Page 25 - CMA PROfiles Fall 2019

Building the
future

RETAINING EMPLOYEES

BY CARLA ATKINSON

Let’s imagine a perfect staffing employees on average, and we had A little background: People tend
scenario. You’ve found stellar job about an 80 percent turnover rate,” to focus their complaints on
candidates (some have relevant skills he says. “It was brutal – one of the “Millennials,” not realizing that the
and experience, and others show worst scenarios you could possibly millennial generation is usually
great promise and enthusiasm). have. After changing our mindset and considered to be those who were
You’ve convinced them to join your approach, we now have 60 employees born between 1977 and 1995. Young
team. You’ve gotten them up to and a 2 percent turnover rate.” people currently coming out of
speed, and they’re doing a great job. APPRECIATING YOUNG PEOPLE high school and college and into the
Now you celebrate. workforce belong to Generation
Inova’s leadership turned things Z, those born in 1996 and after.
Well, yes and no. around by focusing on the company’s (Different sources might peg slightly

Getting stellar employees in place is employee experience and being open- varied starting and ending years, but
exciting, but it’s just the beginning. minded about the job candidates these are good ballpark estimates.)
who came their way. That has meant
“You’ve got to create an environment putting effort into understanding the “People are still stuck on the
that makes a person want to stay,” way employees think and what 1970s/80s approach, thinking that
says Inova COO Guy Bucey. employees just want to come in and
their hopes and goals are; grasping do 30 years at a company, content
the mindset of young people is a big with punching the clock and going
part of that. home,” Bucey says.
Guy Bucey has strong opinions “The biggest thing we're battling
about the topic of young people in with the newer generations is the
the workforce — in short, he is fed expectation of instant gratification,”
up with all of the talk about how he says. “The thing that sets this
impossible it is to deal with young generation apart from others is the
people today. fact that they want to continually
“The word is that this new generation be taught new things and see
doesn’t want to work, and they're all improvements. That is the one real
lazy,” he says. “But that isn't the case. thing in all of the assumptions people
When Bucey began working for There are lazy, unmotivated people in make about young people.”
Inova in 2011, the company “had 12 every single generation." The mindset of the 1980s was,

24 PROFILES FALL 2019