Business owners know how challenging it is to hire great employees, let alone keep them, in such a competitive job market. Wise company leaders recognize the importance of maintaining a quality team with excellent hires who want to dedicate their careers to one company. However, hiring employees is both time-consuming and expensive, and a lost hire takes a toll on a company’s efforts and resources. So how does a company avoid losing good employees? Here, Mark Kelly, Safety Marking’s President and Founder, shares his experience with hiring and retaining top employees.
Mark Kelly knows from more than forty years of experience how vital it is for a business to keep top talent. Founded in 1973, Safety Marking Inc. is a leading company in the pavement marking industry. The average tenure of an employee at Safety Marking is 15+ years, with many now beyond 20 years. The pavement marking company recently celebrated Warren Thomas and his thirty-plus years of dedication as an employee to Safety Marking Inc. Below, Mark Kelly goes into greater detail on three clever ways businesses can keep the best employees it hires.
1. Care About Your New Hires
The way to attract and retain top talent is to know who you are hiring. During the interview, an employer should seek an individual whose personal goals align and support a company’s goals. That way, both the employee and business can grow together and feed into each other’s success progression.
2. Invest In Your Employees
Employee engagement and development are more important than ever in today’s job market. Studies have shown that employees who feel developed not only perform better but they stay with their companies longer, too. Safety Making Inc. continuously invests in its employees and encourages them to get additional certifications and training. It not only ensures engagement and helps with retention but promotes one of the most important values of Safety Marking Inc. – employee safety.
“Employees want to be treated like family and feel like their contributions matters.” – says Mark Kelly, Safety Marking’s President. “They also want to improve at their jobs and grow professionally, and we strive to provide these opportunities to our staff. We consistently develop training programs and offer qualifications because we believe that the more confident and capable we all are as individuals, the more effective our company will be as a whole.”
3. Never Let a Good Employee Feel Unnoticed
Safety Marking Inc. seeks out occasions to celebrate its employees. Warren Thomas was recently celebrated for his long-term employment of thirty years at the company. He said:
“I was lucky the day I walked into Safety Marking Inc. thirty years ago with little experience. Mark Kelly gave me a chance; he asked me if I wanted to learn something new. I have been learning ever since for thirty years and feel just as lucky today to be working for him as I did the day I walked into the Bridgeport headquarters.”
It is critical for companies to give their employees a platform to continually learn and develop and also to let their team members know that their work is appreciated.
About Safety Marking Inc. Safety Marking Inc. of Bridgeport is the pacesetting leader in the pavement marking industry. Mark Kelly started the company in 1973 as a small, family-owned striping business serving Fairfield County, Connecticut. With constant development came broader, more significant contracts and expansion. The company now offers eight major services with offices in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New York.
