Human resources remain one of the most critical aspects of successful operations in the vending industry. Much has changed in product, equipment, technology, and operations, all of which have raised the bar on the capabilities required of the people working in our businesses.
Finding and keeping the right individuals for all positions is an area that requires utmost attention.
Most companies rely on resumes and interviews to find top performers – the best person for the job. But, according to the Michigan State University’s School of Business, using these methods only produces a quality employee 14 percent of the time. Not only are those poor odds, but the cost of this “bad hire” comes out in lost wages/benefits (paying the employee for not doing the job) as well as any lost revenue (lost clients, theft, etc.) associated with the poor hire. Add in the drop in productivity that results when the position again becomes vacant.
Which brings us to the subject of the first installment of my blog: What can operators do to improve their hiring?
“Use a 6 Pak….of hiring tools” because use of interview only yields a 14% likelihood of obtaining engaged employee.
- Interview (you want to hire someone, they need a job: no wonder there are bad hires)
- References (many companies reluctant to provide much information)
- Background Check (imperative to confirm data represented on resume or application)
- Learning Skills (difficult to determine in interview but critical to long term success)
- Behavioral Traits (candidate on best behavior during interview; what will you find after 60-90 days?)
- Occupational Interests (lack of matching interest in job will turn up 60-90 days after hire as disinterested, un-engaged employee)
Use of the whole 6 pak yields a 75% likelihood of obtaining an engaged employee. More likely to be engaged, which will increase productivity and decrease turnover.
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Biography of Dave McCaffrey:
Before becoming a strategic partner of Profiles International™, Dave McCaffrey built a thirty year career in the fast food, convenience store, vending, and Office Coffee Service segments, ultimately holding senior segment management positions at Oscar Mayer, Kraft Foods, and Starbucks Coffee Company.
Over his career, he developed successful relationships with corporate clients such as ARAMARK, Compass Group, Circle K, 7-Eleven and Standard Coffee Service Company, as well as many regional and local independent businesses in the foodservice industry. Dave also grew and enjoyed productive relationships with brokerage and distributive components, as well as segment specific media and national associations of each unique foodservice segment.
Dave feels his greatest professional (and personal) accomplishment of his successful corporate career was the fact that many of the people that he managed were able to move up to their own managerial responsibility. His own management experience gave him the understanding of the benefit of accurate personnel assessments as quality tools for developing key employee engagement and effectiveness.
Having received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin, he also earned an Associate Degree in Marketing from the Madison Area Community College.
Actively involved in many volunteer capacities, Dave is a member of several commissions at Immaculate Conception Parish (Elmhurst, IL) In addition, Dave and his wife Rita actively mentor engaged couples participating in the Joliet (IL) Diocese pre-marriage program.
Dave and his wife Rita (Flad), both from Madison WI, have been married for forty+ years (’67), and have lived in Elmhurst, Illinois, for over ten years. They have two daughters, both of whom live and work in the Chicago area.
Leave a Reply
March 26th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Mr. McCaffrey,
I am the Finance and Administrative Manager for a Midwest vending operator. Our problem is finding,hiring and keeping good route managers. I have been working with our Route Supervisor to to find effective ways to find good people who are interested in being route managers. Our benefits program needs some improvements and we recognize that but it seems that we can’t even find enough qualified people to interview. I believe we are following your “6 Pak” of hiring tools. Is there something else that we may be missing in our process? Any advice that you can give to us would be helpful.
Thank you.
Dennis P. Dionne
Finance and Administrative Manager
March 26th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Dennis, happy to chat with you regarding finding, hiring and keeping quality Route Managers.
With regards to finding candidates, in general, the larger a ‘net’ that you use, the more ‘fish’ you will catch. In other words, the more people that become aware that you have a job opening, the more candidates that will likely respond.
When advertising for your job openings, are you using local resources or a broader ‘net’ such as CareerBuilder or Monster.com? It may prove to be worth the investment to broaden the search in order to develop more candidates.
Once you have found a candidate (or the candidate has found you), the next step you might consider is a pre-interview assessment to determine honesty, ethics, reliability and likelihood of substance abuse.
The last three steps of the 6 Pak are essential to placing the right person in the right job. The process is called Job Matching, or knowing the following information about each employee:
1. CAN the person do the job? Do their skills (numeric and verbal) meet the needs of the job?
2. HOW will the person do the job? Will their behavior traits match those exhibted by your most successful employees in that job function?
3. WILL the person do the job? Does the persons primary interests match those necessary to enjoy this job?
I will be happy to continue our dialogue either on this blog or on a personal basis. If you wish to contact me directly, you can reach me at profiles@predictiveassets.com
Sincerely,
Dave McCaffrey