Where do you look for employees? Advice please?

[Robert Lambie]

Quick reply…

Does the employees read the sign magazines that are sent to their bosses?
hmmm… does their bosses even read the sign magazines? :lol1:

Looked at agencies myself and the fees for doing some donkey work is ridiculous and you have zero guarantee who
you are sent is vetted.
I know of a particular person within the sign industry heavily stung by a reputable trade agency and there was zero they could do about it. a credible person in our industry at that…

doesn’t help you much i know mate… 😕

[Hugh Potter]

most people looking for another job will still pick up a copy of the Friday Ad Warren, or view it online.

[Warren Beard]

Thanks guys, I have a pile of mags on my desk for the last few months I haven’t even had a chance to flip through, still in the plastic covers 🙁 I’ve tried Job Centre twice before and thought I would get 500 replies with 499 of them being time wasters, think I got about 5 or 6 on both occasions ???? Really?

I’ve also spoken to a recruitment agency about hiring a sales and marketing person and yes their fees left my eyes watering and my sphincter clinched 🙄

Will try local papers and see what that does.

Cheers

Warren

[Dave Harrison]

Warren, don’t discount the trade mags as at least one of them lists all of the industry vacancies online.

[Dave Rich]

I have thus problem too…try ‘indeed’. Had lots of replies and took on a full time fitter. Worked well for me.

[David Rogers]

Round here there’s a severe lack of employable ‘sign’ people.

If they are capable & motivated…they start their own business (however large or small).
If they are capable yet unmotivated…they stay at their present employer.
If they are useless eejits…I don’t want they either.

If they are a ‘designer’ yet can’t follow a specific design brief…non-starter.
If they ARE a designer but take 20 hours to carefully craft a business card design…pay ’em by the project, not hourly. (They’ll feel hard-done-by and depart).

Even the most basic, ‘we just need a workshop monkey’ has pitfalls as everybody thinks they are worth £20 an hour, 3 months paid holiday, company car and enough time to ‘facebook’ / ‘smoke’ / ‘wander round’ each day leaving JUST about enough time to do something half-assed before it hits 5.00pm and they sprint out the door.

Tried SO many times to bring in new staff – went through nearly a dozen in the short term, including several people that had their own sign businesses in the past (POOR quality work & crap layouts doesn’t even come close).

So now, we struggle on doing long days with a tight little team of 3…me that jumps to do everything, Kam that does a fair bit of the design work & looks after the admin side and Stevie…good workshop monkey & being a lanky lad – handy on the fitting side…mumps and moans a bit about missing tea breaks or whinging that he needs to be home in 30mins…when we are 2 hours drive from the shop!

So as far as recommendations go – local paper / Gumtree or simply ask around.

dave

[Warren Beard]

Thanks guys, Gumtree and Indeed are working fairly well. Beepjobs also not bad.

David I hear you mate, it’s tough finding good staff so when you do it’s great, dead wood has got to be set adrift 😉

thanks again

Warren