The new way to view HR in todays world w/ Katie Marie Meyer

     It's seems like there is a million ways to deal with our employees these days. Looking for the right approach can be a difficult task but, Katie Marie Meyer has some insight that might help things out. Want to gain the trust of your employees or make sure they understand what's expected of them and us? Here are a few tips and tricks from onboarding to P.I.P. plans  that just might do the job.

Visit us online at www.thertoshowpodcast.com
or email me at Pete@thertoshowpodcast.com

Sponsored by APRO, VOX POP ULI, Dialectic, and Jeraud Marketing

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

And welcome to the RTO show. I'm your host, Pete Shao. Today we're talking about HR and all the fun things that come with that in the rent-to-own space. And everybody out there in the RTO nation knows that we love going to HR and having HR handle all our issues and all the wonderful things that come with that. But there's another side of HR that I wanted to bring forward. And I think the best person to do that is Katie Marie Meyer from Central Rent to Own in Idaho. And she's already been featured on some APRO projects, and she's going to let us know how HR is going out in Idaho. How are you doing today?

SPEAKER_01 0:42

I'm doing well. How are you, Pete? Thanks for having me on.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

How was it to be featured and spotlighted in APRO?

SPEAKER_01 0:48

That was so kind. I really appreciate Jen. We had an idea. We found that it was going really well. And Jen took it and ran with it and asked the best questions. So it was really it was something special.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

I'll tell you what, Jen is one of my most favorite people in the entire world. And when Danny and I were first going to do the first RTO world, she was one of the people that actually made me feel like I wasn't crazy and that it was uh okay to be scared out of my mind. And so when we did it, she was really helpful and she always she always has a kind word to say and she helps me out of binds all the time. So Jen is probably one of my most favorite people in the world next to Charles. And so what I wanted to talk to you today about was how you get involved in your company and the way that you handle things because you seem a little bit more involved from an HR aspect than normal than the normal HR person. And you kind of get into the nitty-gritty because you only have a few stories. Tell me a little bit about Central.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

Sure. Central rent own. Um our owner is Kit Knight, and he's a gem. If anyone knows him, they'll tell you the same thing, even though he's gonna be really quiet. But he has four stories. Um I help with all of them. And yeah, we handle HR a little bit differently. Human resources to me really is all about the service, and I have to be able to serve well. And to serve well, you have to know about the nitty-gritty about the company you're serving. And so, like you said, we operate a little differently. I know all of the positions in the business, and that has helped me out of so many situations where maybe an employee doesn't think I know what I'm talking about, or an employee saying, HR just makes up rules. Well, I've done your job. So it's a great conversation. We have a lot of bantering and fun. HR definitely it's a different feel.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

So talking about approaching it from a little bit of a different level and the way you do things, give us a little bit of your background and where you come from, and then how in God's name did you end up in Rent to Own?

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Sure. Um, I went to school for communication. Basically, I just like to see how people interacted with one another and wanted to learn more about that. I worked full-time through college, um, and one was at a small business, a dentist's office, and they promoted quickly, and I ended up on the leadership team while still in college and fell into HR basically, long story short. I found out I really enjoyed the employee relations. Um, conflict management was always something that I excelled at. It's hard conversations are hard, but they're so important, and getting through them is so wonderful that there's a little bit of a question of why wouldn't you want to get to the other side? And so I found I had a talent there and um kept working my way up, went to Virginia Tech Higher Education. Corporations take five years to change anything. That's a problem. And my the problem solving part of me wasn't being satisfied, Pete. It was taking five years to change anything. So I wanted to go back to the small business industry. My husband and I moved to Idaho in 2020 in the midst of COVID. And Kit was hiring as a trainer. And so I started with him uh to kind of see what this business was like. And basically after 90 days, I went to him and said, Hey, I have this background and I'm sure I'm certified and have all this HR knowledge and you don't have that. So can I jump in in these areas and kind of help you out? And he said yes, and we talked about what that looks like, and here I am. So I am the HR generalist. I basically handle the HR strategy, any of the employee relations aspects, um, onboarding training. We do call onboarding welcoming because Kit says it sounds like waterporting. So um we do welcoming paperwork and all of that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

So all the way from Virginia, now you guys move all the way to Idaho, and then you find out that you have a love for rent to own, which is something that I think everybody can share that has been long-term rent to own at one point in time or another. I don't know if they really wanted to do it, but they get in it, they start it, and then they're like, you know what? I I kind of like this. This is kind of one of the direction I want to go in. How many stores does Central Rent to Own have in Idaho?

SPEAKER_01 5:26

We have four, and they're Idaho and Oregon.

SPEAKER_00 5:29

Oh, that's right. You do have one in Oregon. So what are those locations?

