Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hello Fellow SUNNIES,
As I continue to expand and grow, I am facing a serious problem. I can`t find reliable employees!
What am I doing wrong? Is it me or I just can`t find the right candidates?
Let me give you an example of what Im writing about.
As you know Im a web developer/Designer in the Southern California Area.
For the past three years the company has been growing rapidly. So I decided to rent an office and hire some people. About a month ago, I was looking for someone with basic html, and general coding experience to help me with a few projects.
After interviewing a few people; I came across a good resume "so I thought".
On her resume, she seemed like she knew what she was talking about. She talked the web design lingo so I said "You`re hired"
DAY 1. Didn`t know how to create a new site in "dreamweaver studio", her excuse: I use a different version of Dreameaver... But Dreamweaver`s ftp hasn`t changed in the last 6 releases....
DAY 2. Didn`t know how to create roll-over buttons or a navigation bar. So I had to do it myself. She took the project into her own hands and changed the navigation bar to something that looked my 2 year old daughter could do.
DAY 3. Collapsed a customers web site, because she didn`t have knowledge of css or extended html.
DAY 4. Requests if I can change her projects because she doesn`t work with templates nor anything she doesn`t develop. So I had her start on a new project. She didn`t even know how to start a layout.
DAY 5. "You are fired" <---Trump style
After putting an add on the news paper for more than 2 weeks... My question is where can I find reliable people?? I don`t want to outsource to "Maleek" In INDIA or BORIS in RUSSIA... I want to find talented people here in the US. I believe in Keeping jobs in  America.
Where do I start? I went to Monster but their Price is too high for searching their database. Does anyone know where I can post free ads or if not free at least 100 bucks per posting.. and please do not tell me craigslist or myspace.com.
I think Start Up Nation needs an Employment posting too.

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Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net

Try Postaroo.com or the local Universities in your area. You will find that students are more developed than you think. Also, try the Art Institute in your area too.

I know you requested no CraigsList or MySpace suggestions and I don`t
blame you. However, check out LinkedIn.com. It`s the social networking
site for working professionals. I`ve known a few people who have joined
it to look for jobs and I recently heard a podcast about how employers are
using it to search out employees as well.

My other suggestion might be to tighten up your interviews. I`ve never
hired anyone before so I can`t speak from experience but maybe you need
to be more tech specific in your interview so you can avoid the situation
you wrote above.

Maybe go to the Department Head at Mt. Sierra College and ask him for names / references of some of the most promising students in the program.  Graduating students are usually good, hungry, full of fresh ideas, and hopefully they will have learned something w/i the past 4 years.   

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Leslie
Founder and President
Charmed Life Products LLC
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I had the same problem, and let me tell you ... I`ve had to develop one. It`s the only answer I had.

I put a few ads up last year (on Craigslist) for an artist when my original one wasn`t working out. I got 250 responses. 250 BAD responses. (I was just ... shocked.) On the 251st email I found my winner and I knew it immediately. (He works for me now.)

Then I needed a template maker, just like you describe. So I put up ads saying "you must be able to layout these kinds of designs, from scratch, using nothing other than a text editor, an RTF file with the site descriptions, and a directory of the images" and put up a link to some of our current projects. I didn`t get one response. (Over their head? Lots of people just use tools? Who knows.)

Eventually what I found was someone who didn`t know as much as I`d like, but she knew enough to hammer through and she was determined. It`s a little hard because I don`t have an office and I can`t help people through. Her first site was OK with some help, her second one had some quality issues that cost me a lot of hours. I redid the site, sent her a link to show her the difference, sent her some links on where she can go to learn some more things, and now she`s bringing herself up to speed on her own time. I know she can do it - eventually, and hopefully sooner rather than later - but I really feel this was the only way to get someone to design sites the way we wanted them, to take someone greener and teach them. People who have been in the business a while come in at a higher rate, and are usually too stubborn to know there`s doing something wrong or to take instruction from me. So maybe it would be good for you to find a student or someone straight out of college and then use your wisdom to coach them along.

