Across all industries, studies show that “the right person” is hired only 50 percent of the time.
And each hiring mistake costs 15 times the person’s base salary, says Geoff Smart, chief executive officer of management assessment firm ghSMART.
“Hiring is a business activity where you can save 100 hours and $1.5 million of pain by spending just a few good hours up front,” he says.
And now may be the time to hire more techs for your bays, as work should be coming in after more drivers put off maintenance.
“More wear and tear will take place. Your shops are going to be filled,” says Mike Romano, regional VP of operations for Universal Technical Institute (UTI), which trains students in automotive, collision, diesel, motorcycle and marine industries. “I’m looking at the amount of business they have and they’re saying it’s slowing down out here. I’m seeing cars lined up one after another. We definitely recognize that there’s a demand there.”
Fortunately, you can boost your hiring success to 90 percent by following the four steps laid out in ghSMART’s book “The A Method for Hiring.”
“It costs no more than bad methods. It takes no more time, either,” Smart says. “We have trained over 30,000 managers on this method -- billionaire entrepreneurs, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and small business owners. You can do it.”
Step 1: The Scorecard
The best managers want attitude and to train for skill, says Tyler Robbins, president of Automotive Training International, an automotive fixed operations training and solutions company in Taylors, S.C., and Halifax, Novia Scotia, Canada.
“Unfortunately, many managers and owners hire experience rather than attitude primarily because of the laziness factor, in that they are too lazy to train that new ‘great attitude’ individual and instead opt for the poor attitude, experienced individual to save the time and energy training,” he says.
Education is key in getting drivers to perform more regular maintenance on their vehicles. Part of training techs, says Romano, also means preparing them to work with and educate customers. Using a program like the A Method can help you gauge their ability to do this.
According to Smart, implementing the A Method will help you evaluate candidates for skill and attitude. It also helps you realize how important the “attitude” is. The first step is to create a scorecard that spells out in detail the role you’re hiring for. Use this to define your ideal employee.
At the top of the scorecard, write your mission for the position -- the guts of what you want the person to do. Next, add five to seven outcomes or measurable goals the new hire will be expected to achieve. They may relate to revenue growth, building a team of A players or opening a new division.
Finally, complete the scorecard with a list of competencies, characteristics the person will need to succeed in your environment. This is where your attitude criteria will come into play. Examples include strong communication skills, results-oriented, team player and high integrity.
After you interview each candidate, use the right-hand column to evaluate that person against each of the criteria. You will want to share this with your new A player before he or she accepts the position, but do not let him or her see it during the interview process. Doing so would be like giving them the answer key.
Step 2: Generate a Steady Supply of the Right Candidates
While Terry Wynter Auto Service Center in Fort Myers, Fla., has a waiting list of potential employees, most shop owners don’t recruit until they need to hire someone, which is the worst possible time to do so, says Bob Cooper, president of Elite, a Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., company that provides business-building solutions for the automotive industry.
“You don’t wait until you’re sick to find a doctor. You need to always be recruiting people, and then you’ll have an arsenal of people who will want to come and work with your company,” he explains.
Building a constant stream of high caliber candidates is the second step in the A Method, and Smart says cultivating your personal and business networks are two of the most successful ways of finding qualified candidates. To jumpstart this process, brainstorm a list of 10 or more contacts who could refer job candidates to you. Then call each contact weekly and ask, “Who are the most talented people you know that I should consider hiring?”
If your contacts say, “I don’t know anyone who’s looking,” respond with, “We’re looking for the best people who are happy where they are.”
If you don’t already do so, consider offering a “recruiting bounty” to employees and even friends and vendors who refer candidates to you.
Gene Morrill, owner of Certified Automotive Specialists in Glendora, Calif., advocates recruiting from technical programs. His company works closely with the local community college and a regional high school training program, and he has successfully hired and groomed four recent graduates in his 12-person company. The key for him is being involved in the educational process to the degree that he provides input on the curricula. This helps to ensure the new hires know what they need to when they graduate.
“If you have the time and patience to put into a young person coming out of a training facility, it’s well worth it,” he says.
Romano says UTI has seen this demand for techs increasing and shifting from dealerships to independent shops. Now is a good time to align your shop with an institution like UTI to get more of these techs and complete this second step.
Networking and attending technical training classes are additional ways of meeting potential employees, Cooper says, because it helps your company become less of a name and more of a face.
Remember that A players are usually employed. If you find a candidate you would like to interview or hire, consider calling them to introduce yourself and just say you would like to know what their career goals are. You can begin a no-pressure dialogue.
Step 3a: The Screening Interview
When hiring technicians, one of most difficult challenges is assessing their technical abilities, says Russell McCloud, co-owner of Accurate Automotive Attention in Yuma, Ariz. If you use the A Method, it has a way of addressing any candidate’s skill set.
The A Method’s three-step interview process begins with a 45-minute phone call known as the Screening Interview. The goal is to eliminate the wrong candidates by asking these questions:
• What are your career goals? (Do they want things our company can give them?)
