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EP349 Why Great Employees Leave Even When You Pay Well · Profit With A Plan

• 0:00
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: the cloud…
• 0:09
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: What if… what if your best people are not leaving for more money? What if they're leaving because they can no longer see their future inside of their company?
• 0:21
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Many organizations try to resolve retention with better pay, stronger benefits, and more engagement, or even a nicer culture. But those things really don't matter.
• 0:32
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: There, Let me get my mouth to work. Okay, why did that look like that? Okay, hang on.
• 0:39
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You're good.
• 0:41
  David Alemian: Doesn't matter.
• 0:42
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I know. What if your best people are not leaving for more money? What if they're leaving because they can no longer see their future inside their company?
• 0:51
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Many organizations try to solve retention with better pay, stronger benefits, more engagement, or even a nicer culture.
• 0:59
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Those things matter, but they're not always enough to keep highly skilled professionals long-term.
• 1:05
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: When talented people leave, it creates more than a staffing problem. It drains profits, disrupts momentum, weakens customer experience, and quietly costs far more than companies realize.
• 1:19
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: On this episode with Profit with a Plan, we're looking at the real reason skilled professionals leave, and while traditional retention strategies often fail.
• 1:29
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And what leaders can do to build a workplace where great people actually want to stay.
• 1:34
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Because people do not just stay where they're appreciated, they stay where they have the greatest future.
• 1:44
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Hey entrepreneurs, are you working too hard for too little profit? Well, welcome to Profit with a Plan Podcast, the podcast where we help business owners grow smarter, increase profitability, and build a company that's worth more, whether you plan to keep it or sell it.
• 1:58
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I'm Marcia Reiner, Business Growth Strategist and the profit booster behind Infinite Profit.
• 2:04
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Each week, I bring you practical strategies, expert insights, and real-world steps to help you grow revenue.
• 2:10
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Improve margins and build a stronger business.
• 2:14
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Today's episode is brought to you by Infinite Profit, where strategy turns into profitable growth. But before we jump in, I have something special for you.
• 2:23
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: If your revenue has plateaued, or maybe your marketing is not producing the return it should, I encourage you to go get the free Profit Booster Growth Map. In just a few minutes, it helps you identify where to bring in more qualified clients, and maybe where the profit leaks might be costing you more money than you think.
• 2:42
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Go get yours after the show at ProfitBooster.biz, and there's no sales call required.
• 2:49
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Now, let's get into today's conversation.
• 2:53
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: My guest today is David Alam… Al… Alamein! I stumbled on it, I stumbled on it again. David, I apologize. David Alamein is one of the leading experts in talent retention and the creator of the Alamein Retention System.
• 3:09
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: For more than 30 years, he's been helping organizations solve one of the most expensive and frustrating problems in business.
• 3:17
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Keeping highly skilled professionals.
• 3:20
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: His work challenges the usual thinking around retention. It's not about better pay, better perks, or employee engagement programs.
• 3:28
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: David teaches that people stay where their future is the strongest.
• 3:33
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And when leaders understand that, they can build a more stable, committed, and competitive workforce.
• 3:40
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: He's also the author of People Stay Where Their Future is the Strongest.
• 3:44
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And his highlights, or his insights, have been featured in leading business and medical publications. David, welcome to Profit with a Plan podcast. Hopefully your mouth is working better than mine is.
• 3:56
  David Alemian: Oh, you're doing fine. Oh, by the way, it's a Lemian.
• 4:01
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I wrote it And it's like, okay, one more time.
• 4:05
  David Alemian: You… it's Alemian, and by the way… Alemian. Oh, you should see how some people do it.
• 4:11
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I thought that… I thought Marcia to Mar… or Marcia from Marcia is always my, you know, trouble, but that's minute compared to yours, so…
• 4:20
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah, you're…
• 4:20
  David Alemian: It's like…
• 4:21
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Understanding. I know, right? Well, great. I'm so glad to have you on today. So, big question for you is, I always like to start off with, you know, how you got into the space of, employee retention and, and really, what drove you into that spot?
• 4:38
  David Alemian: Good question. Back around 2010, well, actually, for the past 31 years, I've been working with people
• 4:48
  David Alemian: to help them build retirement plans. And back around 2010,
• 4:54
  David Alemian: I was talking with someone, a colleague, who said, you know, there's a physician shortage, and I was working with a lot of physicians, because they need the help. And I said, there is? And he says, yeah. So I looked into it, and certainly there was. There was a huge shortage of physicians, and it was growing.
