Scottsdale, AZ, Sept. 28, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --
By Alexis Short
Vice President of Human Resources, Concord Servicing Corporation
To get and keep the best employees in the new now, employers must look back in time to embrace the traditions of truthtelling, transparency and a total commitment to empowering and engaging their workforces.
Sincerity is king. While details of empowering and engaging workforces in an increasingly complicated world is a full-time task, the basics are simple and straightforward: Be straight with—and do right by—your workforce. Do it consistently. And build upon successful experiences to propagate the positive process.
This needs to be a two-way street, or dissatisfaction on one side or the other will lead to turnover. Employees must reciprocate with straight talk and performance that do right by the employer.
By establishing and talking through these core values at the outset, candidates and company decision-makers can establish how good a fit exists and move on to the next steps—whatever they may be.
By staying true to this plan, companies and candidates alike can quickly get past the awkward initial meeting chatter, and get down to business.
While large businesses are now talking the talk about all this, and are professing enlightenment in treatment of employees, smaller companies remain the backbone of this nation’s commerce platform and employ the lion’s share of people. So, it’s up to us to move the mantle of employee engagement and empowerment forward.
Too often, companies of any size (particularly smaller ones) feel like they need to sidestep this process. Some just don’t want to go the extra mile to find and keep the best people. Typically, they find out the hard way that the cost of continual rehiring and retraining far exceeds that of the investment to consistently hire and retain the right people.
How do we know all this? As a three-plus decades established loan servicing company, employee engagement and empowerment is part of our DNA. We knew from the outset that a committed, caring workforce is a chief cornerstone of growing the business.
We didn’t deploy some fancy, trendy employee hiring and development program to move the process along. Instead, we adopted—and adapted—policies and procedures that form the backbone of a healthy, solid family-oriented relationship, and infused them into our company.
Results have been employee loyalty, longevity and dedication to making the company perform at consistently high levels on behalf of clients, partners, and other stakeholders.
Here are the basics:
1. To get loyalty, give loyalty. Companies are currently competing fiercely for hires as the demand in many areas outstrips supply. This creates a natural tendency for candidates to be more demanding in negotiations on everything from salary to flex-time scheduling. While it’s important to provide competitive offers, candidates wanting the moon are likely poor loyalty choices. It’s one thing to advocate, it’s another to feel overly entitled. Aptitude and attitude must both pass muster. A highly-qualified candidate with an arrogant attitude is much more likely to jump ship without regard to loyalty to the company.
2. Encourage open-door communication in a safe, candid environment. This is one of the most enduring and important elements of a healthy family. Addressing the good and bad while encouraging improvement ideas that can be efficiently implemented is central to workplace health, and consequently company growth. This must be a central tenet of the C-Suite that permeates the organization. Regular standups to make sure this process becomes a habit, as well as leaving the door open for one-on-one discussions at any time, are both critical to success. That includes the executive team, which in a healthy company will make itself highly available for these discussions. In the end, productivity, morale and performance consistency all rely heavily on building what’s working, and looking constructively at problem-solving where needed.
3. Make the work environment fun as well as productive. Fun fuels success. We all need it, especially at a time when daily stressors are extremely high. While large companies offer a variety of sophisticated ways to have fun at work, any sized company can offer basics without having to invest huge sums. Lighthearted activities and events that acknowledge employees can be a simple as birthday, work anniversary, and weekly fun surveys and contests.
4. Establish and manage clear expectations from the get-go. Everyone must be clear on what’s expected, what isn’t acceptable, and the need for consistency and reliability across the board. This must be communicated starting with initial recruiting and interviews, and continue through all elements of company culture and performance.
5. Address both individual preferences and company culture. Many workplaces are multi-generational. Priorities and preferences vary depending on the candidate’s age, background, and socio-economic upbringing. For example, millennials tend to prefer working with a company that’s socially responsible and enlightened. So, efforts to conserve and preserve the environment can be a big part of a decision to work with a particular company. While companies are well-advised to determine and, where possible, meet expectations, it’s also important to maintain core cultural values. Where the two come into conflict, companies need to work to maintain a balance: Honor the overall company philosophy while addressing individual needs and wants.
Sincere systemic efforts to tell the truth, be transparent, and empower the workforce—with common sense as a guiding principle—will prove a pivotal make-or-break for employers looking to recruit and retain good people going forward.
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About Concord Servicing Corporation
Founded in 1988, Concord is a full-scope loan servicer delivering innovative, flexible, and scalable portfolio servicing solutions to meet the demands of loan originators and capital providers (and their customers) in a variety of asset classes—including home improvement, solar, energy efficiency, and vacation ownership. Three-plus decades and a positive reputation among existing clients and partners document the ability to handle new challenges efficiently, accurately, and completely. Concord's corporate headquarters and base of operations is in Scottsdale, AZ, with a regional office in Mexico City and a staff of 275+ professionals. Concord services 2 million+ consumer obligations, with a portfolio size of $7.7 billion ($2 billion+ is in asset-backed securitizations). In addition to primary loan servicing, Concord also serves as a master/backup servicer for approximately 110,000 loans with combined balances of $2.25 billion. www.concordservicing.com
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