SPEAKER_01 5:32

Ontario, Oregon, Boise, Idaho, Caldwell, Idaho, and Napa, Idaho.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

Real quick, because I wasn't gonna ask this, but uh are there big differences in the legality between Oregon and your Idaho stores?

SPEAKER_01 5:43

Yes, there are we don't treat our employees differently because Oregon tries to make laws to make sure employers are treating their employees well. And so all they're concerned about is making sure that if we fire an employee, that the employee had a chance to fix the issue. And we try to do that anyways. And then they want to make sure that the big companies are providing health care and PTO. Well, we have one location in Oregon, so we're not subjugated to the 50 plus employee rules.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

So then it gives you an opportunity to kind of run it the same way you would run all the other ones.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

Very much so. And since we do the employee terminations the same way across the board, we actually probably could be a little harsher in Idaho, but that's just not the heart. And like you said, it's one of the reasons why I do love this industry. The people here care about each other, and it's an authentic, genuine feeling. And I really appreciate how authentic and um communicative people in the RTO industry are, and how much everyone is just lifting each other up, and we all want each other to grow.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

That's absolutely true. Then I will say uh one of the reasons that I love doing this show is because I get to talk to people such as yourself who are part of smaller communities of RTO stores like you have four, and you guys really get to be knowledgeable and kind of really intersected with the people that you have, because you have to be. You can't be that distant. You have to really kind of get in and know the people and know what's going on. And in doing that, you really change the way that some of us look at HR. Now, I didn't look at HR the way you do, but seeing the way you've been in these these years and meeting you, and then seeing the way you are on LinkedIn, you always have these insightful little things. If you guys don't know who Katie Marie Meyer is, look her up on LinkedIn. She's got a plethora of information that goes on there that I think you guys would like. One of them was leadership training, and that was a big thing that I think has been going on in the RTO space right now. And the RTO nation's been talking about leadership training and that focus. How is Central Rent to Own in particular working on leadership training?

SPEAKER_01 7:47

Well, I think you and I have talked about Patrick Lenchoni, right, Pete?

SPEAKER_00 7:51

To a point, yes.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

It is he's one of my favorite authors, and so one of my favorite leadership trainings um is the five dysfunctions of a team, and we kind of made this leadership training that we did as a management team, but then we took it back to our stores. And basically, my thought process is what you focus on grows. And what we wanted to grow was encouragement, trust, accountability, um, healthy conflict. And the five dysfunctions of a team focuses on trust being the base of every team. So if you're thinking of a pyramid, trust is the foundation. And so what we do is we take these books, I read them and I make a smaller training on them, and we focus on what we want to take away from the book and take back to our stores. In this case, trust being the base of every team. If you don't have trust, you won't bring problems up because what's the likelihood of the problem getting solved? And then commitment fails because no one cares about the problem, and so we're not really committed to the solution. People aren't held accountable and the results suffer, right?

SPEAKER_00 9:03

Well, I've noticed that one of the big things that is too is that when you have when you have a culture within your stores where people can actually bring something up and not feel like there's retaliation, there's that open mindset where you can speak your mind. And we always say that in re with respect, but if you can't bring up the problems in your environment, you're not in a good environment. So if you can create that with your employees, if you can create that with the people that you have, that's excellent.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Kids have been using this phrase for a while, rowing in the same boat in the same direction. And we kind of tied it in with that trust of if I'm trusting that you're rowing in the same boat right next to me in the same direction, we ultimately will want the same thing. We want Central as a whole to grow, which means that I want the best for me, but I want the best for you too. And so if there's a problem, we need to tackle it together, whether or not it be store one or store three, whether or not it be it's two employees in one store, or it's with a manager and an employee. It doesn't really matter. We need to all solve it because I believe we're all going in the same direction.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

Absolutely. Now, that leads me to my second question because you were invited to Magic University. Dan Fisher has never invited me to the Magic University. I talked to Joe Lux, and you know what? I never been invited, but here we go with Katie Marie Meyer getting to see the Magic University in Pennsylvania under Magic Reynolds. Can you tell me a little bit about that and how that went?