• 5:11
  David Alemian: So I dug a little deeper, and I noticed that
• 5:15
  David Alemian: There was a nursing shortage, and it was 5 times, literally 5 times as bad
• 5:22
  David Alemian: as the physician shortage. So, that got my interest going even more, so I dug deeper, and I learned
• 5:30
  David Alemian: It's not a shortage of physicians. It's not a shortage of nurses. It is literally a shortage of people with skills. This is across all industries, and it's nationwide. I mean, it doesn't matter what police officers. If you had any idea how short we were on police officers and first responders, you'd be scared to death, but it's all…
• 5:54
  David Alemian: all professions, we don't have enough blue-collar workers, we don't have enough carpenters and electricians, we don't have enough accountants, attorneys.
• 6:02
  David Alemian: If it takes skills, We're coming up short.
• 6:06
  David Alemian: And, at the same time.
• 6:09
  David Alemian: People are hopping from job to job. It's the law of supply and demand, right? Which is with anything, which means prices go up, meaning pay goes up.
• 6:20
  David Alemian: But there was a time When people spent their entire career, one, maybe two companies. Why?
• 6:28
  David Alemian: They wanted that lifetime pension. And they would stay with the company for as long as it took to get it. You know…
• 6:36
  David Alemian: Employers ask me, so… I can't find good people.
• 6:41
  David Alemian: And when I do find them, it's like, they leave. I mean, how do you stop people from leaving? I said, hey, it's a free country. You gotta give them a reason to stay.
• 6:53
  David Alemian: And you know what they say? They're like, well, we pay really well. It's like, yeah? And you know what they do?
• 6:59
  David Alemian: They use that high pay that you give them as leverage to get higher pay somewhere else, because nobody expects you to make a lateral move.
• 7:11
  David Alemian: You know, it's like, hey, I'm happy where I am. You want me to move over there? You gotta pay me more. So, the thing that you thought was gonna keep your people, you just shot yourself in the foot with it. Or what about…
• 7:22
  David Alemian: Training.
• 7:25
  David Alemian: You know, people say, oh, the millennials, and the younger people, it generates an X and Y and Z. They want training, and you should train them, and teach them, and it'll make them worth more. Yeah?
• 7:37
  David Alemian: And it makes them worth more to somebody else, too.
• 7:41
  David Alemian: So, you get to pay for their training, somebody else gets the benefit. Where's the fun in that?
• 7:50
  David Alemian: Or culture.
• 7:51
  David Alemian: You know, all of these things, by the way, money, culture, training, engagement, They're all good! They matter!
• 8:01
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Sure they do.
• 8:02
  David Alemian: Yeah.
• 8:03
  David Alemian: They don't… they don't stop people from leaving, because the bottom line is… They still leave.
• 8:10
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Mmm… okay, so wait a minute. You've just, you've just, like, sprinkled so much dust on this conversation right now, right? I mean, you talked about all the levers that businesses are using today to try and attract talent.
• 8:25
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And, you know, you started off with your doctors and nurses and police officers, and I'm sitting here thinking, wait a minute, is it the… is it the cost of school? Is it the training that they need before? But it has absolutely…
• 8:37
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Nothing to do with that.
• 8:39
  David Alemian: No.
• 8:40
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Right? It really doesn't, it's…
• 8:43
  David Alemian: No.
• 8:44
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: It's just, it's crazy to think that we're in such a competitive market, right? And we see that the employment sales num… or employment numbers, you know, look good, they look reasonable, depends on where you are in the cycle. If you have a job, it feels good. If you don't have a job, it feels miserable, but…
• 9:02
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You know, I think that, I think this is a pandemic that we're not aware of.
• 9:08
  David Alemian: Well… This goes back… to World War II.
• 9:15
  David Alemian: What do I mean by that?
• 9:17
  David Alemian: The greatest generation came back from World War II.
• 9:20
  David Alemian: And they got jobs, and they went about building America, and infrastructure to build roads, and the power grid, and all that, and they married their sweethearts.
• 9:28
  David Alemian: And they started having babies, and they had a lot of them. They called it the baby boom. I was one of them.
• 9:35
  David Alemian: Well, in the 50s and 60s.
• 9:38
  David Alemian: The baby boomers swelled the population.
• 9:41
  David Alemian: In the 70s and 80s, they flooded the workforce. Employers had all the help they needed. I mean, back then, just to get a job, you needed to know someone in what they called back then the personnel department, now called HR.
