may ask yourself, 'Surely this is not the same person that I interviewed only a few months ago?' And then you start to develop headaches when dealing with them and wonder how to manage them out of your business and your life.

This book is designed for business leaders and owners of small to medium-sized businesses who want to have more people that are assets and less people that are liabilities.

Growing your business through early challenges

As your business starts to grow, there are all sorts of problems to solve. These issues may arise daily. You may find that you are working harder than ever before while trying to motivate the people in the business. Some of these people take up your energy and consume more time in your diary than they give.

And sometimes, when are you are hiring people and trying to attract them into your business, you feel desperate, especially if you don't have many options due to the candidates that have applied. You are happy to hire anyone, as long as they have a pulse!

As your business grows, people management is a typical growth pain point for business leaders and business owners, but without overcoming this challenge you cannot scale to the next level of growth.

I have found myself in this position many times over the last 20 years. At times, I have not been able to find the right person or, when I did, they left because my retention strategy did not work (or, to be honest, I didn't have one at the time).

Sometimes you may wonder if you made the right choice stepping into the role of being a business leader or owning a business. Then the thought of having lots of bosses crosses your mind and you reconnect to why you took this path in the first place. So, you put these thoughts aside and then refocus and, once again, you are 'head down' solving these people problems so your business can grow.

To grow successfully, you need the right people in the right jobs doing the right things at the right time to ensure that your business needs are being met.

Consider this example. You find yourself pacing your lounge room and kitchen. You look at the clock and it is 3am. You've been up for at least two hours already. You are feeling stressed and don't know how to slow down your mind, which is racing through all sorts of scenarios because you think you are about to lose John and Amanda from your business. This repeated thought alone gets your heart rate up.

They are both key leaders and have grown with you and the business. They are dedicated, highly engaged and productive. Well, at least that is what you thought.

John came into your office four days ago and announced to you sheepishly that he has been offered a better job with more money. He says he is thinking of taking it because he has been with you for five years now and perhaps it is time for a change. You are disappointed, although you are trying not to alienate him with your disappointment as you absorb the news. You thought John was going to be there forever and had plans for him taking on more. And he had not indicated that he was unhappy at any stage, or that he was thinking of leaving.

Amanda, on the other hand, has not been fully present at work for a few weeks now. She has been doing all the tasks but her normal high levels of energy have been missing. She says it has nothing to do with work and that her home is stressful at present. You know her partner works in a high-paying job and earns more than her, and they are also raising two young children while managing their careers.

You have asked her several times if she needs anything, and she always says she will let you know if she does. She says her husband has suggested she could cut down her days at work to make more time for raising their family, but she is not sure she wants to do that. You have thought about letting her work four days a week instead of five if she requests it. What if she wants to quit? She runs most of the operations and is your right-hand person.

And what if they both leave within the next two weeks, which is the notice they have to give? You find yourself thinking your contract is not right. You need a year's notice to replace people like John and Amanda, which seems impossible anyway.

The business you have worked so hard to build is based on the foundation of people like John and Amanda. If they both left, it would take you months or maybe years to get other people trained to the same skill level and with the same attitude.

You find yourself wondering, 'Is there something I'm missing?' 'Have I missed the signs?' 'Did I forget to love my best people?' 'Why did I not create a succession plan?'

You realise that in the last few months, you have regained your family and work balance, but if John and Amanda leave you may go back to doing the things you thought you had finally delegated. Your partner and kids see more of you now, but what if that changes as a result of this sudden shift in your business?

Your head is still spinning. You have a big day tomorrow, with key meetings, although you aren't sure how to get yourself back to sleep .

Can you relate to any of these thoughts? I have found myself in this situation many times, and this is the reason I wanted to write this book.

Not every idea I share will work for your people or your business - and some you may have already implemented. So, I am going to offer you a variety of ideas, actions and models to try, which you can review so you can decide which ones you want to implement.

How to use this book

In this book, I want to share with you 7 simple strategies that may help you attract and retain great people, and to develop people that can step up.

Each chapter has a number of suggested actions you may want to implement to improve the people you hire and retain. As you are reading through the suggested actions, I suggest that you focus on one action per chapter at first. If you are experiencing overwhelm, then just pick one action to implement from the book and see where that takes you. My goal for any book I read is that I get a minimum of one good idea that I can use in my business, family or personal life, and I apply it straight away. That is my intention for you as the reader of this book.

This book is practical. I share what I have done when it comes to attracting and retaining people, and getting people to step up. I will be honest about what has worked for me and what has not; what I did that worked and where I failed (sometimes miserably!). I am going to be vulnerable,...