Trading Up: The Case for Improving Your Team While the Employment Market Is Flooded With Top Talent
By Bob Hoebeke
In almost every area of life, COVID-19 is dramatically changing the landscape of normalcy. Statistics for January of this year showed employment at the lowest it’s been since 1948. Overnight, January’s statistic of 3.5% of eligible job seekers that wanted work but couldn’t find it, went to 14.7%, creating horrific stories of families that couldn’t make ends meet. Suddenly, Range Rovers and Mercedes Benz unabashedly began to dominate drive-through food pantries.
Amidst the tragedy and carnage that sadly has become today’s headlines emerges an opportunity that small business owners and corporations alike have not seen in years. Our labor pools are flooded with available talent!
For anyone who has ever entertained the idea of “trading up” the talent level on your team of employees, most probably there won’t ever be an opportunity like this again.
“Build Through the Draft”
Sports teams are always assessing their “position” talent and trying to improve their overall team by building through the draft. Just like the talented college quarterback who scouts think might be better suited for a wide receiver position, the current employment market affords us the same opportunity. If we’ll focus on what the talent is that’s before us — not what the talent was in another employment setting, we will find plenty of able-bodied people affected by the coronavirus blues. Now either underemployed, or not employed at all, they would love the stability of your work environment. A sharp recruiter will realize a potential employee possesses skills they were either not using, or under-utilizing in their previous job. With 11.2% more unemployed workforce to choose from, most likely It won’t be too difficult to improve your team.
Professional teams are blessed with entire networks of “feeder” farm leagues, college draft picks, even international organized sports to provide them with job-ready recruits. Corporate America really isn’t as big as we may think! In almost any given industry rival companies know who the movers and shakers are, and what their availability may be due to COVID-19’s decimation of competitor’s businesses. Add the third-party rumor mill, which always seems to propagate who’s looking, and who’s not; the massive proliferation of social media sites like LinkedIn, indeed, Glassdoor, etc.; and you may find yourself with more all-star candidates than you have positions. A nice problem to have…
Use your imagination: Who’s around you in your sphere of influence, church, kid’s school or social organizations whot may either be a great candidate, or know someone who could be a great candidate? Is there a vendor with whom you regularly do business that may know of someone? On almost a daily basis, news outlets chronicle major societal changes that might provide yet another source of talent. Currently, there seems to be a mass migration of first responders leaving their jobs as police officers and fire fighters. Just like those who have served in our armed forces, first responders are highly trained, punctual, extremely disciplined, loyal and very diligent — all wonderful traits for an employee. Whatever work might be available most assuredly would be less risky than fighting fires, or chasing the bad guys.
Customers formulate educated opinions about our businesses based on the representation of our employees. Weaknesses are magnified when one of the engine’s pistons isn’t firing correctly. There may never have been a better time to tune-up our company’s performance than right now. However, it’s not enough in today’s business climate to just have the right people in the right places, it’s important that we help them be successful, by….
Handing Them the Right Tools
All jobs are much more difficult if you don’t have the right tools. Even the best of talent will do substandard work if fumbling with the wrong tools, bad materials and/or inadequate information. Employers who don’t take the time to clearly articulate the role to be filled, the materials to be used and information necessary to carry out the task, will end up right back in the same place from which they came. You’ll know you’ve got a good “hire” when your new employee takes the assets you’ve offered, flawlessly completes the task at hand, and then sets about trying to figure out how they can do the job better. Ultimately, you’re looking for someone who wants to become so valuable to your organization, that the organization could never live without their services.
A clean and organized workspace promotes clear and efficient work production. Numerous studies have shown workers function better in environments where forethought and care have cleaned the workspace for those hired to perform tasks. Should the buying public also interact with employees currently producing goods and services, cleanliness is an overall reflection of management.
COVID-19 has forced much of today’s workforce into hiding. Nevertheless, the principles remain the same: Clear, concise direction coupled with the right tools will almost always produce a superior work product, no matter how remote the worker.
Experience has taught that subcontracted work especially enjoys highly organized task articulation. With concise information, and necessary materials, work can be performed quickly and efficiently, often resulting in more money for the subcontractor. Organized task management leaves the subcontractor wanting more, a relationship that’s good for both parties.
Once you’ve “built through the draft,” and handed your new employee the right tools, it’s time to…
Focus on Retention
The days of corporate loyalty are long gone. These days we often see labor simply walk across the street for $1 more an hour. Before coronavirus, the ancient laws of supply and demand had taken hold. The marketplace saw much more labor demand, than supply of workers. For the moment, COVID-19 has temporarily reversed that trend. But that will change. Brand loyalty only lasts as long as any given situation is good for the employee.
Here are five simple ways you can hang on to the new “blood” in your operation:
- Never mess with their money. Once you’ve agreed to either a salary, or a lump-sum, pay them on time with a smile on your face. If the work is exceptional, let them know you are willing to bonus superior performance, and allow them to participate in the up-side of a job well done — particularly when it increases your bottom line!
- Always provide an adequate supply of work along with realistic expectations for completion.
- Paint the big picture, and share it with your employees. Everyone loves to know where the bus is going, and good leadership equates to an adequate supply of work, and job security.
- Most processes require materials AND labor. Vigorously bid “commodities” (materials), but once you’ve found good labor, leave it alone. Jumping around in the labor market may temporarily improve your bottom line, but the inconsistency in using cheaper labor, coupled with the time demands of needing to train new employees will ultimately increase frustration, as well as decrease your bottom line.
- Treat employees as you would want to be treated!
We are living in fascinating times. Who would ever have imagined that a “virus” might actually IMPROVE your business? Start building through the draft today, and enjoy a richer, and more prosperous tomorrow!
Bob Hoebeke is a 40-year veteran of the homebuilding and remodel business. Hoebeke Builders has been a member of the Dallas Builders Association for 23 years. As a consultant on many of the finest projects in the Southwest, he sees it as his responsibility to bring “best practice” to all the projects on which he is privileged to work! bob@hoebekebuilders.com