• 9:56
  David Alemian: Chad, that was just to get in.
• 9:58
  David Alemian: And then once people were in, they stayed. Why? Because, like I said before, they wanted that lifetime pension. They wanted that future financial security. Well, so what happened?
• 10:11
  David Alemian: How food things happened?
• 10:13
  David Alemian: One… The subsequent generations were smaller in size. And they have… and that smaller in size population.
• 10:25
  David Alemian: A smaller percentage actually has skills.
• 10:28
  David Alemian: Then, in 1978, Congress gave us the Revenue Act.
• 10:34
  David Alemian: It had this little thing in there called Section 401K. You know what that is.
• 10:40
  David Alemian: What is that? That made… that made… that made retirement plans portable. You know, Wall Street saw an opportunity, because before then.
• 10:50
  David Alemian: Most people weren't invested in the stock market. They didn't have money in the stock market.
• 10:54
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Exactly, exactly. You can truly track that by looking at one simple chart of the Dow Jones or the S&P 500, and watch it just, like, go whoosh when that.
• 11:04
  David Alemian: When, when…
• 11:04
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And yeah, when it actually became available for everybody to participate in. It wasn't just for the…
• 11:09
  David Alemian: By the early 80s, it was the fastest growing retirement plan in America. And Wall Street went to the employers and said, hey, give these baby boomer kids this 401K thing, you can say goodbye to your pensions. And they thought, wow, this is great, we don't have to fund these pensions anymore.
• 11:24
  David Alemian: And the baby boomers bought it like a school of fish, hook, line, and sinker. You know, they said, wow, this is great, we don't have to stay at the same company like our parents do. You know, if we don't… if we want to move, we can leave and take our retirement plan with us.
• 11:37
  David Alemian: Here we are.
• 11:39
  David Alemian: Almost 50 years later.
• 11:42
  David Alemian: And almost no one can afford to retire. It's the biggest financial challenge that Americans have.
• 11:48
  David Alemian: And…
• 11:48
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Isn't that the truth? Isn't that the truth?
• 11:51
  David Alemian: Yeah.
• 11:51
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Oh my gosh, you are so right.
• 11:52
  David Alemian: Turnover, yeah, and turnover? The glue? I mean, turnover has skyrocketed. Why?
• 11:59
  David Alemian: Because the glue… that held… Employers and employees together was now gone.
• 12:07
  David Alemian: It's just… it's amazing.
• 12:09
  David Alemian: You know, pensions had their downside, I mean, they were costly, there was liability and all that, and I'm not saying back pensions. For the company.
• 12:17
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: It was very expensive for. For the employer or the recipient, it was free money, but it was a…
• 12:25
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Golden Handcuff of sort, right?
• 12:28
  David Alemian: Yeah, but, well, it wasn't completely free. I mean, the employees, they contributed to it, and that was okay. But here's the problem with that, and just, like, Social Security, we're living longer.
• 12:40
  David Alemian: And the longer you live…
• 12:41
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: less people ahead of us baby boomers that are feeding the engine, right? Because we fed it for our parents, and our kids are supposed to feed it for us, and their kids will feed it for them, but it's not working much anymore.
• 12:56
  David Alemian: No. And it's taxable. And you have to… and there's…
• 13:01
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: rules.
• 13:02
  David Alemian: required minimum distributions at age 70 and a half, right?
• 13:07
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: rules.
• 13:08
  David Alemian: Oh, why? Because back then.
• 13:11
  David Alemian: somebody in the think tank in Washington figured out that at some point, there'll be more people in retirement
• 13:19
  David Alemian: than in the workforce, because they track the size of the populations, and the length of people… how people… how people are, living. But, I digress. Back to…
• 13:29
  David Alemian: turnover, and retention. Now, how do you keep key employees? What do you make them stay? Well, here's the thing.
• 13:38
  David Alemian: Our brains are wired for the future.
• 13:42
  David Alemian: You know? I mean, that's… from the earliest formative years.
• 13:49
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Wait a minute.
• 13:49
  David Alemian: Hang on a sec.
• 13:50
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: All generations are wired for the future, because.
• 13:53
  David Alemian: Stop looking at…
• 13:54
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Some of these, you know, my kids, my kids' generation, going, are they even thinking about the future? You know, they would rather spend their money today than put it away and save it, so…
• 14:07
  David Alemian: Are there…
• 14:08
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Really thinking for the future?
