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The Top Ten Reasons to Hire Mel Kleiman, CSP
North America’s leading authority on recruiting, selecting and retaining hourly workers
Question:
What do Domino’s Pizza, Harley-Davidson, Continental Airlines, Landry’s Restaurants, ExxonMobil, Coca-Cola, and The Society for Human Resource Managers all have in common?
Answer:
They all know how vitally important it is to hire great frontline employees – and they all hired Mel Kleiman to teach them how to do it better.
Here’s Why…
1. Mel is the leading North American authority on hourly employee recruiting, selection, and retention. For over 25 years now, Certified Speaking Professional, trainer, consultant, and author Mel Kleiman has helped hundreds of employers improve hiring decisions and reduce costly employee turnover. His cross-industry experience and groundbreaking research work are the reasons why he is the foremost authority in his field.
2. Mel delivers information and ideas business owners, hiring managers, and HR professionals can put to immediate use. Mel’s presentations are chockfull of practical exercises and memorable real-life examples. Participants learn how and where to recruit efficiently, how to conduct highly effective, legal interviews, and how to keep their best employees happy and on-board.
3. Mel’s combination of practical, hands-on experience and best practices information prepares your people to be better leaders. Participants learn what makes their best employees “tick,” how best to manage them, and how to identify and hire more just like them.
4. Mel customizes every presentation. Mel always does his homework and will provide specific solutions for each audience’s unique needs.
5. Mel is always in demand for repeat performances. Many of Mel’s clients invite him back repeatedly because the topic is always timely and because he is consistently given fantastic speaker evaluations.
6. Mel’s programs make a difference. Mel’s insightful, practical and creative methods for hiring front-line employees give hiring managers dozens of new ideas about how to select and retain a top-notch hourly workforce.
7. Mel focuses on one thing and one thing only: How to attract, select and retain the best hourly employees and he’s been focused on this and only this for over 25 years.
8. Mel has the balanced perspective employers need. His wealth of knowledge and cross-industry experience enables him to identify problems objectively and offer realistic solutions.
9. Mel is versatile. He teaches rookie supervisors, middle-managers and seasoned executives with equal ease. His high-energy, high-impact presentations keep everyone’s attention and interest.
10. “Mel has a wonderful rapport with his audience and our franchisees were truly engaged.” Sally Degnan, President, Two Men and a Truck International.
Need we say more?
A Few of Mel’s Clients Include:
|Acme Brick |Grubb & Ellis |
|Administaff |Harley Davidson |
|Amerada Hess Corporation |Int’l. Assn. of Chain Drug Stores |
|Burns Int’l Security Services |Kindred Health Care |
|Coca-Cola |National Assn. of Convenience Stores |
|Comfort Keepers |National Credit Union League |
|Cracker Barrel |National Restaurant Association |
|Dairy Queen |Pizza Hut |
|Deploy Restaurant Summit |Radisson Hotels |
|Domino’s Pizza |Ryan’s Restaurants |
|Drury Inns |Society for Human Resource Management |
|Dwyer Group, Inc. |Sysco Foods |
|Exxon/Mobil |Texas Hospitality & Lodging Association |
|Fatburger |Time Warner |
|Food Marketing Institute |
What Mel’s Clients Say About Him:
“Excellent presenter, really put himself in our shoes and provided exactly the answers our audience needed.” —Monte Arnold, Conference Coordinator, M. Lee Smith Publishing
“Mel delivered a perfectly targeted program. We’ve never gotten such an extremely high level of customization from anyone else.” —Patrick Chalfin, HR Director, Tesoro Petroleum
“Mel’s programs are very insightful, practical and creative methods for hiring front-line employees. His combination of customized material and best practices information prepares managers to be better leaders.” —Mary Matatall, Vice President, Continental Airlines
“Mel spoke to our particular hiring problems so precisely that some of our managers thought he was in the car wash business himself.” —Mike Shullman, President, Minuteman Car Wash
“The first moment I heard Mel speaking to another group, I knew immediately I had to bring him in to speak to ours.” —Tommy Williams, Director, America’s Blood Centers
“Thank you for choosing someone who so effectively gave great examples and stories that hit the topic so well.” —Barb Dorow, attendee at presentation to Goodwill Industries, Chicago
“Mel has a wonderful rapport with his audience and our franchisees were truly engaged. Mel’s presentation was so successful that we had him back to present to our managers at our annual meeting!” —Sally Degnan, President, Two Men and A Truck International
Suggested Topics & Titles
Please review this list and consider which topics and/or titles would be of greatest interest and benefit to your group. Then let’s talk about customizing a unique presentation that meets your specific needs.
