April 7, 2022 • 21 mins
Have you had challenges in hiring during "The Great Resignation"? Has this had a negative impact on your cleaning business?
Fast Company Magazine says two-thirds left due to a lack of engagement and a lack of overall well-being. HRM cites that it costs $4129/employee on average to train and hire them.
Hire before you need to hire.
Our job ad sources are mentioned below, along with others like FB, LinkedIn, local FB community groups, your own website, and even local colleges.
What goes in our ad?
1) Write based on emotion. Figure out your ideal employee.
2) Focus on a winning headline
3) Your first paragraph should have a company summary.
4) Talk about what the applicant will gain through their experience working with you.
5) Describe your company's benefits (e.g. "Enjoy holiday weekends with 6 paid holidays per year").
6) Cover the requirements in 4 areas: experience, education, skill, and personal characteristics.
7) Place a clear Call to Action (CTA). What do you want them to do next?
Hire before you need to hire. Place ads before you need to. Continuously collect applications and follow up regularly. We have no less than 50 qualified candidates at the ready at any given time. If someone quits tomorrow, we am ready.
Lastly, interview. We do a 3-step interview: a) 5 minutes to prequalify them, b) a 10-20 minute interview going over details, and c) a 3rd interview to tie up loose ends and to make an offer.
Resources mentioned:
Canva.com
Question Behind The Question, by John G Miller
Fast Company - on well-being and engagement
Human Resource Management - $4129 to hire on average
Indeed.com
Ziprecruiter
Craigslist
Google For Jobs
PostJobFree
Mike Michalowicz's Job Ad from Clockwork
Universal Janitorial Services, Inc. has been serving the DC area for the last 44 years by providing janitorial, porter, disinfecting, and specialty floor work for schools, places of worship, office buildings, banks, and so many more. We utilize a 3-step quality control process to make sure your facility is clean, thereby improving your productivity and your ROI. Give us a call at 703-385-1232 today.
I teamed up with SpeakPipe. If you have any questions and would like to be featured on the show, go to https://www.speakpipe.com/BeyondTheMop and click "Start Recording". Record up to a 90-second question and you'll be featured on the podcast along with the answer(s) to your question(s). I'll put all of these together and will release them at a later date.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:01):
Have you had challenges in hiring during the Great
resignation? Has this had anegative impact on your cleaning
business? If so, check thisepisode out hiring in the age of
COVID. Hey, I'm Mark Lineberry.
With beyond the mop. And witheach episode, I give a pro tip a
guide or resource, somethingthat really helps your business
move forward. Let me ask youthis. Are you looking for a DIY
(00:24):
and budget friendly way tocreate graphics for your
business? Would it be cool tohave an online platform to
create your own logos, Facebookposts, graphics, Instagram
posts, cleaning proposaltemplates, and many others.
Guys, if so, check out canva.comCanva is a really cool resource,
especially if you're creativeminded are so many tools you
(00:46):
could use to create Word Artgraphics, pictures for your
business, and so forth. And ifyou're not the creative type,
like yours truly, they'll offermany free and paid templates
that you can use to up yourmarketing game. I've use Canva
to create social media post,I've used Canva to create
podcast art for past and futureprojects. I've even use Canva to
(01:08):
write a couple different ebooks,shameless plug here, one of
which is on my clean pivot.com.
And I've used it for a couple ofdifferent business card designs
as well. They offer a freeversion, which will cover many
of your needs, and even a paidversion for a low fee. This is a
(01:28):
great alternative to subscribingto Adobe Illustrator or even
paying for a freelancer throughsites like Fiverr or Upwork. Go
check out canva.com Well back tohiring in the age of COVID. I'm
gonna cover different topicshere, I'm gonna cover some
statistics. I'm gonna talk aboutresources or sources, I should
(01:49):
say where we put our ads into.
I'm gonna talk about what goesinto an ad, how we collect our
job applications and how we doour interviews. Well, first,
some stats Fast Company Magazinesays that even though money is a
big factor, two thirds of theemployees out there left due to
a lack of engagement and lack ofoverall wellbeing. Guys, it's
(02:10):
not about the money. Always takethe time to invest into your
employees, ask them how they'redoing, how they're feeling, how
their family is, what resource?
How can you help them? Whatguides can you provide for them,
and so forth, figure out whatmakes them tick, what hurts them
what bothers them and see howyou could solve that pain point
(02:31):
for them. Even if it's outsideof cleaning, even if it's not
even money related. alwaysinvest in your fellow human. And
if they do ask for money, figureout why they want the money.
