Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Ft. Worth Financial Professional Guy McCord, MBA Discussing Recruiting & Retaining Key Employees

Episode Date: June 16, 2023

Guy McCord lives in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area with his lovely wife of 30 years, Patricia, and their son, Andrew, who will soon be a senior in high school.Growing up in Plano, Texas, his grandparents were his heroes. One of his grandfathers served in Germany’s US Army and received a Purple Heart. His other grandfather was a West Texas rancher and worked for 40 years as a rural mail carrier. Guy’s grandmothers were steadfast in their faith.Guy has served in staffing as CMO, logistics, and commercial building maintenance as both a CFO and CEO. He has also served many small businesses in consulting.Guy is a retired Texas rugby referee and serves Dallas County as Presiding Election Judge. After earning his MBA in 2007, he authored 7 articles. He supports the Monastery of the Infant Jesus of Prague and St. Joseph.His faith is his foundation, and he lists Jesus, Mary, Joseph, his wife, his son, and his great friends among the most important things in his life.By structuring client retirement money to minimize taxes, safeguard against market losses and allow for upside gains while allowing for lifetime income.Learn More: https://guymccord.com/Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-ft-worth-financial-professional-guy-mccord-mba-discussing-recruiting-retaining-key-employees

Welcome to influential entrepreneurs, bringing you interviews with elite business leaders and experts, sharing tips and strategies for elevating your business to the next level. Here's your host, Mike Saunders. Hello and welcome to this episode of Influential Entrepreneurs. This is Mike Saunders, the authority positioning coach. Today we have back with this Fort Worth financial professional Guy McCourt, and we'll be talking about recruiting and retaining key employees for small business owners. Guy, welcome back to the program. Hey, Mike. How are you?

Hey, you do it. Awesome. So I enjoy our conversations. This has been some really great thought leadership that you're bringing. And I know today is a really big topic because for a small business owner, it is super, super important to get great employees and then keep them because there's actually a dollar figure that's associated to onboarding and losing someone and replacing someone. So when you're working with some of your clients that are business owners, where's the first

place that you're starting and bringing up that conversation to them? Well, I kind of use a two-pronged approach. Number one, I look at what are they doing to advertise for the person they need? And then secondly, I'm looking at what are they doing for retention? What are some of the things that are going to attract an employee to that small business? well the kind of people that my clients are my small business owners they're looking for they're looking for people with drive with a good work ethic and and people that are motivated by service and by money you know they want to support their families so we're looking at essentially on the on the retention side What does the benefit package look like? Is it cutting edge?

Does it have opportunities for the person, you know, what we call sticky, sticky benefits, you know, benefits that other company, other small businesses don't have a client the ability to have something that nobody else is going to offer that prospective employee. You know, that's kind of like in marketing, right? We need to stand out and be recognized for all the good things we do to attract new clients. Same thing is what you just said. You need to have a benefits package that is unique because people in the workforce these days that are considering coming into a small business, you know, like you're mentioning, they know what benefits packages look like. And when something one or two or three things stand out like, oh, now that's interesting.

That could really attract the right person and as well as keep them staying on longer and longer. So what are some of those unique things that you've seen? Well, I don't want to give away my secrets right now. But, you know, for example, we have the ability to offer a standalone. It's technically called a Section 125 voluntary benefit plan, section 1.25, just the tax code, for those don't know, that allows for a benefit package to be handled on a pre-tax basis. And this particular product allows the client to earn a tax savings on their payroll taxes of about a little under $600 a year per employee. Wow. So if assuming that the employee in question makes $20,000 a year or more, that employee will actually get a net income boost on their payroll check over 12 months of $1,800.

So not a lot of not a lot of my clients even. It's a it's a standalone. It's one of a kind out there in the marketplace. and my clients, the ones that are smart enough to listen and look at the program, have just been elated because they're boosting their employees paying by $1,800 a year with, you know, tax, without tax, for just using the program. And the program, the only cost associated for the employer is the implementation, which is just, you know, if they use QuickBooks, just putting that in as a line item on their payroll check. And then for the employee, each month, each of the 12 months of the year, the employee, you know, they download the app on their phone. And they have to do a little five-minute task, little quiz on their phone about their lifestyle, their health, their lifestyle and so forth.

