Wisconsin Veterans Forward

What Every Employer Should Do To Improve New Employee Attraction & Retention (Part 1)

June 20, 2022 Wisconsin Veterans Chamber of Commerce Season 2 Episode 144
Wisconsin Veterans Forward
What Every Employer Should Do To Improve New Employee Attraction & Retention (Part 1)
Show Notes Transcript

(Part 1) Compensation technology isn't always the first consideration for employers seeking to improve their employee attraction, acquisition, and retention -- but they definitely should be.

Modernizing these systems can empower employers to provide clarity to their organizations, ensure equity, and save money while attracting and retaining top talent.

Join us as we invite Dan Kopp (co-founder of Dinamico Systems) to discuss.

  • Connect with Dan Kopp here. -The first 5 people who connect with Dan and mention this episode can get a free 30-minute leadership coaching session!!



Questions? Comments? Continue the discussion by requesting access to our exclusive WVF Facebook Group.

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Wisconsin Veterans Forward is brought to you by the Wisconsin Veterans Chamber of Commerce, a nonprofit organization that serves veterans and military families by supporting veteran owned and veteran-friendly businesses throughout the state. 

On behalf of our members, we serve as an advocate for Wisconsin’s veteran business community and promote economic opportunity for military veterans, military families, and veteran-friendly businesses.

Follow us on all platforms: https://linktr.ee/Wivetschamber

 

Intro & Outro Themes: 

Barry Dallas - I’m Gone (https://uppbeat.io/t/barry-dallas/im-gone)

Noise Cake - Light It Up (https://uppbeat.io/t/noise-cake/light-it-up)

Speaker 1:

Today on Wisconsin veterans forward technology is a beautiful thing. And here we are talking about technology during the Wisconsin veterans chamber of commerce technology month, which is apropo. That makes sense. But, uh, when we think of technology, we, uh, probably first think of one of these things, right? We, we think of things that connect us globally. Uh, we think of Movies, computer graphic, computer generated graphics, video games, uh, technology inside of our cars, things with circuit boards that make it easier to connect things that make it easier to be entertained. Uh, those are usually the first things that come to mind, and those are like the sexy things to talk about. When we're talking about tech and tech development, electronic electric cars, plugin, electric hybrids, like those are the things that we think about. However, that is like the tip of a iceberg, a giant tack iceberg. I think even though we gravitate towards those electric car Tesla sort of cool things, when we think of the future of technology, the, the Albatros, the giant, uh, you know, under ice giant, part of the iceberg that you don't see is process improvement is, is the ability for tech to improve processes that save people time and save people, money that save. If you are a business owner, if you are a hiring manager, if you are a leader in an organization, we use technology and systems to save time, which saves money. People aren't writing on paper calendars anymore and printing them out and, you know, sending it via carrier pitch into their employees. You know, they're putting it on Google G calendar or through their Microsoft teams, whatever that is a, that is a, a software based tech driven process improvement. That saves time. Of course, you need people to understand those things and manage those things. So it's not like it just like here's tech, your life is improved. There's like there's a, there's a, a barrier for entry. People have to learn how to do it and maintain, uh, and update, uh, software driven tech. But a huge part of this is that where tech has been underutilized is in human resources and in particular human capital management. So we have an opportunity through these, these tech based systems. And a lot of people don't take advantage of this. They don't, they, they don't, they don't even know where to start. You can leverage tech and new progressive systems to improve your human capital pipelines, your attraction, your acquisition, your employment, and retention of quality employees. People are finally starting to understand<laugh> in this, you know, the, the great mass worker Exodus, where the power is in the worker's lap, people are beginning to really understand as the turnaround is so high, that look, it is so stink and expensive to find new people it's better to acquire, train and retain those people. It's so expensive to find people and have people go through the process of acquiring other people, training those people. Uh, it's such a waste to not focus on keeping them around and improving all of those processes. If you have employees, you're always gonna have employees. You're always gonna be looking for employees. There's always gonna be some kind of turn turnaround. So it is insane to not think about ways that you can improve those time consuming and expensive processes. And today we are talking about how every business owner, every hiring manager can, should, and can take steps towards improving those processes to save time, to save money, to improve employee acquisition, performance, retention, morale, all of those things through some simple systematic implementation. That's what we're talking about. We're talking about it with an expert who obviously knows way more about this than I, if I sounded smart about this up until this point, you have reached the extent of my ability to, to be smart on this. I am like you now know everything that I know. This is why we have subject matter experts. Dan cop, uh, is the co-founder. I believe one of the guys running the show will get to know him, uh, of Dynamico systems and they improve those processes. They help business owners improve those processes. So if you want some tidbits of information on how to improve your hiring, uh, acquisition retention, uh, engagement processes, leveraging tech to do so, save time and money. Every time you hear tech, save time and money, make things easier. Then you need to stick around and listen to this. And I suggest you do. We're gonna get into it right after this. You are listening to Wisconsin veterans forward. Wisconsin's premier audio resource for veterans, military families, veteran owned and veteran friendly businesses. Wisconsin veterans forward is brought to you by the Wisconsin veterans chamber of commerce@wwiveteranschamber.org. Okay, let's go. I'm so excited. I feel like I'm like caffeinated and ready to rock and I'm ready to learn a whole bunch of stuff about something that I don't know anything about. Uh, our, uh, our good friend, uh, and fellow veteran chamber member, Dan cop. How are you, sir?

