In case you’re wondering, here’s the latest employment headlines:
- Economists Say Rapid Quitting and Hiring Will Continue in 2022
- Employers Are Having To Do A Lot To Get Employees Into Their Doors
- The U.S. economy saw record turnover throughout the second half of 2021 in what’s become known as the Great Resignation
- A recent report found the share of job postings mentioning a hiring bonus more than doubled between March 2020 and October 2021.
- Not Enough Workers To Go Around
Yikes! But know that you are not alone. Everyone is faced with these challenges. Then there’s onboarding, training, and retention. Whoa! So how do we work through this? How can we compete and find the right people in this small home services “pool”? Just like marketing, hiring is a science and not guess work.
Remember Manpower, the recruiting agency? They are still around today.
Recruiting Strategy 1: Have a Manpower Staffing Plan
1. Plan ahead.
You should already be putting your recruiting system together anticipating Spring’s arrival: recruiting ads, platforms for ad placement, interview location, the interview process, etc. All are vital.
Assignment: Build out a formal recruiting system – for all positions.
2. Start your recruiting efforts early.
Start hiring candidates now, before you need them – one strategy is to start hiring part-time employees putting them in training before you need them with the understanding, they will go full time as the season approaches. This way you get a head start but limit expense and can take your time training them. I have two clients that do this very successfully starting in the month of February.
Recruiting Strategy #2: Identify Your Employee Avatar
Identifying the right people, the A and B player work ethic and personality types will get you further faster in your business building efforts. The vetting process is easier said than done but starts by knowing who to hire.
1. What do they look like?
This is the ‘face’ of your company. Enough said.
2. What do they like to do? Where do they work now?
This information can you get you in front of these right people. Where do they hang out? We use hiring ‘hand-out’ cards and give them to prospective employees every chance we get. But we put ourselves in the right circles of people that fit the avatar.
3. What is important to them as employees?
Are you meeting their needs as well as your own? Good money, free time, pathways to advancement, etc.? Are you developing a company culture where they “want” to come to work vs. “having” to come to work? How does your company represent itself? Would you work for you?
HIRE RIGHT – HIRE HARD – HIRE SMART
Credit: Peter Cruz
No help, can’t find good help, can’t keep good help, not sure what to pay, no policies, no real recruiting program? There’s no better time to start than now.
Recruiting Strategy #3: Construct The Right Message By Telling A Story
Many of us are competing for the A player all in this same hiring pool. How can you differentiate yourself from all the other businesses hiring in this same pool? In your job posts, don’t just list the features of the job in bullet points, like the salary, hours of operation, and all that bland stuff. You’ll sound like everyone else. Instead, tell a story.
Talk in pictures. Let the applicant “feel” and “see” what it will be like working for your company. Like this…
Sub-headline 1: Come Work With Us, Not For Us
Body (excerpt):
“You show up early because you can’t wait to hang out with the other members of your team. (You’d never do this at your old job, but this is a tight knit group, and you love hanging out with them).
You work hard because everyone else on your team works hard too. You push yourself today, and every day, because you know that growing in your own position ensures a career for life… and there’s a ton of prizes to be won.
At the end of the day, you wrap up the last few tasks and hang out with your friends… for a few minutes again before heading home. Or maybe some of you hang out in off-work hours playing cornhole.”
Start your job post with a compelling headline.
Follow that with a ‘story’. Note – my ads are long, but they work. I hear during interviews I conduct that my ad got their attention like no other ad and is the reason why they showed up.
Tip: Write your ads so they speak to the A-Player. That is your avatar, right?
Put this strategy to use consistently and watch how things change…
We do this with all of our job postings and while other companies in our industry struggle, we rarely have a problem getting people in the door to hire.
Recruiting Strategy #4: The Event
Here’s another strategy we use. We don’t do one on one interviews. Your time is too valuable. Instead, we do Live Group Hiring Events.
Now, you may not have an office yet. If not, go down to your local Holiday Inn and ask for a room to “rent” on the first floor near the front door for a couple hours. Frame it as you are a small window cleaning company who does not have an office but wanted to use their quality venue as a place to hire. Then negotiate rates from there. And ask to get your company name on the Hotel Marquee! I’ve done it!
Now, put on an event your interviewees will never forget. At my office, we have a training room that can comfortably hold 30+ people. We’ve had as many as two-dozen show up for interviews. Think we save time?
When they walk in, we have music, a basket with drinks with chips and snacks. We have a Power Point playing. We have an application waiting for them to fill out and a series of very specific interview questions. It’s part of our vetting process and oh boy, the things we learn!
And then our 45-minute interview starts. It’s an interview like they’ve never seen before. I’ve heard this from so many applicants. One reason why, is we take the hiring ad, the long ad that got them here, and we re-excite them from the content in the ad. We don’t even talk about the position for at least 15 or 20 minutes. We make them understand that the only way you can work here is if you bring you’re A-game. And it goes from there…
We are all challenged with hiring. Follow the hiring trends and pay attention to the headlines. And make note of these 6 key take-aways… At my company:
- We now pay more than before (I’m also the highest priced in my market to support the pay)
- We updated our bonus programs
- We use long style recruiting ads
- We post on Indeed, FB, Instagram, Craigslist, use Hiring Handout cards
- We do hiring events Mon-Thu on select evenings and on Saturdays
- Hiring events are happening a couple times per week non-stop
Good luck! Having trouble? Call my office: 704-343-8867 or email me: [email protected]. I’d be happy to help you.
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Jim DuBois is founder of WindowCleaningBusinessCoach.com, a No-Results No-Fee business coaching company. Email [email protected] or call 704-343-8867 for more information or for any questions you’d like answered in this column.