Where to find employees

Some of the best advice I ever got was to “treat recruiting like marketing.” I always have marketed to death to customers, but it never occurred to me that I should be handling people the same way. So I thought, “what works for recruiting customers” would use this same logic to market for employees.

Referrals

The best people you get are going to be referred. This goes for not only customers but employees as well. I’ve also been think of what you want your employees to do, and find a way to encourage it.

So, just like we pay $20 for a customer lead, we now pay $250 for each referred employee that one of our employees refers to the company and stays past the 90 day probationary period. This is a great way to encourage your employees to refer their friends, which, if they are a good employee chances are their friend will be too because A players like to associate themselves with other A players. Also if their referral performs badly it will reflect on themselves.

There plenty of places to advertise online and in person for employees, such as:

1. • Craigslist.com– Now charges $25 per 30 days
   • Indeed.com– Free or paid ads
   • Facebook.com- Pay per click
   • Local schools, technical colleges, and universities
     • Online
     • Bulletin Boards
     • Flyer cars in parking lots
     • “Now Hiring” plastic yard signs on campus
   • Your local Department of Labor and Training
     • Online
     • Bulletin Boards
   • Local Chamber of Commerce
     • Online
     • Bulletin Boards
   • Networking events
   • Local shops
   • “Now Hiring” magnets on your company vehicles

Out of the above, indeed.com has been very effective, as has craigslist. And what should you put on your ads?

We generally state that we are a growing company searching for employees with certain criteria. I haven’t noticed that stating the pay range affects response rates. The trick is, you do want to make them jump through hoops. Make the application process a little difficult for the applicant. This first step helps you filter out a lot of people and save yourself a ton of time by only letting you consider a handful of applicants.

How to pay employees

I started out paying employees on a commission structure, also known as “piece work.” This system basically pays your employees based on a commission of each job they complete or based on the budgeted hours of a job.

Commission

Pros: The benefits to this system is you do not have to spend as much time managing production. You don’t have to worry about your guys milking the clock because it is their own time. You only have to manage the quality of the work.

Cons: The cons are that it becomes difficult to manage. You have to worry about who worked with who and figure out a way to accurately break out the payroll fairly.