Hire Tough, Manage Easy: How to Find & Hire the Best Hourly Employees - Softcover

Kleiman, Mel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1893214001 ISBN 13: 9781893214002

Publisher: Humetrics Inc, 1999

Synopsis

According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor, businesses spent an estimated $26 billion in 1996 alone on hiring hourly employees. The Department also reports that half those employees were gone within six months - an incredible turnover rate of 100 percent per year.

Mel Kleiman, a nationally recognized authority on recruiting, selecting, and retaining hourly employees, addresses this issue and offers step-by-step systems and ideas for better hiring in his new book, Hire Tough, Manage Easy. "Hourly workers represent 79 percent of the U.S. labor force," said Kleiman, "and these are the front-line service providers who are closest to the customer, so hiring right is extremely important. If the president of a grocery chain takes a day off, how many customers will notice? But if the aisles aren't clean or the checkout lines are ten people deep, you bet customers will notice and they probably won't be in any hurry to come back and repeat the experience.

Kleiman said the current labor shortage has led to hiring horror stores about shortsighted managers desperate for workers:

In its ad for warehouse people a North Carolina manufacturing firm specifically stated, "No drug testing."

Another employer discovered through random drug testing that 20 employees were using illegal substances, but they didn't fire them because the company knew it would not be able to find anyone to replace them.

More than a few companies report they are not even bothering to interview or check references for hourly position.

"Desperate measures like these are a recipe for disaster," said Kleiman. "These employers are risking workers' compensation claims and negligent hiring lawsuits, as well as the possibility of losing countless customers who may interact with employees who couldn't care less. Besides these risks, no employer can afford to lower the bar even an inch because our latest research shows the No. 1 reason companies lose good hourly employees is because the good ones get tired of putting up with or carrying the load for the bad ones."

Kleiman's book is divided into sections on recruiting, selecting, and interviewing. Highlights include:

Recruiting - Kleiman reminds employers that advertising is only the fourth-best recruiting tool. The three best sources for employees are former employees, good current employees, and every applicant who is interviewed.

Selection - Kleiman reviews the different results a company can expect from hiring easy (if you have a pulse, you're hired) and hiring tough (the harder the job is to get, the more good people will want it).

Interviewing -What you see in the interview is probably better than you'll ever see again. Kleiman tells interviewers how to hone their skills, ask the right questions, and better interpret the information gathered.

About this title

About the Author

In more than 20 years of research, consulting, speaking, training, and designing employee selection systems, Mel Kleiman has become the recognized authority on recruiting, selecting, and retaining the best hourly employees.

Kleiman founded Humetrics, Inc., in 1976 to provide a wide range of human resource consulting services. Over the past ten years, the company has narrowed its focus and expanded its expertise by specializing in the recruiting, screening, and testing tools needed to hire the best hourly employees. Today, most of the company's clients are nationwide or regional, service-driven employers like grocery and convenience stores, fast food restaurants, and retailers.

Kleiman's consulting clients include Fortune 500 companies as well as small, family-owned businesses. Over just the past five years, he has been a featured speaker at over 250 trade and professional association and corporate meetings. A frequent contributor to trade and professional journals, Kleiman is also the author of "Blueprint for Successful Hiring," "Interview Tough," and the audiotape series, "Help Wanted... Finding the Eagles in a Flock of Turkeys."

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"If you hire the wrong people, all the fancy management techniques in the world won't bail you out." - Red Auerbach, president of the Boston Celtics

While I love Red's quote, I once heard someone say it even better.

About ten years, ago at one of my seminars, a man sitting in the front row, was furiously taking pages of notes. I figured he must be new to supervising or managing because he was so keenly interested in every word I said. So, when I found out he actually owned 14 different businesses, I asked why he was taking such detailed notes.

"I only have one job," he replied, "to hire the right people. If I hire the right people, I don't have to do anything else." In other words, the most important business decisions you'll ever make are hiring decisions. Just ask Siva Tayi, president of Houston-based Sai Software Consultants and winner of a 1997 Entrepreneur of the Year Award. He'll tell you how one employee - the first one he ever hired - single-handedly determined the success of his company.

Shortly after he started his computer software and consulting business in 1984, Tayi's secretary - and only employee at the time - answered a phone call from a natural gas company inquiring about Sai's ability to work on a linear programming project. Without hesitation, she told the caller she would transfer him to the Linear Programming Department, then put the call on hold, and alerted her boss.

The rest, as they say, is history. Today, the company has 425 employees, 10 offices nationwide, annual sales of $30 million, and is on track to become a $100 million company by 2000. And all because an employee was smart, caring, and resourceful enough to say, "Let me connect you with our Linear Programming Department."

People make the difference. These days, the only difference between you and your competition is the people you hire. You can have a great restaurant, in a prime location, offering competitive prices, but if your employees deliver crummy service, you'll be out of business in six months. Yet, if you have a great restaurant, in an out-of-the-way place staffed by employees who know how to please customers, people will flock to it.

Whether it's the convenience store, grocery, hotel, hospitality, restaurant, healthcare, computer, or oil-and-gas industry, quality products, and great customer service start with employees. The success of any business hinges on its ability to recruit, select, and hire winners.

Unfortunately, most business people put more thought and care into buying a new computer than they put into hiring a new employee. How much research do you do and justifying documentation do you write before requesting a new computer? Now you're going to hire a new employee and the minimum it's going to cost you at least $900 a month - that's $10,800 per year. Do you spend as much time and effort deciding which employee to hire - a decision that's going to cost you more money and have a more dramatic effect on the bottom line?

Most hiring decisions usually aren't good enough. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, about half of the hourly employees hired are gone within six months. That's 100 percent turnover per year. And the total spent on hiring - just hourly employees - in 1996, was estimated at $26 billion.

Instead of spending your time and money doing it over and over again, why not hire right the first time? That's what this book is all about. It provides practical advice and proven techniques that will help you do a better job of hiring the right people - the first time.

When it comes to hiring hourly workers, hiring right is particularly important. These are the employees who determine the success of most business enterprises. They represent 79 percent of the U.S. labor force and hold the front-line positions - those closest to customers. They are the foundation of your business reputation and success. If the president of a fast food franchise doesn't show up for work, how many customers will notice? But if the restroom doesn't get cleaned or the wrong food order is delivered, will the customer return? Not likely.

The information in this book is based on more than 20 years of experience hiring and influencing the hire of tens of thousands of people, designing hiring and selection systems for clients nationwide, as well as experiences speaking to hundreds of corporate clients as well as trade and professional associations.

This information is presented in step-by-step, bite-sized portions, so you can easily implement these ideas and concepts. If you have never interviewed or hired before, this book covers the tools, procedures, and systems needed to do the job. If you have a lot of experience, this book provides some unique ideas and approaches that will make your job easier, make you more effective, and save you time, energy, and money.

By doing a better job of hiring, you'll have the right people in place to build a more successful, more competitive organization. And more time to manage and grow your business.

The challenge is to take the time and effort to establish the practices and procedures that will allow you to hire right the first time. Then, employees truly become your most valued assets.

About this edition

• Publisher: Humetrics Inc
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1893214001
• ISBN 13: 9781893214002
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 184