And they just do that five-minute phone once a month. and they get that $1,800 year boost or more based on a minimum compensation of 20,000 a year. Now, I will have to caveat that and say that if the employee does not do their five minutes a month, they will end up with having to pay some income tax on the money that they didn't, that they're going to have to pay because they didn't do the routine. So, you know. Well, five minutes to get $1,800 or more, boy, what's the hourly rate on that? that's astronomical. I think that if someone told me that, I'd spend five minutes a month.

Yeah. Yeah. And it also benefits the employer. So, you know, there's no downside. The employer gets a per employee benefit as well. And the employee gets a benefit. And boy, that's, that is very, very unique. And it sounds like something that is super attractive. Well, the main thing for the employer, for the business owner is that this is a proven system that actually mitigates and reduces health insurance premiums. Wow.

Over time. So because it's helping the employee, you know, live a more healthy lifestyle and, and see a doctor when they need to see a doctor. You know, a lot of men, we don't like to see doctors. Yeah.

But so it really, over time, over like a three-year horizon. My clients see when they use this program that they see their health insurance. You know, instead of getting a 20% increase, they may only get a 10 or a 5 or no increase in premiums. So it's a great thing for the employer too. Yeah. It gives people better self-worth health, all of that. Those are tangible benefits, but the dollar figure benefits for both employee, huge. And I would venture to say that that one point right there ties right back. into what we started talking about, which is recruiting and retaining good employees, because if part of the recruiting interview process is the employer going, let me show you about this

wonderful opportunity, that would help that employee choose that company more readily. And then also, probably you might even have some stats or some case studies where, boy, people are staying with employers longer because they don't want to miss out on that plan. Exactly. You know, You know, you talk about tax qualified retirement plans with 401s or 403s or whatever. And so, you know, if you're doing matching for the employee, you know, again, just like you said, if they get, for example, a 3 or 4% match of what they put into their 401, they're going to be a lot less likely to go somewhere else that doesn't have that because they don't want to lose that, just like you said.

And I'm sure that we could find online some HR report of this, but I know that just as a broad statement, there are costs involved in like the revolving door when an employee leaves. There are costs to kind of get all of that, you know, clear it out and finding the new employee and getting them onboarded. And then the time it takes to get them up and running, there's literal dollar costs there. So if you can, you know, reduce that by keeping them longer, that's a huge. increase to your bottom line by not having those expenses, right? Yeah. What, you know, as a former small business owner, you know, I ran a company with about 150 employees in the commercial building maintenance arena,

you know, dollars are dollars. You know, I mean, you're, you know, as a business owner, you're managing a profit and loss statement, you know, every day you're looking at your cash flow, your receivables, you know, what's the health of my, of my organization. So, but the one thing that a lot of people don't think about is just, for me, is the hassle factor. You know, when I, if I ever had, which I really didn't have a lot of turnover, at least of people in the field, because we took care of our people. And we treated them like family.

They didn't want to go anywhere else because they were solid with us. And a lot of my clients, and when I talk to my client business owners, they're like, you know, I said, like, what's your biggest headache when it comes? to have a low retention. And they're like, just the hassle having to hire somebody new and train them up. And, you know, because every company's different and every company has their own culture and the way they operate. And every time you have a revolving door, you're starting all over. I mean, it's just a continual starting over of recruiting and onboarding and training and training and retention.

So it really, it's really cost effective and hassle effective. to retain your people. You know, first of all, you know, let's use an example like Southwest Airlines. I mean, they are the airline of choice. You know, I'm in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. You know, people, if you talk to the people that you meet on the street that work for Southwest Airlines compared to one of the other carriers that's big in this area, their whole attitude about life is radically different, okay?

They're happy, you know, 90% of them are happy. people compared to that other competitor. And it's just because their whole, their whole philosophy. I mean, for example, Southwest Airlines, and I hate to, you know, bark on Southwest Airlines, but, you know, they've just been a great company since inception. They don't have an HR department. They have a people department. Their whole way of looking at people is radically different from all their competition.