SPEAKER_01 10:32

Yeah, I really appreciate Dan inviting us um over there. We, as a manager team, did a team leader retreat, and for I think a whole day, Dan showed us around his stores. We got to meet amazing people. I already knew um Joe and Mike, and they were phenomenal. Pat is also great, and so all of our managers were able to see how they operate and really take some key skills back with them. The Magic University specifically they invest so much in their employees, and their leadership training trains each employee up to different levels. So, one thing that we took away from them is we have different promotion levels. So our sales manager may come in as more of a sales coordinator, and then we have different things that they can work on to continue to grow and grow and grow. And so we really want to continually have that growth plan because then they know that we are invested in them. And if our if we communicate our expectations and we don't change those expectations, we say, Hey, we're not just changing the bar on you. We're going to make sure we're walking this path with you every time and communicating with you, then that trust is going to grow because we're not just yanking the rug out from underneath them. So that's one of the things I really loved about Magic University is that it communicates expectations, it gives them tools to grow, and then it rewards that growth.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

Now, while you were in the university, how much did you get to see uh Dan and the guys? Were they part of the university, or was it a whole different set of people during the university time?

SPEAKER_01 12:19

We got to see um Dan and the guy. So Joe actually was leading a sales class when we walked in. And I know you interviewed Joe, and I actually really appreciated that um podcast myself, and he was doing the exact same thing. He was leading these people on how to be better sales managers, and it was a really great experience because um they have all their the goals and the rewards on the walls, and then they have what their focuses are on the walls, their core values. And so we've actually taken that back to Central Rental as well. We are we have our awards banquet tomorrow, and we are updating our wall that has a word of a year, and it has who's won which award, and who won the face of central, which is a specific driver award that people are always really excited to um get. And we just really want to build back into our employees like Magic University and what they're doing in Pennsylvania.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

So, from an HR standpoint, how much of that training class that I'm gonna tell you right now, the idea of having a university or or however you want to call it, a learning program inside your institution where you take the time to constantly train again and again, and then not only train, but then take find new ways to do the things that we do, and then train on that as well. I love the what that what they're doing. I think it's an excellent idea. Putting your ideas to work and making that happen is utterly what the Magic University is. How much of that would you say you took back to Central Rent to Own and said, This is what's going on, this is what we learned there. We're gonna tweak it a little bit, but how much how how many ideas, how much, how much thought did you say, I'm gonna take, I'm gonna take a little bit of this and a little bit of that and take it back to Central?

SPEAKER_01 14:08

We we talked about it for a while, but also there's more than two reasons to do something. You might as well just go ahead and do it and see what happens. And so we took some ideas back, and we had been doing um when I started, we brought back the all of our sales managers get together once a quarter, all of our drivers get together once a quarter, and all of our accounts managers get together once a quarter. And at each of those time periods, we review training, we bring up new items, so on and so forth. Um Magic University does it a one step above us. It's not a once a quarter meeting where you get all of these sales managers who are different levels, it's targeted to each employee who needs to get to the next level. So if you have a if you have three sales coordinators, they're gonna have a training that gets them to the next level into being a sales manager per se. Um if they have same thing with accounts. We don't have uh that level of people, but from an HR perspective, you always want to be investing in your people because they want a reason to stay with you and they don't want to feel stagnant, they want to be needed, and so from human resources, what better way is to then show them that they have an easy career path right in front of them where we're investing time and effort, so much so that the sales director is going to lead you in how to be a better sales manager, and that's how much we care about them. We're giving you the best tools and the time to teach you this, and then we're gonna support you as you try to implement those tools.

SPEAKER_00 15:57

I love it. Now I will say, I I'm gonna I'm just gonna put it out there. You actually being the person and going to Buddy's University along with everybody else, that's not the usual role of an HR person. So it's kind of crazy, uh different in a good way that that you're doing that. So one of the things you've mentioned is HR taking on some of the roles that their employees learn or their employees have to do to kind of serve them better. So how have you implemented that in in Central? Is that is that what's took you over to the Magic University so that you can learn those roles? And have you been inside those roles at your one of your stores?

SPEAKER_01 16:36

I've been so a little bit of background. I started as a trainer, so I was supposed to be able to train um everyone in the first 30 days, basically. And I can still do that. I have a very good 30-day knowledge, I can do account calls up to six days late, which is not a huge brag. But when I am at a store and I answer the phone and I know how to take a payment and I jump in, that shows them that HR is there to actually support them. I'm not gonna stand there awkwardly while I'm like, are you gonna get that? No, I'm gonna jump in with them. I'm gonna do it next to them. Since I started as a trainer, I did know a little bit about accounts, but going into being at the human resources generalist, I wanted to make sure I stayed up to date with all of the new sales techniques with Arto Digital and how do we want to make ourselves better? And we changed our collections process a little bit, but that's that's a different story. This just helps me be a understand what they actually need from me and not to make assumptions about their work ethic or how come this number isn't here, and when they tell me their performance isn't really down. Well, I can explain how I'm reading the numbers, and then they go, Oh, that does make sense. And so that's been really great.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