Every time an employee asked fora raise. I asked them well, why
do you want a raise? Now? I'llmean that in a condescending
way. But sometimes questionbehind the question. Great book,
(02:53):
by the way, you could dive inand figure out what makes them
tick. And why are they lookingfor the money in the first
place. For example, we hadsomeone recently asked for a
raise. And it turned out theirbudget just wasn't meeting their
needs, meaning the income forthat budget just wasn't meeting
their family needs. And so araise made sense, right? Either
(03:15):
I lose them, too, because theymight go somewhere else where I
give them a raise, which thecontract could technically
support or at least pull in fromother areas. Another example I
had an employee asked for araise, and he wouldn't tell me
how much of a raise he needed.
And I kept asking questions keptasking, Well, it turned out he
had a legal bill that's comingup to is due the following
month, and about $6,000 for him.
(03:39):
Now. If he's asking for a raise,there's no way I could give him
a raise to provide a $6,000month increase to pay for that
pay for that legal bill. And Iexplained to him that a raise
will not help him in thesituation here. He needs
something else. He needssomething better. So I worked
with him and talked to him. Andit's illegal bill not for any
(04:00):
sort of criminal or nefariousreasons. It was just an
immigration is a legal immigrantto this country. And you gotta
reapply and submit new paperworkand do all this due diligence
stuff in terms of researchingthe employee, what he had to go
through all that again, is upfor renewal. And he needed that
money to cover those legal feesfor that process. And so just by
(04:24):
talking to him, I learned thatwas the source and I said, Hey,
and silver raise, what if wegave you $2,000 To pay towards
this legal fee? And what if youwent back to the attorney and
worked out some sort of paymentplan for the remainder of the
balance. And he did that and itworked. He is really happy he
got the money and made theattorney happy. It made a very
happy employee on my end, and itsolved their pain point. And so
(04:48):
it gave them a chance to chipaway at a much lower price point
than what he could haveotherwise. So
think about fulfilling theirneeds. Fulfill In their
engagement, taking care of theiroverall well being. Again, it's
not always about the money,there's always something there,
there's an underlying reasonthat sometimes he could fix for
(05:10):
cost of hiring. According toHuman Resource Management, it
cost $4,129, on average, to hireand train a brand new employee.
Now we're in the cleaningbusiness, I don't think it costs
us $4,000 to hire and train abrand new employee, right? Now,
it might cost hundreds or evenlow 1000s, right. For example,
(05:33):
if you were to put an ad intoindeed, or wherever that's
getting cost money, you're nowspending time interviewing
people. So time is money, right?
So now you're spending moremoney, they have to do the
interviews, you have to do thetraining, you have to do the due
diligence, the backgroundchecks, and you have to spend
time holding their hand for nextweek or two while they figure
out this new account thatthey're working at. So all that
(05:53):
costs time and money becauseyou're pulling from other
resources to cover it. So it'snot ideal to hire new employee
whatsoever, you really want tofocus on alternatives. Here's
another step. It takes 42 daysto hire a brand new employee. So
once he put the ad in, onaverage, nationwide, it takes 42
(06:15):
days to fulfill that job role.
When you think about in thecleaning industry, you can't go
back to your client and say,Hey, can you wait 42 days
because on average, it takes 42days to hire a new employee.
Now, they'll fire you in aheartbeat. You don't have 42
days, you might have one day ifyou're lucky. So you need to
figure out how can I preventemployees from hiring? How can I
(06:37):
treat and improve their overallwell being? How can I improve
their engagement, so that way,they don't leave, and there is
no great resignation within yourown company. And if you do need
to hire, well consider hiringinternally. So make some part
time employees full timeemployees, if you need to add
hours, take the time tointerview each and every one of
(06:58):
your employees. Ask them hey, ifwe were to give you more hours,
would you want that? And if youdo, what type of schedule would
you want? And figure that out? Ialways ask our employees on a
quarterly basis, I rotatethrough Hey, where else would
you like to work out? How much?
How many more hours? Would youlike to work out? What do you
need for your for your ownneeds? And then we address that.
So when jobs do open up? I thinkoh, are you got someone to mine,
(07:22):
I'm gonna bring in such and suchemployee from another location
easy that way. But if you doneed to hire outside of your
company hire before you need tohire. I know that doesn't make
sense whatsoever. But let me sayit again, hire before you need
to hire. And I'm going to talkabout the process of what we do
to hire before we need to hirepeople. But first, here's some
(07:44):
of the sources we advertise in.
We advertise in indeed ziprecruiter, our own newspaper,
The Washington Post, Facebook,LinkedIn. I haven't done this
yet. But you could post it inlocal Facebook community groups,
you could post in your localcommunity college Iike, posting
Craigslist, we've done now a lotof times, you could post in
(08:07):
Google for jobs, he could postthem post job free and even post
on your own website have lowlink up there, click it fill out
an application, and you're offto the races, right? Well, what
goes into an ad. This is reallyimportant. In Episode One, we
talked about creating the clientavatar, right? Crane, that ideal
(08:29):
client figuring out who you wantto go after? Well, you need to
do the same thing for your jobapplicants, you need to figure
out, this is the ideal employeeI would like to have and create
the job ad around that idealemployee covering their pain
points covering their needs, andso forth. Let me explain
(08:49):
further. When employees go toohigh, when they get to fill out
a new job, they're making a lifechanging decision, right? It's a
probably emotional decision.
