Three Things You Must Do Before You
Hire Your Next Employee
By Anne M. Obarski
Customer service is a
direct reflection on your hiring and training
expertise. Everyone preaches that they have
fabulous customer service, 100% customer satisfaction
and even so far as to say the "worlds best customer
service". If you ask business owners about their
staff and their turnover, many will say that it is one
of their biggest headaches.
Your employees are a
significant part of your overall brand identity.
How much emphasis do you put on the hiring process or do
you find yourself in a "panic hiring mode" each time you
lose an employee? If you find yourself, "plugging
holes and filling gaps, you are not alone.
The word, strategy, sounds
more focused than just a hiring plan, or hiring
approach. For me, the word strategy means
developing a focused approach to hiring with a planned
outcome in mind. More simply stated; decide what
your staff needs to look like, how you plan to create
that team and how quickly can you replace those you
lose.
Here is what your customer
retention plan should look like.
Plan: When developing
a hiring plan it is essential to focus on the
following:
?
What % of your expenses will you allocate weekly,
monthly, quarterly and annually to your sales
payroll? Many retailers hover around the 11% mark
but you need to base it on your numbers and what you can
afford.
? Calculate the number of
full time vs. part-time employees. Some retailers
have eliminated full time employees because of the cost
of providing benefits. Either way, it is important
to list each and every employee that is on your books as
well as the number of hours they work.
? If you
have salaried employees, add them to the list as well,
especially if they have selling duties or are expected
to be working in the store.
? List the number of
additional employees that may work infrequently but are
still available.
? If you use a contact
management program, you can even divide your employees
by demographics.
? This is the important
one; list the potential employees that you have in your
"hiring sieve". These are those people that you
may not have room to hire but you keep in contact with
them in case a job opens up. The bigger this group is,
the less panic you have when you are in a "need to hire"
crunch.
Procedure: If you
don't have a human resources department, it is important
to have a "template" when it comes to hiring. That
includes the following:
?
Research and become proficient in writing job ads.
I love the comment I read recently, that within your ad
you need to "lure and discourage"; in other words, your
job ad should be very specific to catch their attention
as a job they would love to have but also be so specific
that if they don't have the exact skills you require,
they will not bother to apply. Make sure you
advertise at least 4-5 skills this job requires.
It can be a combination of hard and soft skills.
Remember that most people will lose a job because of
their lack of soft skills or people skills, versus their
lack of hard skills, or procedural skills.
?
Be creative where you place ads. Be aware if you
are looking for a Gen Y employee, that they don't read
the newspaper. Here are some places you may not
have thought of: Face-book, Craig's List, college
job posting sites, your website, Monster.com and
Careerbuilder.com.
?
Don't forget about asking your current employees who
they would recommend and make it financially profitable
to them, if you hire that person and they stay
employed.
? I
have seen signs in store windows that say, "I know you
like shopping here, wouldn't it be even more fun to work
here?" Ask us how!"
?
Stealing is wrong, but wooing a great employee away from
another company just makes good sense. Don't go
anywhere that you don't have a business card and have
some made up that you have written on the back, "I
admire your work ethic and would like to discuss a
career move for you" or something like that.
Personally hand those to people you meet in restaurants
or other retail businesses and ask them if they keep
their job options open. If they say yes, hand them
the card.
Persistent: I think every
business owner needs to "always be looking" for new
employees. I recently spoke with a person who was
looking for someone to do Influenza Pandemic
training. What?? There are training programs
going on around the country to make companies aware that
they need to think about how they would continue to run
their businesses if the country experienced a
pandemic. Basically they stretch you to think
about what you would do if you had to replace 1/2 of
your staff tomorrow. There thought pattern is that
1/2 of your staff will have to stay home to care for
elderly or the very young. Does that scare you a
little? It did me! So how prepared are
you?
We may never experience a
pandemic, and I hope we don't. However, you will
always have employee turnover which is going to require
a more focused plan to find, hire and train new
employees that are the perfect fit for your
company.
Customer retention really
begins with purpose driven, loyal employees who
represent your company and live and breathe your brand
every single day. Start a better planning process
today!
For more articles that will
help your business become contagious go to www.merchandiseconcepts.com/articles/html.