• 14:09
  David Alemian: They, well, they may think of different futures or different parts of you. For example.
• 14:15
  David Alemian: Everybody got the question, what do you mean when you want to grow up? Right?
• 14:20
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: It asks her!
• 14:20
  David Alemian: Yeah, and then they were told, oh, well, study hard in school, so you can get into a good college or trade school, and then you can get a good career. Now we're thinking more into the future. And, I mean, even right down to…
• 14:32
  David Alemian: Where you buy your house, who you're gonna marry? What's my future gonna be like? All of these things. Should I open a business? Oh, if I open that business, what would that be like?
• 14:44
  David Alemian: Right? You're looking down the road, right?
• 14:47
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Okay. Okay.
• 14:48
  David Alemian: Okay? We're wired for the future!
• 14:51
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Okay, got it. I agree with that.
• 14:53
  David Alemian: Now, so when people leave, they don't just…
• 14:57
  David Alemian: I'm going. I don't know where I'm going. They don't do that.
• 15:01
  David Alemian: They're getting offers all the time. No matter where you work for skills, there's another organization down the street, or the next state over, or wherever.
• 15:11
  David Alemian: That they need bodies, too.
• 15:13
  David Alemian: So they're approaching employees, and they say, come work for us. And the employee thinks, yeah, the employee thinks, hmm…
• 15:23
  David Alemian: If I stay here, What's it gonna be like?
• 15:26
  David Alemian: If I go over there, what's it gonna be like?
• 15:31
  David Alemian: And the… Place where their future is stronger.
• 15:36
  David Alemian: That's where they end up, that's where they stay.
• 15:40
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Interesting.
• 15:40
  David Alemian: So, if you can make it so that the employee
• 15:44
  David Alemian: has a bright financial future, and I'm talking not only within the company, But…
• 15:52
  David Alemian: after the company, meaning when they retire, because everybody
• 15:56
  David Alemian: wants a future of financial security. I mean, and those that don't, you don't want them working for you anyway. But I just… but no, most people, especially people with skills, people with brains.
• 16:08
  David Alemian: They want a future of financial security.
• 16:11
  David Alemian: And… So, when they think about, if I stay here.
• 16:16
  David Alemian: what's gonna happen to me when I retire?
• 16:19
  David Alemian: Right? How am I… because here's the thing.
• 16:22
  David Alemian: Not everybody, but most people live a lifestyle equivalent to their income. The more they make, the more they spend.
• 16:28
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yes, and oftentimes over that, right? Which is why we're in such bad credit card debt, and loans, and all that kind of stuff.
• 16:36
  David Alemian: all that stuff. So let me…
• 16:40
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Let me… let me re… let me… hang on a second. So, we're talking about the… the… the premise of…
• 16:48
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: If you promise a future.
• 16:51
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: to your employees, they're going to stay with you. Now, I challenge that, that that can't be the only thing you do, but it is one thing that can really separate you from everybody else that's out there pitching and poaching at them, right?
• 17:07
  David Alemian: Well, here's the thing.
• 17:09
  David Alemian: Everybody else, when they talk about retention, everybody else is talking about engagement, and culture, and money, and.
• 17:17
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I value your opinion, you're here.
• 17:20
  David Alemian: All that thing, but that's not what… people leave anyway!
• 17:25
  David Alemian: That's the proof! And if you do what those other companies do.
• 17:30
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Ann?
• 17:31
  David Alemian: they get. You'll get the same result, meaning.
• 17:33
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: But you should still… I guess what I'm asking is, you should still do those things, though.
• 17:37
  David Alemian: Oh, yes, they're great, they matter!
• 17:39
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: But the time that they're in your company, you can make it more enjoyable, more rewarding. Absolutely. You can get more production out of your team members, too.
• 17:51
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Because that's what some of those levers that you're pulling, is trying to get them to really be involved and help you, the business owner, move that boulder up the hill. And, yeah, so…
• 18:02
  David Alemian: I agree with you, all of those things are important, and employers should do them.
• 18:06
  David Alemian: But!
• 18:07
  David Alemian: What they need is this one extra thing, so that when they're approached with new opportunities, they go, you know.
• 18:15
  David Alemian: I'm happy where I am here. I got a good future here. I'm staying. It really.
• 18:20
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So it's not a but, it's an and.
• 18:23
  David Alemian: Yeah.
• 18:24
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: It's an AND.