Employee Recruiting:
❑ Six questions to ask yourself before you recruit new employees
❑ Stop looking for great applicants and start finding great employees
❑ Advertising: Words that work to attract the best applicants
❑ The #1 most overlooked source of great, new employees
❑ How to quit giving your competition your best applicants
❑ Why 24/7 is the key to better hiring
❑ “Now Hiring” isn’t a good reason for anyone to want to work for you
Employee Selection:
❑ Never mind how good the applicant is; how good is the interviewer?
❑ The questions you can’t ask and how to ask them anyway
❑ How to establish and keep control of the interview
❑ How to get applicants to tell you the truth
❑ The most important questions to ask every applicant
❑ Achievement-based interviews & evidence-based selection
❑ How to select the best
Employee Retention:
❑ The foolproof way to reduce turnover
❑ The #1 reason good employees leave
❑ The 7 R’s of retention
❑ It’s not about $$$
❑ What every new employee wants to know but is afraid to ask
❑ How to keep them motivated, on-board, and happy
Suggested Program Titles:
Hire Tough, Manage Easy
How World-Class Organizations Recruit, Select & Hire the Best
Tips, Tools & Techniques: How to Hire & Keep the Best
You Were Perfect, I Hired You, You Changed
Why Smart Managers Make Bad Hiring Decisions
Employee Retention: The Proven Key to Increased Profitability
“Just the Facts, M’am:” Achievement-Based Interviews, Evidence-Based Selection
Magnetic Companies: Attract the Best, Repel the Rest
If They Don’t Wanna Work for You, Nobody’s Gonna Stop ‘Em
“Get Real” Interview Questions that Get Results
You Can Beat the Odds: How To Pick A Winner Every Time
Blueprint for Successful Hiring
R-E-S-P-E-C-T, Find Out What It Means to Your Employees
Taming the Turnover Tiger
The New Wave in Hourly Hiring Systems
List of Services
(All fees are exclusive of expenses.)
Speaking, Training & Consulting
Keynote, General Session, Breakout, Training or Work Session
Up to 4 hours - $7,000 Up to 6 hours - $8,500
Speaking and training programs are based on industry-specific research, discussions with the organization’s leaders, as well as pre-meeting surveys to ensure that the presentation is perfectly tailored to deliver an array of solutions to your group’s most pressing concerns.
Pre-Speech Consulting Evaluation by Mel Kleiman
$3,500
A one-day, six-hour consulting session at your location for a pre-program assessment that will result in a more thoroughly customized program and a written evaluation of your employment process with recommended improvements.
HR Hiring Audit
$3,500
A one-and-one-half day audit of your recruiting and selection processes. This audit is performed at your location. The written audit report will include a summary of the strengths and weaknesses of the existing system and recommended improvements.
Customized Consulting
Contract Basis
Consultation can include one or more of the following phases: The Hiring Process, New Hire Orientation, The Management Series and/or Job Design encompassing training, coaching, counseling, performance appraisals, and separation.
Telephone Consulting
$400 per hour
Mel’s Books
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How to Create a Magnetic Culture
Hire Tough, Manage Easy
267 Hire Tough Interview Questions
Recruit Smarter, Not Harder
So, You Got the Job… Now What?