Yeah, I mean, it's it's a completely different way because I know I've been to a couple of different businesses. I've worked for a couple of different rent-owned companies, and I've never been side by side by my HR generalist or director or however you want to put it. They it's just always one of those things like we have a dispute, or something's going on with a paycheck, or something's going on with disparaging uh comments that were made, and we have to sit down in the office and we got to talk about it. And I wanted to ask you about that because now that you can say I've I've been educated in a certain sense, I have started as a trainer, I I kind of know what's going on because I've been to the universities, I know how to get you going at least in the first 30 days. So then how would you go about telling, let's say, a new GM? They're there, they're trying to deal with somebody who's having some lingering issues. Maybe they're maybe they're always late to work, or maybe they're just not doing the right type of uh work. You know, they're they're kind of subpar in how they they get things done, their efficiency is a little down, uh, there's a little lack of a drive for the job. How does what you know now help them get there? And and how would you tackle that?

SPEAKER_01 19:06

Well, for us, and I'm gonna loop it back to one of your earlier podcasts, you had a a podcast about interviewing, and I I think it starts there because you are communicating your expectations up front. So when we do the welcoming process, otherwise known as your onboarding, you create your expectations up front. And so for me, if they're having problems with an employee, my first thought is honestly, how did I explain the expectations up front well enough? Did I make sure that I communicated if it's tardiness, did I make sure I communicated that? Did I make sure I communicated what the expectations were for time and efficiency, so on and so forth? Let's say I did, and let's say that you have a great total reward system that people love, you provide flexibility where you feasibly can. Everything's great on our end, and they should be working well and they've been trained well. The manager keeps people accountable with the same expectations that I on board slash welcome them with. And I know that because the managers and I talked about the welcoming process and what expectations they wanted me to communicate. Because I can tell you one thing I'm not enforcing a rule that the managers are not also going to enforce. If I tell you not to cuss and the manager doesn't care, well, I just shot myself in the foot because people are gonna cuss, the manager doesn't care, and I look ridiculous because I'm trying to enforce a rule that no one else is enforcing, which makes the other rules I'm enforcing weaker. So we came up with the rules and expectations together. And if they are, like you said, constantly tardy and their work efficiency is down, the next thing that the GM and I do is we we sit down with um the GM has already done a verbal warning, which is part of our disciplinary process that they know about because I've gone over it with them. Um so the GM has done their verbal warning. They've done a probably another verbal warning. The first one is probably a hey, remember we want to do it this way. The second one was a hey, what do you need from me that is gonna make sure you do it this way? Once we get it's a repetitive issue, we have a thing called a performance improvement plan. And honestly, this builds back into creating trust upfront. If I tell you I'm gonna hold you accountable for something and then I don't do it, trust is actually broken there. So performance improvement plans, otherwise known as pips, that there's an issue and that you've given them steps to fix it. However, we use the performance improvement plan as just That as a plan. We don't even make the plan for them. We collaborate and tell them, hey, look, these actions are really impacting your work ability and the team. What can we do together to get you to insert expectation here? And we're going to write them down and we're going to put them in a plan. And then and this is the important part. We verbally talk about firing them right then and there. And the verbiage that I usually use is not a, oh well, there might be dire consequences if you don't make these changes, or we might have to rethink our relationship. It's very blunt. It's unfortunately these actions are really impacting your workability and the team. Our expectations are you do these things to solve it. If you don't make these changes in this time flame time frame, we will have to let you go due to performance issues. And I want to make sure we're on the same page. So can you tell me what you're taking away from this meeting? And we do that because they trust us to tell them when things are going wrong. We've tried to help them through this, and now we're making it abundantly clear what we're asking them to do is important and that we need them to change it, or we are going to actually follow through and letting them go.

SPEAKER_00 23:20

Do you feel that sometimes HR is a little bit too light as as far as their verbiage? Kind of like you said, that they don't use maybe a more direct approach like they should, and that sometimes it gets lost in translation, and that's why sometimes things don't get fixed.

SPEAKER_01 23:32

I cannot tell you how many times an employee has come to me after our talk and told me that at their last job they were fired, and they looking back can understand, oh no, that meeting meant that I was gonna get fired. But their manager or their HR person told them, you know, there might be repercussions if you don't do this thing. What does that mean? We don't they didn't understand that it meant losing their job. And so, yes, long story short, yes, I think it's a it's a huge problem that people don't blatantly tell them that this is the consequence, and there's no legal reason why we shouldn't. We're letting them know what the consequence is up front. And I actually I told Kit and the managers this when I started. It's definitely where my heart is with employees is that I won't fire for performance issues unless they have been explicitly told that they are going to be let go if they don't change and they said it back to me. Add a couple of employees tell me, I'm hearing that I'm gonna be fired if I don't change, and so I'm well dang it, I'm gonna change. And music to my ears. And we've actually had more successful pips where an employee has changed and stayed than um failed pips where we actually had to move forward with firing.

