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| The Recruiters Corner |
POSTED: February 2001
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| Stack
Your Deck |
| Last year I received a letter from a general
manager I had met at the Production Management Institute. During
our initial conversation at PMI he struck me as a forward thinking
pro-active manager who recognized the importance of recruiting in
today's business world. You may remember him from my last column
- he was the general manager who successfully used radio advertising
as a means of attracting talent. In this month's column I would
like to share parts of his letter with you in hopes you will find
this concept about "stacking your deck" useful in your
facilities.
The letter in part follows:
"Hiring good people is a philosophy. It means you look
for the very best candidate in all positions--not just management.
This allows you to, "stack your deck."
At our plant we use three assessment tests. There is nothing new
to these tests. We do, though, use them with all candidates and
have minimum passing scores for all positions. I have had college
graduates fail our tests.
The tests are a great equalizer. This means my average ironer
feeder has a high school diploma and can learn from material by
reading. Compare that to other plants who do not use tests. These
plants have people who may or may not have a high school diploma
and need oral instruction to accomplish tasks. (And several repetitions
of the oral instruction on top of it.) We now have possible supervisors
/ managers identified for the next five years. Some of them will
need formal education--and we are paying for them to finish their
degree. Some of them only need more experience and the opportunity
to take on more and more challenging assignments. We are growing
our own future around here.
Is it more difficult to hire people like this? Maybe, but I do
not think so. We did have to raise our average wage rate significantly.
However, we are in a large company and able to make comparisons
to other plants readily. Our comparisons show, even though we
pay a higher wage than everyone else, we are still more productive
and our actual labor costs are lower than those low paying plants.
How is this possible? It's very possible when you do not have
turnover every other day and you can spend your time training
your people--people who will be there tomorrow-instead of constantly
looking for the next warm body.
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Craig Lloyd is the managing
principal for laundrycareers.com , a management search firm specializing
in the laundry industry.He holds a degree in Industrial Relations from Rider University and has been a Certified
Personnel Consultant since 1979
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THE
RECRUITERS CORNER - DECEMEBER 2000
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Make no mistake about it, we have to
hire in a market with 2% unemployment. But, that just means there
are 98% working somewhere else. Our attitude is we will have to
hire the best people away from someone else. This is not a problem
when we pay our people well, treat them well, and provide a good
environment for them to work in. We do have to go through more resumes
this way, but it is well worth it.
This is something I feel very strongly about. When looking for quality
people--first look to yourself, your operation, to see if you are
doing the right things to attract the right people."
If you have read my articles last year then you know he was "preaching
to the choir". The reference to assessments test is worth
thinking about - I will be addressing that subject in my next
column. Until then - Craig
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