Problem: 

As every business owner knows, finding and retaining great employees is a constant challenge. A company is only as good as its team.

We struggled with this at KLAW Industries for years. Eventually, I believe we got it right. Our team's work ethic, attitude, and capabilities became something our customers and partners regularly complimented.

Building that team remains one of the proudest achievements of my professional career.

Solution: 

Our philosophy was simple: Become the obvious choice for ambitious young talent in our local community, set clear expectations, reward exceptional performance quickly, and fire poor fits even faster.

None of these ideas are original, but executing them requires consistent leadership and a willingness to make difficult decisions. I believe that discomfort is precisely why so few companies do it well.

The Philosophy We Built

1) Build a pipeline - Great people are out there; you just need to find them. We invested meaningful time into building relationships with universities and trade schools within an hour of our factory.

Most importantly, we built relationships with instructors. They know which students are hardworking, capable, and eager to learn, giving us access to promising talent before they entered the broader job market.

2) Pay Well- We realized that paying $21/hour for an exceptional graduate from a local trade program was far less expensive than paying $18/hour for someone who required constant managment attention. We applied this philosophy across the company, offering competitive pay while making it clear that we expected exceptional performance in return.

3) Set Expectations- People can only meet your expectations if they understand your expectations. I worked to establish clear responsibilities, measurable goals, and performance metrics for each role. My goal was to make success obvious to both the employee and their manager, removing ambiguity around what good performance looked like.

4) Promote Quickly- When someone consistently exceeded expectations, we made sure they knew it. We started with public recognition and small bonuses, followed by substantial raises and greater responsibility when exceptional performance became a pattern. I wanted our best employees, and the people important to them (parents, spouses, friends, etc.), to see a clear and exciting future at KLAW. When people can see a real future for themselves at a company, they begin to invest in its success personally.

When I overheard an employee's girlfriend bragging to her friends about how he was moving up the ranks at KLAW, I knew we had succeeded.

5) Fire Even Faster- This was the hardest lesson to learn and, in my opinion, the most important.

When someone brings a positive attitude and genuinely tries their best but struggles to meet performance expectations, I believe the problem usually lies with leadership. It's our responsibility to provide better training, clearer direction, and the tools needed to succeed.

However, when someone consistently brings a negative attitude, refuses to take ownership, or simply isn't willing to give their best effort, leadership has a responsibility to act quickly and decisively.

I have come to believe that keeping the wrong people is poison to an exceptional culture. Leaders often think they're being kind or patient by giving someone another chance, but in reality, they're doing a disservice to the rest of the team by avoiding a difficult decision.

One reasonable objection is that you still need someone to fill the position. This is exactly why building a strong recruiting pipeline and paying well are so important. They give leadership the flexibility to make difficult personnel decisions without putting the rest of the team in a bad position.