Here are some things we do to help in finding new staff
1. Have all candidates call a cell phone and leave a message. We keep a cell for just this reason. Everyone on our staff calls customers, CSR, office manager, techs. Great phone skills are a must. If the first time you hear from them is less than stellar it will probably not get any better.
2. Do your first interview over the phone. Keep it to twenty minutes. If you are not drawn to them over the phone your customers probably will not be. At some point in the interview tell them you are just not hearing a super star. See what they do when faced with adversity. This will happen on the phone on a regular basis. If they can't come back and convince you they are a super star, will they be able to do it for your company? Probably not. If you do not like them over the phone after twenty minutes don't bring them in no matter what the resume looks like.
3. Schedule your second interview in the office. Have them meet with 3 staff members. Get multiple looks from different staff members. Have them ride on the truck for a day. If they cannot connect with the techs how are they going to give direction from the office.
4. Take them to dinner before you hire them. People cannot keep up a front for a two hour dinner. Have them bring a spouse or guest. They will be more of who they are. If there is crazy at home you want to find out cause crazy comes to work.
When it comes to a job description you need to do the following.
What is the top 3 strengths you need from this staff member?
In order of importance what are top 10 tasks they need to manage.
Write down what should the work week look like in time blocks. I know that the phones can get ringing but having a time plan will help when things get crazy to help them get back on track. It also gives you a guide to refer to when doing reviews.
We all get lost in our work week a time plan will help you more than you can imagine. My first manager made me do this many years ago and it has been a tool I have returned to over and over again.
We are used to being in the field and having a dynamic work week. Office personal will have this happen also but they need a plan to their week.
Tasks fall into 5 categories for a small company office personal
1. Sales - inbound and out bound sales
2. Marketing - social media maintenance, prospect mailings, web maintenance, review site monitoring
3. Office Management - Time cards, scheduling staff, HR duties
4. Customer retention - mailings, follow up phone calls to each job, 3,6,9,12, month post cards
5. Production - job fold prep, uniform maintenance, materials ordering
This is not an exhaustive list at all. The truth is no one person can do all these things well. Pick what is most important to your company's success.
Start with a organization flow chart then write a job description for each position. Make it achievable for one individual and the time the will be working. Sometimes folks will have two or more Job descriptions on their plate. It is not that it can't happen you just need to make sure everyone knows it is happening so you can work towards growth and hiring for that position. You should visit these a couple times per year and see if they are still true and working. These can and will change. They are dynamic documents not static.
Hiring new staff is never easy and sometimes we do not get it right. Having things in writing prior to the process will give you a better chance of success. When it does happen it makes life great!