Speaker 2:

I am doing exceptionally well. And that was a great overview of everything I wanted to discuss today.

Speaker 1:

Was it really? Cause I, I felt like, you know, if, when in doubt, when you don't know what you're talking about, just use big words and speak confidently. So

Speaker 2:

Yeah. And then people, I believed everything you said. So, Hey, I'm told

Speaker 1:

If it passed the litmus test from a subject matter expert, then I think I'm good. Uh, so, so first off, tell, uh, tell us a bit about yourself. You are a veteran, I believe co-founder of dynamic ecosystems,

Speaker 2:

Correct. I am a veteran. I was in the us army for a while, a military police officer. And then after that, I went into public education. Um, did that for 20 years, 10 of which I was a superintendent and the, since 2019, I have owned a company with two partners. So I am technically a co-founder yes. Um, companies called Dynamico our websites, Dynamico systems.com. And basically we built our company around the premise that we have. We can help employers. And I'm gonna use many of the words that you just heard ahead of use. We help employers save time and money while they attract and maintain great people. Now there's a lot to unpack there, and there's a lot that goes into that conceptually, but it's based upon compensation systems. And after seven years of thousands of hours of, of philosophical discussion on trial and error, we created software that is web based that allows every employer to custom build compensation systems for every employee group. They have.

Speaker 1:

Excellent. And, and now before we move forward for anybody who's watching here, I just want to ensure that you all know that you can throw questions at us about any old thing that pops into your head, via your comments. If you're watching on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, if you're one of the two people that watch our live streams on Twitter, uh, okay.<laugh> so drop a comment, do a retweet, whatever. Uh, but you can throw questions at us. And then also if you're watching this not live on YouTube, throw a question in the comments, we will answer it and we will get to it. We wanna make sure that we are serving you in providing this information to you. Uh, before we get into the now Dan, I just have a question, like why comp employee compensation systems, like were you growing up and even, or as an educator and a superintendent you're were you thinking like, man, I can't wait to retire and, and create this technology? Or like, were you safe from a burning building by a compensation system specialist when you were a kid or

Speaker 2:

Something, you nailed it right there. I was, uh, saved as a young child. Okay. Uh, no, actually go back to 2011 in Wisconsin when, uh, act 10 affected school districts. And with that went, the, uh, union contracts were basically dissolved at that time and became obsolete in many districts and what we encountered and I was running a school district at the time. What we encountered across the state was many district administrators, superintendents, and boards through their compensation systems away because they were part of a, you know, they were embedded in a union contract and by default they must go out with the contract. Wow. So what I quickly learned was no one really had a good system in place to, to replace the, the system that was there, whether it was good, bad in between, it was a system that worked. Hmm. So there was nothing there. So my partners and I, and we're friends, so we spent, and we're we're, we were all in public education. At the time we spent countless hours trying to figure this out and took us seven years in our goal. Our very narrow focus was to let's create a system for educators. What we created once we started using it in private nonprofit sectors was we've got a tool that literally is so user friendly. Once I show people how to use it in a 20 minute demonstration, they're up and running and creating systems of their own through their lenses, the employer what's important to them. What's important to their employees and it's for every employee group. So even though we are trying to fix a very narrow issue, we created something that can be used by every employer, private, public nonprofit for every employee group. Even if your employee group is one, like we, we could, we've worked with boards to create, um, models for their executive directors in nonprofits. So literally could be a model for one person.