SPEAKER_00 24:59

It sounds like having a more direct approach kind of just cuts through all the fluff. And you're saying, in all honesty, regardless of the fact this direct language doesn't cause more people to leave, it actually allows them to perform better overall. You're saying that the percentages show that they'll actually stay and get better versus leaving.

SPEAKER_01 25:19

What you're doing is you are creating a relationship where the employee knows that you're gonna tell them without any BS what's up. And if they mess up again, they know that they're gonna have a secure job until their manager or until Cater Marie comes up and goes, You need to change it, or I'm firing you. Now, this does not apply to you break a law at work. That's an immediate termination. You can't give me a PIP plan for that.

SPEAKER_00 25:49

I don't know what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_01 25:50

Yeah, but for the big ones, there's there's some things where I make it clear on the welcoming process that these are the things that you'll be immediately terminated for. Everything else, we're gonna try to do a performance improvement plan whenever is possible. And exactly right, Pete. We have seen the trust grow. We've seen more people become more comfortable because they know what's expected of them. And they're not wondering, did he mean that where I'm gonna get fired if I don't do that? If so on and so forth. I had this one employee and she is amazing. In her first month, she asked me probably close to 15 to 20 times if she was gonna get fired for no reason. She's an amazing employee. She was just really worried about it because of her history with work. And it's because she's had HR, her manager goes, You're doing great, you're doing okay, you know, maybe fix this. And then all of a sudden she was let go. And she never saw it coming, and so now she's paranoid. And thankfully, that has gone way down. Comfortable, she's amazing. I can speak nothing but good things of her. But yes, the vague language to be completely blunt, Pete, it's only showing that you are not being brave and authentic when you're talking to your employees. If you're not caring enough about them to tell them up front what's going on, you're setting them up for failure. And maybe there's a couple people who don't know that or they think that they're helping, but they want to be nice and they're worried about hurting people's feelings, it actually makes it worse.

SPEAKER_00 27:31

So, what would you say to somebody who's in HR who's actually using what you what you call that side verbiage where they're not, you know, they're not being as direct as they could be. I mean, what how damaging can that be to an employee relationship?

SPEAKER_01 27:43

Well, I would tell them I've given them a lot of books to read, Crucial Conversations being one of them. That's a great one. And I can't remember the writer, but it damages the trust between it's one of the reasons why HR has such a negative reputation that it does. If HR wants to make sure everyone feels good, but at the end of the day, HR is here to make sure that we're all on the same page and moving the same direction, whether or not it be writing policies or making sure that everyone can grow in the same direction the company. We're here to encourage everyone to move as a team. And clear communication is at the heart of that, and that's what builds trust.

SPEAKER_00 28:28

Trust is a good thing, especially when it comes from the employees upwards. Because we kind of expect to have our employees do what we need them to do because we, you know, for a plethora of reasons, but they they also need to trust us. And if we're not trustworthy, that creates a problem. And I've polled and have been polled on certain things, and I will tell you that some people, as much as they say that it's just rude or it's bad, they actually prefer the straight language, and it it just cuts down on some of the fluff. Now, if I didn't know any better, I'd say it sounds like you're taking extreme ownership of the HR role and what it is you're trying to do. And I've heard you mention it, you've mentioned it on various social media sites. What exactly is extreme ownership and how does it apply to the R2O world of human resources and central rent home?

SPEAKER_01 29:17

So extreme ownership is a book, and it's also one of my favorites, but it's not by Patrick Lincioni, it's by Jocko Willink and um Leith Baben, I think. Um it's about Navy SEALs, so it's automatically cool, and they have a lot of stories and behind the scenes of how it is to be a Navy SEAL, and I will never qualify ever in my life, but it was really cool to read about them. And my biggest takeaway was taking responsibility for everything that I can impact that impacts my team's goals. Um, there's always that temptation, like we were talking about, to sidestep an issue or pretend it doesn't exist. Um, that HR, and honestly, GMs, owners, employees themselves, like we all have that temptation, and that will kill a team every time. Uncertainty creates anxiety as a culture. We're already dealing with heightened anxiety and depression. So that uncertainty just enhances that, and no one knows where they're going, and then all of a sudden we're not rowing in the same boat and the same direction anymore. So if I drop the ball on one of my responsibilities, it's my responsibility as a leader to own that mistake. Um, and how can I expect team members or others on the leadership team to do the same when I'm not doing it myself? And so for me, of course, we've talked about a couple of things. I mean, that's the hiring, the training, performance evaluations, seeing into the future about employee concerns and all of those HR talents.

