How To Dramatically Increase Company Morale

Recently, I’ve set a goal of reading two books per month.

It’s been going really well, and I feel like I’ve been learning a ton!

Last month, I read a book that was really impactful called The Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly.

You know, I’ve been in the process of really scaling my company and growing my team, and this book completely changed the way I relate to and interact with my staff.

How One Company Solved a Massive Turnover Problem

The book tells this intriguing story about a janitorial company that had a massive turnover problem. I know firsthand how time-consuming and expensive having to train employees is, so this really related to me.

The top executives of this company were looking at their turnover problem, and they wanted to figure out how to retain their employees for at least three years.

So they began thinking about the aspirations of their lower-level staff.

“Do cleaners and janitors have dreams?” they wondered amongst themselves.

Their hypothesis was that if they did, and if they as a company could help their employees reach those dreams, the employees wouldn’t end up leaving so quickly.

So they ended up hiring this role within the company called the “dream manager,” who was solely dedicated to serving this hypothesis. He would routinely sit down with all the employees and first discover their dreams, and then he’d come up with a plan for achieving them.

A lot of the employees’ dreams were to become first-time homeowners, but where they’d run into problems was with bad credit, so the company ended up creating an entire credit management program just to help employees get qualified for a loan.

The impact this had on the company was unreal!

A Complete Shift in Morale

Once the employees knew that the company they worked for had interest in them and their aspirations, let alone that they would go to great lengths to help them achieve those aspirations, it completely changed the morale of the company.

People began to take a personal pride in the company, and productivity went through the roof.

The company reached a record low employee retention rate.

It was truly incredible!

This got me thinking a lot about my team, and even writing this today, I get the overwhelming desire to structure something like this in my business.

Since reading this book, every week I’ve tried to meet with someone on my team one-on-one in order to discuss their dreams and aspirations, and I’ve already begun to see the impact.

Today, I wanted to share the story of this book to encourage you on two different fronts:

1. For Newbies

If you are brand new to real estate investing, maybe hiring a team seems too far fetched for you to even think about.

But what about you? What dreams do you have? How can your business be used to achieve your dreams?

I’d encourage you to sit down at least once a month and revisit your dreams and to keep track of your game plan on using your business to reach your personal aspirations.

If you do this, you’ll end up finding yourself living a dream you could’ve only imagined before.

2. For Established Real Estate Investors

For those of you who are in my boat and are in the process of scaling (or even just thinking about scaling), take this to heart: Invest in the dreams and aspirations of your employees.

Develop a culture in your company where you as the leader have a heart to invest into the lives of those following you. That way, they will feel like they belong, and they will be able to clearly see how your company can be the vehicle to accomplishing their personal life goals.

That way, they won’t leave, and they’ll be more likely to serve your company with their best foot forward.

I guess this post can be summed up as this: If you care about your people and they know it, then they in return will care about you and your company.

We are no longer in the days where people will be happy just showing up, doing their job, and going home. Especially with the Millennial generation, the next wave of the work force needs to know what they’re doing matters and that you care about them individually.

They want to be known as team members and not just numbers on a pay roster. If you want your company to thrive, you need to invest and recruit A-players, and if you do that well, your company will become something so amazing that you can’t even put words to it.

I know that today’s post was short, but I hope this impacted you as much as it did me.

Do any of you have some business or scaling tips that would be worth sharing?

Let me know in the comments section!

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.