They're going well, is this theright fit for me? Should I be
making this move? Should I besacrificing time from my family
to focus on a new job or whathave you? They're making a very
(09:09):
big emotional decision. So whenyou write out that job ad, you
need to have that avatarcandidate in mind that avatar
employee in mind and right basedon motion towards that
candidate.
Number two, you need to focus onwinning headlines filled with
(09:31):
keywords that your avatar couldsearch for. Here's the opposite.
Don't type in as a headline helpone right everyone does that.
skip that? Don't do that. Here'sanother one. Daytime employee
needed. Everyone needs a daytimeemployee. Don't Don't put that
in there. Right. Write headlinesthat would connect back to your
avatar who you are going after?
Maybe ideal job for a single momor what have you figured out
(09:54):
something that would make themtick or why they would want to
apply to you in the first place.
Make sure that's including yourheadline. Your first paragraph
should have a company summary inthree to four sentences. Don't
make a whole essay don't, it'snot about you, it's about them,
but have three to four sentencesin there to describe a company
(10:14):
that they can rally behind. Now,we don't always post our company
name in there. So I'm notrecommending that. But go ahead
and post in there three to foursentences about your history
about what you do your mission,who you serve, and so forth. So
that way they can latch on tothat and run as well. Outside of
that first paragraph, you wantto talk about the benefits of
(10:35):
working this new job? In otherwords, what will they gain by
working for you? So I'm not andI'm not meaning benefits by this
but figure out what winningsells points can you convey into
the ad again, the ads just likea client ad you got have copy?
(10:57):
Good copy into it. You need tofigure out what are their hot
points? And how can you addressthose hot points within the ad
very important. For example, ifI find it, I'm gonna post in the
show notes. But Michael McCallawits, he wrote Profit First
Pumpkin Plan. So for clockwork,he had in one of his books, I
(11:18):
forget which book he had asample job ad talking about some
sore position, I think it's likea receptionist position or
something like that. is sobasic, it's non glorious, right?
receptionist, but he had inthere promoting, hey, you get to
join our company. Yeah, thehours are sucky. The pay is
sucky He even put that in there.
But now it's like having a freegym. Because now you get to go
(11:41):
here and here and here and runaround here and there and there.
Think about all the freeexercise you get, you can cancel
your gym membership and actuallysave money by working for us. He
had that copy in there. If Ifind that ad, I'll go ahead and
post it in the show notes. Sotake a look. And then describe
your awesomeness of yourcompany's benefits back to the
(12:06):
candidate. So for example, a fewoffer paid holidays, don't just
say paid holidays. In the jobadd in in your benefit section.
Talk about enjoy holidayweekends with six paid holidays
per year. Does that sound low,more enticing than just paid
holidays. Also, briefly discoverbriefly cover I should say
(12:30):
discover to the candidate, yourjob requirements in four key
areas number one experience,education, skills and personal
characteristics. So withexperience, we require as an
organization, three years ofexperience before working with
us, right. So we don't wantsomeone off the street, we don't
(12:51):
want to take time to trainpeoples in essence, so we hire
for experience only. So makesure you're clear and succinct
with that, if that's your yourrequirement, put that in there.
If your job doesn't require anyexperience, be clear with that
say, Hey, this job doesn'trequire experience, you'll have
paid training you can use foryour future, or something like
that. Education is another one.
(13:14):
Now. Again, cleaning business,he'll need education, we don't
require it so much. We do askfor minimum of you know, high
school level or so. So that wayyou can understand math, you can
understand written directions,clear directions, and so forth.
And even write back andcommunicate as needed. But be
clear in that within your adskills, very important. Figure
(13:37):
out what skills do they need topossess. I can't tell you how
many times I've seen ads outthere or people have applied for
ads where we put down skills andwe list it line by line Hey,
these are the skills that youneed. We go to hire them they
said interact within the resumeand application that they had
those skills, but they didn'thave the skills you need to
(13:58):
stress that that's important ifthat's an important value for
you and your organization stressthose skills. And lastly,
personal characteristics. Rightif you have Mr. Grumpy Pants,
you want hire Mr. Grumpy Pantsif you need energetic, happy
team members working for you,because they're the face of your
brand or the face of yourcompany. So it's really
important. Are they dressednice?