• What are you really good at professionally? Please give me some examples. (Don’t accept generic answers. Prompt them for more information by saying, “How?” “What did you do?” “How did you do that?” or “Tell me more.”)
• What are you not good at or not interested in? Please give me some examples. (If your candidate doesn’t provide a solid answer, rephrase the question: “We won’t check references at this point -- we’ll do that later on -- but what would they say your biggest areas for improvement are?”)
If your candidate “passes” the first three questions, move on to the final question:
• Who were your last five bosses, and how will they each rate your performance when we talk with them (1-10)? Why? (Raise a red flag for any candidate who discredits a previous boss.)
When hiring technicians, gauge their technical abilities by asking specific questions about their job performances in comparison to their peers. For example, ask what the high point was in that position. If the answer is, “I won Technician of the Year,” you’re speaking to a strong candidate. Find out how many hours they produced each week and how that compared to the facility’s other technicians. Was your candidate booking 40 hours per week, while the best technician averaged 65 and the weakest produced 35?
The A Method calls for using these questions for all prospects, but it’s OK to adjust the length of the process for the level of employee. Candidates who pass the Screening Interview should then be invited for a daylong Topgrading Interview.
Step 3b: The Topgrading Interview
This is the hardest but most important step in the process. Each candidate should spend three to four hours with you in the morning, followed by lunch with someone else and then three more 45-minute interviews with different individuals. While this sounds like a time-consuming process, remember that only prospects who survive the Screening Interview are invited in for the formal interview.
Begin by asking your candidate about his or her education. Start with high school, and ask for the high and low points of each educational level. Ask for GPAs and any other measurable information that will indicate the caliber of your candidate. If they were consistent underperformers, how do you think they will do in your environment? Contrast that with a candidate who was a consistent B student or an overachiever.
Pose questions like, “What would your family say you were known for growing up?” and “How are you similar/dissimilar to your parents?” The goal is to dig deeper and truly learn about this person.
Next, take time to ask about their job history for the past 15 years. If they’ve had a slew of jobs, move quickly through the first few and then slow down for the last three or four. Spend 20 to 30 minutes on each job and ask these questions:
• What were you hired to do?
• What accomplishments are you most proud of?
• What were some low points during that job?
• Who were the people you worked with? Specifically:
Bosses: What was your boss’s name? How do you spell that? What was it like working with him/her? What will he/she say were your biggest strengths? Areas for improvement? (Your candidate will open up when you remind them you’ll be contacting this person.)
Teams: How would you rate the team you inherited on an A, B, C scale? What changes did you make? Did you hire anybody? Fire anybody? How would you rate the team on an A, B, C scale when you left?
• Why did you leave that job? (Be alert for vague language here. It could be a red flag that there’s more to tell.)
Finally, ask them for their career goals.
Step 3c: The Focused and Reference Interviews
For the three afternoon sessions, each interviewer should concentrate on one aspect of the outcomes section from your scorecard. It is easier on the interviewer, and it keeps the candidate from being asked the same questions. During these interviews, ask the candidate:
• The purpose of this interview is to talk about ____________ (one or more key outcomes or competencies).
• What are some of the biggest accomplishments you have had in this area?
• What are your biggest mistakes and lessons learned in this area?
• Finally, ask the candidate to put together a list of top 10 people to call for references. Speak with seven references for every direct report, including three bosses, one or two peers, one or two subordinates and one or two clients.
Ask them these questions:
• In what context did you work with this person?
• What were the person’s biggest strengths? Please give me some examples.
• What were some of the person’s biggest areas for improvement back then? Please give me some examples.
• How would you rate their overall performance in that job (1-10)?
• The person mentioned that they struggled in that job with _______ (e.g., reaching sales goals). Tell me more.
Smart recommends having the candidate call the top 10 list to ensure they’ll receive a call from you. In some cases, they’ll talk more freely if you reach them outside of their company walls. But even those who are tight-lipped about a candidate are sending a strong message. Compare the difference between a reference saying, “He worked here from July 2001 to December 2003,” and the reference who says, “She’s great! She’s fantastic!”
Step 4: Sell Your First Choice on Your Company
Once you’ve narrowed down the candidates to the top one or two, it’s your turn to sell them on your company. Smart recommends the five Fs of selling:
• Fit. “Here is where we’re going as a company, and here’s how you fit in.”
• Family. “What can we do to make this change as easy as possible for your family?”
• Freedom. Reassure the candidate that he or she will not be micromanaged.
• Fortune. “Here’s what you can make if you accomplish your objectives.”
• Fun. “I think you will find this culture one that you’ll really enjoy.”
When they accept, make a big deal out of it.
While this may seem like an exhausting process, compare the upfront investment with the lost time, money and even client goodwill when the wrong person is hired. “It’s not hard,” Smart says. “It just takes a bit of discipline to not skimp on any of the four steps.”
