Hiring a new employee can feel like an entire job on its own, said Chloe Banholzer, director of marketing at ARI Network Services. “Finding someone is a difficult task,” she said. “You want to be able to cut back on the time it takes.
Banholzer offered a few strategies for dealers to stack their teams at GIE+EXPO, held in Louisville, Kentucky, in October:
Don’t be generic in job listings. “Require those specific skills up front,” she said. There’s a learning curve when it comes to someone who makes repairs in the shop. If you need someone with a certain number of years of experience, be sure to place that at the forefront of a job listing.
“There's a huge difference between a guy who's done repair and service for a year and a guy who's done it for five,” she said.
Pay more for more experience. “Paying for experience pays off,” Banholzer said. “In the long run hiring someone who's more experienced is going to be better than hiring a slower novice because of the
Test their customer service skills. In small businesses, customer service is particularly important. “You want to be able to connect with your customers, customers want to come in and talk about their day, who won, who lost,” she said. “That’s why people chose small businesses.”
When you’re hiring, make sure the person you hire is well-versed in communication without being too pushy. Some people may have great technical skills but lack communication and customer service knowledge.
Find familiarity. “Is the person you’re hiring aware of everything that goes on in your company?” she asked. You don’t want one person that comes in destroy the reputation you have built for the company.
Run a credit check. This is an important way to build trust between you and your employees, and in turn, your customers.
“I've heard too many bad stories of homes hiring some of they thought was great may have access to the cash room and also have access to customer credit card numbers,” Banholzer said.
Determine appropriate incentives. Find out what would motivate your employs that you can provide them with. For example, Banholzer said giving someone the day off for their son’s birthday – even on a Saturday – would mean a lot.
“You don’t want to have someone who is unhappy with the constraints of the job leaving right away,” she said. “Then you’d have to hire a new person all over again.”