Sign Maker/Screen Printer Required

[Rod Gray]

Lorraine,

From my experience, seeking out new skilled employees is a nightmare.

We currently employ 24 full time staff of which 90% have been with us, and trained by us, since they left school.

Having said that, we have a role-model employee who came to us at the age of 22 with no skill or knowledge of the panel beating trade. He`s now one of our best guys. He came via the Job centre. I feel this was unusual though, as you mostly get time-wasters. I`d say he was one out of approximately 20 people who showed any interest.

My advice is to find a keen and eager school leaver and spend lots of time training him and giving him experience on how *you* operate your business. We have found this to be the most successful way of having competant staff. The “Master and Apprentice” way has worked for centuries.

We found that advertising for spray painters and panel beaters attracted the perpetual job hoppers who were set in their ways and unable or unwilling to adapt to our methods and moved on after a few weeks. Waste of time and space.

My strategy is a long term one. It takes 2-3 years to get a raw rookie up to a decent standard but, as they are young, it doesn`t cost an arm and a leg to pay them. Once they qualify, their salary gets increased etc.

As i said, this is how we work it and it seems to work great for us.

Cheers

Rod

[Lorraine Buchan]

But how do you keep them with you, my major concern is that i’ll spend all the time training someone up then once they know enough to get on they will be off looking for another job.

[Brian Hays]

……or worse setting up in competition! 😮

[Rod Gray]

We make sure they are on the same hourly rate as our competitors thus minimising the need for them to job hop.

We also give out various perks in the shape of cash bonuses if we have been really busy etc.

Basically we just make sure they don`t have any major reasons to hop off to another job. Of course we have lost employees but it`s rare.

Rod

[Lorraine Buchan]

OK all you signmakers in London What do you pay your staff 😆

Do you think they’ll tell me??? Maybe my budget will alow a bit extra and i can poach some staff 😆 only joking 👿

[Steve Broughton]

quote Brian Hays:

……or worse setting up in competition! 😮

This happened to me about 4 or 5 years ago, the guy stayed for about a year then bought his own stuff and did a “Mike Brown” 😉 😆 and set up in his garage and then when I moved from my titchy shop on a side street the cheeky b’stard moved into my old shop, clever on his part as people came looking for me only to find him and yes I advertised like mad to tell folk I was moving, so Lorraine get yourself a wage slave ie someone not too ambitious but not a divut (lincolnshire for idiot :lol:) and train them just enough to do the job but keep something back and for **** sake don’t tell them about this site or they’ll learn too much. 😆 😆 😆

[Phill Fenton]

Many colleges run courses on signmaking. Why not contact your local college and ask if they have any students looking for work placements?

[Martin C]

Don’t mean to make you suck eggs but…..

Perhaps it was just me but it took me many years as a Manager recruiting staff on what I thought I wanted, first impressions and the assumption that they had read the advertisement before I started to interview people on two levels.
One: Against a written list of MUST be able to do and WOULD be useful if they could do. and
Two: Find out what they do in their spare time as a part of the interview and not as an afterthought or conversation maker.

The best example of why this is worthwhile is my dear old dragon, I mean Mother in Law! 18 years slaving with a soldering iron at a factory bench gave her no obvious credentials for running a business but she had a part time and now full time very successful Catering business doing everything herself. Her employable qualities are far in excess of her CV and she can cook chips like yer granny did!!

I’d say you want someone with an interest in art and DIY and who races cars at weekends so will never have time to set up their own business! 😕

[Kevin.Beck]

Honesty has got to be one of the biggest qualitiys to look for.

What good is employing someone just on the basis that they know how to pull a squeeegee. Then when you turn your back, their hand is in the till.

I was talking to a customer the other day, about the same thing. He run a small hairdressers.
He just caught someone stealing, found out they were taking £200 per week, over a 6 month peroid.

He`s just had a phone bill, on it is a call to a mobile for £45(1 call), no body will own up to it.

And this week he knows something has gone on, as he has cashed up and taken £17K. (normally he only takes £1200 in a week) so he knows some one has made mistakes on perpose to hide the fact that some money has been stolen.

Some people come with honesty built in to them, other skills can be taught….

[John Singh]

quote becky:

Some people come with honesty built in to them, other skills can be taught….

