Finding experienced Signies

[George Elsmore]

nightmare!!! i know!!! its ok if your around the place all the time left to there own devices GULP!

but its got to be done if your expanding

clear as mud huh 🙂

G

[Dave Bruce]

I have been looking for a year now, had four people in on trial, needless to say I am still looking. No one seems to have the quality factor, its always "that will do", or "its good enough".

I’m knackered after a year on my own though, so someone has to be found for next year.

[David Rogers]

A few years back I had a bad streak of wasters that were employed, numpties every last one. Sales guy (why?), that strapped 2 8×4’s to a roof rack with the rope not holding the front down – 100 yards down road & snapped (lucky nobody around)…also slid into TWO cars at a juction as he approached round a blind bend a bit too fast…quoted an entire job based on a photograph of the hotel – no measuring…. 🙄 would sell at cost to ‘get the job’, pilferred £100’s from the petty cash & sat on the net ALL day whenever I was on holiday.
Then a couple of school leavers as apprentices – both lost heart as they were on pre-min wages probationary pittances – and rather than work harder to be worth more, they went for the why bother approach.

I later re-hired one of these lads at the new place, he’d grown up a bit & matured (as much as a nutter 23yr old can!) into an ultra reliable, hardworking, trusted employee – well 18mths in Iraq doing camp security & escorts got his head screwed on! He was ‘re-deployed’ and now running the flooring company.

I know one sign company that hires, fires & has resignations galore within it’s staff. Pays about £20 – £25k salary and a flash co. car to the young lads…a HUGE wage for a 19yr old round here! But that means their ass is owned 24/7 – working 10 to 18 hour days, 6 or 7 days a week. Some guys last a week…some 6 months before they can’t handle it anymore (and the die-hard core)….and the hourly rate would be pretty poor in reality.

Needless to say – it’s not easy getting trusted staff that WANT to work & are cost effective to employ. And when you finally get somebody…be their boss FIRST and friend SECOND – a lesson I learnt the hard was – "it sucks to sack a useless ‘friend’".

Dave

[David Rowland]

hi.. well there is 13 of us.. yeah you got to keep an eye on them.

[Peter Normington]

quote Dave Rowland:

hi.. well there is 13 of us.. yeah you got to keep an eye on them.

Who keeps an eye on you though, dave

😉
Peter

[David Rowland]

they try peter but they gave up

[Nicola McIntosh]

quote Lorraine Clinch:

Hmm, sounds dodgy even as I write. What do you all reckon.

carefully think about it lorraine….ive been through handfuls of staff, only the odd one was reliable ….meaning they didnt try to rip me off doing (jobs on the side) specially a shop front where it would be an ideal opportunity for someone to do so 😀 and getting someone to work to the standards u are used to is another issue 😕

nik

[Peter Normington]

Lorraine,
if you have the resources to expand, go for it. the secret of employing people, is to pay them what they are worth and appreciate them.
but dont expect anything cheap.
The old adage applies, People who can, do. Others teach.

( without teachers we would all be lost, so not directed against anyone)

It doesnt take long to assess the good from the cant care less. if an employee cant hack it in the 1st week, cut your losses.

A profit shareing contract/bonus may give a good incentive to the right person.

Otherwise

Where is the shop, and when do you want me to start?
😉

Peter

[Phill Fenton]

DONT DO IT LORRAINE!! 😮

Best to concentrate on what you do best and let the local councils, NHS and civil service employ all the lazy shysters!

[luke bremner]

Im a signwriter, im moving back to the uk this year. I made alot more money in the uk after time getting contacts and working my way up. Some people want to pay very little and expect to charge the customer top rates. I’ve grown up in a family sign company so i know the trade very well. I had to work with sales people that use to sell cars and fellow employies that dont own a knife or squeegee they are just usless body. We have been going through people at work trying to find some one young, the thing is I dont think that any one young will last. Im at the point where i have financial comitments to meet, i hate dealing with people who dont know there job and employers who screw jobs up time after time putting the blame on the fitter. Im going to work for a company for as long as i have too wile I get my own work coming in. I have 2 contacts offering me work and another 2 companies service graphics and john anthoney signs that want me to work for them. I last worked for a company in essex called simple sign man, they bought out another sign company then sold that to managment, thats when i left. I could not emagine having 7 bosses.