A Few of Mel’s Article Reprints
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|Hire Tough and Manage Easy |
|by John R. Hall |
|March 5, 2007 |
|International Service Leadership (ISL) Members Learn About “A” Players |
|NASHVILLE — Mel Kleiman, president of Humetrics, had some questions for International Service Leadership (ISL) members attending|
|the association’s most recent meeting at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. |
| |
|“How many of you set targets every day?” he asked. “How many of you raise the bar all of the time and raise the standard for |
|what is acceptable?” |
| |
|Kleiman, a motivational speaker and authority on employee hiring and retention, wanted to know if HVAC contractors take the time|
|to know how to hire and retain the best employees available, not just ones who can, as he put it, “fog a mirror.” He joked, |
|“After all, you are not allowed to ask someone if they are living or dead before you hire them.” |
| |
|Kleiman compared hiring practices of some businesses to jigsaw puzzles. “What is the most important piece of the jigsaw puzzle?”|
|he asked his audience, before supplying his answer: “The box. It shows what the puzzle looks like. We often hire for what a |
|person looks like, who they are, rather than for what they know.” |
| |
|He noted that business owners often fall into the trap of hiring people who are good at interviewing. As he explained, they |
|could be good at interviewing because they have had a lot of experience at it. |
| |
|“A good person shows up for the interview and then the evil twin shows up for work,” said Kleiman. “And the problem is that once|
|the employee is hired, it may take a lot of time and money to ‘show them the door.’ |
| |
|“The biggest liability you have is the people you hire. They can come back and sue you.” |
| |
|So where do employers find just the right people to hire? In Kleiman’s estimation, it often takes a little creative thinking. He|
|related the story about an HVAC contractor who, during a heat wave in Houston when service techs were being overworked, put a |
|billboard up next to a supply house with the message “40-hour work weeks.” According to Kleiman, the owner had several good |
|applicants from people who wanted to work under less-stressful conditions. |
|DO YOUR HOMEWORK |
|Kleiman suggested that business owners make a “shopping list” to understand what they are really looking for in an employee. |
|Employers may say they know what they are looking for but aren’t certain until they put those features in writing. These |
|questions should be answered before the interviewing process, he stressed. |
| |
|There should also be a list— created by the owner with help from the employees — of the top 10 reasons why a person would want |
|to work in that business. |
| |
|Once the interview process has started, Kleiman said it is important to find out what people don’t like to do and then “figure |
|out how they can get it done.” |
| |
|He added, “Some of the questions that business owners should be asking themselves are: Where do you find good employees? How do |
|we ask better interview questions?” |
| |
|Kleiman suggested that one place to find good employees may be right under the employer’s nose. “How many of you have a system |
|in place for calling good employees who have left you?” he asked ISL members. “If you ask them to come back, the worst answer |
|you can get is ‘no.’ So, why not ask?” |
| |
|He suggested calling the employee a week after they started another job, during the “confused” stages of learning a new job. |
| |
|He found that one good question to ask candidates is: “What was the last thing you learned?” He encouraged employers to also ask|
|each candidate to explain his/her answer. Kleiman said learning about a person’s first job can reveal a lot about that person. |
| |
|He said employers should ask interviewees to rank themselves on a scale of 1-10, and then ask what it would take to raise that |
|number. |
| |
|NOW YOU HAVE TO KEEP THEM |
|Once an employee is hired, there is no guarantee that he or she will like the job or be able to blend in. Kleiman had some tips |
|on easing a new employee into the work environment. |
| |
|“Never start a person on a Monday,” he said. “Everything is too hectic on Monday and someone may not have the time to adequately|
|orient a new person. Start them later in the week when things have calmed down. |
| |
|“An employee’s manager must spend the first hour with him or her. And each new employee should be given a ‘buddy’ at the |
|beginning. At the end of the first day, the employee’s manager should spend at least 15 minutes recapping the day. The manager |
|should stay in touch all of the first week and the owner should get in touch after the first week.” |
| |
|Kleiman thinks it is important to have a good retention program, and it begins with getting employees involved in the hiring |
|process of other employees. He likes the idea of a referral program where employees are paid upfront when someone they referred |
|to the company is hired. |
| |
|He also believes that employees should be told why they could be fired, which takes the guesswork out of the firing, if it |
|happens, and leads to better relations. “Make the employee fire themselves,” he said. |
| |
|Visit for more information on ISL and membership benefits. To learn more about Mel Kleiman and Humetrics, visit |
|. |
| |
|Publication date: 03/05/2007 |
John R. Hall
Business Management Editor. E-mail him at johnhall@
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Interviewing:
Make Sure What You See Is What You Get
Posted 9/18/2005
Mel Kleiman, CSP
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Interviewing today often feels like trying to walk through quicksand: the harder you work, the harder it seems to be to get the real information you need. The main reason for this is a technique known as "behavioral interviewing," which relies mainly on questions about applicants' past behavior. Unfortunately, these questions are frequently asked in a way that reveals the answers employers hope to hear, which has led many employers to hire applicants who answer questions well but perform poorly on the job.
