The U.S added another 339,000 jobs in May according to the most recent jobs report released June 2, which means the pool of candidates to fill your open positions continues to shrink. Overall, the U.S. unemployment rate stands at 3.7%. For me, this reinforces that although we’ve heard a lot of discussion about employee attraction, we may want to begin to focus more on employee retention.

In practice, most of us think we do retention well, but I suspect many people take the approach of “My people can come to me with anything — and if they ask for help, I’m willing to help accommodate whatever they need.” Which is great — it truly is — but employers may want to start thinking about being more proactive.

Here’s what I mean: Rather than waiting for employees to ask for a raise or a long weekend or special equipment or to sponsor an event they care about, what if the business leader brought it to them? What if you said at the next staff meeting, “Hey, team, we have $700 in the marketing budget. Which upcoming event would you like to see us sponsor with some or all of that money?”

It’s the proverbial unexpected gift at an unexpected time. Sure, an employee likes to get a raise when they ask for it, but what if you pulled them aside and said, “I’ve really noticed the work you’ve been doing lately and how much time you’ve been putting in, and I want to give you this raise.” Can you imagine what that would do for loyalty and appreciation?

Another great tactic is to ask your staff, “What equipment do you need to make your job easier or to make you more efficient?” You’d be surprised how often employees can point out one or two little changes that can improve their job performance. But they might be hesitant to bring it up. Some employees think bringing up those types of suggestions will make their employer feel like they don’t appreciate what the employer is already providing. In reality, most savvy employers want to know what they can do to make the business more efficient because efficiency equals profitability. If employers can’t afford that suggested change immediately, they can plan for it down the road. Even in that scenario, the employee feels heard and respected.

I personally experienced an example of proactive leadership just last week. My executive team has been asking to do my review (I was hired in May seven years ago, and so I prefer to do my review around that date). However, with my paternity leave and getting back in the midst of projects, I’ve been putting off my self-review portion, saying, “I’ll get to it when it slows down a little bit.” But my team stood firm and said essentially, “Nope, we’re putting you as the priority,” and so my review is coming in the next few weeks. I really appreciate them insisting that we do the review now — it makes me feel extremely valued.

Speaking of that, one critical piece of retention is making sure you are keeping up with the market. During discussion of my review, my team asked if there had been any salary survey done of nonprofit salaries since the pandemic. I administered a statewide chamber-specific survey in 2016 (spearheaded by myself and another chamber director), but nothing in the past few years.

To that end, there are many nonprofits and business associations in our region and around the state that are currently hiring or that have a lead staff person who is within five years of retirement. There are literally hundreds of business leaders in our region who are board members of local nonprofit organizations. If there was a salary survey of nonprofits, chambers and business associations, it could be very helpful to those board members and their staff.

So, I created a statewide salary survey.

I know different organizations have different budgets, and not all duties for all positions are the same, but the survey will help get organizations in the ballpark for what a lead staff person should be paid in their region. Also, it’s important to remember that regardless of what your budget can afford, if you were to replace that staff person with someone off the street, you would need to afford the market rate of similar positions in your region or industry.

Nobody has time in June for an in-depth survey about the different benefits packages offered, as this is the busy season for most groups. Therefore, I wanted a survey that could be done quickly and only dealt with compensation. What I created is an anonymous 90-second survey that is only six questions long.

The questions are:

• What county in your main branch office in? (For regional comparison).
• Is the organization a chamber of commerce, business association or nonprofit? (For broad industry comparisons.)
• Is the lead staff person full time, part time, seasonal, contractor or volunteer? (For employment class comparisons.)
• How many staff does the lead staff person oversee? (For size comparisons.)
• What is the lead staff person’s annual compensation?
• Do you want a copy of the results to sort and use?

This doesn’t cover every possible question, but it will be a good starting point for many organizations and it can be done quickly. I have sent it to my chamber colleagues statewide and encouraged them to share it with the nonprofits in their region so they can have their own regional comparison.

If you’d like to take the survey, you can find it on our website at midcoastmaine.com, on the Bath-Brunswick Regional Chamber Facebook page or directly at s.surveyplanet.com/mbleir3o. The survey closes June 30; results reported by mid-July. We ask that only the lead staff member or the president of the board fill out the survey to try and curb the duplication of answers.

Cory King is executive director of the Bath-Brunswick Regional Chamber of Commerce.