Why Small and Medium Businesses Win at Employee Retention Without Paying Big Wages
- Brainz Magazine
- 1 day ago
- 6 min read
Written by Maynard Hebert, Keynote speaker/ Consultant
Maynard Hebert is a Red Seal heavy-equipment expert, award-winning shovel technician, and the author of Onward Buttercups. He is a workplace culture specialist who teaches teams and leaders how to communicate better, work smarter, and build trust in high-pressure environments.
There’s a belief floating around the business world that refuses to die, no matter how many good employees it drags out the door on its way to the grave. It sounds reasonable. It even sounds responsible. And that’s why it’s dangerous.
It goes like this, “We’d retain people if we could afford big wages.” I get it. Payroll hurts. Benefits hurt. Fuel hurts. Insurance hurts. Everything hurts. But that statement, while comforting, is often just a clean excuse wrapped around a messy truth. Because wages matter, yes… but they are rarely the real reason people stay. Wages can keep someone quiet for a while, but they can’t keep someone loyal forever if the workplace feels like a daily stress test with no finish line.
Eventually, the culture catches up. Eventually, the supervisor shows their true colors. Eventually, the employee realizes they’re not quitting a job… they’re escaping an environment. And when that moment hits, it doesn’t matter how big the paycheque is. People leave anyway.
Let’s talk about money (because I’ve lived both sides)
At one point in my career, I was taking home $810.88 every two weeks. That’s the kind of pay where you don’t budget, you perform miracles. You’re not planning vacations, you’re planning which bill gets paid late without the lights getting shut off.
Then I went to Fort McMurray, and suddenly I was taking home $10,460.62 in one month. That should’ve locked me in for life. That’s “finally breathe” money. That’s “fix the truck, pay the debt, buy groceries without math” money. And I quit within two months.
Not because the money wasn’t incredible, it was. I left because the leadership was brutal, the culture was toxic, and every shift felt like paying rent with my sanity. The work itself wasn’t the issue. The people weren’t even the issue. The issue was what happened when pressure showed up, blame, chaos, ego, disrespect, and that constant feeling that no matter what you did, you’d still be the one holding the bag.
That experience taught me something I’ve carried ever since, money delays pain, but leadership decides outcomes. You can’t out-pay disrespect. You can’t out-bonus burnout. You can’t out-incentive a workplace that makes people feel small, disposable, or unsafe, emotionally or physically.
Employee departure is the invoice for bad leadership
Here’s a line I’ve said for years, and I’ll keep saying it until companies stop pretending they don’t understand it. Employee departure is the invoice for shit supervisors. And that invoice always shows up.
Sometimes it shows up loud, turnover, resignations, exit interviews, people walking out mid-shift. Other times it shows up quiet, absenteeism, low engagement, the bare minimum, the “I used to care but now I don’t” attitude that spreads like rust through a shop. Either way, the invoice arrives, and it doesn’t ask permission. It just collects.
The mistake many businesses make is assuming retention is primarily a “pay issue.” In reality, pay is often the decoy. The real problem is leadership, and leadership failures don’t always look dramatic. Sometimes they look like inconsistency. Sometimes they look like favoritism. Sometimes they look like supervisors who manage by threat instead of trust, who correct in public but never praise in private, who demand loyalty while giving none.
People don’t wake up one day and say, “I think I’ll quit because the wages are slightly lower than I’d prefer.” They quit because of what they’re forced to tolerate every day, disrespect, unclear expectations, unsafe environments, poor communication, constant chaos, and leadership that reacts instead of leads. Employees don’t leave jobs. They leave environments.
Why small and medium businesses have a massive advantage
Small and medium businesses don’t realize how much power they already have. They assume they’re at a disadvantage because they can’t compete with massive corporate wages, big perks, or shiny programs that look great in a recruitment brochure. But here’s the truth, SMBs have a retention advantage that big companies can’t buy. Why? Because you’re close.
You’re closer to the work. You’re closer to the people. You’re closer to the problems, and the fixes. In a smaller business, employees can actually feel the difference when leadership makes a good decision. They can see the ripple effect. They can feel stability when it’s created. They can feel safety when it’s protected. And when you’re close enough to respond quickly, you don’t need perfection, you need presence.