Past behavior is important. It's still the best predictor of future behavior. But unfortunately, over the past few years, this type of interviewing has become so popular that most job applicants who have done much interviewing know how to answer most of the questions that will be asked before interviewers even ask them.
The problem is that this makes it even harder to get the information you need to make a good hiring decision. The solution is making sure the questions you ask about applicants' behavior get you "real-world" information you can check after the interview is over.
Great interviewing calls for taking the best of every system - behavioral, biographical and stress interviewing - and building them into an evidence-based process that asks for proof of what candidates have done and how they did it.
What Kinds of Questions ShouldYou Ask?
Basically, there are four types of hiring questions: Questions that ask for facts, questions that determine skills, questions that reveal attitudes and references. How you ask for this information determines how revealing the answers you get will be.
Instead of asking, "Tell me about a time you had to deal with an aggravated customer," which cues applicants to give you the "I never take it personally and am the most patient person on earth" kind of answer they know you want to hear.
On the other hand, asking: "Tell me about your first paying job," allows you to move on to asking other questions such as "What achievements did you have from that job?" "What did you accomplish after your first job?" "Which achievement are you most proud of?"
Asking about achievements makes applicants feel proud and allows you to follow up with questions such as, "What were the three most important things you learned from that?" "How did you apply them?" "What makes the achievement stand out, what were the complications from it, what did you learn from it?" The answers to these kinds of questions will provide valuable information. And even an applicant who has never worked for wages before can talk about achievements in other parts of life.
Ask applicants about their skills. If you're hiring someone who has already done the job, ask, "What do you think it takes to be a good (fill in the blank)? "Who is the best person you ever worked with (tell me about him or her)?" is another good question - as is "On a scale of 1-10, how would you rank yourself?" "What do you think puts you at that rank?" "What would it take to get better?"
Ask Questions You Can Build On
When you ask about previous jobs, ask if the applicant's former employer conducted a performance review. If so, did the applicant receive a copy? What parts of performance were reviewed? What was the scale like? If you like the applicant, ask him or her to bring a copy to the second interview. If applicants didn't get a copy, ask for specific examples of how they performed customer care. When you check references, you have examples to verify.
A great way to end this part of an interview is by saying, "I've been asking you a lot of questions, and now I'm going to let you ask me one. What is the most important thing you want to know about the job, company or organization? Why is that the most important?" What makes this great is that people always respond honestly to this question, and in doing so they tell you what they consider most important. By the way, applicants who are looking for a better job are more likely to ask challenging questions than those who are looking for "just a job."
In addition to these questions, you need to make sure applicants have the physical and mental capacity necessary for the job. For example, if the job requires loading 50-pound sacks onto a truck, can the applicant demonstrate this capability? If the job calls for filling written work orders and managing logs, can the applicant do this?
The Main Reason Employees Fail
The main reason employees fail is not that they can't do their jobs, but that they won't do them. It's much easier to train an employee with a great attitude how to do a job than it is to train a skilled grouch to be pleasant to your customers. Do the facts you've gathered reveal the attitude you want, the dependability, initiative and willingness to serve customers who are necessary for success? Do applicants have a good track record of arriving to work on time? Of remaining polite with difficult customers? Of being willing to fill in when a co-worker is ill?
Will this applicant's personality fit well with the personalities of the job, the manager and the company? Few (if any) employees will mesh perfectly with all three. The most important dynamic is how closely the applicant's personality matches the job requirements - attention to detail, working well with others, good counter skills and more. Can the applicant manage his or her personality around the requirements of the job?
