Heres a four-step process to help distributors recruit, hire and retain quality employees.

by William Harrison

The real challenge to growth in this burgeoning economy is finding and keeping good people.  Every business has a need for good people, but most have given up on finding highly qualified team members.

There are many reasons why:

The "baby boom" is over (there aren't as many bodies out there).

Mature blue-collar workers are sending their children to college (not bringing them into the trades).

Many high school graduates lack required job skills.

Many school systems are shifting from vocational to technology training.

There is low unemployment and high competition for good people.

The following four steps will help you keep good people and attract others.  The steps are simple, but they are not easy.

Step 1: You need systems
To begin, you need systems. You need a clear and precise method for how you do your work. To use a sports analogy, you need a game plan and a playbook. You know you have a system when it's in writing. 

Start with a system for hiring, motivating and developing team members. If your hiring system is poor, you get people with low skills and little opportunity to learn. 

You also lower the morale of good team members. Why do companies hold job interviews at 2:00 p.m.? It's because it is a convenient time for management. Instead, companies should schedule interviews at the start of the business day. You would be surprised who can't get transportation at 7:30 a.m. 

Why waste time interviewing a person who will never show up the first day of work? What if a potential candidate showed up 15 minutes before an interview? Would that be a positive signal?

Do you give applicants even a minimal skills test? At the very least, you need to discover their skill level. This also lets you know where the new hire should start in your training program.

Are team members who must work with the new hire involved in the hiring process? Why not? Does that take too much time? Hire slowly is a great rule to follow, even in today's challenging job market.

People also want to know your system for advancement and promotion. That is why you need a system on paper that explains your evaluation process and how people can advance.

Position descriptions must explain not only what must be done, but also what it looks like when it is done right. You certainly need more clarity than most companies provide.    

Good people want to know what the rules of the game are, and they want to know early on. If you have four project managers, for example, they must manage their projects according to your company's system, not four different ways. There must be a company system for everything you do.

When four project managers do a task four different ways, it causes great confusion on the team and significantly impacts your bottom line. Every practice, procedure and action you take requires crystal-clear clarity.

Most companies have more good people than they realize, even some great ones. The problem is they are just confused by a lack of systems and the chaos that results.

Do you have a system for how to answer the phone? For example, will callers to your firm hear "thank you for calling"? Does everyone answer the phone "your way"?

Do you have employee manuals, shop procedures, field manuals, checklists, etc. that clearly define your systems? Do you create standards? If not, your people are turnover risks and you won't attract the best free agents around.

You need your people to help develop your systems, and then you must work the system. You must also have a method for dealing with non-team players. Most companies talk about poor performers. Good companies talk to poor performers. People must have good feedback on their performance or you devalue them.

When systems are in place, feedback occurs on a daily or even hourly basis.

Step 2: Train on the system
The second step is to constantly train on the system. Training only works when the trainer and trainee know exactly what is to be learned in what time frame. 

Having new team members watch what is happening will not motivate people to stay with your company. People will stay and be drawn to a system that helps them succeed.

People need to see their progress almost daily, but assuredly weekly.  They must feel they are learning something specific. Do you have a written training plan for each position? Do you know where to start training for each position? Or, do you put the new person with someone and hope they pick up some useful information?

Why do companies rarely put the new team member with their best person? They don't want to slow the best person down, right? Instead of cloning their best people, they clone mediocre ones.

A good example came from an electrician's helper. One supervisor taught him the line on the wall was for the center of the outlet. Two days later, another supervisor asked if he could set outlets. He said sure. This supervisor put the outlet at the top of the line. What do you think happened? It took hours for all of the electricians to agree on one way to do it.

Now, the company has one way to do most everything and a helper is thoroughly trained in three weeks, not three or more months. The turnover in entry-level workers is less than 8 percent. 

You must have a written training program for every position. A solid training program helps give team members regular and consistent feedback. Feedback is the breakfast of champions.

Step 3: Build a solid team
The third step is to build a solid team.  You must understand that money is not the great motivator.  Appreciation, respect and being in on things still outrank money, even in today's marketplace. 

One of the keys to building a solid team is a good pay-for-performance system. People should be rewarded for the value they add to your team and your results.

Most systems reward for attendance. The person who has been there the longest gets the most money. The most qualified are sometimes denied promotion because of the effect on an old-timer.

How team members get promotions, raises and bonuses should never be a mystery. These processes should always be transparent to everyone in the company.  This is a real challenge for many companies. Team members must be a part of your growth and change process at all levels. They must be actively involved in developing and upgrading your systems. 

People today want to be an active participant in the team process. They want to be involved. They want to make a difference. They want to be heard. Are you listening?

Step 4: Grow from within
The last step requires that you grow from within. You must create a powerful system that permits those who want to grow to do so.  Following steps 1 and 2 will create such a system for growth from within. 

It also provides those who don't want to grow a plan to succeed as well. There are many significant ways to reward team members other than promotions. You must think out of the box in the rewards area.

Along with growth from within, you must also be a hiring machine. Always be in the hiring mode, using every tool available. Look for that solid team member to replace those few who are not willing to grow in your system. Offer bonuses to any person in your company for bringing on a new, qualified team member.

You can even create a system that gets each team member's family and friends involved. Not everyone will thrive in your system. Some will be eligible to be a free agent. That is why you need a pool of potential team members at all times.

A general contractor has developed a solid system for everything they do, and they work the system. They have not advertised for any position in years, even though they have grown from $8 million to almost $150 million in volume. Good people come looking for them.

Good people are drawn to a company that has a system, a game plan. Do you have a game plan to attract and keep good people?

William Harrison of the Phoenix Leadership Institute in Washington, D.C., is a much sought-after speaker, corporate coach and change agent.  He can be reached at or at .

This article originally appeared in the November 2000 Progressive Distributor ASMMA/I.D.A. spring editon. Copyright 2000.

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