By Matt Manero

You are not alone in your difficulty hiring and keeping good people. President Trump has gone through 15 people since taking office just 192 days ago.

People are the backbone of your organization, and how you find them, hire them and keep them is a crap shoot. Or is it? Is there really a method to the madness of finding great people to grow your company?

Not really, it’s really hard. But here are my 5 tips on how to hire better, retain more and have more success in growing your staff.

#1.     Know your limits. How low will you go? Does an applicant have to have perfect credit? Must they have a book of business? Do they have the aptitude to learn your business? You must know the minimum levels of skills that you are willing to accept when you hire someone. Many business owners are just so happy to have a resume that they drop their standards and hire anyone to just fill the seat. Bad idea. No matter how desperate you are to find people, keep your standards high.

#2.     Do personality testing. Once you know you limits, you can conduct a personality test to see if the applicant meets your criteria. If you are hiring for someone who will be asked to do daily repetition like data entry, don’t hire someone who’s personality test shows that they want and need new experiences often. The results of the test don’t match the requirements of the job. At my company, we use the PREDICTIVE INDEX TEST, and we believe it is spot on.

#3.     Train and then train some more. The biggest obstacle you will face with your inexperienced staff is overcoming their lack of confidence. Confidence is built through skill mastery. The most effect way I have found to help employee’s build their confidence and skill up is to train them often. You need to train your staff MUCH more than you think. Training is not an occasionally thing. Training is an everyday thing.

#4.     Role play. Create real life scenarios for your team before they are real life scenarios. I remember listening to Navy Seal Jocko Willink tell how he trained his Seal teams. In one example, during a training exercise, he had people hide in a room dressed in clown costumes. When his team breached the door, they found a group wild and crazy clowns eating and throwing pies at his team. He created unique, and dangerous situations during training so that when his team went on their “mish” to Ramadi, they had seen almost anything. Game time is not practice time. Role play often so that you team don’t waste real opportunities.

#5.     When it ends, don’t be a jerk. When it’s over it’s over, but you don’t have to be a jerk. Part on good terms. Have an adult conversation that provides the opportunity for everyone to leave on good terms. Firing is not fun for anyone, do it with dignity.

As the leader of your company, you should understand that staffing your organization is a full-time job. Always have resumes on your desk, always have ads placed, always be hiring. Because it is hard and nobody as the perfect recipe.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Matt Manero is the Founder and President of Commercial Fleet Financing, Inc. (CFF) located in Dallas, TX. CFF is celebrating its 22nd year in business and provides financing for commercial fleet vehicles such as box trucks, cargo vans, big rigs, tow trucks, dump trucks and construction equipment. CFF is a 4-time winner of the 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017. Inc. Magazine Top 500/5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies in America. Matt and his world class team has helped thousands of small business owners move closer to the money they deserve. He is the author of, “The Grit”, and his forthcoming book, “YOU NEED MORE MONEY” will be out in March 2018. Learn more at www.cffnationwide.com or call 972.247.8447 phone or on all social media platforms via @Matt Manero.