• 18:25
  David Alemian: It's an…
• 18:26
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And if you have something that… keeps them…
• 18:33
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: For all scarion purposes. We're talking to business owners, so I think we can use this language. If we keep them leashed or attached to the company, then they're going to stay longer because they have other decisions that have to be made if they're gonna leave, right? What are they leaving on the table when they walk away?
• 18:53
  David Alemian: Right? Oh, you… oh, I almost forgot the most important thing.
• 19:00
  David Alemian: what I teach… Is how to create this future.
• 19:05
  David Alemian: But if they leave, They don't get to take it with them.
• 19:11
  David Alemian: They leave it, they leave it. So, in other words, it's not portable.
• 19:15
  David Alemian: This is, one, merit-based. You only do this for the employees that you don't want to lose.
• 19:21
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Hmm…
• 19:22
  David Alemian: They have to earn it. Got it. They earn it by doing good work, being responsible.
• 19:28
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Floyd.
• 19:29
  David Alemian: Being a key employee, and then they earn it.
• 19:33
  David Alemian: by their commitment to the company to stay. And there's an agreement between the employee and the employer. The employer says, we'll do this for you, if you will stay with us, if you stay with us for X amount of years.
• 19:50
  David Alemian: We'll provide you with financial security for life.
• 19:54
  David Alemian: You know, here's the bottom line. Think of it this way. The company comes to you, you're an employee, and they say, we like you, we want you to stay.
• 20:04
  David Alemian: If you stay.
• 20:06
  David Alemian: We're gonna create a future of financial security. You'll have all of the benefits and all the competitive income and competitive benefits you have now, and more.
• 20:17
  David Alemian: But then, At the end of the day, When you want to retire.
• 20:22
  David Alemian: You'll have a comfortable retirement for as long as you live.
• 20:26
  David Alemian: That's a pretty tough thing to say no to.
• 20:31
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I agree.
• 20:31
  David Alemian: it to you? That's almost impossible to walk away from.
• 20:36
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You know, this sounds amazing, right? And… It sounds like it's,
• 20:43
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: It's the right thing to do, as well, for…
• 20:47
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Companies wanting to take care of their team members, but again, it's like, alright.
• 20:54
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: we… we want to keep key employees, right? We want to keep the ones, the important ones that we really want, right? It's not for everybody, right? The delivery guy, or the receptionist, or, you know, the salesperson, unless they're a trans… a fantastic salesperson that you never want to leave.
• 21:12
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: But it's also, it's also something that, is truly, as you mentioned.
• 21:18
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: not available to everybody out there. Unless you go to work for the government, right? Yay!
• 21:24
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Or… right? And who says that that plan is any better? But it's one piece of many things that you can do to keep those highly qualified
• 21:38
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: skilled employees that you want as part of your team for the long run, right? I mean, we all know the business owner doesn't make a company just because they're a business owner. It is the employees that help make that business what it can be.
• 21:55
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And so, why not reward.
• 21:56
  David Alemian: Absolutely.
• 21:57
  David Alemian: Absolutely. You know.
• 21:59
  David Alemian: This goes beyond just keeping employees. This goes beyond giving the population the things that they need. Like, for example, if you go to rural areas, this is where it becomes a matter of national security.
• 22:12
  David Alemian: We get our food from rural America. I mean, I've been to New York, I've been to Los Angeles, I've been to Chicago, I've never seen them raising cattle on Main Street. They don't grow corn in the middle of Times Square.
• 22:25
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Nope.
• 22:26
  David Alemian: We get our food out there in the countryside.
• 22:29
  David Alemian: And out there, there's people. They're spread out, but there's a lot of people, and they need healthcare.
• 22:36
  David Alemian: And rural hospitals and rural clinics are very sparsely… are far apart. And…
• 22:44
  David Alemian: When an organization loses a position.
• 22:47
  David Alemian: Maybe it's a specialist, and now the local population doesn't have a doctor to go to. They might have to literally travel 100 miles.
• 22:56
  David Alemian: Just to get treated.
• 22:57
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Carrie.
• 22:58
  David Alemian: Yeah. You know, when you talk about first responders.
• 23:03
  David Alemian: And firefighters, and police officers, and it takes them time to get there. One of the reasons is there aren't enough of them to go around. We don't have enough of them.
• 23:15
  David Alemian: So, it really becomes a matter of national security. Right now, As we speak, In Groton, Connecticut.
• 23:24
  David Alemian: They're building the next generation of nuclear submarines. This is an amazing project. They're building the Virginia-class, and they're building the Columbia class. Virginia class, about over 300 feet long, it's enormous.