Many employers overvalue the importance of skills. If you don't have the time or ability to train and you need a skilled employee right away, you'll have to base your hiring decision on capacity and skill. But remember: An applicant who has the capacity, attitude and personality you need can often be trained for the necessary skills.
A great hiring system treats every part of the hiring process as a test. It also keeps you focused on the qualities applicants need to successfully perform the job. For example, if the job requires arriving for work at 5 a.m., scheduling applicant interviews at that time will reveal who can and can't meet the requirement. If the job demands a great phone manner, talking with applicants on the phone should be one of your first steps. An applicant who leaves you with a favorable impression will leave the same impression with your customers.
There are two sources of information: the applicant and others who can provide information about the applicant. Your hiring tools should include an employment application that records pertinent information in an organized, standardized format; a demonstration release that relieves you of liability when testing applicants' abilities to do the job; a reference verification form that gives you permission to gather information about applicants; and a reference release that allows you to provide information about employees to others.
To receive a free copy of Kleiman's Pocket Guide to Interviewing, visit: . mkleiman@
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|Mel Kleiman, CSP, is an internationally recognized consultant, author and speaker on strategies for hiring and retaining the |
|best hourly employees. He is the president of Humetrics, a leading developer of systems, training processes, and tools for |
|recruiting, selecting and retaining the best hourly workforce. Kleiman is the author of four books, including the |
|best-selling "Hire Tough, Manage Easy." |
|[pic] |
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OCTOBER 2006
|Automated Hourly Hiring Systems |
|The reticence to harness the power of automation to manage employees is hurting the bottom line. |
|by Mel Kleiman |
|Remember "Blast from the Past," the 1999 film starring Brendan Fraser? After a nuclear war scare in the 1960s, young Brendan lives in the family bomb |
|shelter with his mom and dad for 30 years. When he finally ventures out into Los Angeles for food and a " nonmutant" wife, it becomes a hilarious "fish |
|out of water" tale that reminds us how much things have changed in three short decades. |
|The movie is a useful analogy for the convenience store industry as well. Imagine you've been transported from a 1960s store to the 2006 version. (If |
|you're not old enough, think of the movie.) Isn't every single aspect of the business different? The products, the product mix and the packaging have |
|changed. Store design, display cases and customer demographics have changed. Most of all, the way the business operates has changed. New technologies |
|from POS terminals to self-service food kiosks have transformed every interaction—with clients, employees, vendors and the home office. |
|On the human resources side of the business alone, payroll, time and attendance, and employee benefit management have largely been converted to |
|electronic automation and self-service models. |
|Yes, in most c-stores everything has changed completely, save one interesting exception—how hourly employees are recruited and hired. For most, the |
|process is much the same as in the 60s: advertise openings, collect handwritten applications, conduct interviews, schedule drug and background tests and|
|complete all the associated paperwork when a new person is hired. |
|This situation is not unique to the industry. In a recent survey of 100 senior executives in a variety of trade channels, only 3% said their company is |
|currently using automated systems for HR — and only 2% planned to do so within the next 12 months. If you break this down further and look at just the |
|process of managing the hourly employee lifecycle—recruiting, selection, onboarding, progression or talent management and, finally, off-boarding—the |
|figure drops even more dramatically. |
|This reticence to harness the power of automation to manage the hourly hiring and employee life-cycle process is due in large part to these three |
|reasons: |
|Return-on-Investment: While it's easy to determine what automating would cost, the benefits in terms of saved time, money and legal exposure are, in the|
|minds of many, difficult to quantify up front. Most system vendors can supply case studies that document healthy ROIs for their clients. (A study |
|conducted for one c-store client estimated a projected ROI that ranged from 600% to 1000% over several years.) |
|It's Not My Problem: In highly decentralized industries (like c-stores) with a small number of employees at multiple locations and where the HR function|
|is located at corporate headquarters, it's usually the case that while operations is responsible for recruiting and selection, HR still owns the |
