Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Being that I work in the recruiting and staffing industry I feel that I am usually a little ahead of the curve with respect to jobless claims and numbers. For instance a few years ago before the dot com meltdown the company I worked for had declining placement numbers in both consulting and full time employees 3 months in advance of the first news that the economy had trouble and the major layoffs started.

Tomorrow numbers are due out on new jobs created in the economy and I can tell you from the last 3 months in NY the figures could be big. Seems like everyone we speak to needs to hire more and more employees to keep up. We have also been working with alot of well funded start ups that are hiring at quite a nice pace too ( WEB 2.0 I assume).

With all this hiring activity comes the inevitable WAR FOR TALENT, where salaries start to rise faster and people begin to switch jobs at an accelerated pace to move on to the next hot technology or product coming to the market.

My question for all of us is how do we get creative NOW and start to think ahead about not only growing our companies  but attracting and retaining the best talent we will surely need to succeed. That seems to be issue number one for any company that actually gets out of the starting gate and wants or needs to grow (other than health care costs but I can save that one for next week).

Love to hear some thoughts from both big and small.

 

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Matthew Walden info@TemporarEase.com www.TemporarEase.com

I could not agree more with you. I too am in the recruiting industry and see a very positive trend in hiring. And like you say a Talent War is on the way. I speak about this exact trend on my blog.

My firm specializes in recruiting for start-ups and small businesses. I would agree that there are some excellent opportunities for start-ups right now to attract talent before the Big Dogs even acknowledge that a Talent War is coming.  Just being a start-up, if you have an awesome product or service, you are going to get the attention of some top players who want to be able to really contribute to something that really means something.

There are of course some issues facing start-ups such as; MONEY, finding the Top Talent that can positively impact your bottom line and MONEY. Once you can prove to a possible candidate that what you are doing is honestly going to be something of worth you can almost remove the problem of MONEY or Salary as bait for a potential candidate.  There is a trend recently that points to peoples desire to make a difference as apposed to making big money. Plus if your product or service is good, the money will be there soon enough.

If anyone has any questions about how to find, hire and retain Top Talent for their start-up venture or small business, please do not hesitate to email me or respond to this. Best Wishes to everyone.

P.S. Mathew, I think this topic is very timely and pertinent. Thank you for starting it!!

Here are the new numbers and as suspected they are great! American employers added 211,000 workers in March and the unemployment rate matched a four-year low, capping the best start for hiring of any year since 2000. The gain in payrolls followed a 225,000 rise in February. http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000006&sid=a8 tcnkwALqmM&refer=home

Looks like new products and services will be finding a warm welcome from business looking to exppand. We could be entering a great climit for Start Ups.

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Matthew Walden info@TemporarEase.com www.TemporarEase.com

I can tell you that the only thing worse than participating in a "WAR FOR TALENT" is being in that war in the middle of Montana. In a state that has a population under 1,000,000 people, we`ve faced the challenge of getting and retaining quality people for our face paced, e-commerce business.

We`ve had good success with generating resume flow through some area print ads and our own website aimed at attracting potential employees. www.youcanlivehere.com highlights the area that we are in and the fact that you can have a high performance, challenging job while living in a great place. People seem to connect with the personal informaton about us and our employees and become attracted to the company. Obviously this tactic won`t apply to everyone, but you may check out the link above to see if it sparks any ideas for you.

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Nick Runyon
Director of Marketing
PrintingForLess.com

My favorite saying.

I have the ability to look at almost any product, service or process and make it better.

I like to keep things simple and will give you a general idea, for you to work off of for your specific problem.

My question for all of us is how do we get creative NOW and start to think ahead about not only growing our companies  but attracting and retaining the best talent we will surely need to succeed.

Features and Benefits.

What (features and) Benefits would you have to offer, for people to want to work for you?

• Opportunity, is huge.
• Create a vested interest "program" where people will benefit if they work for you and will not if they do not.
• An incentive program to stay employed with you.

IMHO all of the answers you are looking for are within those three bullet points.

I do not know your specific situation or what you are willing and able to give, but Im sure if you create

• opportunities for your employees,
• an incentive program to be employeed with you and
• a program that creates a vested interest for them to be employed with you

You will have absolutely no problem obtaining all the skilled employees that you desire, and yes I do already have the different programs that may suite your needs but I feel  if you get people thinking in the right direction, they will come up with even more ideas than you have yourself.

mike

Ok, recruiting and staffing types, a challange:

I saw this thread after I posed this very topic in another thread on the board.

