Qualifying Potential Employees.

ultimatetouch

Ok fellas. Hiring employees is a comlpete blur to me. I want to hire a new lead carpenter. I want to do my best to make sure he could do what he says. What strategies do you guys use? Do you have a questioinare for starters before you do a personal interview? If you could post it that would be wonderful.

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Ultimatetouch
Illinois Remodeling Company, Kitchen Remodeling Chicago, Room Additions Illinois

Mike Finley

I use pre-screening questionaire, you can download it on my website, go to the employee section. It helps a lot.

One of the simplest and best things I think you can do is ask them to rate themselves on a scale of 1 to 10 on different skills or traits. It not only gives you a lot of information, but it helps get a good idea of what they really know. (Not so much from what they write- but from talking to them further about details of each one) I find almost 100% of guys will way over-rate themselves.

DamionR

no questionaire or resume is going to make a difference. Well... at last a questionaire would tell you he knows terms and the ideas of your business.

Hire a person on a 30 day trial at a cheap rate. After 3 0days... you have a signing bonus and a much more attractive pay rate.

The beauty in this is... you have the guy working to impress you. If you're not impressed... you cut ties and your loss's are minimal.

Mike Finley

I agree with a lot of what you write, but here I have to disagree. There is a saying that those worth hiring are already working for someone else. Paying on the cheap is a sure fire way to attract those not worth hiring. Perhaps it would be better to use it as a pre-qualifier, anybody that takes you up on that offer automatically eliminate.

With so many states being work for hire, 30 day trials don't mean much of anything, everybody is in a perpetual 30 day trial anyways.

I'm also not big on paying people less then they are worth simply because I can't do even a mediocre job of hiring.

Also, as for losses being minimal, there is no cheap hiring process, it's costly to hire anyone when you add up the real costs involved in lost time, lost productivity, training and all the other issues. Also hiring badly can be devastatingly expensive to your reputation.

I can't agree with your thoughts on this one, I say hire slowly and be as sure as you can that you are making as good a decision as you possible can.

mdshunk

A few things that generally help sort out applicants:

• pre employment written trade knowledge test
• pre employment hands on skills test
• phonecalls to verify employment dates on resume/application match information received from former employers
• home ownership and vehicle ownership qualifier
• cat/dog qualifier

DamionR

Good points Mike - obviously my strength is not in the hiring of crew guys

I completely agree with the fact that the best peopel are already employeed. Running "help wanted" ads have been the worst results from my experience... regardless of the position.

I am just now reading a book by Dave Anderson called "Up Your Business" It's about this exact topic - how to recruit, hire, keep, and push the best employees. Good material so far. Here's some info on it - http://www.learntolead.com/upyourbusiness.cfm

Here's the link on amazon.com - you can read the first few pages of the book there, and see reviews - http://www.amazon.com/Up-Your-Busine...e=UTF8&s=books

DamionR

From my experience - having a drivers license has always been a "push em to the front" qualifier

dougchips

Please educate me, I have never heard about the "cat/dog qualifer".

Mike Finley

Forgot about the cat/dog qualifier!

Mike Finley

Nets - I think what you may be hinting at is that no matter what you do, no matter how much agonizing you do over somebody, the proof is still going to be in the pudding. They can talk all they want, you can test all you want, but even after all that you could still end up with a less than ideal employee, and unfortunately people are good at covering up their weaknesses in interviews. Getting them on the job is the true test.

mdshunk

Cat Dog is a cartoon that was on Nikelodeon in the 90's.



Which has nothing to do with the cat/dog qualifier.

The cat/dog qualifier relates to a persons general level of responsibility that they assume in their personal lives with regard to the type of pet they own. A person with a high-maintenance pet, such as a dog, is assumed to be more responsible than a person with a low maintenance pet, like a cat (or no pet at all).

realpurty2

So let's say they had two dogs, a cat, some fish, an iquana, and a beared dragon?? I'm either a damn good employee or Elle May Clampett.

Seriously though...

We have a written skills test and a self evaluation that has to be completed in person, in addition to the application. Those are scored and references verified before the interview is scheduled. (The time delay seems to help weed out ones just looking for a quick payday vs beginning a long term career)

The interview is followed by a few basic hands on skill tests at the shop. If they pass this, they are offered probational employment for 30 days. It isn't until after they accept the offer that payrates are even discussed. We explain the pay scale during probation, with the first raise coming 2 weeks later if they show up for early and are prepared to work at the scheduled time. No absences or tardies are acceptable during first two weeks of probation. (I admit, we've bent on this when needed, but you know when someone is lying and when they really did breakdown or have an illness.) If all is good after the 30 days, they move to statutory employee for another 60 days with a pay increase.

At the end of 90 days, they become full time employees and are eligible for benefits and regular payrates.

I'm sure there are flaws in that system but it's worked great for us so far.

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Woman in a Man's World.

ultimatetouch

Thanks Mike. Perhaps the toughest thing is the over rating themselves in the past dealing with subs you dont know, only to find out that they need excessive management which is a burrden.

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Ultimatetouch
Illinois Remodeling Company, Kitchen Remodeling Chicago, Room Additions Illinois

ultimatetouch

The best things has got to be:
1.talking to his past employers.(if possible unless hes leaving them)
2.seeing his past work.
3.see how he operates on site.
4.Is he responsible with his kids and family. Most guys who dont care for their kids are worthless.

Do you guys check a guys record?

I have to say out of 10 subs I get probably 2 crazys and the thing is you would never see it coming until they are calling you to get paid before the job is over. I cant be the only one this happens to. I dealt with 2 real wackos seemed to be just fine and then they got goofy.

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Ultimatetouch
Illinois Remodeling Company, Kitchen Remodeling Chicago, Room Additions Illinois

mdshunk

Are you asking about hiring subs or hiring employees? That's two different processes. The original post made me think employees, now it sounds more like subs.

ultimatetouch

Originally employees but when I mentioned checking for records it made me think about a couple of problematic subcontractors who I wonder if they had a record.

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Ultimatetouch
Illinois Remodeling Company, Kitchen Remodeling Chicago, Room Additions Illinois

Stone Mountain

I've always been pretty lucky at getting deck carpenters, but I had one like that this summer.
Guy comes in as a friend of one of my other crews. I gave him a deck to do, not wildly complicated, and told him up front how much. (about 250 sq feet and a knockout patio door: $3000).
1/2 way through the job, he's phoning me every two hours that it's not eoough money. His reasoning: he's doing such a good job that he "deserves" more.
He didn't want to know that the customer wouldn't pay more because his work was "bette"

The job took him 9 days. I showed the plans to 5 other crews who all agreed that the labour was fair, and 9 days too long.
(I was beginning to doubt myself).
Anywa, the job was finished, I paid him half, and went out to collect.
The customer was thrilled, and paid me in full. Unfortunately, the job was, you guessed it, lousy.
Ill fitting glass panels, poor trim around the knockout door, the deck was set 10" below the door sill (I had to build a step), the railing posts were unevenly spaced, some of the skirt boards were loose (He'd built it without a frame behind), and so on.
I went back to the office furious. I paid him the original amount, threw him out, and sent someone else to fix the deck up.

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Residential Deck Specialist: Vist our Website
www.fenceanddeck.ca

Mike Finley

It's actually more specific than that and less politically correct, Md has managed to actually make it sound rather scientific. It comes from a post I made here a long time ago about a friend of mine's hiring technique, basically if he is hiring a male and he is a cat lover the dude is out of the running. His theory is that guys who like cats have always turned out to be problem employees.