[Phill Fenton]

I appologise if I have offended any "lazy Shysters" out there 😳 . I realise of course that not all "Lazy Shysters" are Council, Civil Service or NHS employees and consequently should not be tarred with the same brush.

[John Childs]

quote Phill:

I appologise if I have offended any “lazy Shysters” out there 😳 . I realise of course that not all “Lazy Shysters” are Council, Civil Service or NHS employees and consequently should not be tarred with the same brush.

:rofl:

Well, it would be funny if it weren’t true. 🙁

[George Kern]

Well, now i dont feel bad. I thought it was only tough to find good employees here in the states. In the last 4 months we have went through 2 salesmen, 1 sales woman, and 4 installers. The sales people were your normal 9-5er with no motivation or go get ’em attitude. The installers/fitters were absolute nightmares.

[luke bremner]

Theres no need to be sorry its the old saying, pay peanuts you get monkeys. My old boss in uk didnt like the amount of money i was making so she cut down my over time to hardly any thing, so i said thats fine and worked for 2 other companies out side of hours. Good thinig about that is it opens up your options. When you are self employed your bussiness is your life when you are an employie its an income theres alot of jobs out there the hard part is getting the money.

[John Childs]

quote luke bremner:

pay peanuts you get monkeys

Not always true.

But then neither is the opposite – paying in caviar won’t guarantee you the king of the jungle either. If only life were that simple.

I’ve never yet met an employee who didn’t think they were worth more than they were being paid. It’s a pity that it is illegal to put them on piece work so that they either reap the benefit of their efforts or, more likely, are forced to understand that reward only comes with effort.

[Rod Young]

quote John Childs:

luke bremner wrote:
pay peanuts you get monkeys

Not always true.

But then neither is the opposite – paying in caviar won’t guarantee you the king of the jungle either. If only life were that simple.

I’ve never yet met an employee who didn’t think they were worth more than they were being paid. It’s a pity that it is illegal to put them on piece work so that they either reap the benefit of their efforts or, more likely, are forced to understand that reward only comes with effort.

In other words, hiring and retaining talent is more complex than the bottom line. Look at the overall strategy you have for bringing someone in, from helping them to understand the value of what they are doing, to giving them the confidence to "just do it" whilst also being open to ask questions.

In the forum discussions, I note frequent concern over amount of waste material. Consider that in terms of new hire, where such wastage can cause a person to question their personal eithics. However, to frame such concerns constructive, express from the outset that the hire needs to be thoughful about what they are doing in order to minimize materials, both for sake of costs AND the environment. You can extend this principle by expressing that mounting the given sign requires care to minimize failures, such that further replacement materials aren’t required, and that (say) there is no equipment or property damage.

Another aspect of new hire is the training, where it is a balance between giving initial instruction, and helping that person to understand that they need understand why things are done a certain way (as per your experience). In this manner, you provide the learning structure that is moderated by how able the person is able to make thoughtful decisions. The availability of information balanced versus independent decisions affects satisfaction level.

And yet another aspect is the relationships between employees, and the shared values and interests. Work isn’t a social club, but consider the social aspect as something that also affects the relative comfort level of the hire in the long term. Working with good chums makes a big difference. Lorraine indicates that the person will largely be left to their own devices, though that would be dull for someone that thrives on having frequent interactions. So keep that in mind. Also, working long hours can impact the hire’s personal relationships as well, so take care in that area as well. In some cases, the job "just gotta be done," though not at expense of personal life.

My point is that there are a handful of considerations for hiring and keeping talented staff. There’s more to it, but this are probably some reasonable areas to consider:

• Payment
• Personal Ethics
• Environmental Impact
• Quality of Work
• Availability of Information
• Decision Making
• Social Relationships

Cheers,

Rod