KickStart: Avoid ‘Desperation Hiring’ by continually recruiting and interviewing future employees BEFORE you need them!
Why, oh why, did it always happen late on a Friday afternoon?☹ I’d had a good week (defined as 100% delighted residential clients!), was finishing up paperwork on my desk, and looking forward to a fun weekend. Then my employee Charlie appeared…
Charlie: “Uh, Steve, can I talk to you?”
Me: “Sure, Charlie, what’s up?”
Charlie: “Ummmm, Steve, I’m really sorry to do this to you. But I’ve got a new job starting on Monday. I asked them if I could give you more notice but they’re insisting I start immediately…”
And my relaxed weekend came crashing down! Now I was facing double shifts to cover Charlie’s booked-solid schedule! Or even worse being forced into the dreaded Desperation Hiring! AAARGH!😲
Sound familiar?😥 (And now more than ever in this time of the Great Resignation?) YEP, sadly some employees will quit without notice. (Or even worse ‘disengage’ and not tell you for two or three years till they finally leave… with ZERO notice!)
Yep, thanks to the antics of a few ‘marginal workers’ my entrepreneurial joy was being squeezed out of me. (You too?)😣 But then I discovered how to…
Develop an ‘Employee Waiting List’! (EWL)
Now instead of going into panic mode you can a) wish Charlie the very best, b) calmly open up your pre-screened ‘EWL’ and c) start calling your waiting list of eager, pre-approved ‘I wanna-be-your-employee’ candidates! Now doesn’t that give you a warm and fuzzy feeling all over?😍
RESOURCE: I share my complete 5-Step system to recruit/pre-screen/verify/sort and interview EWL applicants in our 3-hour, online SFS: Hiring the Very Best! LIVE seminar. To learn more and/or easily register online click HERE.👍 But here’s an overview…
1. Build a ‘Very Best Company’.(VBC) Why? Because truly great people (the employees you want for your team!) will be willing to wait for a career opportunity with a VBC.
NOTE: Click HERE for a short video on why you should focus on building a Critical Mass Business.💲💲
2. Make ’employee recruiting’ an ongoing, daily activity. You don’t stop marketing for new business when you’re booked solid. (I hope!) In the same way keep ‘marketing’ for new EWL candidates even when you have a great team… for now!
HINT #1: Focus your recruiting on the Very Best People who are working now (always a good sign) at a job they’ve held long term. (You’ll pry them loose from their current job with an above-average career opportunity with your VBC!)
HINT #2: When recruiting and/or advertising use the phrase “Career Candidates”. There’s no need to mention you don’t have any immediate job openings (unless you do!) till after you’ve completed our next Step #3.
3. PRE-Screen and PRE-interview Job Candidates. My secret sauce here? Complete this step BEFORE you actually need these workers.
4. PRE-verify. Check references and do a background check. (Only on the folks who pass #3 above.)
5. PRE-test. For your very best EWL candidates have them do a (paid) Working Interview with you (or your team) for a day or two. (Hard to believe but there are great people who won’t like working in customer’s homes! Better to learn this BEFORE they quit their current job and you invest in their training.)
PRO TIP #1: A great way to keep these great Job Candidates waiting on your EWL? Explained they’ve been approved for your ‘Employee Waiting List’.👌 Meanwhile, ask if they’d like to work part-time and/or on an optional ‘on-call’ basis.
PRO TIP #2: Every couple weeks contact all your EWL candidates with group email (send it :bcc so they don’t see the others) with a brief company update on your company and reassuring them that you still want them working for you!
Trust me, getting out of the “Just get me some warm bodies to work NOW!” trap will transform your Home Services business… and your life!😁 BEST WISHES!
Steve