Stage Managing a New Service Hire’s BIG WELCOME!

KickSTART: Program a brief but enthusiastic welcome reception for a new service employee when they arrive for their first day of work.

CONGRATULATIONS! You’ve recruited, verified, interviewed and hired a Very Best Person.👍 (Hopefully you’ve also performed a ‘Working Interview’ to make sure ‘Charlie’ won’t hate doing the work you’re offering!)

Even better, immediately after hiring Charlie you gave him a tour of your company. You also warmly introduced Charlie to your office staff.

Your goal? To foster an immediate sense of belonging and commitment to help Charlie fight the inevitable ‘New Hire Remorse’! (Too often my ‘New Hire’ would bail on me even before his or her first day on the job!)😲

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Keep New Home Service Workers From Bailing Out on You… Before They Even Start!

KickStart: Tie your new employee to your company emotionally when you ‘stage manage their hiring’.

CONGRATULATIONS! You’ve hired a great new employee! Charlie is pumped about his new career, you’re over-the-moon excited and you can’t wait till Charlie starts on Monday morning! But then…

home services employee quits job last minuteOn Friday afternoon you get the dreaded text: “Steve, I appreciate the opportunity. But I’ve decided to go a different way in my career. Best wishes and I’m very sorry to do this to you. Charlie”

AAAARGH! What happened? Who knows?🤷‍♂️ Charlie got a better offer, his previous job called him back to work and/or his wife made fun of his new job working for your company! (You and I both know our Home Services industry is wonderful. But come on… we don’t have the greatest public image!)😲

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Stop your “Nobody wants to work in service any more” grumbling- NOW!

KickStart: Don’t fool yourself with the “Nobody wants to do service work any more?” complaint. Instead, ask the more productive question: “Why doesn’t anyone want to work for… ME?”

Everyone from Fortune 500 CEO’s to your local competitors slamming down boilermakers at lunch are all desperate to hire more home service employees. And they’re all moaning the same complaint…

cant find quality home service employees“Nobody wants to work any more!”😫

Seriously? Nobody? As in, “Not one single person?” Come on, people! As I write this the U.S. has a 3.6% unemployment rate. So a bit of simple math tells us that…

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How to attract (and keep) great service employees!

KickStart: Share money, praise and profits to attract and keep the Very Best People!

pigs get fat - hogs get slaughtered

I learned so much from my residential customers. After all, our clients had to be financially successful even to afford our high prices💲💲 So, I would just 1) ask questions and 2) LISTEN to my client’s answers.

One very wealthy CEO (who I suspect was a bit bored in retirement) often regaled me with his stories. Since I was trying to build a Critical Mass Business that could run without me I focused on Paul’s hiring tips. His first tip was…

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The WHY (and how to) of Building an ‘Employee Waiting List’

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?”

frustrated home services business manager

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!😲

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BEFORE hiring do a ‘Trial Hire’

KickStart: BEFORE hiring even the best job applicant pay them to work with you for a day.

Have you ever received a text like this from a new hire? (Remember, this applicant interviewed great!)😥

resignation text

If so, here’s the deal: You LOVE the Home Services industry. (Me too!) But hard as it is to believe…

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Attract (and keep) great home service employees with ‘two-tier compensation’!

KickStart: Rework your employee’s compensation (and culture) to reward extra effort while also holding them accountable for ‘avoidable mistakes’.

The definition of “compete”: “trying to get something others are also trying to get!”

“Ummm, thanks Steve but my middle name is ‘Compete’.😁 I’m getting my competition’s customers like crazy! So, I’m also getting their profits too! WOO-HOO!”

CONGRATULATIONS, ‘Compete’! However, in today’s brutal hiring environment you must ‘differentiate’ yourself from 1000’s of competing employers to successfully compete for- GREAT EMPLOYEES! But fear not, help is on the way…

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Home Service Customers Appreciate ‘Personal Space’

KickStart: Set up routine procedures to avoid intruding on a home owner’s Personal Space.

respect service client personal spaceMost people try and keep a ‘physical bubble’ (personal space) around themselves. (As Jerry Seinfeld reminded us, nobody likes a ‘close talker’!) And of course with the pandemic’s constant drum beat of ‘social distancing’ this personal space is even more essential!

Now, you and I instinctively factor in other’s personal space. Heck, I didn’t want my clients getting ‘too close’ to me either! But do your front-line workers in customer’s homes respect your client’s personal space? Who cares? You should and here’s why!

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How to ‘court’ a Career Candidate

Hiring employees has always been all about the Core Principle of capitalism, ‘Supply and Demand’ which means…

As the supply becomes more scarce the demand (and prices) go UP! And yes, I feel your pain with your hiring problem as you struggle to grow your Home Services business!😥

Your ongoing challenge? Prospective employees (job applicants) are currently in shorter supply than I have seen over my almost 50 years in the Home Services industry! (I started very young!)😲

The result of this shrinking supply? Job applicants can and will demand a better job so yes…

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