(14:18):
Are they dressed like a bum? Arethey using swear words every
three sentences? Or are theynice and learn demeanor? Because
they're going to reflect yourcompany back to the client, you
need to have a goodrepresentative or ambassador and
therefore that and like with anyad you create, whether it be for
(14:39):
a client or for an employee, youneed to have a clear call to
action. What do you want them todo next after reading this ad?
Is it to call you is it to senda resume is it to fill out
appointment scheduler is it youknow whatever you need to email,
you need to figure out what youwant them to do next Next, and
(15:01):
be clear in the ad be very clearand concise. Well, here's what
we do within our organization,we collect job applications I
said a minute ago that we hirebefore we need to hire. So we
put in ads before we need tohire someone, we put in ads in
(15:21):
all these different places, wemostly focus on Craigslist. And
indeed, so what we'll do, we'llcreate the ad will hire, we
won't hire I should say, but wecollect those resumes we collect
as applications. Once they comein, I'll pick up the phone, I'll
call them, I'll check interests,I'll see if they'll, if they're
(15:44):
looking for a job, if that'ssomething they want to work for,
if that's the doc type they'relooking for in their career, or
life, or so forth. And I'm veryclear in the ad, hey, we're not
hiring at the moment, but we'rehiring in the future. So when
they do apply, I tell them thatI talked to them that or tell
them all that I'm verytransparent. In other words, but
(16:05):
once I have their application,what I'll do, I'll put into a
database, a CRM, basically, Ihave set up for these employees
are future employees, I shouldsay. So I'll pick up the phone,
I'll call them. And if we're nothiring at the moment, I'll check
up with them every, every othermonth or so. So I'll pick up the
(16:26):
phone, I'll call them, I'll say,Hey, how's things going? Have
you found new job yet? How'sthat working out for you whether
or not they found the new job ornot, I still keep the
communication going thatdialogue going if and only if I
liked them, right. So I'll keepthat going. I talked to him, I
communicate with them. Everyother month or so I'll give him
a call. And once a job opens up,now I have a stack of resumes.
(16:50):
I've already talked to them,I've probably done preliminary
interview at some point in time,I have a list of people I could
draw from on day one, if someonewere to quit today, very easy.
So it's a lot better alternativethan having someone quit. Now
taking the time to write thatad, place it in the paper, then
it takes two or three daysbefore applicants start rolling
(17:13):
in. And now you're behind on theeight ball and you could lose a
client as a result of it. But ifyou start doing is interviews
now start talking to people now.
So once these jobs do open upbecause of some situation, you
can hire immediately. And soI'll call them over and over
again, just to check up withthem. As I interview them, I
take notes, and then we alwaysinterview them, even if we don't
(17:34):
need to hire. And again, as jobsopen up, we'll always have
people to call. Finally, here'sour interview process, we do a
three step interview. Numberone. And by the way, all this is
either through zoom or throughphone call, I stopped doing the
office stuff, I don't have timeto be at the office and wait for
him. So I'll do a three stepinterview. Number one, I'll talk
(17:54):
to them for about five minutes,I want to make sure they're
applying for the job they'relooking to apply for. Because I
can't tell you how many timessomeone's applied for a job.
They just do a mass applicationthat every single job out there.
And then I start talking tothem, they go Wait, this is
cleaning. It's like yeah, that'swhat the Job said. So I just do
a five minute, I just want tomake sure they're applying for
(18:16):
the job they want to apply for.
If I liked them, then I moved tothe second step. And that's a 10
to 20 minute interview goingover their full history. And we
ask probing questions. So Iwon't go over every single
little detail. If there's a gapin employment, I asked him about
(18:37):
that. So if they miss threeyears and three year history is
not in there, I say, well, well,what did you do in those three
years? You know, maybe they'recovering up that they got fired
because of some situation? Well,I want to know about that
situation before I hire them. Sothat way, it doesn't happen
within my company. Or maybe theywent on maternity leave or
paternity. They just want tofocus on their family. There's
(18:58):
no wrong answer. Maybe it'sCOVID. There's no wrong answer
with that. But I want to know,before I make that decision to
move forward, while I'll do that10 To 20 minute interview, I'm
asking those probing questions.
Why do you want to work for us?
What's your expectation? Why didyou leave such and such company?
What are they doing that maybeyour future employer could do
(19:19):
better? or what have you, I'llask all these different
questions. And I'll get allthese different answers. And if
I like what I hear, and we havea good interview, then offer a
third interview. And usuallythis third interview is where
I'm calling them, I'm talking tothem. By the end the phone call
five. I usually don't do don'tdo more than five minutes, but
(19:43):
at the end of the phone call,I'm usually offering them the
job right there on point. AndI'll do this whole three step
interview process over thecourse of two days. That's it.
