Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

 Good day,

 I just read up up on hiring good people to make a good business great. I have a somewhat solid vision for the future of my vending firm yet am unsure of how to pick or groom workers into positions of COMPETENT managers. We are considering outsourcing employment to a human resources company, but since neither my partner or myself know how to interview or determine qualified candidates to run our business we are a bit nervous on how to go about such an undertaking.

     Also we wanted to know how to pay and retain our prospective mangement team

Pay good money, treat your employees with respect, and walk away from ideas like human beings as "resources," or "human capital."

We have a lot of Aldi grocery stores around here, in the Chicago suburbs. The company is headquartered here. They pay $14/hr. for their in-store folks, with benefits and so forth. The rest of the supermarkets pay around $8/hr. I think.

The results are VERY dedicated employee responses! Nobody quits. In a recent "employees wanted" ad, taking maybe 4 lines in a blurred classified ad, lost amidst other ads, they had hundreds and hundreds of applicants.

How come? Because people---human beings---are entirely fed up with the modern corporate mentality. I believe most people who are actually *doing* the work in a business expect the owners and supervising management to understand all the ins and outs of whatever job the employee is doing. Too often, those "management types" have such a total disconnect from the reality of the business, as to appear to be clowns.

Treat people right, and they`re respond with interest, dedication, loyalty, and enthusiasm. Finding the right people comes down to having solid people skills yourself, so you can judge someone`s character during an interview.

Pay is great but measurement is key to the ROI.
Paying great is definitely a way to keep employees but doesn`t really speak to getting them, determining their value ahead of time, and getting the most value from them over time.  And most importantly, knowing when to drop the dead weight.

A business should have clearly defined positions and responsibilities. 

A business should have clearly defined processes.

A business should have a clearly defined screening process. (background checks, reference checking, etc)

On the aspect of hiring, this provides you with a list of qualifications you can measure the applicants against. Once hired, you have a clear definition of whether or not you are getting what was promised to you.

Goal based measurement.  When it comes to managers, most of the work can`t be put into a `clearly defined` something or other.  So, it comes down to goal based measurement systems. Include morale of that manager`s employees or short term results can hide long term damages.

I agree with what the previous two posts have said... and yet... we are all
making suggestions with very little information about your company and
you. I have some questions for your as follows:

1. What does "great" mean in your email? Is it about money? Is it about
culture of the company? Which are you willing to sacrifice?
2. Farming out your hiring to an HR company doesn`t remove your from
the day to day managment of the person/people brought in. So it`s not
wise to assume that you can bring someone in and let them go.
3. I have to assume that if you have a strong business and you have staff
and the business is doing well, that you have some capabilities as a
manager. If that is the case, pick people like you. Pick people who you
can train to be like you, to emulate your vision for the company.

If you don`t think you are a good manager, then find consultant or model
and find a way to train your new management candidates in the mode you
want.

Also, I`m unsure about the size of your company. I know you want to go
from good to great, but if your small, I`d take it a little slower for a while.
Interview people and have them interviewed by multiple people in your
company as well as some outside people you trust.

I remember, in my career, I was director of engineering and we were
hiring a financial analyst. She was interviewed by the CEO, the director of
finance, the director of contracts, the director of sales, the director of HR,
and me. Each of us had a different opinion of her, from she is warm and
competent to she is cold and competent. The warm and cold was not a
reflection of her so much as a reflection of each of us. To those of use
who were "warm" she was cold. To those of use who were "cold" she was
warm. We hired her, she did a good job, and some thought her cold and
some thought her warm.

It may not be so important to be great right now. It may be most
important to be good and select your management team slowly, carefully,
and with enough time to evaluate their performance.

Good luck
Steven Cerri
www.stevencerri.com