ASSEMBLING THE TEAM
Feb 1, 2000 12:00 PM, Ted Tate
Operating a successful business means staffing it with the right people, and although finding them today is more difficult than before, they are out there.
In all my years in the business world, I cannot recall a time when there were so few candidates for employment opportunities as there are today. In order to compete for the ones available, the employer must be increasingly creative and work much harder to reach required goals. Finding the right installer or salesperson is not one act; it is a series of successful steps that carry you and the candidate to the altar.
There are many steps involved in hiring the qualified person. First, cast the net. Various ways we get partially qualified individuals to the interview table include conventional (newspapers and employment agencies) and non-conventional methods (strategies using networking techniques to find people who are qualified but may not be seeking employment at this time). Next comes the initial qualifying at which point you determine if the applicant has the basic skills and experience required to justify an interview. Then comes the interview in which you find out about the applicant's background, personality, and employment requirements and further qualify the applicants skills and interest in the opportunity. After the requisite background checks, comes the actual hiring. This article primarily covers the first part of the process, finding suitable candidates, people who not only can do the job, but also will do the job. It is just like selling. Without prospects, the greatest sales presentation in the world will get you nothing. In recruiting, if you do not have the candidates, the rest is irrelevant.
Subcontractors
There are people who will work for any sound contractor on a per-job basis. When I was in the alarm business, we used them from time to time, usually out of sheer desperation. I have mixed feelings about using people not under my direct control. I admit that I have worked with people who did a good job and left my customer satisfied.
On the other hand, I have also had lots of difficulties with some of these folks. The biggest being dependability on a continuous basis. Many times, I would get false promises about going back to correct bad work, starting and completing a job on time and their abilities to do certain kinds of work it later turned out they couldn't really do well. I have also had them solicit my customers to do other jobs on the side or to do add-on work to the project for which I had hired them that should belong to me. Sometimes, I would give them the wire and equipment to do the job, and in a few cases, against my better judgment, a cash advance, never more than 10% or 20% of the total job. I can recall a few times guys came in my office about halfway through the job and demanded additional money saying he just could not finish the job otherwise. I never allowed myself to be blackmailed like that. Even the ones who did good work never lasted long before something would sour. They would start to raise their rates to where it was no longer profitable for me to use them.
My personal advice is not to use them unless necessary and have a written agreement in place. Forget the handshake agreements. In dealing with subcontractors, keep a few points in mind when making agreements. Never pay up front before the job is completed and, if possible, you have inspected the work. If a guy is so shaky financially that he cannot do a job on his own nickel, using him is really asking for trouble. Naturally, I am assuming you do give him the wire, panels and other equipment for the job. Also, have the subcontractor sign for any materials you give them to do a job with the understanding that any unused materials come back to you before a check is issued. Finally, reserve the right to withhold payment until any problems can be corrected should they arise.
Know your ideal candidate
Many times, people start seeking a new employee without identifying what they really want. It is best to brainstorm - with other managers if you can - the characteristics and skills you want in a candidate. There are two lists here. One is the skills and experience that a candidate must possess to be employable, the minimum acceptable standards. The second list is the more desirable candidates that you hope to find.
An example is a college degree. It is nice and desirable in a candidate, but I know many top salespeople and installation people with only a high school diploma who do well and are considered by their employers as top people. Do not put up any unnecessary roadblocks by demanding things that you do not absolutely need for the job at hand, especially in a tight job market. On the other hand, unless you furnish a car, owning a dependable car with adequate insurance can be a make-or-break for a sales applicant. A few more considerations to get you started on your list are education, special training, work experience, skills and income requirements of the applicant. Finally, write out a job description that really lists what the job entails. Not only should appliciants see this, but it also gives you a strong sense of the person you are seeking and makes the decision making process much easier.
Casting the net (conventional)
We have all put ads in the newspaper; it is by far the most common method of finding employees. If you use a direct phone number, you will inevitably get all kinds of calls, many from people who are calling just any ad, but it always gets the best response. If you specify a fax number or e-mail address, you will limit your responses to people with access to e-mail or a fax. There are plenty of qualified people who may not have such access. Using a post office box or box number at a newspaper limits responses to people with current rAsumAs ready to mail. In a tight job market, do you want to put these limitations in your ad? Later, I will show you what we used to call our "knock-out questionnaire". My secretary had a series of questions she would ask all callers to see if they had the basic qualifications. I spoke only to those who did.