• 23:38
  David Alemian: The Columbia… that's fast-attack submarines that also bring our Navy SEALs to… close into shore. Then there's the Columbia-class.
• 23:50
  David Alemian: It's literally over 500 feet long, nuclear-armed. It's amazing, but here's where the problem is.
• 23:59
  David Alemian: Right now, they have 80,000 to 85,000 employees in the shipyards there. They need 140,000.
• 24:06
  David Alemian: Their turnover rate is 20-22% of the regular shipyard workers, and up to 30% for the in-demand skills. Why? Because over half of that workforce is over age 50.
• 24:19
  David Alemian: And they're retiring. And the younger ones, they bring them in, they have absolutely zero skills, and they train them. And it takes about 4 years just to train a welder to get up to journeyman-level skill set to build a submarine, to work on a submarine. I mean, it's different than your local body shop.
• 24:35
  David Alemian: And they get up to that skill set.
• 24:37
  David Alemian: And it's not easy work. It's tough work. They get to that skill set level.
• 24:42
  David Alemian: And they leave. So they're losing it from both… In 2018, they allocated $5.7 billion, with a B, for workforce development.
• 24:55
  David Alemian: Wow. They put most of it into training and recruitment, and not enough… not enough… they didn't pay enough attention to retention. So, it's like trying to fill a bucket
• 25:06
  David Alemian: full of water that's filled… that's got holes in the bottom. I mean, you just keep pouring it in, pouring it in, pouring in, and it keeps pouring out the bottom.
• 25:14
  David Alemian: What if you plug the holes in the bottom of that bucket, you pour the water in, and it stays.
• 25:22
  David Alemian: I plug those holes.
• 25:25
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Love it.
• 25:25
  David Alemian: twice.
• 25:26
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You know what, this is, this is, you know, it's just thinking differently, obviously having some solutions that help with that, but thinking differently about how to keep those employees
• 25:38
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: That are important to your business.
• 25:41
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And the ways that you can bring them in and attract them, obviously, because this is also an attraction factor. Hey, if you come on board, this is what I can promise you, right? You get this kind of work lifestyle, you get this, you get that, you get all these bells and whistles that the competition has, and…
• 25:59
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You know, you get a lifetime retirement plan, which to me sounds like an amazing offer to attract people as well as keeping them, you know, so they don't leave.
• 26:12
  David Alemian: Simply put, you want to put it in the simplest terms, come spend your career with us, and we'll pay you for the rest of your life.
• 26:20
  David Alemian: That's a good deal. Every time!
• 26:25
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So now I'm sitting here thinking, okay, so as a business owner, there's two challenges I'm facing.
• 26:31
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Well, what happens, A, if I don't like this employee after I give them this, this, this thing? You know, how do I get out of it? You know, now they want to stay forever because they're promised this golden parachute, right? How do I get out of this as a business owner if I don't like
• 26:48
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: John Q, or.
• 26:49
  David Alemian: Excellent question. Excellent question, and you fix that in the contract.
• 26:55
  David Alemian: And you put language in there, that this is… The employer's discretion.
• 27:02
  David Alemian: And the employee agrees to have a
• 27:05
  David Alemian: At least some minimum level of…
• 27:09
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Assurance.
• 27:10
  David Alemian: assurance and quality, and so on. The other piece is.
• 27:15
  David Alemian: You give it to the employees that you know.
• 27:18
  David Alemian: So it doesn't.
• 27:19
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: to be an entry thing, it can be something that is awarded later on when I find that I really like John.
• 27:26
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And want to keep them on.
• 27:28
  David Alemian: You could use this to attract new employees who are concerned about their retirement, and that'd be most of them, and say, you know, after 2 years.
• 27:36
  David Alemian: we start this… you become eligible. Not that we give it to you, you have to earn it. You become eligible to enter into this program, or to this benefit that we offer. So you have full discretion either way of how to do this. Let me go one step further, though.
• 27:53
  David Alemian: Most business owners view the sale of their business as their retirement plan.
• 27:59
  David Alemian: So, right? All right. So, and you mentioned this earlier, it's like, it's the people that make the companies great. So they build this company, and it's worth…
• 28:09
  David Alemian: However many millions of dollars. And the analysts say it's worth X and X, and so the buyer comes in, and he looks around, and he sees what the analysts say, and the price is here, so why is he offering a price drastically lower than what the analysts say?