Saw I'll do a five minute maybelater in the day, do the 10 to
20 minute one, and then by thenext Stay, I'm hiring them. And
so that's our process. That'swhat we do. Hope this makes
(20:03):
sense to you. I enjoyed puttingthis together. Man, I know
hiring is hard. It's not easy.
But if you keep doing this againand again and hire before you
need hire, you'll never haveapplicants, you'll never have a
lack of applicants within yourown company. So this episode has
(20:25):
been brought to you by Universaljanitorial services. If you have
a building here in theWashington, DC area and you need
servicing, hey, where are yourguys? We've been around 44 years
serving churches, schools,banks, country clubs, car
dealerships, and so many moreproviding janitorial porta
disinfecting, and specialty forwork throughout the Washington
(20:45):
DC area. We'd love to help youguys out. And if you felt this
episode was of value too. Iwould appreciate a review and
five star rating if I deserveit. I truly appreciate you guys.
And you could check us out andreview through Apple podcast,
Spotify, Google or wherever youhappen to listen to this
(21:07):
podcast. Thanks, guys. Enjoy.
Have fun, have a great day. Keepyour employees treat them well
make them happy and go conquerthe world.
Have you had challenges in hiring during the Great
resignation? Has this had anegative impact on your cleaning
business? If so, check thisepisode out hiring in the age of
COVID. Hey, I'm Mark Lineberry.
With beyond the mop. And witheach episode, I give a pro tip a
guide or resource, somethingthat really helps your business
move forward. Let me ask youthis. Are you looking for a DIY
(00:24):
and budget friendly way tocreate graphics for your
business? Would it be cool tohave an online platform to
create your own logos, Facebookposts, graphics, Instagram
posts, cleaning proposaltemplates, and many others.
Guys, if so, check out canva.comCanva is a really cool resource,
especially if you're creativeminded are so many tools you
(00:46):
could use to create Word Artgraphics, pictures for your
business, and so forth. And ifyou're not the creative type,
like yours truly, they'll offermany free and paid templates
that you can use to up yourmarketing game. I've use Canva
to create social media post,I've used Canva to create
podcast art for past and futureprojects. I've even use Canva to
(01:08):
write a couple different ebooks,shameless plug here, one of
which is on my clean pivot.com.
And I've used it for a couple ofdifferent business card designs
as well. They offer a freeversion, which will cover many
of your needs, and even a paidversion for a low fee. This is a
(01:28):
great alternative to subscribingto Adobe Illustrator or even
paying for a freelancer throughsites like Fiverr or Upwork. Go
check out canva.com Well back tohiring in the age of COVID. I'm
gonna cover different topicshere, I'm gonna cover some
statistics. I'm gonna talk aboutresources or sources, I should
(01:49):
say where we put our ads into.
I'm gonna talk about what goesinto an ad, how we collect our
job applications and how we doour interviews. Well, first,
some stats Fast Company Magazinesays that even though money is a
big factor, two thirds of theemployees out there left due to
a lack of engagement and lack ofoverall wellbeing. Guys, it's
(02:10):
not about the money. Always takethe time to invest into your
employees, ask them how they'redoing, how they're feeling, how
their family is, what resource?
How can you help them? Whatguides can you provide for them,
and so forth, figure out whatmakes them tick, what hurts them
what bothers them and see howyou could solve that pain point
(02:31):
for them. Even if it's outsideof cleaning, even if it's not
even money related. alwaysinvest in your fellow human. And
if they do ask for money, figureout why they want the money.
Every time an employee asked fora raise. I asked them well, why
do you want a raise? Now? I'llmean that in a condescending
way. But sometimes questionbehind the question. Great book,
(02:53):
by the way, you could dive inand figure out what makes them
tick. And why are they lookingfor the money in the first
place. For example, we hadsomeone recently asked for a
raise. And it turned out theirbudget just wasn't meeting their
needs, meaning the income forthat budget just wasn't meeting
their family needs. And so araise made sense, right? Either
(03:15):
I lose them, too, because theymight go somewhere else where I
give them a raise, which thecontract could technically
support or at least pull in fromother areas. Another example I
had an employee asked for araise, and he wouldn't tell me
how much of a raise he needed.
And I kept asking questions keptasking, Well, it turned out he
had a legal bill that's comingup to is due the following
month, and about $6,000 for him.
