The people problem every growing rental business faces

If you’re replacing your best people every year, that’s a retention problem, not a hiring problem.

Hi y’all,

Staffing good folks was the #1 complaint I heard about at ARA this year. But there’s more to finding and retaining top talent than just hiring the right person. So this week I’m unpacking the 4 tips that I heard about from some of Goodshuffle Pro’s strongest power users:

• Retention starts with pay. If you want to keep your best people, you gotta pay them like they’re your best people. Rather than thinking about that as an expense, think about it as an investment. Every time you bring back the same crew member, you’re saving yourself time: the process of interviewing, then hiring and the time to train them.
• Give people a reason to see a future with you. Even seasonal workers should feel like they’re growing year after year — getting trained on new tech, taking on more responsibility, leading a crew for the first time. The owners winning at retention are making it a place people want to come back to.
• When you’re hiring, screen for behavior, not just promises. One owner at ARA recruits Eagle Scouts for summer crew — folks already trained to work as a team with a strong work ethic. During the interview itself, set small tests: does the candidate show up at the exact time you said? Do they follow through on the follow-up? What someone does tells you way more than what they say.
• Build systems that set your crew up to succeed. Written SOPs, digital pull sheets with setup instructions, links to how-to videos — whatever it takes so someone can feel calm, feel smart, and know exactly what success looks like.

The last one is the one that business owners tend to say they did last, but wish they’d done sooner because once they did, they realized it was much easier to hold folks accountable.

Even in Goodshuffle’s growth journey, I realize more and more how important these systems are if we’re to get to where we want to go. Traversing new ground means we have to find time to reduce maintenance on what we’ve already built.

Your time and attention need to be on solving the next big challenge for your business; if you’re constantly stuck on reminding folks where to put away the propane tanks for the outdoor heaters, that climb is going to go far slower than it otherwise would.

So retain the folks you’ve got: build the systems that make it easy for them to know what to do so they can meet your expectations, invest in their growth so they become more valuable over time, and of course pay those folks like your business depends on them!

What’s your go-to move for keeping great people coming back? We’ll source and share replies!

See you next Monday,

Mallory Mullen

Goodshuffle