• 28:23
  David Alemian: Because the biggest club that the buyer has to hit the seller over the head with
• 28:30
  David Alemian: is the key employees. And he says, you know, you got a great operation here. Who are your key employees? And the employer points them out, and he says.
• 28:39
  David Alemian: What's to stop any of them, or all of them for that matter, from walking out the door the minute I take control of the company?
• 28:46
  David Alemian: And the people that implement something like this, a retention plan of this type, they say.
• 28:53
  David Alemian: Mr. or Ms. Seller, you don't have to worry about our key employees going anywhere. They're committed to staying with this company for the next 10, 15 years. Our price is X, and that's where it stays. And the buyer says.
• 29:09
  David Alemian: You know? You just took all the risk out of it for me.
• 29:13
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Love it.
• 29:14
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I love it, which is so important. They know where the skeletons are in the closet, they know the customers, they know the processes and angles, they know everything that they should know, and yes.
• 29:25
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: That is one of the biggest fears sellers have, is telling the team, because they'll usually pack up and go look for the next job right then and there. And so that's a huge risk that you're taking off the table. So I love that you added that into this story, because, you know, there's many benefits.
• 29:45
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: to the company by keeping the employee. Because, I mean, as we said in the intro, it can be very expensive to hire somebody and train them and get them going, let alone, you know, trying to find the ones that are qualified, right?
• 30:02
  David Alemian: So, I'm glad you brought that up.
• 30:05
  David Alemian: Turnover is the biggest hidden cost that a company has. It costs over 200% of salary to replace a person with skills. And you know, most of that?
• 30:16
  David Alemian: It's not deductible, those costs. You know, you might deduct your recruiting costs, or your recruit… price of your recruiter, or your ads, but how do you… how do you deduct lost production?
• 30:28
  David Alemian: Or you'll lose a superstar salesperson who's producing more than everybody else.
• 30:33
  David Alemian: how do you deduct lost sales? Or the customer who walks out the door because every time he or she came into the door, it was somebody different, and there's no relationship there. I mean, you know, sometimes… I know big companies like that. Oh, it's unbelievable, but…
• 30:51
  David Alemian: When you have that customer service person.
• 30:54
  David Alemian: That it's the same person they see every time. You know, that's part of branding. You know, branding is an expectation.
• 31:02
  David Alemian: And your customers can walk into your place, and they can expect… A certain level of quality.
• 31:10
  David Alemian: Or they can expect to see a new face every time, and somebody who the person they're dealing with is brand new, and they don't know anything.
• 31:17
  David Alemian: And what they want is stability.
• 31:19
  David Alemian: They want reliability, especially if the company's selling some type of high-end product, or something that's important or key.
• 31:28
  David Alemian: And… Many times, people go to a place simply because
• 31:33
  David Alemian: They liked the people who were there.
• 31:34
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yes.
• 31:35
  David Alemian: They got a relationship with the man. When they walk in, they call them by their first name.
• 31:39
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And you know what, I think that's… that's the really important… that's a really important aha right here, is that your brand is represented by your employees, not the logo, or the sign on the door, or the website, or what have you. It's the people.
• 31:57
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And if you want your brand to change frequently, then don't.
• 32:01
  David Alemian: Don't take.
• 32:01
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Take care of your employees, if you want your brand to stay and really represent.
• 32:07
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: What it is that you stand for, and the quality you bring, then you want to keep those people.
• 32:14
  David Alemian: Absolutely. Absolutely.
• 32:16
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Good stuff.
• 32:16
  David Alemian: So…
• 32:18
  David Alemian: It has so many, so many things across the board, by just keeping your good people, and making sure that they want to stay.
• 32:26
  David Alemian: And by giving… and giving… I'll give you one more example.
• 32:32
  David Alemian: The AMA came out with a series of studies. They're still doing. The first one was the 2013, the financial preparedness of all U.S. physicians. You know, the guys earning $200,000 and up?
• 32:43
  David Alemian: They found that
• 32:45
  David Alemian: Half of the top financial concern of all U.S. physicians is having enough money for a comfortable retirement.
• 32:52
  David Alemian: And then half… Consider themselves behind in their retirement.
• 32:58
  David Alemian: And… If you're a hospital, Oh, you're a clinic?
• 33:03
  David Alemian: When are you not gonna have a need for good doctors?
• 33:08
  David Alemian: I mean, you're always gonna need them, you're always gonna want them, and they know the patience. And the other piece that you lose when people leave…
• 33:18
  David Alemian: Is the knowledge base.
