This is the first in a series of blogs about how to recruit and keep good people. You can be the best at what you do but if your team doesn’t provide the same level of service or interact with your customers as well as you do then it can massively impact your business.
But finding and keeping good people can be a challenge – especially for the Construction and Trade industries. As a result, I often see ‘panic hiring’. This can occur when a company has been let down by one or more of their team or perhaps during periods of excessive demand. Desperation then turns hiring ‘someone’ into hiring ‘anyone’. Which plugs the gap but is rarely a long-term solution. And it often subsequently becomes apparent that you’re trying to fit a square peg into a round hole because you didn’t plan and manage recruitment effectively.
So, here’s my three top tips for giving yourself the best chance of hiring the right person first time:
- Take a step back from your business and think about what you really need. This will be a combination of technical skill and attitude. Generally, it is the latter that’s the problem when people don’t work out. Make a list of all the technical and softer skills e.g. how professional do they appear?, do they arrive on time for the interview? And how long have they stayed in different jobs that you’re looking for, this will form part of the job spec and the job advert.
- The job advert is the place for you to sell your company – remember that it’s a two-way decision. So, include what’s great about your company and why people would want to work there. Use as many ‘keywords’ as you can in the ad – these are the words that people are likely search for when looking for the position that you have vacant. Good use of keywords will make your advert more likely to appear in candidates’ searches.
- Get the maximum return from your job advert. With Flat Fee Recruiters, you can place your advert on multiple job boards which will give your job advert much for coverage and enable your job advert to reach nearly every online job seeker.
- It’s a good idea to have a section on your website for prospective employees. This is where they can read about what it is like to work for your company – you can incorporate snippets from other team members on what they particularly enjoy about their work. This immediately helps you stand out as very few trades are doing this!
So now you’re well positioned to start the recruitment process. And my next blog will look at how to take the bull by the horns and take control of the process in a way that will help maximise the number of quality applications you receive.
If this information strikes a chord with you then there are lots more top tips and practical advice in my book ‘Build and Grow – How to go from Tradesperson to Managing Director in the Construction and Trade Industries’ And you can buy it from Amazon via this link http://amzn.to/2CBok2L.