(03:39):
Now. If he's asking for a raise,there's no way I could give him
a raise to provide a $6,000month increase to pay for that
pay for that legal bill. And Iexplained to him that a raise
will not help him in thesituation here. He needs
something else. He needssomething better. So I worked
with him and talked to him. Andit's illegal bill not for any
(04:00):
sort of criminal or nefariousreasons. It was just an
immigration is a legal immigrantto this country. And you gotta
reapply and submit new paperworkand do all this due diligence
stuff in terms of researchingthe employee, what he had to go
through all that again, is upfor renewal. And he needed that
money to cover those legal feesfor that process. And so just by
(04:24):
talking to him, I learned thatwas the source and I said, Hey,
and silver raise, what if wegave you $2,000 To pay towards
this legal fee? And what if youwent back to the attorney and
worked out some sort of paymentplan for the remainder of the
balance. And he did that and itworked. He is really happy he
got the money and made theattorney happy. It made a very
happy employee on my end, and itsolved their pain point. And so
(04:48):
it gave them a chance to chipaway at a much lower price point
than what he could haveotherwise. So
think about fulfilling theirneeds. Fulfill In their
engagement, taking care of theiroverall well being. Again, it's
not always about the money,there's always something there,
there's an underlying reasonthat sometimes he could fix for
(05:10):
cost of hiring. According toHuman Resource Management, it
cost $4,129, on average, to hireand train a brand new employee.
Now we're in the cleaningbusiness, I don't think it costs
us $4,000 to hire and train abrand new employee, right? Now,
it might cost hundreds or evenlow 1000s, right. For example,
(05:33):
if you were to put an ad intoindeed, or wherever that's
getting cost money, you're nowspending time interviewing
people. So time is money, right?
So now you're spending moremoney, they have to do the
interviews, you have to do thetraining, you have to do the due
diligence, the backgroundchecks, and you have to spend
time holding their hand for nextweek or two while they figure
out this new account thatthey're working at. So all that
(05:53):
costs time and money becauseyou're pulling from other
resources to cover it. So it'snot ideal to hire new employee
whatsoever, you really want tofocus on alternatives. Here's
another step. It takes 42 daysto hire a brand new employee. So
once he put the ad in, onaverage, nationwide, it takes 42
(06:15):
days to fulfill that job role.
When you think about in thecleaning industry, you can't go
back to your client and say,Hey, can you wait 42 days
because on average, it takes 42days to hire a new employee.
Now, they'll fire you in aheartbeat. You don't have 42
days, you might have one day ifyou're lucky. So you need to
figure out how can I preventemployees from hiring? How can I
(06:37):
treat and improve their overallwell being? How can I improve
their engagement, so that way,they don't leave, and there is
no great resignation within yourown company. And if you do need
to hire, well consider hiringinternally. So make some part
time employees full timeemployees, if you need to add
hours, take the time tointerview each and every one of
(06:58):
your employees. Ask them hey, ifwe were to give you more hours,
would you want that? And if youdo, what type of schedule would
you want? And figure that out? Ialways ask our employees on a
quarterly basis, I rotatethrough Hey, where else would
you like to work out? How much?
How many more hours? Would youlike to work out? What do you
need for your for your ownneeds? And then we address that.
So when jobs do open up? I thinkoh, are you got someone to mine,
(07:22):
I'm gonna bring in such and suchemployee from another location
easy that way. But if you doneed to hire outside of your
company hire before you need tohire. I know that doesn't make
sense whatsoever. But let me sayit again, hire before you need
to hire. And I'm going to talkabout the process of what we do
to hire before we need to hirepeople. But first, here's some
(07:44):
of the sources we advertise in.
We advertise in indeed ziprecruiter, our own newspaper,
The Washington Post, Facebook,LinkedIn. I haven't done this
yet. But you could post it inlocal Facebook community groups,
you could post in your localcommunity college Iike, posting
Craigslist, we've done now a lotof times, you could post in
(08:07):
Google for jobs, he could postthem post job free and even post
on your own website have lowlink up there, click it fill out
an application, and you're offto the races, right? Well, what
goes into an ad. This is reallyimportant. In Episode One, we
talked about creating the clientavatar, right? Crane, that ideal
(08:29):
client figuring out who you wantto go after? Well, you need to
do the same thing for your jobapplicants, you need to figure
out, this is the ideal employeeI would like to have and create
the job ad around that idealemployee covering their pain
points covering their needs, andso forth. Let me explain
(08:49):
further. When employees go toohigh, when they get to fill out
a new job, they're making a lifechanging decision, right? It's a
probably emotional decision.
They're going well, is this theright fit for me? Should I be
making this move? Should I besacrificing time from my family
to focus on a new job or whathave you? They're making a very
(09:09):
big emotional decision. So whenyou write out that job ad, you
need to have that avatarcandidate in mind that avatar
employee in mind and right basedon motion towards that
candidate.
Number two, you need to focus onwinning headlines filled with
(09:31):
keywords that your avatar couldsearch for. Here's the opposite.
Don't type in as a headline helpone right everyone does that.
skip that? Don't do that. Here'sanother one. Daytime employee
needed. Everyone needs a daytimeemployee. Don't Don't put that
in there. Right. Write headlinesthat would connect back to your
avatar who you are going after?
