Happy Employees = Happy Customers

A robust compensation and benefits plan makes employees “feel secure in their choice of working here,” said Ashley Morrison, City Wide Exterminating, Charlotte, N.C.

It’s “a great reason why our employee retention has been 88 percent-plus for the past five years,” noted Phil Cooper of Cooper Pest Solutions. He expects to reach 91 percent this year.

“The employees are the company,” reminded Brad Parker, Parker Pest Control, where the average employee tenure is 11.5 years. “If you’ve got great employees, you’re a great company. If you don’t, you’re not, so you do your best to hire the best ones you can and you do anything and everything you can to keep them,” he said.

When you have well-compensated and appreciated employees, they tend to work harder, sometimes smarter, for both the employer and their customers,” added Morrison. “When they’re happy it tends to show and it tends to pass along to the customers.”

Some customers have been with Leupitz Pest Control for 25 years “in part because we’ve had consistency with our staff,” said Mike Hanscom. Cooper said his service retention rate aligns closely with his employee retention rate.

Given the challenges of hiring quality people, it’s a good idea to remind employees of the value of their compensation packages. Each year, Cooper Pest Solutions gives workers a total earnings summary that lists everything from their wages and incentives to the company’s medical insurance contribution to the value of sports tickets, company car, training programs and clothing.

This way, employees know what they’re potentially walking away from, said Cooper.