People don’t expect flawless management. They expect responsiveness. They expect someone to notice when things are breaking down. They expect leadership to step in before a small issue becomes a full-blown workplace infection.
Leadership is always on display
In a small business, leadership isn’t hidden behind five layers of management and a corporate policy manual thicker than a service manual for a 797. Leadership is something employees experience daily. They see how decisions are made. They watch how pressure is handled. They notice who gets blamed and who gets backed. They notice what gets fixed and what gets ignored.
They can tell whether the owner leads with maturity or ego. They can tell whether supervisors protect the team or protect themselves. And because leadership is so visible, it creates one of two outcomes, trust grows fast… or turnover grows faster.
You don’t get to hide leadership problems behind “corporate structure.” In a smaller company, culture isn’t theoretical, it’s personal. It’s felt. It’s lived.
People stay where they matter
People don’t quit places where they feel useful. They quit places where they feel invisible. When employees feel like they matter, they show up differently. They take pride in the work. They care about outcomes. They solve problems without being begged. They protect the team because the team protects them. But when employees feel like a disposable tool, something changes. They stop giving their best. They stop volunteering ideas. They stop taking ownership. They start protecting themselves. And quietly, sometimes months before they actually leave, they begin planning their exit.
Retention isn’t built by pizza lunches and motivational posters. Retention is built when leadership proves, consistently, that effort is noticed, people are supported, accountability is fair, communication is real, and respect is the baseline, not a reward for good behavior.
Flexibility beats pay more often than employers realize
Here’s something small businesses don’t use enough, and it’s sitting right in your hands:
Flexibility is compensation.
Not every employee is chasing maximum income. Many are chasing stability, sanity, and a life that doesn’t feel like it’s collapsing under the weight of work. Flexibility looks like realistic schedules. It looks like time off that doesn’t come with guilt. It looks like understanding when life happens. It looks like expectations that match human capacity.
People don’t burn out from work. They burn out from bullshit.
They burn out from chaos. From disrespect. From unclear expectations. From leaders who make everything harder than it needs to be. If your business offers an employee peace, predictability, and respect, you can retain people even without paying top-dollar wages.
Culture is cheaper than turnover
Turnover is expensive, and not just in dollars. It costs time. It costs training. It costs momentum. It costs customer experience. It costs the morale of the employees who stay behind and pick up the slack while the new hire learns where the broom is. Culture costs less than replacement. It always has, and culture isn’t about being “fun.” Culture is about what happens when things get hard. Culture is how people treat each other under stress. Culture is what leadership tolerates. Culture is what gets rewarded. Culture is what gets ignored. A strong culture doesn’t mean no conflict. It means conflict gets handled with maturity instead of ego.
Retention and reliability are linked
Reliable leadership creates reliable teams. And reliable teams stick around. When leadership is consistent, people feel safe. When people feel safe, they speak up. When they speak up, problems get solved early. When problems get solved early, teams don’t rot from the inside out. Retention isn’t a perk. It’s a result. It’s the result of leadership that’s stable, respectful, and accountable.
Final thoughts
Small businesses don’t lose talent because they pay less. They lose talent when they tolerate weak leadership. Big wages might attract people faster, but they don’t keep them longer when the culture is broken. If you’re an employer trying to win the retention game without competing in the wage wars, here’s the truth:
You don’t need to be the highest-paying workplace. You need to be the best-led workplace. Because at the end of the day… Employee departure is the invoice for poor supervisors. And that invoice always shows up.
Onward, Buttercups.
Read more from Maynard Hebert
Maynard Hebert, Keynote speaker/ Consultant
Maynard Hebert is a Red Seal Heavy Equipment Technician, author, and host of the Gears of Trust podcast. Drawing on decades in the mining and oil sands industry, he helps organizations strengthen communication, reduce turnover, and build teams that actually work together. His book, Onward Buttercups, has become a practical guide for mechanics, supervisors, and leaders looking for real-world, human-centered solutions to workplace chaos. Maynard blends technical expertise with humour, storytelling, and straight-talk leadership. He was recognized as Mader Mining’s 2024 Outstanding Employee of the Year. Today, he speaks, teaches, and consults across Canada on reliability, culture, and team performance.