I am in the construction industry, building custom homes from alternative, very energy efficient and insurance friendly materials.  I am at the point where I have to have help running the daily operations of the company so I can focus on marketing/sales and future growth. 

I have spoken with quite a few people about coming on board with my company in a construction supervision and customer service role, but have had no luck.  I either can`t find the right mix of qualities I need in a candidate, or I don`t have a steady enough cash flow to guarantee a regular paycheck.  If I had the time to effectively market and sell, the money would be there.

I`ve been a business owner for over 20 years and know a few things about how to structure a compensation package, using bonuses, not pay raises, tying compensation to performance, giving ownership in the company, etc..  Any ideas on how to find the talent I need and keep them on board?  The worst thing I can do is to hire the wrong person and sink this business in 2 months.

Your ideas and questions appreciated.

Mike Michaud

I would recommend that once you find some interested individuals for the job, do some behavioral profiling. There are many companies offering such a service ( of course my company, < anchor_height="19" anchor_width="160" anchor_top="-3032" anchor_left="129" ="" hover="true" pref_url="http://www.executeksearch.com/Execu." ="application/browster-plugin" height="0" width="0">< anchor_height="19" anchor_width="160" anchor_top="63" anchor_left="69" ="" hover="true" pref_url="http://www.executeksearch.com/Execu." ="application/browster-plugin" height="0" width="0">www.executeksearch.com). This will help you to generally determine a candidate`s drive and motivations among other things like introvert vs. extrovert.. You can get this done for each candidate and then use the information from the profiles to aid you in the interview process. I know from experience this can be a HUGE help in finding the right candidate. After all, we all know that a perfect candidate is about more than just skills on a resume. Just a suggestion. Any questions feel free to contact me.

Mike

Looking at it from a different view...

I am at the point where I have to have help running the daily operations of the company so I can focus on marketing/sales and future growth. 

Im not sure that sentence is phrased  correctly..

Shouldn`t it say...

I am at the point where I have to have help with the marketing/sales and future growth of the company so I can focus on the daily operations.

I`m just wondering, because this way you dont have to worry about..

The worst thing I can do is to hire the wrong person and sink this business in 2 months.

because you will have control of the business. and if the sales team doesn`t perform  you may not have to pay them as much if you link their salary to their performance.

I don`t believe anybody can run/operate your business as well as you can ( at least very very few people can and if they were that good  I figure they would be operating their own) but there are thousands  of people  who can bring business to you.

Am I close??

Mike

 

Mike,

Sorry, not close.  I phrased my concerns appropriately the first time.  And then again, that may be part of the problem.

I am an idea person, big picture.  I don`t like having to deal with the details of execution constantly.  As far as "running the daily operations", what I`m referring to is the construction supervision aspect of the business, not the management.  I can`t be on 6 jobs a day and sell and prep new clients to get their homes started and . . .

You get the idea.  I`m needing someone experienced in construction and supervision, that can deal with subs in a knowledgeable and authoratative way and deal appropriately with clients in the field.  If this person doesn`t handle clients well then they can sink my business by turning referring clients into pissed nay-sayers.

As far as selling, I`ve found that I can do a better job than almost anyone else concerning the type of service and products I provide.  Am I a far superior salesman? Not at all, but belief and enthusiasm in one`s product carries a lot of weight.  I`ve been told that what comes across when I talk with clients about their homes is that I`m interested in their project, not selling them a house. 

Anyway, my challange is to find the right construction supervisor, which is what started this thread in the first place.

 

Your issues, I have found, are normal for entrepreneurs. My company specializes in helping start-ups and small businesses find and hire their super stars. Most "owners" that we talk to are not detail people. They would rather be on the frontlines of busniess development than business operations. As an entrepreneur myself I am in the same boat. No one knows your business like you do! So you are the best person to relay how you want your customers to feel about what you are selling! Sound familiar? The largest demand that we have for us to find are, accountants, legal people and operations managers.  You know, the detail people!  Well, I just wanted to let you know that I understand what you are trying to accomplish. If you would like my help in any way, please do not hesitate to contact me.  < anchor_height="19" anchor_width="160" anchor_top="-4450" anchor_left="261" ="" hover="true" pref_url="http://www.executeksearch.com" ="application/browster-plugin" height="0" width="0">www.executeksearch.com

Best Wishes!