It’s On My Heart: What do the large companies do that you need to do?

by Jim Hinshaw

We have been taught by Amazon that things can happen fast. I recently ordered some vitamins on a Sunday afternoon around 3:30, they were delivered before 6 PM. Same day. On Sunday! If you are looking for new employees, set the stage to fast track any candidates. Install, service techs, office help, they all want to move quickly. So put together a package for potential new hires. Get an application on your website that they can fill in on their phones. Make sure someone is available to look at it when it comes in. and have a plan on what the next steps are. Do you check references? You should. Let them know you will check, and I am aware that typically people will only list references of people that will give a positive review. Check them anyway. Google what kind of questions you can ask.

In a famous movie, Glengarry Glen Ross, there is a line that Alec Baldwin shares giving a “pep Talk” to the sales team: ABC. Always Be Closing. Actually not a pep talk, more of a threat, close of be fired. So my point number 2 is to Always Be Recruiting, ABR. The big boys have multiple levels of recruiting in place, it must be continual. The Founder of Parker and Sons in Phoenix (Paul Kelly, $250,000,000/year roughly) wrote a book Tricks of the Trade to Success. In there he describes what they do to hire hundreds of new employees each year. He assigns the job of finding new people to a team, checks in each week to see how progress is happening. He sets a budget for recruiting, assigns authority and responsibility for recruiting results, continually watching to be sure they are hitting the numbers. In the same market Lou Hobaica had a second-generation company (sold it a few years ago and just retired last year) that had a commitment to recruiting. They set a standing open house at their place each month, invited anyone to attend. Their vendors knew the date, you could come in and meet the team, see how they did hvac, plumbing, electrical and wine coolers. We have another member who used to place ads in all kinds of social media, come apply anonymously. He furnished a hoody, met them at a coffee shop, rode in the service van for a few hours, paid him a fair wage for the day, just to see how their company worked.

Set a career path for the employees. Team members want to know that they are part of something bigger than them, not necessarily working for wages, they need to know what the next level of work looks like. Lou had a training plan where a new employee from outside our industry would move from maintenance tech, to helper on installs to service tech, could move into plumbing or electrical, lots of options. Let the employees know that there are levels of involvement available at your company.

Today, to attract the top talent you need to have a good culture. Post photos on Instagram, FB (for us old guys) and social media when you have a company outing, or a service project. We have members who run in the Susan G Komen race for the cure, showing that they give back to the community. Find a charity of some sort to sponsor, pledge a dollar or two from each service call, could amount to hundreds in a year. Better yet, do a FB or Instagram poll, who would you like for us to support this year, get the community involved. Post employee birthdays and anniversaries on social, send a thank you card to the home when an employee celebrates a change in their job or anniversary. When was the last time you got a handwritten card? Impressive. Many of our members have a Culture Book, showing the benefits of working at the company. When I got hired on at Service Nation, they sent my wife the Culture Book. She remarked, you have worked at multi-billion companies, and no one has ever sent out a Culture Book, this is amazing.