So, you know, that's a way to, I mean, I think before you've talked about the book, the purple cow, Southwest Airlines stands alone as far as the way they treat their people. So, you know, that ties right into company culture and all of that culture improves when employees feel taken care of. So when they have that benefits plan and they're getting more money and feeling better about themselves, they feel like, wow, I appreciate the money, but boy, I feel like my employer, the owners are caring for their employees. and I've heard of a company that I interviewed someone a couple years ago, and he says, you know what?

We like to take care of employees in unique ways, and we actually pay for a house cleaning service once a month to go into our employees' houses and clean their house so that they don't have to go home that one time per month and clean their house. And just a small touch, but it makes people feel taking care of. So that corporate culture is so huge to strive for. and when you have these benefit plans like this, it really puts another brick in the wall of building that solidifying company culture.

Exactly. And culturally doing things that no other of your competition is doing, it's not real hard to do. There's a guy down in Houston, because I was in Houston for 20 years during college and afterwards. There's a guy down there that was originally from Dallas, So he and I kind of went the opposite direction. Guy named Jim McInvail.

He's probably not known outside of Houston, but he started a company back in the late 70s called Gallery Furniture. And like most Houstonians, I bought furniture from this guy back in the early 90s. And I went there to buy furniture one night. It was pouring down rain. And it was on a Saturday night. And the sales lady that I was working with was not. not available. And I said, well, where is she? Well, she's having her lunch. I said, well, what restaurant did you go to? Oh, no, no, no, we have a lunchroom here. So I walked back there

the lunchroom and Jim McInvail, the owner was back there eating his meal with his people. And I sat down with him and I asked him. I said, hey, I said, Jim, I said, I mean, all this food looks, it's coming from Papadose, which is a pretty prominent restaurant in the Gulf coast. And I said, who's paying for this? He said, as I am. And I said, that's expensive. He goes, no. He goes, do you know how much it cost me if my employees leave the premises to go eat? And I'm like, no, but I bet you do. He goes, yeah, it's cheaper for me to buy them. Pappadoes, keep them here for lunch. Okay. And they eat here. And then they're back to work. It saves all that back and forth driving. I mean, they're just, they're eating

they're done. So, you know, we get creative with our clients on how to, you know, how to, you know, and people there love it because they don't have to leave, you know, and they get to eat, you know, top quality food. So it's, you know, you got to be creative. You really do. And that, that benefit plan you mentioned is one of the ways that you can kind of put a gold star by your offerings to recruit and retain employees. As a financial professional, what are some other kind of financial products that you would suggest to business owners to help them to, again, stand out and be seen as that attractive employer to retain key employees and to recruit them on board? Well, you mentioned key employees. Okay. First of all, you got to define what is a key employee

and what you've done that. Then we have certain offerings where we can offer certain life insurance accounts for those key employees such that they can put their money into those accounts and grow that money over the horizon of their employment. And if they want to take that money out later, it can come out tax free. So, and that's something that most of the small business owners I'm talking to do not do. And when they do that, One more thing, it's just another sticky benefit that keeps that person. They're like, I got $640,000 in my account. I'm not leaving here.

You know, I can't get that anywhere else. So, yeah, once again, creativity. You know, and not to get into the weeds, but I know a lot of these employer, you know, like investment plans, like 401K, 4, 3Bs, things like that, those are common. And you mentioned, like, growing tax-free. and let's not get into taxes because we don't have a CPA on the line. But I think that that's a really unique offering when you can say, hey, this is a unique financial instrument.

Not many employers are offering it. Here's the benefits to you because you're putting it into this product. And wow, as it grew, and we're funding it. You know, we're putting it in. You're not having to do, you know, maybe there's a match or things like that. But I think that when people realize that that's bettering their retirement, their financial future with some tax-free growth, that sure feels a whole lot better than just the traditional IRA 403B kind of plan that would be taxable.

Absolutely. You know, Americans are people, I would say most Americans are people of goodwill. Okay. We want to do the right thing. We want to follow the rules. We want to do our part. Americans are told from the day they enter a workforce with a company that has a 401, for example, we're told that, oh, you've got to be in this 401K, okay?

