|
Help Wanted: How to Attract the Best Employees In this new feature, an executive presents a business challenge he or she faces and we ask other business leaders to share their experience grappling with a similar problem. Stephen Pflum, president and CEO, Packaging Specialists Inc. in Phoenix: Our biggest challenge is finding competent, reliable, entry-level manufacturing employees. It's worse now than it was a year ago. Arizona's minimum wage went up last year and rose again on Jan. 1, 2008 (to $6.55). Prior to this, we were paying approximately $8.00 an hour for entry-level wages at a time when the federal and state minimum wage was $5.15. But due to the increase in Arizona minimum wage levels, that gap has closed in on us. It's difficult to raise our rates sufficiently to maintain the same percentage difference that we offered before. At the same time, workers in this area have more options than ever for the kind of entry-level jobs we offer. We've taken steps to address the problem such as launching an employee referral bonus program and encouraging employees' family members to work here. We also use the best temp services. But with the problem worse than ever, it puts more pressure on us to find people. Teresa Mandelin, senior business development officer, Southwestern Business Financing Corp. in Phoenix: Our biggest challenge is hiring entrylevel employees who are qualified and who have a good work ethic, where 8:00 to 5:00 really means 8:00 to 5:00. The best employee I've hired so far was through e-mail networking. At a time when I was looking for a marketing assistant, I happened to get an e-mail from a business partner that read, "I know of someone good who's looking for a clerical job. Attached is her resume." I was able to read her resume, talk with my management team and contact the candidate directly. She came in for an interview and we hired her. She has been here a year and it's worked out great. Soon I expect to have another open position. I plan to write an e-mail to my business partners explaining the position and the kind of employee I seek. It's a cheap, easy way to spread the word. I have hundreds of business partners in my database. Best of all, I avoid working with employment agencies. My experience with agencies has been frustrating. They call a lot and try to get me to interview someone at a specific day and time that may be inconvenient for me. Once, their candidate didn't even show up for the interview! Unlike the agencies, my business partners understand the kind of person I'm looking for. And it's in their interest to have me hire good people, because that will help me serve them better. It works both ways. I get e-mails from my business partners when they have a job opening, and three times I've sent someone's resume to them who wound up getting hired. It's great because you're not really vouching for the candidate; you're simply sending along their resume and letting the hiring managers decide for themselves how to proceed. Not long ago, Phoenix was a little town. With all the growth, however, you become more remote from the people you used to network with in person. That's why e-mail networking works so well. Steve Treinen, system director of home care products, Banner Home Care in Gilbert, Arizona: Over the last two years, we've partnered with three or four local community colleges in Maricopa County. They send us students who are hungry for work experience and we bring them in for both unpaid internships and part-time jobs. We've had as many as six students at a time working here in some capacity, and they've all been great. The quality of the students is very high. Right now we have three student employees. While our immediate need is for entry-level trainees, our long-term need is for licensed respiratory therapists, registered nurses and pharmacy technicians. If we can build relationships with students now and get them in our pipeline, our hope is that they stay with us and become licensed professionals down the road. One of the reasons our outreach to the community colleges has worked so well is we're flexible. If a student can only work two days a week during certain times of day, that's fine with us. Our flexibility enables us to attract and keep the students. Alan Himmelstein, president, Hospital Care Consultants Inc. in Dallas: To attract hard-to-find people, we've found that it's important not just to target the individual. You also have to recruit that person's family. We hire physicians in rural America, and we used to mail letters to doctors' offices. Then one day, we got a call from a physician's spouse. She said, "My husband brought home this flyer from work. What's it all about?" That's when we realized we should mail letters to the physicians' homes. If we offer higher pay, that can grab the spouse's attention. Regardless of what industry you're in, target the family. Contact people at home. You want spouses to read your pitch. Then they might ask the candidate, "Hey, why don't you respond to this?" Opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Compass Bank. April 2008 |
|
