How To Avoid Your Default Future

How To Avoid Your Default Future

By

Eric M. Twiggs

“If you want something you have never had, you must be willing to do something you have never done.”

“Bill, why are we running these employment ads?” Asked “Susan”.  “We are fully staffed with a great crew. This is a waste of time and money.”  Susan posed a valid question since their shop has a reputation of retaining great people, and is known for being the place to purchase automotive service in their town. 

Bill is the owner and Susan, his wife, handles the administrative functions of their thriving location.  If you Googled the term “Top Shop” a picture of Bill and Susan would appear!   Susan couldn’t understand why Bill would always interview a minimum of six people per month, when he didn’t have any open positions. 

One fateful week in April, everything changed.  They decided to terminate “Mark” their ‘B’ Technician, because of several comebacks and his recent attendance issues.   “Jane”, their service writer, gave notice because her husband accepted a job out of state and they were relocating.

“Jack”, the ‘A’ technician, told Bill he was leaving to pursue his dream of become a full-time day trader.  So, in a seven-day time span, Bill lost three out of his seven employees! 

How would your business be impacted if you lost three people in seven days?   Bill’s story teaches us that even the best of the best can experience unexpected turnover.   Not being prepared for this possibility can lead you to your default future. 

I can’t imagine that a shop owner would write a vision statement for their business that reads: “My vision is to have a business where the profits depend on my presence.”  NO!  This is the future that is arrived at by default. 

The default future is the place you end up when you decide not to make the necessary changes in a specific area.   For example, deciding not to invest in proactive recruiting efforts can cause you to end up working IN the business instead of On your dreams. 

So, what can you do to avoid this default future?   Stay with me and I will explain.

Establish A Monthly Interview Goal

One of our members was telling me about an exercise that was done during his recent 20 Group meeting.   The shop owners were divided into five groups and asked to describe the most pressing issue in their business and what they were doing to address it. 

Each subgroup would report their findings back to the main group.  There was only one issue, that came up in all five groups:  Finding and hiring good people.  Here is the big takeaway:  If finding people is the biggest problem, then looking for prospects, should be your biggest priority. 

I recommend establishing the minimum number of candidates that you will interview each month regardless of your staffing levels. Setting a goal for the number of interviews will force you to put the necessary number of feelers out, so that you have candidates to talk to.  

Let’s say you set a goal to interview three candidates every month.  You will be inspired to refresh your ad, when you notice that you are struggling to find three people to interview.

I conducted and informal survey of a sampling of my members, asking them how many candidates they interviewed during the month of April.  Three shop owners reported interviewing four or more people.  All three also reported hiring at least one ‘A’ player during this time frame.  Establishing a monthly interview goal makes a difference!

Tweak Your Approach

I was speaking with a shop owner named “Ronald” who told me that he had an ad running for a technician that wasn’t getting any responses.  He ran the same ad week after week until finally he decided to change things up. 

He changed the title of the ad while leaving the rest of the copy the same.  The new title was changed to read as follows: “Automotive Technician with pay up to $30.00 per hour.”   This ad generated seven responses and resulted in him hiring a great technician.  Ronald changed his result by tweaking his approach.

What are you doing to tweak your approach?  If you are running an ad that’s not getting responses, it’s time to change the ad.  If prospective employees are ignoring your “Now Hiring” sign, that’s a sign that it’s time to change the sign! 

If the internet hiring sites (craigslist, indeed, zip recruiter, etc.) aren’t generating candidates for you, it’s time to utilize social media.  If none of the previously mentioned ideas are working, it may be time to consider investing in a professional recruiting service.

It’s been said that continuing to do the same things and expecting different results will lead to a default future! (OK, I’m the one who said it!)  Tweaking your approach will get you to the future you have designed for yourself.

Conclusion

I am happy to report that Bill avoided the default future.  Since he was always hiring anyway, he could fill all three openings with candidates he had already interviewed. 

Since he established a minimum interview goal and tweaked his approach, he can work ON instead of IN his business.  If you take these steps, you will arrive at the destination you planned for instead of ending up in the default future!

Sincerely,

Eric M. Twiggs

The Accountability Coach

www.autotraining.net

PS.  Looking to tweak your ad but don’t know where to begin?  Email etwiggs@autotraining.net and I will send you two hiring ads that have been attracting ‘A’ players!