Hiring
Why do good employees leave?
Six people who run Montreal companies on why good people leave, and what makes them stay, in their own words.
Press play to hear each answer. Jordan and Marie-Pier explain why people go; Howard, Zack, Sanaa and Enzo, what keeps them. Each is under a minute; all of them take about 3 minutes.
- 01We didn't do our job properly
Jordan Perrin
President and co-founder, DuraClim
“We can't even be mad at the people leaving. It's just we didn't do our job properly.”
In DuraClim's year of fast growth, Jordan watched new people leave.
There weren't enough managers, the ones in place were new, and expectations weren't clear. Even for him it was new: he had never had 30 employees before.
Watch the full interview with Jordan → - 02Someone else offers $2 more an hour
Marie-Pier Hébert
Founder, MPH Solutions
“So even if you think you have a great employee, they just finished their training and someone else is offering them $2 more an hour, they'll say like, oh, sorry, I have another job.”
Marie-Pier fills remote positions for business owners, and says the ones she talks to are all struggling with the same thing.
Everyone has recruitment issues, she says. The labour shortage is real, and so is the turnover.
Watch the full interview with Marie-Pier → - 03You can only earn their respect
Howard Szalavetz
President, HS Properties
“It's like you could pay somebody to work for you, but you can only earn their soul and their respect.”
People sometimes spend more time with their work friends than with their own families, Howard says.
So HS Properties invests a lot in its team, “or our family, as we call it.”
Watch the full interview with Howard → - 04Halfway out the door
Zack Colavecchio
President and CEO, Access Signs
“When I purchased the company, he was halfway out the door, been with the company for 20 years, one foot out already.”
Zack's focus for his first months as owner of Access Signs was getting everyone on board with his vision.
Six months in, the same man told him that if the company ever went public, he wanted to invest.
Watch the full interview with Zack → - 05Truly part of it
Sanaa Benzakour
Co-founder and co-owner, PMML
“They want to feel part of it, basically. Part of it, but truly part of it.”
At PMML, brokers and executives who have been there five years are given a share of the company.
For Sanaa, it was a no-brainer: “we need to share.”
Watch the full interview with Sanaa → - 06They came back
Enzo Vardaro
Senior Vice-President, Artitalia Group
“Who better to train our next generation of skilled laborers than the guys that have been there for 40 years?”
Some of Artitalia's employees have been there since the beginning. Some retired, then came back.
Some returned for friendships built over 40 years, others because of the cost of living. Now they train the next generation.
Watch the full interview with Enzo →
Each clip comes from a full interview on The Vault MTL. The link under it opens the guest’s page, with the whole conversation.