The Desert Sun (Palm Springs, California), July 17, 2006, Monday

Copyright 2006 The Desert Sun (Palm Springs, CA)
All Rights Reserved
The Desert Sun (Palm Springs, California)

July 17, 2006 Monday

SECTION: BUSINESS REVIEW; Pg. 9G

HEADLINE: Steps to make hiring easier, more efficient

BYLINE: Staff

BODY:
The U.S. jobless rate has sunk to 4.6 percent. In the Coachella Valley, the unemployment rate was 3.9 percent in May. Competition for accountants and other highly sought after workers is white hot. Big corporations are beefing up employee benefits.
No wonder small companies are struggling to find workers: 46 percent of those surveyed last month said they found few or no qualified applicants - up from 41 percent in April, says the National Federation of Independent Business. Last month's share was one of the highest in more than five years, the trade group said.
Heather Nolte knows all about it. The owner of a boutique baby-apparel maker near Austin, Texas, she got just 11 resumes after advertising for an administrative assistant. She got more than 100 a year ago for the same job advertised the same way. "Applicants are scarce," she said.
Small businesses often don't have a human-resources department, so owners relegate hiring to their spare time - but it should be their top priority. "Your most important function is to hire people," said David Ramp, a small-business counselor in Birmingham, Ala.
Step 1: Write a job description
Job descriptions drive the hiring process. Yet, small employers rarely use them, said Eileen Levitt, founder and president of the HR Team in Columbia, Md., a consultant to small companies.
Writing a job description forces owners to review other jobs in their company that should be redefined. Maybe the receptionist has become the technology expert, even though there's now enough revenue to justify adding that work to a new position.
Descriptions also help owners set pay ranges, plan interview questions and evaluate the new employee's performance. Ron Zagel, president of Jonathan Stevens Mattress, a manufacturer and retailer with 38 workers based in Grand Rapids, Mich., uses a three-page description for sales jobs.
It covers the waterfront, from greeting customers "warmly and promptly within 60 to 90 seconds" to writing customer thank-you notes by hand. Zagel always has a lawyer review descriptions to comply with labor law.
Step 2: Gauge the market
Learn what other employers pay in wages and benefits. See how many other companies are looking for the same skills. Know the basics. Ramp is "amazed" at how many small employers don't know the minimum wage or jobless rate. He is a counselor at the Small Business Development Center at the University of Alabama.
This is a good time to learn the full cost of a new employee: Social Security, Medicare and possibly workers' compensation costs. Attracting a qualified worker might mean starting to offer medical benefits that would extend to existing workers, too.
Step 3: Outsourcing, anyone?
Tech work such as Web site maintenance is another hard-to-fill job. Yet, like accounting, it can be farmed out to companies specializing in helping small companies. "You just write ... a check once a month," said Brendan Courtney, a senior vice president at Spherion, a staffing company in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Indeed, the entire hiring process for any job can be turned over to a professional employer organization (PEO), which will also help train employees, write performance review forms and create medical and other benefit plans.
For example, Integrated Staffing, a PEO in Peabody, Mass., creates job descriptions and screens applicants.
Step 4: Spread the word
Tell family, friends, business associates and especially employees that you've got a job to fill. It's cheaper than hiring a headhunter or paying to advertise.
"Networking, friends and family are probably the best way to source good employees," said David Minor, head of the Neeley Entrepreneurship Program at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.
Small employers also overlook job fairs and schools. In Rowlett, Texas, Techni-Tool found one of its best employees by talking to high school teachers when the industrial cutting tools distributor needed a bookkeeper. The Rowlett High School student Techni-Tool hired worked part time after school, proving his abilities until he started full time after graduation. "Found a diamond in the rough," said Gary Turner, vice president of the 14-employee company.
Step 5: Plan interviews
List managers and other employees who'll speak to applicants. Write down questions to be asked. And make sure all applicants are asked the same questions so you can make an apples-to-apples comparison among candidates.
Small employers aren't always schooled in what interview questions are legal. An employer might wonder whether a young woman plans to have kids, or whether a mother has reliable daycare, said LaBrie.
Instead, she said, tell the applicant that the job requires showing up each morning at 8, then ask, "Can you be here?"
Near Boston, BuyerZone.com has created a six-part interview process that would rival any big corporation's. Yet, the company, which matches buyers and sellers of business products and services, has just 49 workers.
BuyerZone requires multiple prescreening phone interviews followed by face-to-face interviews and then reference checks.
Step 6: Sell your company
Small businesses, competing against big corporations with blue-chip benefits, can fight back by promoting their own virtues. Take job security: Levitt said her small-business clients are less likely to lay off workers because owners know each employee.
Also, small-business employee health benefits are sometimes superior to those at big self-insured corporations.
Small companies buy medical benefits that are subject to state regulatory mandates often requiring extras, such as chiropractic care, that self-insured corporations don't have to offer, Levitt said.
Nolte, the baby-apparel designer, doesn't offer medical coverage to her three employees at Glamajama in Kyle, Texas. She competes for workers by promoting other benefits: flexible hours, especially appealing for mothers, and a creative environment with a chance to learn clothing design.
Step 7: Check resumes and references
Finding a qualified employee works only if the applicant really is qualified. Confirming resumes and references is a step that too many employers - including big ones - fail to heed.
The board at retailer RadioShack was surprised in February to learn from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that CEO David Edmondson lied on his resume about two degrees from a Bible college. Edmondson resigned.
Levitt says she's seen it all when sifting through job applications sent to her small-business clients: Applicants lying about college degrees or disguising prison work as a real job.
Glance: Three tactics may boost revenue
Small companies that hire and manage workers in three specific ways are more likely to boost revenue and profits, according to a university study released in June.
The companies had 22 percent higher revenue growth, 23 percent higher profit growth and 67 percent lower employee turnover than those that didn't use the preferred hiring and management tactics, said the study by Cornell University and the Gevity Institute, a human resources consultant near Tampa, Fla.
The 323 U.S. companies examined averaged 53 employees each and were in a range of industries. The tactics producing better results:
Make sure job candidates fit the overall company culture, not just the job. If they don't, they're more likely to quit prematurely, increasing costly turnover.
This also is true at big corporations, says Christopher Collins, an associate human resources professor at Cornell. But a bad hire's impact is disproportionately greater at a small employer.
Don't micromanage workers. Offer broad direction, then trust them to manage their time. Showing confidence in employees gives them a bigger stake in the business, so they tend to work harder, driving revenue and profits higher.
Promote a "family" workplace culture. That boosts company loyalty, reducing turnover. For example, owners can take each employee to lunch. Or they could organize events drawing together all workers, so they get to know each other better.