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
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!
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