Maybe ideal job for a single momor what have you figured out
(09:54):
something that would make themtick or why they would want to
apply to you in the first place.
Make sure that's including yourheadline. Your first paragraph
should have a company summary inthree to four sentences. Don't
make a whole essay don't, it'snot about you, it's about them,
but have three to four sentencesin there to describe a company
(10:14):
that they can rally behind. Now,we don't always post our company
name in there. So I'm notrecommending that. But go ahead
and post in there three to foursentences about your history
about what you do your mission,who you serve, and so forth. So
that way they can latch on tothat and run as well. Outside of
that first paragraph, you wantto talk about the benefits of
(10:35):
working this new job? In otherwords, what will they gain by
working for you? So I'm not andI'm not meaning benefits by this
but figure out what winningsells points can you convey into
the ad again, the ads just likea client ad you got have copy?
(10:57):
Good copy into it. You need tofigure out what are their hot
points? And how can you addressthose hot points within the ad
very important. For example, ifI find it, I'm gonna post in the
show notes. But Michael McCallawits, he wrote Profit First
Pumpkin Plan. So for clockwork,he had in one of his books, I
(11:18):
forget which book he had asample job ad talking about some
sore position, I think it's likea receptionist position or
something like that. is sobasic, it's non glorious, right?
receptionist, but he had inthere promoting, hey, you get to
join our company. Yeah, thehours are sucky. The pay is
sucky He even put that in there.
But now it's like having a freegym. Because now you get to go
(11:41):
here and here and here and runaround here and there and there.
Think about all the freeexercise you get, you can cancel
your gym membership and actuallysave money by working for us. He
had that copy in there. If Ifind that ad, I'll go ahead and
post it in the show notes. Sotake a look. And then describe
your awesomeness of yourcompany's benefits back to the
(12:06):
candidate. So for example, a fewoffer paid holidays, don't just
say paid holidays. In the jobadd in in your benefit section.
Talk about enjoy holidayweekends with six paid holidays
per year. Does that sound low,more enticing than just paid
holidays. Also, briefly discoverbriefly cover I should say
(12:30):
discover to the candidate, yourjob requirements in four key
areas number one experience,education, skills and personal
characteristics. So withexperience, we require as an
organization, three years ofexperience before working with
us, right. So we don't wantsomeone off the street, we don't
(12:51):
want to take time to trainpeoples in essence, so we hire
for experience only. So makesure you're clear and succinct
with that, if that's your yourrequirement, put that in there.
If your job doesn't require anyexperience, be clear with that
say, Hey, this job doesn'trequire experience, you'll have
paid training you can use foryour future, or something like
that. Education is another one.
(13:14):
Now. Again, cleaning business,he'll need education, we don't
require it so much. We do askfor minimum of you know, high
school level or so. So that wayyou can understand math, you can
understand written directions,clear directions, and so forth.
And even write back andcommunicate as needed. But be
clear in that within your adskills, very important. Figure
(13:37):
out what skills do they need topossess. I can't tell you how
many times I've seen ads outthere or people have applied for
ads where we put down skills andwe list it line by line Hey,
these are the skills that youneed. We go to hire them they
said interact within the resumeand application that they had
those skills, but they didn'thave the skills you need to
(13:58):
stress that that's important ifthat's an important value for
you and your organization stressthose skills. And lastly,
personal characteristics. Rightif you have Mr. Grumpy Pants,
you want hire Mr. Grumpy Pantsif you need energetic, happy
team members working for you,because they're the face of your
brand or the face of yourcompany. So it's really
important. Are they dressednice?
(14:18):
Are they dressed like a bum? Arethey using swear words every
three sentences? Or are theynice and learn demeanor? Because
they're going to reflect yourcompany back to the client, you
need to have a goodrepresentative or ambassador and
therefore that and like with anyad you create, whether it be for
(14:39):
a client or for an employee, youneed to have a clear call to
action. What do you want them todo next after reading this ad?
