Your Employees Are Talking About You

It's true. For good or ill, they talk about you all of the time. And you know what? As much as you might like to believe that all of it is good, you would be wrong a good portion of the time. You may also believe that your marketing message will keep you in their good graces, but it won't. Actions speak louder than words.

If you haven't noticed, people seem to share their opinions with whomever will listen and the Internet along with the 24-hour news cycle keeps all of us informed about everything. Strong voices may sway a fine person from working for you or being a guest at your property. Quiet voices do also get their share of attention. In our experience, savvy job seekers will weigh all of the words before they decide for themselves. But what about the ones that just see one bad review and decide to never check you out? What about those that have a negative experience that stays with them for years that they just can't shake? Is it worth losing a potential employee or guest because you did not think about how you treat / treated your employees or applicants? I hope that the answer to that last question is no.

We at Cool Works pay attention to what these job seekers and employees have to say and we do so for several reasons.

1. We cannot be everywhere so we listen to what is being said about previous, current or future clients. We want to make sure that the employers we highlight pass muster. As best as we can, we do a gut check to make sure that the employers we feature not only fit our niche of jobs in great places (tm), but also pass the "niece test." Would we send a loved one to work at this place?
2. We've been at this a while - 13 years - and we have (almost) heard it all. We generally can tell the difference between one person's bad experience and everyone's bad experience. Four out of five of us at Cool Works started our careers in seasonal jobs and our lives are the richer for those experiences. We believe that seasonal and summer jobs change lives and we want everyone to have a good experience.
3. Lastly, and perhaps the most important, is that our reputation is directly tied to those employers who advertise on our website. If you treat an employee well, we feel great about working with you. If you treat an employee or job seeker poorly, it reflects negatively on us. We're very sensitive about that and very protective of our tribe. The bottom line is that if an employer no longer passes the "niece" test, we'll pull them from our site. We don't like to do it and it's generally messy, but for us, it's not worth sending someone to a place that will only dash their dreams. Please pass our test.

Just so you don't think that it isn't all negative, we so often hear glowing reviews of our employers and awesome stories about how their summer job changed their lives, or that they've made friends that they'll have forever, or that the folks that they worked for were amazing. We LOVE to hear those stories. They truly make our days and keep us motivated to serve our job seekers and help you as our employers find great people. Keep 'em coming.

So how can you get the glowing review by your employees and job seekers?

• For starters, treat them well.
• Respond quickly.
• Respect their time and effort.
• Remember the Golden Rule.
• Pay them fairly for work done.
• Give them a safe place to work and make sure to return them safely to their loved ones at the end of the day.
• Listen to them.
• Heed their suggestions.
• Provide secure and safe housing.
• Give them an opportunity to speak to you before they share their experience with all of their "friends" on the Internet.
• Be a GREAT employer!

By treating your people well, you'll have fans galore. You may even have future guests to your resort or ranch or camp or whatever. You never know who someone is or who they know until you spend a little time getting to know them. Be worthy of their good words, because like I said, your employees are talking about you.