SPEAKER_00 30:50

You mean to tell me that you have an HR crystal ball?

SPEAKER_01 30:52

Of course. That's how I'm so successful, Pete.

SPEAKER_00 30:55

Of course you do. You know, I I I love the idea of extreme ownership. It it took me a little while to kind of understand how it could affect me on both sides of the spectrum. Because I do have a lot of guys out there who say the same thing, but they'll say they want to be direct, and sometimes they're direct with the people that they have now, and they're finding that people around 25 to 27 and under are really not taking it that well. And so when you're when you're that direct, sometimes you get the I'd I'd rather just be somewhere else. Now, from an HR standpoint, how are you direct and have your attention rates high versus direct and not? I mean, how how do we have those great conversations from Katie Marie's standpoint?

SPEAKER_01 31:39

Great question. So let's assume, again, that you have all the total reward total rewards, um, great pay, great culture, all of that. Um, and that generation, Gen Z, is taking that feedback a little rough. How I start feedback with someone who I don't think is going to take it very well is um and I stole this from one of our managers, Matt Grant. He this he uses this often. He goes, I would want you to tell me if I was doing this, and so I'm sharing with it, sharing it with you so that we can move through it together. I noticed this, I want you wanted to know how you would want to solve it, and if I have some ideas if you want to hear those too. And so it's literally saying, Hey, I want feedback too. And to be honest, Pete, we get feedback from our employees, maybe not quite as much as management gives feedback to the employees, but we really try to make that a two-way street as much as possible. We want our employees involved. And so saying for our manager to say, Hey, I would want you to tell me if I was doing this, so I'm sharing it with you in the same courtesy so we can move through it together, just puts us on the same side. I don't think you're bad because you're doing this. You're on my team. This habit is bad, and I want to I want to knock that habit way out of the park. I don't want to see it anymore. But we're doing it together. And so I think that's really what people want. They want to know that what they're doing is important, and Gin Z especially wants to make a difference. And so, how do you make people feel needed or that they're making a difference? I don't know about you, but have you ever come back from vacation and no one really knows you're gone? No, I doubt it. I highly doubt it.

SPEAKER_00 33:28

I actually don't know that. I I can honestly say, I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing, but I can tell you that the last time I went on vacation, believe me when I tell you, I felt every bit of it. Uh I came back having to run twice as fast as I did when I left. But uh, you know, that that's just me. I don't know if that's a good bad thing. I mean, it's it just sounds like when you're having those conversations, and I know that it's it's probably a lot on everybody's mind, but the way people think about how they're living their lives and what they want to do and the jobs that they're gonna have in recent times are different than they used to be. And so a lot of what I have, a lot of colleagues in the business say, you know, I have people of this age range that when we start telling them, hey, you're not getting it right, this is the consequence of what's going on, they have a tendency to say, Okay, sounds good, I'll get it done, and then within 24 to 72 hours, they're out. They don't want to face that situation. And it's so I've kind of been trying to figure it out myself, and I was hoping that maybe talking about it here can help me out and maybe help everybody else out there.

SPEAKER_01 34:29

As awkward as it is, on their very first day, I make sure they know the disciplinary procedure, which means that on their first day when I hire a new employee, I'm talking about termination, which by the way is really awkward. As smiley as I am, it's still really awkward. And the reason I do that is because then it gives them the knowledge that we have a feedback system. We're gonna tell you when you're doing something wrong, so you don't have to worry about is what I'm doing correct or wrong. We're gonna tell you it when it's when you're doing it right, and we're gonna tell you it when it you're doing it wrong. And the reason we do that is it's really easy to give good feedback. Really easy. I think you're a great podcast speaker, Pete. I think you do a good job. I've also emailed you um a couple of things where I'm like, hey, this is really cool. Confused about this thing or this aspect. And I really appreciate how you explained it to me. But because I have that trust for you, I know that you're not gonna take that as a you're a bad person. You're just gonna take it as like, cool, let me explain it for you. A lot of managers, and not everyone, thinks if subconsciously, that if I give negative feedback, you're gonna hear that I think you're a bad person. And one thing I do when I talk about termination um with someone who isn't a pip, is I make sure they know that I think the world of them. And I find the things that we want to keep them for. So let's say that you have a person who's really good at doing a lot of different aspects, but their tardiness and the fact that they never file paperwork is really, really um affecting the rest of the team because they just refuse to do it. A better example is they're just not fit finishing their projects on time and they're taking a really long time about it, but the work is really well done. Um, I don't want to let them go just because they're taking a slow time, but I do need them to work faster. And we've talked about it, they made promises, they're not following through. So I'm gonna sit them down and I'm gonna tell them your work at the end of the day is excellent. I really appreciate how much care you put into how into your reports, into making sure that all of this is done correctly. However, at this level, it shouldn't take you this long anymore. And we've talked about that. And to me, it's really important that you grow as an employee. And as a six-month employee, we really need you to be doing this level of work in this amount of time because we want to keep growing you and we want you to keep doing a good job here. Unfortunately, if this doesn't happen, we are going to terminate because we need someone who can work at this level of expediency. As you've noticed, these problems have already come up. But again, I want to solve these with you because of all of these wonderful things you bring to the table. And so I do both.

