USE THE BEST TOOLS
Men in engaging employees should be careful to get the best. Understand,
you cannot have too good tools to work with, and there is no tool you
should be so particular about as living tools. If you get a good one, it
is better to keep him, than keep changing. He learns something every day;
and you are benefited by the experience he acquires. He is worth more to
you this year than last, and he is the last man to part with, provided his
habits are good, and he continues faithful. If, as he gets more valuable,
he demands an exorbitant increase of salary; on the supposition that you
can't do without him, let him go. Whenever I have such an employee, I
always discharge him; first, to convince him that his place may be
supplied, and second, because he is good for nothing if he thinks he is
invaluable and cannot be spared.
But I would keep him, if possible, in order to profit from the result of
his experience. An important element in an employee is the brain. You can
see bills up, "Hands Wanted," but "hands" are not worth a great deal
without "heads." Mr. Beecher illustrates this, in this wise:
An employee offers his services by saving, "I have a pair of hands and one
of my fingers thinks." "That is very good," says the employer. Another man
comes along, and says "he has two fingers that think." "Ah! that is
better." But a third calls in and says that "all his fingers and thumbs
think." That is better still. Finally another steps in and says, "I have a
brain that thinks; I think all over; I am a thinking as well as a working
man!" "You are the man I want," says the delighted employer.
Those men who have brains and experience are therefore the most valuable
and not to be readily parted with; it is better for them, as well as
yourself, to keep them, at reasonable advances in their salaries from time to time.