There are also fee-based employment agencies. From time to time, I have found people through employment agencies. My biggest complaint with them is that no matter what you agree upon, they all seem to load you with lots of interviews where the people are marginal and frequently do not fit the qualifications that you had given the agency. The simple fact is that agencies work on numbers. The biggest number of candidates they throw at you, the better chance one will stick. It can be time consuming. Working on volume, they also do not do well for highly qualified positions, but they produce better with the entry level stuff.
Headhunters are much more sophisticated. They usually work hard to find you a much better qualified candidate, and their fees tend to be rather high. In order to find a terrific employee, however, what is it really worth to your company? These are the kind of people who will steal an employee from a competitor to work for you.
State-operated employment agencies can be used if you are not seeking highly qualified people or have an entry-level position for which you will do most of the training. They are usually free.
Casting the net (non-conventional)
I am now going to share methods that will take a little more effort on your part and will produce lower numbers of applicants. Because of the nature of these methods, however, the ones you get will tend to be better qualified.
Consider the process of hiring salespeople for a moment. (Later, I will cover hiring installation persons.) What I would hope you are looking for is a person with good people skills, which usually translates into good selling skills. These are intangible skills, and it is almost impossible to train someone who simply does not have them. Although you may be able to teach new salespeople technical information about your products or services, you cannot teach someone to like people, to be willing to accept rejection multiple times a day and still smile. Forget hiring salespeople who know our industry. It is nice when you do find someone, but you had better focus on the ability to sell as the most critical issue. It is the one area that can make or break your hire.
Describing the job
Too often people ask for what they want when they describe a job. "I need someone to travel three states with his own car and be able to close on one call". No good. Who would really recommend that to anyone but an enemy?
Be a salesperson when you describe the opportunity. Talk in terms of what is in it for the new hire. In the first place, you do not have a job offer for the first warm body to apply. You have a career opportunity for some lucky person. Describe the positive aspects of the position so that people will want to pass the information along. Just be careful not to misrepresent unrealistically. "I'm looking for someone special who would appreciate a real career opportunity in our sales department. I'd like to find a sincere man or woman who would really appreciate an opportunity to grow professionally."
Networking
Ask your top salespeople. Only if you have (or know) some really good salespeople now should you ask them for referrals. I have a saying I believe to be true: "Winners hang out with winners, losers with losers."
Use your local and national trade association contacts. If you are a member of a trade association, you can place an ad in their newsletter, and I also recommend advertising in industry trade magazines or newspapers. Who cares if they go all over the country? The person I want may be in another state and willing to move here. A friendly competitor of mine advertised in a national alarm industry publication and hired a highly qualified guy from Kansas. I am in Ohio. Apparently he had been in a bitter divorce and wanted a fresh start. It worked out well for both of them.
Be sure you mention total confidentiality and also your company name, never a blind ad. Otherwise, perfectly good candidates will be afraid to respond, thinking it could be their present employer.
Another strategy is to mention your needs casually at trade association meetings where salespeople may be present. Word of mouth travels like wildfire in our industry.
Sales leads clubs, sometimes called tips clubs or business networking groups are another option. Memberships consist of salespeople and business owners who meet on a regular basis to exchange sales leads. Some of these groups are run informally by a group of salespeople, others are organized, and the members pay dues. The best way to locate them is to read the business newspapers and magazines in your community where they list the events calendar. Another way is just to ask salespeople if they know of any. Go to the meeting as a visitor. They always have a part where people get up and introduce themselves. When you do, share your career opportunity. Focus on the positive aspects but don't misrepresent. Be sure you have plenty of business cards with you and hand them out liberally.
Some of those salespeople at the meeting may not need a job but have a friend who does or perhaps know someone who is an excellent installer candidate. Others may be interested but not want people to know. Make sure they know it is all right for either themselves or a friend to contact you privately at your office. When people are considering changing jobs, they need assurance that you will keep it strictly confidential.