|function. The result is that while it is an operations pain for those in the field, it is not HR's pain. Only a proactive HR department will address the|
|situation. |
|Turf Wars: Deciding to automate the hourly hiring process requires cross-functional support in any organization. While an HR group may propose it, HR is|
|not a profit center, so finance has to approve the funding. If finance likes the ROI, it's likely the IT group will have an NIH (not invented here) |
|reaction and cite all the technical difficulties as well as all the other projects in their pipeline that take priority. |
|A Look Back |
|The first major advance in automating the hourly employee hiring process was in the early 1990s when Home Depot built its own automated HR system and |
|created the first self-service, instore employment kiosks. |
|By the late 90s, job hotlines using interactive voice response (IVR) technology were in widespread use. The rapid adoption of IVR was spurred by an |
|incredibly tight labor market. These systems allow employers to collect applications 24/7, and are relatively inexpensive. They can also be as simple as|
|a dedicated answering machine or more complex, such as being programmed to determine if applicants meet basic hiring criteria. |
|The next development—portable,analog employment kiosks—were rolled out when most retail environments were not yet wired for the Internet, and only 50% |
|of their target labor pool had Internet access. These units collect completed applications at store locations and job fairs and transmit the data via |
|phone lines to a central collection and distribution point. |
|Only in the last five years has it become commonplace for employers to offer employment applications on their Web sites, and how this tool is being used|
|in the c-store industry varies widely. In a random sampling of 12 chains, seven offer on-line applications (one of these was not functional), three |
|offer print and snail mail or e-mail links, and two offered only job descriptions. While a step forward in the use of technology, it is still not easy |
|for job applicants to navigate most systems, and most do not perform any basic screening steps. |
|Where Things Are Going |
|Today, Web-based solutions handle basic screening and eliminate redundancies. A typical automated process begins with the applicant answering a few |
|qualifying questions determined by the employer. If approved, the applicant supplies more information and completes any skill and personality |
|assessments. Applications can be made available via phone or the Internet, making it possible to apply from virtually anywhere. This gives the employer |
|a much larger pool of prospective employees from which to choose. |
|Presently, there are several vendors offering hourly employee recruiting and hiring systems for c-stores: ADP, Deploy Solutions, JobFlash, Kronos/Unicru|
|and Taleo. |
|Most of these offerings promise to increase applicant flow, reduce turnover (by screening for better-qualified candidates) as well as increase operating|
|efficiencies and reduce costs by eliminating paperwork and transcription errors. |
|At the high-end, the Deploy and Unicru offerings also have the ability to: |
|Run a variety of reports including EEOC data; |
|Collect and transfer data to capture WOTC and WTW credits; |
|Schedule background, drug and reference checks; |
|Automatically populate the myriad forms that must be completed once an applicant accepts an offer; |
|Create interview question sets that use sophisticated logic branching to eliminate redundancies and facilitate fact-based hiring decisions; |
|Facilitate the administration of performance and salary reviews with performance management tools; and |
|Systemize employee off-boarding (keys returned, exit interviews, etc.) and closed-loop analysis. |
|HR departments have always amassed reams of information about employees. When an hourly hiring system is automated, that information then becomes |
|intelligence. Just one advantage is the ability to identify the best source of new hires, be it referrals, newspaper ads, billboards, schools or |
|existing customers. |
|When it comes to automated hourly hiring systems, decision makers have one of three choices: |
|Do Nothing: The do-nothing choice could be prudent as the technologies advance and systems become more affordable, but the risks are great. Job |
|applicants tend to follow the path of least resistance and convenience store marketers are not just competing against each other for new hires. The |
|competition today is every other employer that can use any of the people who meet the same basic hiring criteria, such as the entire retail, restaurant |
|and fast food worlds for starters. |
|Do It Yourself: If you have the resources to build your own system, it could be perfectly customized to meet your organization's needs. This is not a |
|viable option for most, however, and in many cases has turned out not to be the ideal choice because custom-built systems tend to stagnate over time. |
|Companies that once invested in them are now looking to outsourcing because outside vendors keep updating to add features and value. |
