Many Bridges Out of Poverty certified trainers have asked about using the Bridges constructs in the business sector. Workplace Stability, a new release from aha! Process, shares strategies businesses can use to provide low-cost employee benefits and build corporate stability. Susan Chrisman, a McDonald’s franchisee with multiple locations, calls it “very helpful, with tools that are all easy to use and understand.”
On-site economic diversity training is also available, and an online training will debut in December. Response so far has been positive, and program creator Ruth Weirich was recently featured in the newsletter of the NAWDP.
Employee turnover costs businesses money. Each employee who leaves the workplace takes along thousands of dollars in lost profitability and leaves the business to pay the cost of finding and training a replacement. But when low-wage employees’ lives are unpredictable and unstable, it is unlikely that they will stay with one company for long.
Don’t accept high turnover in low-wage positions as an inevitable line item. Trim your budget while stabilizing the lives of your most vulnerable employees with a few simple supports. If you think “cost prohibitive” when you hear the phrase “employee benefits,” business consultant Ruth Weirich will help you discover small, low-cost ways to make a big, high-impact difference.
How often do your hourly employees miss work because of an “emergency” that wouldn’t be such a crisis if employees had better access to more resources? Employee benefits for low-wage workers don’t often include childcare and eldercare solutions, on-site healthcare clinic days, or small dollar loan programs—but when they do, productivity and profits increase.
By leveraging partnerships with social service providers, financial institutions, and like-minded businesses in the community, you’ll create a network of support that allows your employees to be at work, on time, all the time. The best part? Reduced stress outside of work means your employees will be more productive than ever before.
Instability is another measure of diversity in your workforce. Low-income environments are a major contributor, and low-wage employees often experience the “tyranny of the moment” brought on by problems with resources like transportation, healthcare, childcare or eldercare, housing, language or communication, or managing financial or legal matters. It might be one of these, or it might be “all of the above.”
Not your problem, you might say, and you may be right—you’re in business to make money. But creating workplace stability by helping your employees build resources makes business sense. Employee instability creates business instability and eats away at the bottom line. Learn simple, inexpensive solutions you can implement to help stabilize your employees’ lives—and boost your profitability and competitive advantage.
Participants in the Workplace Stability professional development training will explore a breakdown of the cost of employee attrition—as high as $11,000 per lost employee for some businesses—before moving on to best practices that boost employee retention. From improved recruiting and onboarding processes to promoting valuable employees from within, Workplace Stability covers every stage of the employee life cycle.
Participants learn to:
- Recognize the range of factors that create instability for employees
- Understand the connection between instability, employee performance, and profitability
- Identify the most effective techniques and tactics for increasing workplace stability
- Create an action plan best suited to your business and its culture and employees
- Network with other business interests to share resources, training, and more
The 88-page Workplace Stability training supplement makes it easy for management and human resources personnel to take the ideas away from the training. Ample note-taking space encourages adaptation and innovation to tailor the strategies to the needs of your employees.
Weirich’s article “Workplace Stability for Employee Retention and Performance” serves as an overview of the workshop for potential clients. A recording of Weirich’s popular webinar on the business cost of employee instability is also available.
