Don’t Let Hiring Get The Best of You!

When speaking to owners and managers they tell me they have lots of work. The challenge is getting the work out because they don’t have enough help. They want to grow their team and they can’t find people.

Common Issues

• No or little response to ads.
• No show for scheduled interviews.
• Ghosting on email follow ups.

While many owners and managers will fall into the TRAP of “There just aren’t people who want to work today.” thinking, don’t let it happen to you. Let’s take a deeper dive into hiring from what I call Owner Overload.

5 STAGES OF BUSINESS & OWNER OVERLOAD

When an owner is working 56 or more hours a week, it’s because they’re overloaded with activities and projects. They’re exhausted from being pulled in many directions. This makes it difficult to find the time to dedicate to hiring. Without a consistent hiring process, hiring a warm body will most likely happen. You may get lucky, but you could risk losing good people for a bad hire. Common in the initial stages of business.

Many owners can achieve a 40-hour work week, but it usually takes years and it’s hard not to become frustrated over time. They haven’t formalized their systems and processes for the team to follow. Their way of doing things is still in their head. They often think “People should know.” Even if you do hire top talent, they won’t stay for long when they realize they can’t grow or challenge themselves. This is where owners can feel defeated and believe there aren’t accountable people to hire.

PRO TIP

When you stop trying to do it all and you look at your business as separate from you. You can get clear on the gaps and areas that could use improvement. It’s an aha moment when an owner realizes developing yourself is where to start.

3 Steps of Development

• Don’t go it alone – Seek a Mentor, Other Owners, Accountability Partner, Coach or Trusted Advisor
• Seek Feedback & Review– People who want to grow support like-minded people. Listen to them.
• Action taking – Learning is futile if you don’t apply it. Update, tweak, and change are part of growth.

Getting to 24 hours a week cannot be done, without a team that is focused on growth. Once owners develop their owner/leader skills, they then look to develop leaders on their team. Align yourself with people who have the characteristics of a good leader. Build and nurture those relationships. Having leaders on your team gives you the ability to gain control of your business, instead of your business controlling you. At this point people will seek your business out. Attracting the right people works because you have the time to be involved in the industry and your community.

Not many owners get to 8 hours a week. Most will sell, retire, or leave the industry before they get there. Working hard seems to be a badge of honor in the automotive industry. I say work smarter not harder by taking a pro approach. Save yourself years of frustration and sacrificing your personal life.

Question: What’s your goal?

It’s personal to you. Is it a paycheck, job security, or is it more? Owners have told me it’s legacy, helping their community, providing a career path for their team, and/or financial security. Over the years owners have shared all kinds of dreams with me. My suggestion is to turn your dream into a reality. Achieve your goal by having a plan and a system to implement it.

Hiring is more than writing the correct ad or having the right interview questions. Depending on your stage of business and your level of owner overload, hiring warm bodies, or settling for people you know aren’t a good fit will continue to happen. Focusing on the right activities at the right time or stage of business can save you years of frustration, time, money, and effort. It’s all about sequencing your areas of focus at each stage of business. It will make finding the right fit people for your team easier, because you threw away your badge of honor, busted the myth, and made the shift to work smarter not harder while having a life.

Maryann Croce, a certified partner of Todd Herman’s 90 Day Year™, is an operations coach/speaker and creator of ‘3-Day Weekends’ Coaching. Her company Small Biz Vantage specialized in performance and leadership development for automotive and skilled trade business owners. She has been an auto shop owner since 1999. You can reach Maryann at (203) 913-7741 or maryann@SmallBizVantage.com Maryann speaks on achieving goals and work-life fulfillment SmallBizVantage.com