|Buy a System: If you decide to shop for an outside solution, the most important criteria are that the vendor has strong c-store expertise, a proven |
|track record and one deciphers how well the system meets your needs. Does the system work via IVR, Web, kiosk? Does it recruit, select, assess and |
|integrate with your other processes and systems? |
| |
|Retailer Results |
|The following summarizes the responses of c-store executives to a recent survey of automated hiring system users: |
|When asked the top two reasons Tesoro decided to automate, retail HR manager Patrick Chalfin responded: "To significantly upgrade the quality (customer |
|service skills, honesty, work ethic, etc.) of our hourly employees, which conversely eliminates "warm body" desperation hiring and cost |
|reductions—minimum of 25% reduction in newspaper want ad costs; 4% to 5% annual reduction in turnover; minimal DSOE to install hiring kiosks in stores. |
|When asked: "If you had it to do over again, would you?" Chalfin replied, "Absolutely. It has met all expectations and we continue to add enhancements."|
| |
|The corporate director of HR at a chain with about 2,000 locations, reports they turned to automation to: "Streamline the hiring process making it |
|easier on our management; saving time and resources and to improve consistency by ensuring the highest-quality candidates are hired, reducing the |
|potential for discriminatory hiring and eliminating exceptions to our hiring process." |
|Richard Kenny, SPHR and field staffing manager for 7-Eleven Inc., reports that it has become easier for a person to apply for every job they see online,|
|"and in turn we are getting 10 times the response we used to get for the same number of hires," he said. |
|Gary Bylsma, director of human resources for WESCO, claims that as part of the chain's Churn Buster (turnover reduction) program, it found one central |
|reason that people leave an organization is that "the hiring process is not consistent and well-defined for the store manager." |
|To remedy the situation, WESCO implemented a new screening process comprised of three separate interviews, which include behavioral question sets that |
|look for desired traits (responsibility, values, etc.) and skill testing. The result? "We have reduced our associate turnover from 80% to between 30% |
|and 40%," Bylsma said. |
|Another HR manager for a chain in the process of building their own system reports the anticipated benefits include: "accurate paperwork that will |
|ensure new hires are paid correctly and on time; the chance of Social Security numbers being transposed will be greatly reduced, saving time and money; |
|accountability will improve because every document will be electronically time-stamped at store level and in the HR department; and starting pay will be|
|more consistent, job codes and titles will be accurate." |
|Bob Reale, vice president of human resources and governmental affairs for The Pantry (Sanford, N.C.), is working with Deploy to implement an automated |
|system to get "a higher caliber of applicants and better control of our applicant pool so we do not lose prospective employees," he said. |
|Two c-store chains report having earned more than the cost of their systems in captured Work Opportunity Tax Credits. |
|In their 2001 book, The War for Talent, authors Michaels, Hanfield-Jones and Axelrod report that when Les Wexner, chairman of the board of The Limited, |
|saw his company's earnings hit a wall and its stock plunge, he conferred with the likes of GE's Jack Welch and PepsiCo's CEO Wayne Callaway. Wexner |
|found that while he had been spending most of his time checking sales numbers, reviewing new ads and developing product concepts, "they spent about half|
|their time on people—recruiting new talent, picking the right people, grooming young stars and dealing with underperformers. |
|As a result, Wexner totally restructured his business to focus on hiring and developing talent. Within three years, profits had grown from $285 million |
|to $445 million, and the company's stock price had almost doubled. Looking back on how his approach to managing had changed, Wexner declared, "I used to|
|pick sweaters; now I pick people." |
|The authors conclude: "Of the many prescriptions in this book, embracing a talent mindset is the most important. A talent mindset is the deep-seated |
|belief that having better talent at all levels is how you outperform your competitors." |
|Automated employee hiring systems make it possible to choose frontline, hourly employees as carefully as most organizations select their salaried |
|professionals. |
|Yes, most everything in the c-store industry has changed since the 60s, but what was true then is still true today: better talent, at all levels, is the|
|best competitive advantage you can have. |
|Mel Kleiman is a trainer, consultant, and author on strategies for hiring and retaining the best hourly employees. Mel's books include the bestselling |
|Hire Tough, Manage Easy and 267 Hire Tough Interview Questions. For more information, visit or call (713) 771-4401. |
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Certified Speaking Professional
Mel Kleiman
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