And so what they do is they, you know, they put as much money as they can into that 401k. And then when they get to retirement, you know, nobody ever told them that when they get to retirement, they've got a lifelong retirement partner. Yeah, the government. Yeah, the IRS. I asked all my clients that I talk to on their retirement money. I said, what do you think about your retirement partner? And they'll always say, you mean my wife or you mean my husband?

I'm like, no. I'm like, well, who? I mean, the IRS. What do you mean? I said, you've got to pay income taxes on that money you're taking out at 401K for the rest of your life. And they're like, what? I'm like, no, I don't like that. I'm like, okay, well, we can fix that.

but, you know, that's what you've done. And you were not given a choice, and you didn't even have a choice to pick that partner. Like, you know, I don't want a partner too bad. I want a different partner, too bad. Exactly. Yeah. Wow. You know, those are some really powerful points.

And I think that too many times business owners, and I love the fact that you used to be a business owner of a large enterprise with those many employees, you know exactly what they feel. And you can speak from experience to say, hey, love, look, here's the deal. And it's not some flashy pitch. It's just, look, man, when I ran my business, I know that I've wanted some, you know, wonderful opportunity to really wow people to attract them in, to keep them on board. Here's what I found. Here's what I can do.

If it makes sense to you, wonderful. But I think that that underlying, you know, takeaway is your, the employees feel taken care of. They appreciate the extra specialness of that, the difference rather than just, oh, here's discount at the local, you know, long distant or the cell phone carrier, whatever. Anyone can do that. But these that you're talking about, that's some real solid benefits. Yes, sir.

Yes, sir. So what are some of the things when you are meeting with a business owner when they are fully understanding this? Because, again, you can't talk to someone when they've got four phone lines ringing, three emails to answer, someone popping in the door and mentioning this because they're not going to fully get it, but when they sit down and fully understand these two or three main points we've been talking about, what is some of the reactions once you put these into place and then they come back to you a little bit later going, Guy, let me just tell you.

Well, going towards the first thing you just said, I will say that 95% of the small business owners that I talk with, that I meet with, they don't. they're working in their business. They're not working on their business. Okay. It's a constant, you know, it's like they're firefighters. The fire alarm is constantly ringing. And they go from one fire to the next.

So the first thing I do is I sit down with them and I ask them. I said, you know, if you could change three things in your business, what would they be? And they'll tell me. And inevitably, they'll tell me, well, people. And I'm like, what do you mean? How are people a problem? Well, well, the employees are a problem. The vendors are a problem.

The customers are a problem. My wife is a problem. Oh, okay, okay, okay. I got you. So we kind of set up a plan to kind of go to that and address those things. And I really worked to try to free up that person by giving them the tools. whether they're, you know, little snippets or articles, or if it goes to the extent of having a spreadsheet that has actually a tool where they can have their bookkeeper pop the numbers in, for example, their cash flow. You know, most business owners that I'm talking with, they don't know what their cash flow is going to be like.

Let's say today's Monday. They don't know what it's going to be on Friday. And I will take the tool that their bookkeeper will input the data week to week, and they will. know exactly on Friday at the end of the day how much cash they're going to have or need or need to pull from their line of credit or, you know, and included in that number is how much have they paying themselves? Because most business owners that I deal with, when I take them on as a client, they are not putting their own draw from that business in the calculation. So, you know, many of them can go three months without getting paid.

No, no, no, no, no. You don't need a job, Mr. Smith. You run a business. So the business is here to make you money, and we're going to totally turn that upside down on its head, and we're going to make sure you get paid. Otherwise, you know, you're not getting paid. You can go work at Jack in the box and do better than you're doing now.

So what they tell me at the end, I mean, they're just like, they're speechless because they didn't know they could do these things. So, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Love it. That's just so huge. I love your perspective on these and being able to serve the small business community, which is the biggest driver of our economic growth in our country. That's just amazing that you can do that. Guy, if someone is interested in learning more and connecting with you, what's the best way that they can reach out? Online at guy McCord 360.com or my number direct 214, 329-4800. Well, Guy, once again, thank you for coming on. It's been a real pleasure talking with you today. Thank you, Mike. Have a great one.

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