• 33:19
  David Alemian: The things that they do, like, take, for example, you take a small rural clinic. There might be 5 or 6 people there. It's a team. Everybody has their job, from the billing people.
• 33:31
  David Alemian: To the receptionist out front, to the physician, physician's assistant, and the nurse.
• 33:38
  David Alemian: And they all know exactly what they do.
• 33:41
  David Alemian: But there's no backup when you have a team that small. And when one person leaves, everything changes.
• 33:50
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: That's nice. Yep, the whole thing goes.
• 33:51
  David Alemian: Everything changes. I mean, these people are dedicated, so they pull themselves up by their bootstraps, and they try and fill the gap.
• 33:59
  David Alemian: But after a while, it wears on you after a while, and everybody, after a while, everybody is running on empty. And you know who feels it?
• 34:08
  David Alemian: the patience.
• 34:09
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Hmm.
• 34:10
  David Alemian: They feel it in… not as good quality of care, because the place is always short-staffed.
• 34:18
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: The key here to it is the relationship, you know? I think that when you're… whether you're a physician, or you're a company that gets frequent visits, or you're a financial professional, or you're a tradesman, or you've got these skills, people expect that relationship with the person they deal with.
• 34:39
  David Alemian: Hell!
• 34:40
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And so, when you're a business and you change that relationship on your customers all the time, they tend to notice that very quickly. So this is, yeah, this is… this is a key… this is a key value that you can provide to keep your employees happy, and more importantly.
• 34:58
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Keep your customers happy, patients happy, the people that use your products and services happy so that they continuously come back.
• 35:07
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So I think for me, that's… that's it. It's not just trying to reward and keep the best employee, but it's… it trickles out. Like, you drop a… a pebble in the water, and you… the rings keep going out and out. And these… yeah, these benefits…
• 35:22
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Of keeping a really high-performing, high-quality employee just ripples out through the community and everywhere.
• 35:31
  David Alemian: I've got a story that'll resonate with a lot of the listeners out there.
• 35:34
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Okay, so my problem is, you and I can have stories that go on forever.
• 35:38
  David Alemian: David.
• 35:39
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So I have to put a Heisman up on this one and go, wait a minute. We've got a wrap on this. I know listeners are just dying to hear this story, plus more ideas on how they can do it, whether it's cost-effective for them, if it's out of reach, is it easily, and I'm guessing it's not.
• 35:58
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: But how can listeners find out more about you and creating a fantastic retention plan for their
• 36:06
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: They're important people in their company.
• 36:07
  David Alemian: Very simple.
• 36:08
  David Alemian: If they go to TalentRetentionPlans.com, that's TalentRetention Plans, and plans is plural.com.
• 36:17
  David Alemian: They'll find out more about me, what I do, but they'll also be able to download what's called a turnover cost calculator, and it's free. I had this developed, because most people don't realize the cost of turnover.
• 36:29
  David Alemian: Whether you're a small mom-and-pop operation with just a few employees, or you're a hospital with 3,000 employees. You know, when you… I've seen turnover software, it shows the percentage of turnover, but it doesn't show the cost in dollars, and that's the important one.
• 36:46
  David Alemian: This shows you the cost in dollars when you lose an employee, or a group of employees. And what you're gonna see is we take a fraction of those dollars.
• 36:58
  David Alemian: And we put it into… we invest it into our key employees. And then we build this thing so that we recover our investment, and then some.
• 37:09
  David Alemian: So it's not a cost, the way we develop it, it's literally an investment in your business, in your employees, and in America.
• 37:18
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Oh, I love it. I love it. Thanks, David. This is great.
• 37:21
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: All right, listeners, thanks for tuning in today. I hope you are walking away with a few practical ideas that you can put into your business to make it more profitable, more valuable, and be able to retain those really important people in your company.
• 37:36
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: All right, before we go, if you want to have a clearer path to more revenue and stronger profit, go grab the free Profit Booster Growth Map. It'll quickly show you the top opportunities to grow your revenue and stop those profit leaks that may be holding your business back.
• 37:53
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Go get yours anytime after the show at ProfitBooster.biz.
• 37:58
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And if this episode gave you value, be sure to subscribe and share it with other business owners who need to hear it. And I'll see you on next week's show with more strategies to help you grow a smarter and more profitable business. Until then, make your plans and profit with them. Thank you so very much, David.
• 38:16
  David Alemian: Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.