These slow times are a perfect time to upgrade your
staff.
Face it! You’ve probably been
behaving like a hostage whenever your employees during the good times would
come knocking on your door at the end of the day to say, “Do you have a
minute?” We both know what comes next. It’s only a matter of how much money
they want to stay or to let you know they’ve already decided to jump ship for
more money.
It’s not that it can’t happen today. But, you
can finally have the guts to be proactive about who stays and who goes. Even at
the best of shops I’ve been lucky enough to train over the years there are
always underperformers that they’re dying to get rid of but just afraid to do
so.
Here’s what I recommend in good times or bad (but
especially in trying times like these): Always be recruiting, hiring,
orienting, training and retaining. What we want are the willing ones.
Just because you’re in the
process doesn’t mean you have to hire anyone, but suppose a more qualified or
better yet a more willing person came in. Wouldn’t your company benefit by
having the right people on the team and the wrong people gone? You bet you
would!
The trick is to be proactive and
to have a formalized step-by-step process from when, where and how to recruit –
a rock-solid hiring process, a written orientation process that gets them up to
speed and fills their holes fast, training that’s ongoing to keep them great at
performing their tasks according to their written job description (better yet,
a written operations manual).
The last step is to stay in touch
with them constantly to sniff out whether they’re happy or shopping around once
we know we want them to stay. This is all about being good at retaining. And
retaining is providing a “career not just a job.” Without a career, they’ll
feel stuck and you’ll either lose them or they’ll stay without any bringing you
their heart. You need an Org. Chart that shows them where they are today and
where they can go as the company grows.
All of this has a DRAMATIC effect
on your top line sales and your bottom line profits.
Note: If you’d like a
copy of a basic Org. Chart, e-mail me at al@appleseedbusiness.com and I’ll be
happy to send it along.ANNOUNCEMENT
Give Me 60 Minutes And I'll Show You The Secrets To Running A Profitable Plumbing, Heating, Air Conditioning, Carpentry, Electrical or any other Service Business ... Even During A Recession!
Al Levi is a consultant and a contributing editor to
PM magazine
and blogs for many other BNP trade magazines.
Al is presenting a free online video seminar called the “60 Minute
Recession Solution” Online Video Seminar.
For the first time
ever, you’ll hear from him and just a few of the many contractors who have
engaged the power of the Power Programs. They’re happy to share how this
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especially in these tough economic times.
Al said, “This
program has helped dozens of business owners who I’ve worked with one to one.
The Power Plans have also helped. But now thanks to new technology, I’ll be
able to help many more contractors with my 12 Month Power Plan Coaching Program
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These
programs have been working for Al in his family business for years, in his
clients’ businesses and now they are reaping the results. Click on the following link
and learn more so you can see and hear for yourself:
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