Forget the bean bags and table tennis tables. What do employees that aren’t good at ping pong really want?
Finding and keeping MSP quality employees is always a tough ask. There is always a shortage of good candidates that have both the customer service and technical skills to really make it in an MSP environment. So as an MSP owner, it’s critical that you’re keeping up with the competition or even providing a competitive advantage over the competition to enable you to retain and delight your staff so that they won’t consider working anywhere else.
This doesn’t just have to be about base salary. That is not always the number one determining factor for candidates to take a job or even stay in their current job. What I am saying though is some well thought out and consistently implemented employee perks can act as win-win opportunities for MSPs to attract and retain great staff.
Pay penalty rates for approved overtime
Employees don’t like being taken advantage of. If clients are paying you appropriate overtime rates which they should be, then candidates should be paid appropriate overtime rates while they work on approved projects or support work for those clients. Don’t be cheap, it’s not about the money for either the employer or the candidate when it comes to paying overtime. It’s about appreciating that time away from home and family needs to be adequately compensated for and the employee needs to be shown appreciation for taking that time out of their lives.
A training budget
Yes, I know you pay for exams when they are successfully passed. A lot of MSPs do that and that is the minimum standard. If you’re not doing that then you’re now behind what everyone else is doing and you’re not encouraging your employees enough to get certified. Remember, certifications help you as the MSP even more so than it helps the candidate because it helps with your vendor relationship status in most cases. So, go beyond the paying for exams.
Instead, sit down with each employee and develop with them a training budget so they can be part of the conversation around using company funds to help certify themselves in the direction that the MSP would value. This doesn’t have to be a large training budget.
I’m not talking about sending employees out of the office doing a course that cost $8000. I am talking about $1500 – $2000 a year that the candidate can choose how they want to spend that whether it’s with books, a training subscription, or online courses. Whatever they need to help them to achieve the appropriate certifications that they need. This kind of perk gives the candidate options. They don’t have to do it, entirely self-paced. If they don’t want to, they can do some instructor led training and have some of that at least paid for through the training budget the company offers.
Work from home flexibility
This one should be easy. Given the current environment, we all know that working from home is possible. And for some employees, it’s going to make them even far more productive than what they would be if they had to come into the office every single day.
Commute times in capital cities across Australia are stretching to be longer and longer. This is wearing both physically and mentally on employees as they travel to and from work with long commute times. One, two or three days a week, whenever it’s appropriate and when there’s not a need to be in the office.
Allowing employees flexibility to work from home is a really attractive perk for a lot of employees. It could well help you retain your best employees and attract new employees simply due to your flexible policy around working from home.
Struggling to hire a good employee? Perhaps I can help you with that. Book a meeting with me here.
