Water Well Journal
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/1330849
facebook.com/WaterWellJournal WWJ February 2021 n 31 writes that the shift from an employer-driven market to a candidate-driven market has created a war on talent. This has certainly been the case in the water well industry and forced employers to compete harder for good candidates than ever before. As the name implies, the purpose of a stay interview is to learn what makes employees want to keep working for the company and what might make them want to leave. Walsh recommends conducting a stay interview at least once a year opposite the employee performance review, and twice in the critical period during which a company experi- ences turnover of new hires. "Conduct enough stay interviews, and you might find most of your employees are citing the same reasons for staying—or wanting to go," Walsh writes. In the water well industry, praise or constructive criticism on an informal basis are common, but companies often miss out by not regularly scheduling reviews. "I feel a formal review process would be beneficial for the employee and the manager/supervisor," says Partridge, the 2021 NGWA president. "We've lost a few employees because they were unhappy where they were at. The solution could have been an easy fix, but they didn't bother to tell us about the issue, and we didn't bother to ask." Stacey Henrich, executive assistant at Bergerson-Caswell Inc. in Maple Plain, Minnesota, has seen the benefits of con- ducting stay interviews. "A stay interview asks employees to think outside the box about their work," Henrich writes in a 2018 WWJ article "Minnesota Drilling Firm Shares Benefits of Stay Interviews" (waterwelljournal.com/minnesota-drilling-firm-shares- benefits-stay-interviews). "We ask in our stay interview how employees feel about the work they do. Is the load too much? Are they getting bored? And, if yes to getting bored, what can we do as a company to make their work more challenging to keep them motivated? "We even ask what would be a reason to leave our com- pany. This is where we get honest answers, and it shows us what we need to do to make our company a better place for everyone to work." Besides engagement surveys, wage increases, and com- pany events, Alexander says making sure employees feel valued is important. "Talk about family and ask about their daughter's dance recitals and working around family life as much as possible," Alexander says. "Have that understanding and be human with them." Cascade also offers multiple employee perks such as tui- tion reimbursement and compensation for acquiring a com- mercial driver's license (CDL). The company has a career progression model that shows how an assistant driller can become a driller or project manager. Grooming the Next Leader For a business to succeed in continuing its operation, new leadership will be necessary. In other words, succession plan- ning is necessary. Tim Yoder, CVCLD, president of Yoder Drilling & Geo- thermal Inc. in Sugarcreek, Ohio, has three sons who work for the 54-year-old company. He's grooming his oldest son, Mitch, 32, to take the reins when the 57-year-old decides to retire. A fourth-generation employee, Mitch is taking it day by day, learning the skilled trade alongside other employees be- fore anything is handed to him. It was that way for Tim and his father, Dan. It's been that way for countless others in the water well industry. "I always had the support and knew I had the back of my dad," Tim recalls, "and that's one of the most important things to do with my sons also." Tim didn't push his sons into the business but instead allowed them to choose their career. He credits the relation- ship built at a young age as to why they work well together at the company today. "It's not that we don't disagree and have typical family issues, it's just we know more how to handle it," Tim says. Mitch, who spends most days in the field, earned a business degree in Kentucky in 2011. He then worked in the private sector for three years before deciding to move back in 2014 to work with his father and brothers. "We care about it because it's the family business and we've decided that this is what we want to do," Mitch says, "and we're 100 percent invested in it. I think we're really blessed to have the core group of employees that we have." The company core consists of three employees with 20- plus years of experience. The two longest tenured employees have worked for more than 40 years and will retire in the coming years. "That's something you can't really quantify," Mitch says. "It's priceless to have people willing to stay like that." In 2020, Yoder Drilling & Geothermal prioritized ways to retain its employees by restructuring its pay and offering raises. The company's prior pay scale was on a drilled footage basis, but as the company has phased out of blasthole drilling, it became obsolete. It also created a responsibility-based incentive pay where the employee in charge of the drilling crew gets paid extra on top of their hourly rate. "It's been very helpful. Guys are pretty happy about it," Mitch says. HOW TO RETAIN EMPLOYEES continues on page 32 Read the Entire Series This concludes the three-part series on workforce development in the water well industry. Parts 1 and 2 can be found at waterwelljournal.com/category/feature. WWJ Resources on Retaining Employees • "Stay Interviews Help Retain Talent": waterwelljournal.com/ stay-interviews-help-retain-talent • "Minnesota Drilling Firm Shares Benefits of Stay Interviews": waterwelljournal.com/minnesota-drilling-firm-shares- benefits-stay-interviews • "Attracting Millennials in a Tight Market": waterwelljournal. com/attracting-millennials-tight-market.