From the Officer’s Desk: How to Keep Your Employees

EMS officers are constantly thinking of ways to improve the customer (patient) experience. Organizational leaders are routinely reminded that without customer support, the organization will face challenges to growth and sustainability.

It’s fair to say that our employees are as important—or even more so—than external customers, since without them we would not be able to deliver the expected service, or even exist. Officers responsible for a functional work unit or even the entire organization must ensure that their internal customers are not overlooked. They must be committed to delivering a positive experience to all employees.

In today’s labor market it’s not uncommon to read a fire/EMS or other professional journal or listen to conversations at fire and EMS stations—and even on social, print or TV media outlets—in which the topic is employee retention. No matter where you are or what business you’re in, you’ve likely heard of “The Great Resignation,” “The Big Quit,” or “The Great Reshuffle.”

But why do companies like Adobe, American Express, Intel, Lockheed Martin, and Microsoft have such high retention rates? By having strong leadership that focuses on the employee experience, they are organizations that employees love to work for.

How do you ensure high retention? First, get to the root cause of why employees leave. Second, identify the reasons why others stay with the organization up to retirement. Lastly, find out what you can do to retain your workforce and have them remain loyal to the organization throughout their career.

Why Do Some Employees Leave?

The question asked by many organizational leaders is “Why are employees leaving?” Is it for financial gains? Is it the long hours with periods of interrupted sleep and minimal downtime? The physical and emotional toll of the job?

As leaders, we must understand the organizational challenges of poor employee retention and why it’s important to get employee retention right. As vacancies grow, current employees will be requested to fill those open positions and at times face mandatory overtime, which leads to poor morale, a poor working culture, an ongoing impact to the organization’s salary line-item budget, and ultimately employee burnout—which may be the reason employees leave to begin with. There is no way to know every reason why an employee chooses to leave, but it’s critical to get in front of a poor employee retention cycle and address what works and what doesn’t.

Why Do Some Employees Stay?

There is always much discussion around the many reasons employees leave an organization, and most of the time the top answer is financially driven. Finances are important of course, but there is more to retaining employees.

A Harvard Business Review article titled “Why Employees Stay” by Vincent Flowers and Charles Hughes includes a study of the motivations why employees stay with an organization and how to encourage retention. Their findings clearly indicated that job satisfaction and company environment and culture were key in ensuring retention. How content are your employees? What climate do they face as it pertains to your organization’s environment and culture? It’s not just a single factor that ensures retention, but the positive experiences along an employee’s professional journey.

The employee experience is the employee’s journey, encompassing interactions with coworkers, work activities, building of professional relationships, work schedule flexibility, promotional opportunities and more. The employee experience begins pre-hire and continues through the time they retire or permanently separate from the organization.

The employee experience is different from employee engagement. Employee engagement is an emotional connection with the organization and the work performed. The employee experience is where leaders must ensure that job satisfaction and positive work culture is present along all phases of the journey.

The employee experience, consisting of ensuring job satisfaction and positive work culture, is fundamental to employee retention and employee loyalty. So how exactly does the employee experience help maximize employee retention and foster employee loyalty?

Employee Retention

The Flowers and Hughes article references that job satisfaction and company environment/culture are the major forces driving employee retention. Furthermore, according to Gallup, one-third of global employees agree that “The mission and purpose of my organization makes me feel my job is important.”

This is a direct link to job satisfaction. Gallup reports that when employees feel their job is important, the data shows 51% reduction in absenteeism, 64% reduction in safety incidents, and a 29% increase in quality.

As an EMS officer, you must ensure your employees have the tools they need to get the job done, have opportunities to promote and participate in a professional development program, offer input and feedback, know they will be taken care of when facing difficult times in and out of work, and feel confident that the organization’s leadership values them as individuals.

Fostering Loyalty

By investing in the employee experience, employees will see that the organization’s leaders are committed to their success. Acknowledge the employee’s work, demonstrate you care about your employees at work and out of work, seek ways to minimize their workload, and make every effort to ensure they are successful. Your employees may in turn demonstrate the same loyalty back to the organization. This commitment toward your employees will not only contribute to positive work culture but lead to job satisfaction and increase retention rates.

You won’t be able to keep everyone from leaving; however, knowing what employees expect at work will better position you as an organizational leader to improve employee retention. Officers and leaders must take a hard look at what their employees want from their organizations without compromising service delivery. By taking every step to ensure the employee experience encompasses job satisfaction and a positive working culture along the journey, your organization will benefit from positive retention rates, employee loyalty, and quality service delivery outcomes.

Orlando J. Dominguez, Jr., MBA, RPM, is assistant chief of EMS for Brevard County Fire Rescue in Rockledge, Florida. He has more than 30 years of EMS experience and has served as a firefighter-paramedic, flight paramedic, field training officer, EMS educator, and division chief. He hosts the EMS Officer Exchange podcast; has authored 2 books, including EMS Supervisor: Principles and Practice; and is a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. Follow him at @ems_officer.