Speaker 1:

Hmm. So, uh, so how does, what sets this system apart from more traditional compensation systems, maybe more pen and paper, or like, you know, uh, bank information, uh, you know, uh, bank information for the employee goes to bank ACH transfer, initiated people write down the hours, you know, they get a pay stub, blah blah. Like how do, how does this differ from what we traditionally understand as a compensation system,

Speaker 2:

Right on so traditionally, and there are some employers we're encountering who are well ahead of the power curve. Um, but traditionally compensation systems are employ, are, uh, longevity based. So our system allows you to introduce or an employer to introduce other things that are important for their employees to possess longevity is quite, is important. Don't get me wrong, but it's by default a 20 year veteran because he or she has been present for 20 years by default does not make him or her the best employee. If that's the top of your, your wage scale, it could, but my not by default. So there are other things that go into making an employee good. So we work with our clients to have them articulate what an ideal employee brings to the table on a daily basis. So for example, um, every employer probably has some type of evaluation tool for all their employees. Typically tools are broken down into sub components, you know, like this part, this whatever. So we can say, all right, this part of the comp of the, uh, evaluation tool can be embedded into your compensation system. This part can be embedded. This part can be embedded. They can be valued at different, different, uh, ratios based on one may be more important than the other cuz traditional longevity based models don't encourage or reward satisfactory performance, let alone exemplary performance, but an employer could take their tools that they're already using embed those in there and say, all right, employees, if you are satisfactory, you're going to get this amount of money on top of your base. So that would not only encourage people to do it, but it would reward them for doing it. And if we had, if every employer could say they've got what they did, as they define whatever satisfactory is in their mind, however they define it. And they've got employees across the board who are satisfactory, think what could happen, but we could also introduce into the idea what about exemplary performance? Cause we've got there's employees everywhere who are just phenomenal. Again, longevity based systems. Don't acknowledge that, let alone reward it typically. So let's put in there, we've got the satisfactory metric, let's put in an exemplary metric. So, you know, encourage people to be satisfactory. Great. If we all got there, we've got, we've got a pretty darn good business organization. But if we've also got people striving on a daily to get to exemplary, think what could happen. Hmm. And, and that's the essence of what we bring to the table. So not only evaluation components, but whether certification degrees, ability, um, you know, what people do for us, that's what we help employers acknowledge. And it's not about finding where they are in the market and saying, let's, let's just assume we're talking a custodial position. You know, the market might be$20 starting. We're not gonna go in and tell somebody, well, offer 22. You know, that, that doesn't fix anything. Make sure you're in the market. Let's talk about the great things custodians do, or you want them to do and start rewarding them for them and acknowledging that. And the win is people in the, the workforce, the 40 and under crew. They really want to make a difference. That's, you know, very general statement about mm-hmm<affirmative> the generation, but they want to make a difference. They also want to make a connection with their employer and they want the efforts they're putting in acknowledged. So our system accomplishes that it allows the employers to make a connection with their employees while acknowledging the greatness, their employees are bringing to the table on a daily basis.

Speaker 1:

So now is this a, so your software dynamic, your systems, are they less of a, uh, compensation processing platform, human resources, pay stub management and more of a reman reimagining of how employees are compensated or is it both?

Speaker 2:

It is the latter. As of right now, it is definitely the ladder. And what's important is, you know, when you hire somebody, when you've got, when it comes, raise time, there's always time allocated to figuring out how much is this employee worth? What are we gonna offer? What's the market telling us, what does he or she bring to the table? What are we gonna offer fast forward a year to the end of the fiscal year, say, all right, what about next year? Our system allows for you to plug in. It's very, very OB objective. You plug in here's the base. These are the things the employee does or is going to do for us. Are the qualifications, the skills, the certifications, the degrees, the person's bringing with them. That's their starting wage. It's you know, the system speaks for itself. You, you check the box, there's the wage or salary. And then a year later at the end, what what's next year look like? Do they check any more boxes? What me? What type of increase do we want to give the system? And we've got, uh, cost controls built in our dashboard. So every year employers have the, the ability to say over current year, what's our spend for next year. Let's put in 5%. All right, you're gonna, it's a 5% overall raise. That's our pot of money to divvy out from one year to the next. There are other cost controls too, that says, you know, theoretically, when you have someone in a current system and you shift to another system, or once you build a system that rewards people for things they're doing, someone might have a great year and kill it in the following year, they sort of drop off. Either scenario leads to someone perhaps being worth less compensation in the subsequent year. So we've gotta hold harmless in there that acknow let's see employer acknowledge that and say, all right, you're worth less compensation. But using my, my example a moment ago where I said 5%, we're gonna put in there a 3%. So that means despite the fact that our system shows us you're worth less compensation. This coming year, you're still gonna get a 3% raise or an initially it could be 5%. And then year five, as you incrementally implement over time, you could tell your people who are at the top of the salary schedule, maybe your hangers on who've been there 30 years. And they're just getting paid to show up to work, basically, cuz we all have had'em. So you say in year one, it's a hundred, 5% year two, it's 104 year three, it's 103, et cetera. And all of a sudden year five, it's at a hundred. What happens? What we've seen with our clients is a couple things could happen. We actually work with a nonprofit and we always encourage our clients to work with the stakeholders because me as a C-suite executive doesn't necessarily, I don't have all the answers. So somebody in the role is gonna have different answers than I do. First line supervisors, people in HR, people in business, everybody needs to have a voice to identify what's important. And we, we put that in the system and then we, we talk about all right, here's what's important. We're gonna take baby steps and increment incrementally implement over time. But a year five, this is what it looks like. So if you do it in year five and you've got that whole harmless, that's 1 0 5 to one, oh, you know, 5%, 4%, 3%, all of a sudden, well they've got a five year warning and what we've seen happen. We've had employees engaged on the front end, developing these they've appreciated the process. And when they're developed and ready for implementation, we've had literally had employees at our clients, uh, organizations say, you know what? I great. You involve me. I appreciate what you are. You articulated your values. You're wearing them on your sleep cuz they're, they're embedded in your compensation system. That's not me. I'm gonna go elsewhere where I fit mm-hmm<affirmative> so that's where the attraction piece comes in for us because then our clients go to market and say, Hey, we're looking for somebody to do these things. If you can do these things, please come to us and we're gonna pay you for'em. So not only does it attract people who fit you versus people who are just in the market doing a shotgun approach, applying everywhere, you're going to get people who fit you. And then once you've got them there, your odds of retention drastically increase because they're delivering on the things that you find important

Speaker 1:

And that they came there to deliver on in the first place.

Speaker 2:

Right? Yeah. So in essence, you've got a values based system that you've qualified and quantified, put it into a compensation system, your employees re get re deliver. You, get, you pay them for those things upon which they're delivering. And it's a win-win because you've now got everybody understanding the values of the organization, how their role fits in the bigger picture. And in essence, the values exercise, which provides clarity for the individual provides clarity for the organization and everybody's going in the same direction. Now,

Speaker 1:

You know, I think that it's, it's brilliant coupling compensation or at least, um, above base level salary compensation, uh, basing that on key performance indicators for the company like everybody wins when your expectations are clearly defined and launching at least a portion of somebody's salary to that can incentivize that, that performance. And that's one thing that I believe that many corporate entities actually get, right? They don't typically pay money for someone that is not providing a value and they have frequent maybe over the top evaluation periods, but then a lot of them receive annual bonuses based on their ability to execute on those key, those KPIs, those key performance indicators. Now I is, is what your software does basically taking that ethos and bringing it to our non corporate large and our medium sized and our small businesses and our nonprofits.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. That's exactly what we do. We actually, our system allows for the management of those, those, um, bonuses as well. So we've made the management easy. What we've encountered are two types of employers or HR people visit people like I don't know how to innovate. All right, we've got some ideas. Let me demonstrate a couple models to get the juices flowing, or I've got all these grandiose ideas on what I want to do, but I've got no way to manage it because at the end of the day, when you've, when you've got a lot of different ideas and then you're trying to manage'em via spreadsheets, which is typical and logical to do, it becomes a, an arduous task to come up with a process to manage these things.

Speaker 1:

A sense of revolution coming in compensation processes in tech, good stuff. We're gonna continue this dialogue. Part two of our chat with Dan comp from Dynamico systems is coming up very next episode. It's already there waiting for you of Wisconsin veterans forward. We'll see you there. Thank you for listening to Wisconsin veterans forward brought to you by the Wisconsin veterans chamber of commerce. Please visit us@wwiveteranschamber.org. Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast and leave a rating and review in whatever platform you're listening through.