SPEAKER_00 37:30

Now you see, that's what I'm talking about. I could definitely tell why you're in the HR department and I'm not. That sounded awesome. I it's great to hear that. And I'm glad that you're on the HR side of it to do that, because that sounded amazing.

SPEAKER_01 37:42

Well, thank you. I I like being in HR a lot. I appreciate my GMs and I appreciate all of the team members. And I would Kit is amazing. I would never want to be an owner because that's a whole level of responsibility that I just look up to and go, good job, Kit. So I love HR and I'm very happy with my role, and I like to give this input.

SPEAKER_00 38:03

Talk about being happy in HR and talking about being able to set yourself away from the rest and kind of being unique. Central Rent2Own was mentioned in April's new letter because they're doing this new healthcare benefit that actually helps the employees. So we'll we'll get off the employee section where we're correcting you. We're gonna give you a little help now. What was it that Central Rent2Own did and that you were a part of that really gave a benefit to your employees that didn't have they didn't have before?

SPEAKER_01 38:30

I love direct primary care. It's um a tool that I think a lot of small businesses can use. But even the businesses above 50 people, if you have health insurance, this is a great add-on. Basically, it's this health service where it's usually a small local business, you know, like a lot of us, but it's a small local business that's in your area that you partner with. Um, you pay a monthly fee for each employee. And um kind of think about it like a gym membership. If you go 30 times a month, or you don't go to the gym at all. I'm not gonna say which one I am, um, it's gonna be the same cost. For us, we have the independent family doctors. We have it's the same cost every month, so it's not like we have to worry about co-pays or honestly, really, any of the things that you have to worry about with insurance. You don't have to worry about every year you have to basically reapply for your insurance and maybe the rates go up, maybe they go down, you have to make sure everyone wants to be on the insurance again. You can add or subtract people any month. And so it's really very similar to a gym membership. And for us, we use independent family doctors, we get emergency service 24-7. So, I mean, if you have a deep gnash in your leg and it's 10 p.m., I'll give you a real life example. I had a pretty bad flu at one point at Saturday night. I was having a really hard time breathing, and I I actually didn't call because I had trouble breathing. My husband called for me, and our doctor answered, and it's 9 p.m. on a Saturday night. So the only choices are basically the EER or hope it goes away because all the urgent cares are closed. He was great. He offered to open his pharmacy up immediately to see um if he could get me anything that worked, but he gave me a few other options and I tried those and it they were great. So I obviously can breathe now. Um but we have personalized care, faster care. They're incentivized to get you healthy because it's not like our employees are paying more money to go. They don't pay anything when they go. There's a flat rate and it covers all these benefits for them. So when they visit, they don't have to pay anything.

SPEAKER_00 40:48

So that's it's it's great to hear that uh I mean, sometimes there's certain things that we do, and sometimes we don't know the effect it has until it's done. And it looks like you guys just knocked one out of the park with that one and how it how it affects the employees and how well they can get taken care of for a nominal fee. Nowadays, healthcare is one of the biggest issues on the mind of America, and I want to tell you right now, there's a lot of companies that I know, um, thank God that some of them are bigger, but some of them are smaller, like Central, and they're looking for the ways to supplement their insurance because it is getting more expensive year over year over year, especially with the inflation rates that are going up to get your employees some good coverage, some good healthcare coverage, and that's one way to go. If you guys want to take a look into that, uh hit up the podcast at Pete at the RTO Show Podcast.com. You can email me and I'll get you in touch with Katie. But last but not least, I wanted to talk about this because we're on a good side of the employees, and I saw something that really kind of tickled me. I thought it was I've never seen this before done anywhere. I'm sure it's out there. I'm not gonna say it's not, but I haven't seen it. And it was when you guys bring somebody on, right? And we're not just telling them that you're gonna get fired when you do something wrong. We're actually wanting them to fill out the page and says, just a few of your favorite things. And I saw you post that it was something that I really wanted to talk to you about. What was the mindset behind that and what is the purpose of having that page filled out?

