o you struggle finding
good workers? Diane Stafford of the Kansas City
Star recently wrote that business
Your staffing strategy may be the owners often complain to her that
problem. they can’t find good help. Ms.
Stafford pointed out that the
Whether you realize it or not, real problem is that these owners
you have only two viable options can’t find good help for what
for building your team: they’re willing to pay!
(1) Hire been-there-done-that That’s what I mean by trying to
skilled veterans, or have your cake and eat it too.
(2) Hire and/or promote
potentially-talented, We would all love to staff our
yet-unproven rookies. teams with proven veterans who
would happily work for rookie
The two strategies are mutually pay.
exclusive. Either strategy will But that’s being totally
work well IF you are willing and unrealistic. Being unrealistic is
able to meet the conditions no way to run a business.
necessary for its success.
You will never be able find
Most small contractors aren’t. enough low priced, proven
candidates to fully staff and
Most want to have their cake and grow your company. You can often
eat it too. They want to combine find one or two, but never enough
the best features of both to keep you company fully
strategies. staffed. So stop trying that
failed strategy.
That’s being unrealistic.
The truth of the matter is, time holding a rookie’s hands.
experienced people often have an Rookies ALWAYS must be taught how
inflated opinion of their worth. to perform the job successfully.
Not only will you not get them
cheap, you will probably have to If you are the type of person how
over-pay. enjoys developing others, and
will take the time to do it, hire
Don’t professional baseball and aggressive, yet unproven rookies.
football free agents ALWAYS Dozens are looking for
receive far more money than opportunities to develop new
they’re worth? The same applies skills, take on more
with proven construction workers. responsibility, and earn more
money.
Nine times out of ten, you will
have to offer them at least a 10% In the end the right strategy for
raise to get them to switch to you is pretty simple.
your team. If you want to hire
veterans, you better be prepared To hire veterans, you need money.
to pay them well. To hire rookies, you need time.
Whichever you have the most of is
You also better be in position to the path to follow.
rapidly grow your sales and
margins. You will need that extra While we’re on the subject of
income to cover the cost of the staffing, I would like to pass
veteran. along advice from Mr. Dee Hock,
builder of the VISA bankcard
Veterans are expensive...rookies system. Look him up on the web.
are time consuming. His advice is always worth
listening to.
Be prepared to spend a lot of
Mr. Hock tells business owners to According to Mr. Hock, here’s why
hire and promote on the following you should adhere to that order.
set of characteristics, in the
order presented. Without integrity, motivation is
dangerous.
The most important characteristic Without motivation, capacity is
is integrity. impotent.
The second most important is Without capacity, understanding
motivation. is limited.
The third most important is Without understanding, knowledge
capacity. is meaningless.
The fourth most important is Without knowledge, experience is
understanding. blind.
The fifth most important is
knowledge. Experience is easy to provide and
The least important is quickly put to good use by people
experience. with all of the other qualities.
About the Author:
Ron Roberts, The Contractor's Business Coach, teaches contractors how to turn their businesses into a profit spewing machines. To receive Ron's FREE Contractor Best Practices Newsletter visit http://www.FilthyRichContractor.com.
Read more articles by:
Ron Roberts
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