What a crackin’ phrase!
If there honest they’re normally humble enough to be taught and also have a sense of loyalty and gratitude. Not the kind that would desert you too easily for greener pastures

John

[Brian Hays]

quote becky:

Honesty has got to be one of the biggest qualitiys to look for.

What good is employing someone just on the basis that they know how to pull a squeeegee. Then when you turn your back, their hand is in the till.

I was talking to a customer the other day, about the same thing. He run a small hairdressers.
He just caught someone stealing, found out they were taking £200 per week, over a 6 month peroid.

He`s just had a phone bill, on it is a call to a mobile for £45(1 call), no body will own up to it.

And this week he knows something has gone on, as he has cashed up and taken £17K. (normally he only takes £1200 in a week) so he knows some one has made mistakes on perpose to hide the fact that some money has been stolen.

Some people come with honesty built in to them, other skills can be taught….

He normally takes £1200 and has just cashed up £17k!! in a week. Think you need a decimal point in your figures somewhere Becky! If not I am off back to college to learn hairdressing! 😆 😆

[Steve Lamb]

Let me tell yer a story!

My first employee was very good at his job, knew all that was required of him and could work pretty much on his own inititive. He was a very laid back person, sometimes a little to much, but not too bad.

After around 15 months or so he came to one morning and proclaimed ‘I think you may of been underpaying me!’ 😮 this fella somehow had some sort of brain storm, he reckonend that I was under paying him from an agreed wage from the day he started, which turned out to be .50p an hour, less. He then sumed, in an instant including all OT, I owed him £1000

Naturally I was flabergasted by his claim and we went through what we could remeber of the interview and agreed salary, I hasten to add there was no formal contract written for employment (possible big mistake!?)

Anyway I explained that the amount he now thought he should have been paid, was the salary he requested but not the salary I offered to pay him,
albeit .50p and he agreed, obvisously to take the offered pay, right?? hmmm

Now let me remind you this is 15 months into his employment. 😕

So with the diagreement in terms he offered his imediate resignation if I did not pay him this very round figure of £1000.
‘Wow give me 24 hours to think about the problem we have’ I said and he agreed.
Next day after alot of thoght I offered my offer.

I could not possibly pay any supposed under payed back pay. £1000 who’s to say he wouldn’t leave once the cheque cleared.

I wanted him to stay(Altough I did not let on too much) so I offered the extra 50p per hour and a further £40.00 per week as a pay rise.

He declined the offer and said he wanted to leave. After alot of talking he still wanted to go and finally did after 2 weeks.

The thing that got me the most was the fact that we were 15 months down the line and all of a sudden he relises (or thinks) he’s been under paid.

What a guy! 😮

closing thought

Write a contract and look after your best people!

Cheers

[Martin C]

Nobody, but nobody is irreplaceable and I doubt I’d have given him time to warm his xxx in the chair!

Before starting out on my own I sat back and watched the management team bow to a certain employees demands This person had achieved good sales results by picking up the cream of other people’s business when they left. Easy business that should have been developed but hey…..that’s hard work! He knew it, I knew it but ‘da management’ could only see what they wanted to see, a bottom line figure. Suffice to say when golden balls reached a certain level he jumped ship and took all his ill gotten business contacts to a competitor.

Still ‘da management’ tried to keep this particular employee and it was only after they left that the overall sales performance of the company improved when it was realised that all their eggs had been in one basket and the true worth of particular accounts had been hidden from them.

Nobody is irreplaceable………

[Lorraine Buchan]

Well after searching the net I’ve located a couple of colleges quite local. Most of the colleges seem to be up north though, Liverpool, Hull etc…

I have made contact with the colleges and asked them how to go about advertising the possition and if they have a jobs board or similar.

I was also interested to find some information on the “Modern Apprenticeship Program” and “New Deal” the latter offering finacial support via wage subsidy for the first 6 months and a traning grant.
I need to find out more information on these two possibilities.

Just out of interest, if you were looking for employment in the sign industry where would you look for a job?

[Geraint Rhys Williams]

Isnt that typical, Im currently out of work (Thats why I havent been on the boards much lately) and Lorraine is looking for staff!!!

I think my traveling expenses would be too much though 😥