Express Employment Professionals Coaches Companies on Employee Retention
Express office in Tyler has long been the premier workforce management provider in East Texas.
Sponsored by: Express Employment Professionals of Tyler
The Great Resignation of 2021 shifted the traditional focus of the job market. Now, there are more “employee seekers” than job seekers. And Express Employment Professionals of Tyler, Texas, has shifted right along with this change.
“In this environment, the people calling the shots are the job seekers. And that’s different than it’s been for quite a while,” says Rocky Gill, who owns Express’ Tyler office with his wife, Carrie. “We’re following this situation closely so we can provide more services to the companies we work with and advise them based on what we see in the market conditions.”
Since opening in 1995, the Express office in Tyler has helped nearly 100,000 people find jobs, and it works with more companies (approximately 600) than any other franchise in the national Express organization. So the office has long been the premier workforce management provider in East Texas.
“In my 40-plus year HR career, I have utilized other staffing services, but the Express team in Tyler has proven time and time again to be head and shoulders above the rest,” says Mike Rostis, senior director of human resources at John Soules Foods.
This lengthy record of successful experience enabled Gill and his office to notice early on that the employment landscape is changing, an opinion reinforced by the release in April 2001 of a report titled, “The Demographic Drought: The Approaching Labor Shortage.”
“It talks about how we were in a labor shortage before COVID, and COVID only exasperated it,” Gill says. “There’s more competition now than ever for workers, and it looks like it will be this way for a long time.”
In response, Gill says his company began focusing more on helping companies retain the employees they already have. This includes the introduction of a one-year program called Modern Management designed to help companies improve employee retention through leadership development.
“Retention is a huge issue for every company,” Gill says. “Workforce has to do with both acquiring talent as well as keeping it once you have them. It doesn’t do much good if you get them in the front door and then they go out the back door.”
To help with retention, Gill says his team combed through an abundance of material about leadership, then summarized everything into six categories of skills that are needed to lead people well. That information is now being taught through the Modern Management program.
“We have always seen the need to try to help the companies we work with better manage their people,” Gill says. “We can help place the right talent with them, but then the companies need to engage that talent in order to keep them. This is just another effort to give our clients what they need to have a successful business.”