"...I am
located in a small town where there is an industry that does sewing in the home. It is
known as the "Cottage Industry". The unemployment rate for the County that I am
in is 13%. My turnover rate for new hires is 100%. How can I Attract and Hold
operators...?"
THE INDUSTRY ADVISOR
FINDING AND KEEPING
THE BEST MACHINE OPERATORS
Gene Levine - www.genelevine.com
PART 2
You ask what can you do to attract people. Can you tell me if you have enough facts to assess whether there is any remaining labor pool to draw from? If labor is not available, then the best bait will not work if there are no fish in the lake.
Assuming there is labor and you wish to attract them, two of the most innovative approaches I have seen were;
a. Hosting an "open house" in the evenings. Serve punch, food, etc. to get the people in the door. Show off your factory to the community. Have some of your friendlier people working so visitors can see some of the jobs they would be doing. Have a passout that explains the benefits of working for your firm. Since every company is unique, sell those positive things you offer that they cannot get elsewhere.
b. Make a mailing to people's home all along rural routes. From your Postmaster, learn how many home deliveries there are to box holders on given rural routes. Make up a 5" X 7" postcard. the back of which will contain a heading such as; "WANTED - SEWING MACHINE OPERATORS". Below that headline, list all of the things you are offering. Don't forget to include your address, a little map if possible and the hours you are taking applications. Offer a free gift if they bring in the card when applying.
The mailing is simple. On the front of the card you only need to have your printer print the word "Box holder", followed by the Delivery Route #, City, State, and Zip. Your Postmaster can help you with this. You just bring the stamped cards to the post office and they do the rest, dropping one card into every post office box on the delivery route.
II. HIRING:
In your letter you suggested you know how to hire. Most firms I visit do not. Most firms need much help in this area. They are not forceful enough—with applicants—during the interview and hiring process.
Most interviewers are too nice (after all s/he lives in the same community as the applicant). Most interviewers—I have met—deliberately avoid conflict in their interviews and they knowingly hire wash outs. Most don't take the time to do things right, claiming "they're too busy". They don't stop to ponder that the reason they are so busy is that they are hiring the same person over and over again.
Some companies, like yours, appear to be so desperate for labor they hire anyone who can walk in the door. Then, they shift too much of the blame for their dilemma on everything and everyone else but themselves. With those things in mind, compare your present hiring procedure with one I now suggest.
"People who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it".
I suggest you refer the applicant who has passed screening hurdles (discussed in Part 1 last month) to the supervisor for a final evaluation and hiring decision. The ultimate supervisor has to buy into the applicant so I require them to make the final hiring decision.
Train your supervisors to carefully review all the accumulated information and then independently assess the applicant's suitability—in all required trait areas. These objective assessments lead to a more reliable, legal hiring decision. Doing this will also improve your supervisor's confidence and ability to make better future selections. Finally, putting the supervisors into the hiring loop will create interest in, and responsibility for, the success of the applicant they hired. No longer will you hear the supervisor say, "you expect me to make an operator out of that?"
Just before the final hiring decision, give the applicant another final chance to wash out. This requires a specifically designed two-way discussion that forces the applicant to decide if they want to work, or just want a job. There is a difference! The hiring procedure should be so structured that you would measure the supervisor's hiring successes by the applicants who do not show up for work. This basic technique is called, "The Ten Most Magical Minutes When Hiring".
I also suggest that you back applicants into a corner they cannot get out of. This allows them to fire themselves if they are not what they say they are.
One example would be to ask the applicant, "Is there any reason that you can think of that would keep you from being a dependable employee?" Most applicants will answer, "No!" Then, when they begin work and begin to give you any one of the thousand excuses for coming in late, or being excessively absent, you . . .
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