Page A14 march 2023 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS Se c t i on A 1-888-792-9315 • mymortuarycooler.com Scan QR for our website Cots not included MODEL # TR3 Triple Cot Roll-In Mortuary Cooler AMC N W FAST SHIPPING AVAILABLE ON SELECT PRODUCTS AMRA INSTRUMENTS Researched, Developed and Patented by Funeral Directors Research,Inc. visit www.amrainstruments.com for links to our Supply Chain Partners ™ ® We test ours in the lab soyoudon’t have to test it in the real world. 1-800-992-1925 | CustomAirTrays.com © Custom Air Trays YOURWORST-CASE SCENARIO...WOULDHAVENEVERHAPPENED WITHOURAIR TRAY. IT’S TESTEDTOWITHSTAND1,000LBS. tied to their business they can’t take a break from it without it suffering financially. I realized this myself and I’m on the “vendor side”. Death happens at any time so we’re always on call. For me, that meant I couldn’t take a vacation if there wasn’t anyone to handle doing the work. Naturally, I hired staff. Then I realized that if I’m investing all this time and money in them I gotta give them a good reason to stick around which meant paying a living wage and providing growth opportunities. I also had to make sure I had ways to help them relieve tension and pressure so they don’t burn out and quit. I also needed to make sure I had ways to recognize and reward hard work which bolstered morale and created loyalty. That was just the start. When I didn’t do these things I had staff turnover. On top of that I could only take weekend vacations that were close to home so I could run home and do a keepsake order if it came up. In other words, I didn’t have a brand or a business. I had a job, the worst one imaginable because I could never get away from it if I wanted it to survive. Even in corporate America you get twoweeks vacation where you can completely detach from work and still have a job when you get back. What Business Ownership is Really Truth be told when you opened your doors your job changed from doing the embalming and meeting with families to providing work for others that want to be a part of the vision and impact you wish to have in your community. Those type of people will go to bat for you, talk about you freely to others and give you their best because they see clearly that what they do is recognized by the entire team and community. All of that is happens when you have a strong funeral culture. If you don’t think it works just look at Zappos, an online shoe brand that built its entire business on creating a culture that both employees and customers were extremely loyal to. I believe when they moved headquarters from San Francisco to Las Vegas only 10%-15% of staff left. Think about that. People uprooted their entire life to follow a company they personally identified with. If you decided to move your firm to another state would your team follow you? Zappos eventually sold to Amazon for $1.2 billion dollars. So how can you leverage the power of creating an engaging funeral culture? All Change Starts at the Top It all starts with your firms’ leadership. Try and answer the following questions: • What are your values? • What impact do you want to have in the world? Funeral Culture —An Overlooked Part of Your Brand By George Paul III George Paul III Good Help is Hard to Find Go on many of the Facebook funeral groups and you’ll read about firm owners looking for good help, people being burnt out as well as people leaving the industry due to the stresses they’re dealing with. The lack of support and growth opportunities they’re not getting at the firm they’re with is causing them to go the corporateowned funeral home route or leave the industry altogether. These are all culture issues. Your culture consists of the ideals and vision your firm represents. These manifest themselves in how you go about your business and deal with others. They should also be clearly defined and easily found by others who touch your brand. Your culture should make people want to be a part of your brand since after all we all want our work to mean something and have an impact. However, the power of your culture goes well beyond just stating ideals. A well-defined funeral culture makes hiring easier because you’re looking for culture fit not skills fit. Skills you can teach and is actually part of your culture to foster growth within your firm. But personality matchings, which is essentially culture fits, are not something you can teach since that’s beyond your control. Gary V. says culture is everything in business. If you have someone who doesn’t fit your culture they can be toxic and bring both morale and business down. One company that a very close friend of mine is a part of is having this issue and it’s literally costing them thousands of dollars a day. A mass exodus is happening there as a result. What’s the affect? Well, the company is going to have to pay more in order to attract new people. They’ll spend thousands in training staff and then when that person realizes the company’s culture sucks one of two things will happen. Because they’re being paid enough to stay they’ll reduce their performance to what’s essential. That’s what the great resignation is all about. This is because the company culture is sucking the life out of them and they only want to give the least amount of energy and effort in order to preserve it for things they really love. The second option is they quit and the company loses thousands it spent in training. Now remaining staff is upset because of the work overload, they’re frustrated that no one stays and they’re starting to realize what the root issue is. Now they’re wondering how long they’re going to stay as they plot their escape from the life sucking hole they’re in called a job. Corporations have millions even billions of dollars to keep their doors open until they address it or not. Your firm is not immune to culture issues and you don’t have millions in reserve funds to keep your doors open if you don’t strengthen your culture. If you have high staff turnover then your culture needs to be fixed and soon. You need to address it before your back is against the wall. Culture is Trickle Down If you want a fulfilling life outside the funeral home you need to fix your culture. Many firm owners are so Continued on page A16 Order On l i ne at www.Nomi sPub l i cat i ons. com or ca l l 1-800-321-7479 “ I Lo ve My Fune ra l D i rector ” “ I Lo ve My Cemete r i an ” Now is the PERFECT T IME to order the PERFECT GI FTS Order Your Favorite Plush Animal with a Funeral Director or Cemeterian Shirt! Customization Available! Call for Details.
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