Is it to call you is it to senda resume is it to fill out
appointment scheduler is it youknow whatever you need to email,
you need to figure out what youwant them to do next Next, and
(15:01):
be clear in the ad be very clearand concise. Well, here's what
we do within our organization,we collect job applications I
said a minute ago that we hirebefore we need to hire. So we
put in ads before we need tohire someone, we put in ads in
(15:21):
all these different places, wemostly focus on Craigslist. And
indeed, so what we'll do, we'llcreate the ad will hire, we
won't hire I should say, but wecollect those resumes we collect
as applications. Once they comein, I'll pick up the phone, I'll
call them, I'll check interests,I'll see if they'll, if they're
(15:44):
looking for a job, if that'ssomething they want to work for,
if that's the doc type they'relooking for in their career, or
life, or so forth. And I'm veryclear in the ad, hey, we're not
hiring at the moment, but we'rehiring in the future. So when
they do apply, I tell them thatI talked to them that or tell
them all that I'm verytransparent. In other words, but
(16:05):
once I have their application,what I'll do, I'll put into a
database, a CRM, basically, Ihave set up for these employees
are future employees, I shouldsay. So I'll pick up the phone,
I'll call them. And if we're nothiring at the moment, I'll check
up with them every, every othermonth or so. So I'll pick up the
(16:26):
phone, I'll call them, I'll say,Hey, how's things going? Have
you found new job yet? How'sthat working out for you whether
or not they found the new job ornot, I still keep the
communication going thatdialogue going if and only if I
liked them, right. So I'll keepthat going. I talked to him, I
communicate with them. Everyother month or so I'll give him
a call. And once a job opens up,now I have a stack of resumes.
(16:50):
I've already talked to them,I've probably done preliminary
interview at some point in time,I have a list of people I could
draw from on day one, if someonewere to quit today, very easy.
So it's a lot better alternativethan having someone quit. Now
taking the time to write thatad, place it in the paper, then
it takes two or three daysbefore applicants start rolling
(17:13):
in. And now you're behind on theeight ball and you could lose a
client as a result of it. But ifyou start doing is interviews
now start talking to people now.
So once these jobs do open upbecause of some situation, you
can hire immediately. And soI'll call them over and over
again, just to check up withthem. As I interview them, I
take notes, and then we alwaysinterview them, even if we don't
(17:34):
need to hire. And again, as jobsopen up, we'll always have
people to call. Finally, here'sour interview process, we do a
three step interview. Numberone. And by the way, all this is
either through zoom or throughphone call, I stopped doing the
office stuff, I don't have timeto be at the office and wait for
him. So I'll do a three stepinterview. Number one, I'll talk
(17:54):
to them for about five minutes,I want to make sure they're
applying for the job they'relooking to apply for. Because I
can't tell you how many timessomeone's applied for a job.
They just do a mass applicationthat every single job out there.
And then I start talking tothem, they go Wait, this is
cleaning. It's like yeah, that'swhat the Job said. So I just do
a five minute, I just want tomake sure they're applying for
(18:16):
the job they want to apply for.
If I liked them, then I moved tothe second step. And that's a 10
to 20 minute interview goingover their full history. And we
ask probing questions. So Iwon't go over every single
little detail. If there's a gapin employment, I asked him about
(18:37):
that. So if they miss threeyears and three year history is
not in there, I say, well, well,what did you do in those three
years? You know, maybe they'recovering up that they got fired
because of some situation? Well,I want to know about that
situation before I hire them. Sothat way, it doesn't happen
within my company. Or maybe theywent on maternity leave or
paternity. They just want tofocus on their family. There's
(18:58):
no wrong answer. Maybe it'sCOVID. There's no wrong answer
with that. But I want to know,before I make that decision to
move forward, while I'll do that10 To 20 minute interview, I'm
asking those probing questions.
Why do you want to work for us?
What's your expectation? Why didyou leave such and such company?
What are they doing that maybeyour future employer could do
(19:19):
better? or what have you, I'llask all these different
questions. And I'll get allthese different answers. And if
I like what I hear, and we havea good interview, then offer a
third interview. And usuallythis third interview is where
I'm calling them, I'm talking tothem. By the end the phone call
five. I usually don't do don'tdo more than five minutes, but
(19:43):
at the end of the phone call,I'm usually offering them the
job right there on point. AndI'll do this whole three step
interview process over thecourse of two days. That's it.
Saw I'll do a five minute maybelater in the day, do the 10 to
20 minute one, and then by thenext Stay, I'm hiring them. And
so that's our process. That'swhat we do. Hope this makes
(20:03):
sense to you. I enjoyed puttingthis together. Man, I know
hiring is hard. It's not easy.
But if you keep doing this againand again and hire before you
need hire, you'll never haveapplicants, you'll never have a
lack of applicants within yourown company. So this episode has
(20:25):
been brought to you by Universaljanitorial services. If you have
a building here in theWashington, DC area and you need
servicing, hey, where are yourguys? We've been around 44 years
serving churches, schools,banks, country clubs, car
dealerships, and so many moreproviding janitorial porta
disinfecting, and specialty forwork throughout the Washington
(20:45):
DC area. We'd love to help youguys out. And if you felt this
episode was of value too. Iwould appreciate a review and
five star rating if I deserveit. I truly appreciate you guys.
And you could check us out andreview through Apple podcast,
Spotify, Google or wherever youhappen to listen to this
(21:07):
podcast. Thanks, guys. Enjoy.
Have fun, have a great day. Keepyour employees treat them well
make them happy and go conquerthe world.
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