Ellen Rohr
Contributing Writer
Bare Bone Biz

“I just can’t find good people.  That’s my biggest problem,” a frustrated contractor told me.

“Who’s this young man next to you?”  I asked.

“That’s my service manager.”

“You know, he can hear you right now.”

There are good people out there.  Some of whom may be working for you already.  What is it that you are looking for?  What would one have to be to be good enough for you?  Are you looking for a kind, smart, good looking, physically fit, devoted, self-starting, common-sense filled, problem-solving, mind-reading, mind-blowing, sales stacking, no-callbacks racking version of you on your very best day?

Instead, look for willing, basically capable people and commit to helping them get really good.  Develop their technical skills, operational habits and communication and sales skills.  And love them.

Here are a few ways to end the “I can’t find good people” blues.

• Offer a grand plan.  Craft a business plan to help you gain clarity and commit to action that will help you expand your company.  A growing company offers opportunity.  Share the plan with existing team members and potential hires.
• Commit to becoming a “No Experience Needed” company.  The better your training and operational systems, the less skill you require walking in the door.  Take responsibility for teaching them, holding them accountable and creating an awesome career ladder.
• Get others involved in your recruiting efforts.  To vendors, church members, friends, family, business networking members, say, “We are growing a really cool company and are looking for right stuff people to help us grow.”
• Create an Organizational Chart, and map out positions and reporting relationships.  Include short, bulleted Position Descriptions that describe the responsibilities of the position.  “Here’s what you are to do…”
• Craft Operations Manuals for every position on the Organizational Chart.  Using the Position Descriptions as a guide, write procedures for each responsibility.  “Here’s how you do it…”
• Develop a transparent Wage Ladder, based on the Organizational Chart positions.  This takes time to map out and strategize.  Consider what is generous and fair, and what behavioral steps are needed to move from one rung to the next.
• Hire two when you need one.  Make room for two if they are both great.  (You said you couldn’t find any!)  Let them know that you will back them up if they get into a bind.  Commit to them, if you want them to commit to you.  And it’s OK if you train them and they leave.  Someday you may work for them.  People are allowed to get on and off the train.
• Raise your standards, don’t lower them.  Good people like to be held accountable.  Rules are part of a good game.  Don’t apologize for requiring people to show up clean, sober, on-time, dressed right and willing to use your procedures.
• Ride along and sit side-by-side to make sure the manuals are being used, and to build strong relationships.  This is where the love comes in.  This is how you develop a culture.  The time spent together allows for magical moments where team members – and you! – discover the joy of being part of a supportive, excellence-minded, fun, accepting, diverse, developing team.
• Raise prices so you can do all this.  The companies who have solved the “I can’t find good people” problem have taken the last few years to develop the above.  That is what is required of you.  It won’t happen overnight.  It will take your investment (and your customer’s money) to make it happen.

 

One more thing:  Quit talking about how awful people are. If you want a different reality – lots of great people lined up to work with you – then start talking about that, and what you can do to make it so.