Bring in the backup

You can’t always be staffed for the huge snow events that can hit states like Minnesota. So what do you do when you need some extra help? We talked to Tom Hougnon, owner and chief operational officer at Reliable Property Services, which also has locations in Wisconsin and Iowa, where an 18-inch storm means bulking up the shoveling crews.

L&L: How do you find good people?

Hougnon: It’s the foremen that know the people. It’s really important to have those good foremen.

We tend to shy away from just going to the temp service and saying, “Send us 35 guys.” If we do that we want to work with a temp service and say, “We need 10 guys every event and we want the same 10 people.”

For the full story on hiring temporary staff, head to bit.ly/Snowbackup.