I think, additionally, it`s really hard to find good local candidates for this kind of thing. (Both of my employees work in other states.) There are so many people who work in this industry and IMO 90% of them are bad. The other 10% are self-taught and never settle for good enough. So if you are searching for someone to be in your office, your pool of good people in your local area might be very very small.

NHG,
I understand what you are saying about getting overloaded with fake resumes.
The funny thing about my situation is. I can`t find someone reliable. NIKOLE, I tried hiring out of state two things that I don`t like are time difference and reliability. I need to be able to meet with them at any given time.
So do theses people work directly for you or are they working for you per project base? I hate working per project because they mostly ask for half down and they do not deliver when they say they will.

What I am looking for is: Direct Hire W2 employees that can come into the office and work. I am looking for a receptionist, Layout person and developer. So it`s a tough situation that I am in.
Currently we have the capacity to output 4 projects per month. But as we continue to grow we need to expand and start hiring.
I will look into Mt. Sierra. or Art Institute. That was going to be my next approach, perhaps Devry University I know they have a good CIS program.

-------------------------

Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net

See, that`s the thing. Your problem with reliability in the office is the same with your problem outside the office. 

I find that if I just lay out the week for them, they can see what is coming and do it. I don`t want to drive into the office so I don`t want to meet with them in it either, haha.

We started out per project and the 50 down thing ... my artist quickly realized I was good for it and not going to rip him off ... now we`ve just built a relationship where I can pay him a regular wage ( a percentage based on my intake). The beginning is always a dance but I know if I call him and need him for something now, he`ll do it. The pro side of this is that I have a baby and I end up working odd hours ... and so does he .. so it works out OK. (Who is going to "come into the office" at midnight on a weeknight? But I have had project meetings with him over IM at that time of night ...) I find that the regularly scheduled updates helps too though - I don`t have to call him for last minute things.

I`m not going to say it wasn`t hard. I`m just going to say it`s possible. But what I needed were crazy and perfectionist people like myself, and it`s hard to come by.

I`m also going to add that this process is a lot different with the template maker, who is paid hourly and does not have nearly as much say in the company.

Well see I`ve gone that route where I pay per project and dishing out 50 percent down and 50 percent when it`s completed. Here is what I was running into: The designer/developer was also running his own business he was taking in money and projects [more than what he can handle] when I would call him and ask him how the project was going he would tell me I wasn`t of high priority. THAT REALLY PISSED ME OFF... Mind you I was paying him about 1500.00 per project and with half down and living in Mississippi,  $750.00 I guess goes a long way. It came down to where I lost 1 customer because he couldn`t deliver on time.

The project was supposed to be finished on 7/01/2006 it wasn`t completed till October 18th 2006.<--- company reputation is my main concern! After getting into it with him, his way of looking at business is sometimes you win some sometimes you loose some" My approach is "I`m not here to loose".... Not a client or a project. So to make things easier on myself
I`ve decided to hire full time.I`ve noticed that It`s much profitable if you hire someone and pay them per week than per project.
Plus, I need the control I need to be able to monitor the projects and make changes before any of the projects go further. It takes longer to make corrections later down the road than addressing all issues as you go.
Not only that, but it`s time I start putting more effort in formalizing the business; what I mean by formalizing means operate during business hours: 8:00 to 5:00 pm. Not odd hours of the day.

As for you having to take care of a baby, Congratulations! I was in the same boat as you 1 year ago. Now they are both in day care so it makes things much easier. I found myself working from 4:00 pm till 3:00 am every day. But even that gets old fast.



-------------------------

Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net

First you need a detailed job description with what qualifications are necessary.  Be very specific on the computer related items.  (What version, release etc...)  You should also conduct very detailed interviews asking specific questions about the software they`ve used and what duties they have performed.  You should be able to identify in the interview if the candidate is knowledgeable in each skill you need.  Make sure the candidate reads the job description and then ask them how much experience they have in each area.  Then, always check prior employment records.  A little more effort on the front end will many times eliminate grief later.

Janet