SPEAKER_01 42:06

Well, we do we call it welcoming paperwork, and honestly, it's because we're excited to add another employee onto our team. We're excited to have another member of the family. We are excited that they went through the interview process and that they have all these skills, and we're excited for all the possibilities, and we like to give that back to the employee. And the favorite things, paperwork, um, is basically a cheat sheet for management and myself, anyone on the leadership team. It's very awkward when you want to celebrate someone's win, and you have to go, hey, I want to buy you lunch. What was your favorite food again? As a new employee, you don't know their favorite Dutch Bros drink or their favorite lunch order or anything like that. You have to um, so we want to be prepared to celebrate wins early on. And my favorite question on the sheet is how do you like to receive recognition? So this is a sheet. Um, it asks all sorts of things like if you found a gift card for the below amount, where would you go? Um, for like five, ten, fifteen, twenty, fifty dollars. And then we have your favorites list. What's your favorite color? What's your favorite candy, Dutch bros drink, crumble cookie? And then we have your favorite fast food orders, all everything. So, what's your favorite all these lists? My favorite is what's your favorite specialty drink? Because bubble tea is the bomb. I could drink it all day. So, how do you like to receive recognition? Is the biggest question that I want to circle back to. Because if people don't like to be publicly recognized, do not recognize those people uh publicly. Recognize them privately with a gift or their words or anything, because they are going to turn red and want to crawl into the floor. But if You recognize in private a person who would really appreciate that being shared with the company, you're making the mistake both ways. And so we ask, like, how do you like to receive recognition? Do you want it to be publicly announced, or do you want it to be private? Are you these are basically what I like to call your um your appreciation languages.

SPEAKER_00 44:20

And so is that really what it's called is it called appreciation language? Um is that Katie Marie's definition of of what it is?

SPEAKER_01 44:28

There are five love languages, and I'm pretty sure that they have an appreciation language version for the professional setting. But it's definitely how we make sure that they are getting celebrated in the way that they want to get celebrated. And they don't take home another fuzzy blanket because they know Cater Marie wants another fuzzy blanket. They take home the cool sports whatever because that's what they love, and Cater Marie doesn't know what to call that.

SPEAKER_00 44:58

Well, I mean, it's really good to know your your employees. It's really good to be on their level, and it's really good to make sure that if there's any way that you can make them feel better about walking in through that front door and just coming to work, that's something that we strive for. And that's one of the reasons why I wanted to have you on here because sometimes we as managers we do what we think is best in some of our leadership roles and we do the what we can, but we need advice too. And sometimes we need it from across the fence and not just from the employee side, but from the home office side, from the human resources side, and just letting us know this is the right way to do it, and if you can fit it in this space, this is gonna help you. Let me give you some ideas. We'll start with some ideas from Katie Marie. And the first one is be direct, make sure that you have that conversation, you have it up front. Make sure you have those conversations and those expectations put down firmly. Talk about the correction procedures and let them know this is what's gonna happen if it's not right. Make sure that you get feedback and you remind them that it's okay to give feedback because I'm gonna tell you, you can also tell me. And you have that open line of communication and build your culture by finding out how they want to be appreciated and what it is they care about, and giving them those goals to reach for. Because there's nothing like building the correct culture up front. Kate and Marie, it's been so great to have you on. I'm so glad that we've had the opportunity to finally sit back and try it a little bit so you can talk to me all about your HR ideas and what's going on. Is there anything new coming down the pipe?

SPEAKER_01 46:15

We have our awards ceremony, and that is going to cover a lot of our big goals for this year. And actually, one of our goals is to make sure that we are being direct and we are hitting those goals head on. Um, what our word for the year, I don't know if anyone else does word for the year, is somehow, somehow we're gonna get it done and we're gonna confront it head on, and somehow we're gonna find a way. So that's our fun thing for this year that we're really pushing towards, and we think it's cool.

SPEAKER_00 46:49

Well, we are so happy to have you on. I'm glad that you were able to share some of the knowledge that you have from being a part of Central Rent to Own and their HR department and a little bit of the leadership. If you guys have any questions for Katie Marie Meyer, please hit us up, Pete at the RTO Show Podcast.com, or you can go on the website, www.thertoshowpodcast.com. You can drop a link there. You can drop anything that you want and say, hey, this is a question that I had or something I want to do, and we can get you guys connected. Maybe we'll have you back on for a follow-up if everybody wants to know everything else that's going on in your head. If you guys have any questions, please you can also hit us up on social media, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. And if you do on there, sometimes we have those benefits of getting on there and you can see different things that we have going on, including the fact that the RTO show uh has the first ad in the April magazine that came out with the front cover that says Charles in charge. What a great picture that Charles took. That was amazing. Katie, it's been great to have you on, and I'm gonna tell you guys as always keep your collections low to get your sales high. Have a great one.