There are also salespeople who call on you. In my career, I would always speak to salespeople who called on me, just out of courtesy, even if I was not prospecting. Most were just average, but on some rarer occasions, I ran into what I considered excellent salespeople. On three of those occasions during my career, I hired them to work for me with great results.
Do not overlook salespeople you meet at suppliers or when calling on customers. I recall stopping at a large client's office to inspect a job we were installing. At lunchtime, my two installation people and I went to eat in their company cafeteria. As we ate, someone came over and said that he had been watching my people work and told me they were doing a first-class job. Thanking him, we introduced ourselves. As it turns out, he was the company vice president of sales. I said that I just wished I could hire a salesperson as good as those guys were in installation. He smiled and said that he knew just the right person. He was right, and it was one of the best hires I ever made. One thing about networking, you can go a long, long time without hitting pay dirt, and then suddenly, it is the mother lode.
How about your own company? I have had times when installation people asked for an opportunity to sell. It does not always work, but I have always given them a try and have been pleasantly surprised with the results from time to time.
Here are some additional, frequently overlooked resources to network - your customers. Why? They also have salespeople calling on them, including salespeople who might be candidates. Further, they have relatives, friends and associates whom you do not know. There are also venders, the people who sell to you, who have a good reason to try to help you. Finally, do not forget your attorney, accountant and any other business consultants you may know.
Always keep your eyes open for a good employee candidate, no matter where you are. You never know if they may consider a change to your organization. It may be immediate or they may talk to you, decide not to join you and then some time in the future call you up because they have reconsidered.
Finding installers
I separated this because installers can be found with some different strategies. Although I know dealing with young students means really untrained help for a while, we found training our own from scratch gave us a better overall employee. We also went after experienced people, as you will see.
Consider trade and technical schools, both private and vocational high schools. Contact whomever runs the place and share your needs. I would avoid just listing the job with people who answer the phone; speak to a principal or counselor. Many employ a full time placement specialist.
Career talks at the schools you approach offer a good opportunity. Always ask when the school has a career day or event at which you can give a 10 or 15 minute commercial for your company. You do not have to be a Dale Carnegie graduate to give a brief talk about opportunities with your company. Just explain, in an interesting way, what an installer does with your company, and if you know of any stories, humorous or not, that show the installer in a positive light, use them. At the end of this article, I will share a book on speaking if you feel you need it, but most people can do this even if they have never spoken to groups before.
I used to take my head installer with me. He did not speak, but I would introduce him to the group and many people interested would tend to avoid me in my business suit and talk with him. He would wear his regular work clothes and, for effect, his tool belt. Sometimes, we did not recruit any student candidates, but they would give us leads of people they thought might be interested. I am fairly sure we also sold some tool pouches and belts for the people at Sears.
Reward systems work well, too. I offered my installers and all other employees specific rewards during a month if they could refer me to any likely sales or installer candidate whom we hired. I mentioned it at meetings during the month as a reminder that time was running out. It gets people thinking, and if they know someone, you will hear about it. Then, wait a month or two and do it again.
Further, trade associations offer a good opportunity. I made an effort to look up every possible trade association in my community that would use people who ran wire as part of an installation. I contacted them and ran an ad from time to time for installers in their newspaper to get the word around. A few times, the people running the association would give me a lead while I was calling in the ad.
Distributors and wholesalers are also available. Many of the companies from which we purchased had wholesale showrooms that were visited by numerous potential candidates. I visited the manager of every one and asked them to post a small sign on their bulletin board.
Finally, there is word of mouth. Whenever I described the sales opportunity with my company, I also mentioned that our installation department had an opening coming up, and if anyone knew of candidates who enjoyed working with their hands, this could be a career opportunity for some fortunate person.
If you want to give short talks and would like to learn some speaking skills first, I recommend The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking by Dale Carnegie (paperback, Pocket Books, ISBN: 0671724002). It should be available at most booksellers and libraries. If you give them the ISBN number, they can quickly locate it in their computer.
Finding and hiring the right person for an opening at your company may be difficult today, but it is not impossible. Follow these guidelines, and remember to use every possible tool at your disposal. Good luck.
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