Hiring Is A Process

Does your company have a business plan? And, a marketing plan? How about a hiring plan?

It doesn’t matter if you have two employees or two hundred. Having a plan will help you avoid many of the pitfalls associated with hiring new staff members. If you provide an In-Home service, such as Healthcare, Residential Cleaning or Pet Sitting, you are likely looking for staff right now. In fact, you are probably always looking for staff.

Assuming you run your business as a for profit company, you owe it to yourself and your existing staff to only hire those who will make a positive contribution to your business. Adding staff because “they” need a job, or because they seem “perky”, or because they “seem” to be OK, is often a formula for disaster. You may be asking yourself why do I owe anything to my existing staff, when it comes to new hire? Fair question! The Number One reason good employees leave an existing position is the perception that owners/managers are unaware, or disinterested, in the negative and disruptive behavior of co-workers. These good employees feel they must carry an extra burden, picking up the slack for these less dedicated, unproductive co-workers. They see, often first hand, others get away with violations of policy and procedure and appear to pay no penalty. The natural reaction is to ask themselves, “Why should I care, the owner/manager doesn’t seem to care?

Creating a hiring plan isn’t all that difficult. The hard part is sticking to it. Here are a few tips:

• Accept the idea that you won’t settle.
• Build a pool of candidates when you don’t need anyone. Hiring is a year around process.
• Set specific standards and stay with them.
1. Does the applicant have verifiable references?
2. Does the work history timeline make sense?
3. Does the number of recent jobs seem reasonable?
4. Are they presentable?
5. Do they meet ALL your technical requirements?

• Always ask the exact same questions to each applicant you interview.
• If an applicant clearly doesn’t match basic criteria, don’t waste your time interviewing them.
• Don’t be swayed by non-job-related characteristics or perceived personality.
• Know your own biases and guard against giving them too much weight in the process.
• Use an objective assessment tool before interviewing (An Orion System commercial)
• Get the background check results before you allow a new hire to visit the home of a client.
• Hold applicants accountable for following your pre-hire guidelines.
• Hold new hires accountable to their “Job Description”.
• Train new hires completely.

Clearly, this is not a complete list. The above list is based on my conversations with owners. These are areas that are often ignored or overlooked. Many owners take the “I’ll wing it” approach to hiring. Many see it as an event that, once complete, can be forgotten until the next time. The important issue is your developing a plan that “works” for you. If you’ve got a great staff and your present plan is working…. don’t fix it. If not, please consider taking the time to review what you are looking for in new staff members and set about the task of finding objective measurements to identify those who would fit your criteria. Something as simple as a checklist may help you reinforce your focus.

A Hiring Plan should be just as important as your Business Plan and your Marketing Plan. Think of it this way. Without a consistent hiring plan, you are jeopardizing your business and marketing plans. How can you implement any plan if you don’t have the right staff in place to execute that plan?

For some, this is the hardest part of running their business. The reason staff selection can seem so difficult stems from using a subjective approach. When owners and managers rely on the “feeling” about an applicant, they will often be disappointed.

Using objective criteria, embedded in an overall hiring plan makes the process easier and far more reliable.

Using the Orion System helps. There are no magic pills or silver bullets. The Orion Survey is a tool which helps illuminate areas you would find difficult to explore in the typical hiring scenario. The Orion is designed to explore whether, or not, the applicant is risky for bringing problematic behaviors to your company. The Orion looks at:

• Supervisory Attitude – Will they follow policy and procedure and accept being managed?
• Work Attitude – Will they show up, and on time?
• Drug Use – Is there a risk that they will use drugs in the work environment?
• Theft Attitude – What is the likelihood of the person stealing form you, or your client?
• Customer Service Attitude – Will they go the extra mile to make the client happy?
• Safety and Risk Avoidance – Will they behave in a safe, low risk fashion?

The Orion is no guarantee of hiring a great employee. It is a way to improve your odds of avoiding those applicants who would likely cause you nightmares, lost business, damage to your brand, or create negative feedback in your marketplace.

Old sayings are generally founded in truth or proven results. The one that comes to mind right now is:

“PLAN YOUR WORK AND WORK YOUR PLAN”

Hundreds of In-Home Service company owners use the Orion System to Improve Their Odds and their Plan.

If you would like to know more about how the Orion System might help you as you navigate the hiring waters, please don’t hesitate to call for more information. We are always glad to explain how this system can help improve YOUR odds.

Bill Gelderman is President of The Steering Group, Inc. and has supplied the Orion System Pre-Employment Survey to owners of in-home service businesses for over 20 years. Hundreds of industry owners swear by this easy and inexpensive tool as part of their overall hiring plan. You can find out more about the Orion System by contacting us at 800-405-3068 or email at joe@thesteeringgroup.com. Visit our website www.thesteeringgroup.com for more information