Mike
My time is a lot shorter than yours here is what I have experienced.
We currently have 4 full time techs and one guy we call on occasion.
I have had 5 cleaners in four years who worked for other carpet cleaning companies.
3 have been fired all from major franchises.
1 moved out of state to start his own company.
1 is still with us and doing great.
My original tech Mike who you met at the
fest in Nashville left town to start his own business with a family member. Great opportunity for him.
My son is with us going on 2 years.
The two newest techs are both from a food service background. They have worked out great and I think really enjoy the regular hours and pay.
Karen and I try to dine out twice per week for ourselves and we are looking for good help. We look in major franchise restaurants’ or sit down quality mom and pop places. Never fast-food usally to young a crowd.
You can tell the good ones they pick up on the system and you can see them working it on you when they are serving you.
The last guy I hired offered us dessert. When I said "no we where full he said do you ever come and see a movie next door". We said "yes". He then said "why don't you stop on in afterwards for dessert and to say hello". I was sold right then and there. We gave him a card. He called first thing Monday. He ran lead last night and did great.
Bill & Steve from
SFS are right when they tell you hire the smile.
Those from outside the industry have been the best hires for us.
A bartender
A server
A starbucks employee
A recording engineer
and one carpet cleaner have worked for us.
I have an interview for today and 2 more Saturday. We cannot find good people quickly.
Karen told me the other day we have to be interviewing monthly to stay on top of having good people.
I believe you are right about some constant turn over.
Two things we always do before our official hire
1. Sign a one day contract and send them out on the truck. We know by the end of the day if they have the potential to be good and work alone.
2. Take them out to dinner and allow them to bring a guest. If it is a family guy we take them all out if they like.
We are able to see if there is anything crazy at home. Cause crazy comes to work. Most people are not able put on for the length of dinner.
I had one guy get past the dinner. Dinner has saved us more times than not. One time we were meeting a single guy he did not want to bring anyone so we brought my son. The guy never showed up. Nice company paid officers meeting that night.
We had a guy we took for dinner hired and he never showed for work. He called me 4 month later to tell me he realized after dinner the standards we had he could not meet. He said he didn't have the courage to call but it had been nagging him.
The ride along is great one guy tried to get the night tech to go see a concert he had tickets to and them go do the work.
We are smoke free. One guy lit up in the truck and outside the house same day. He knew this prior to ride along.
We also never do a ride along on our commercial route anymore. We do not want them to see that part of our business and we also want to make sure if needed they are the caliber person to be able to do residential work.
I also ask them if they have a personal budget. I have found alot of the folks we hire live week to week. I do not want to know that budget I just want to encourage them to know their numbers. I do not want a guy saying yes because he needs a check only to leave 2 weeks later for better money. We need to both know we are in range of them making ends meet.
We also will pay for any employee to attend a class called Financial Peace Universtiy. It is held in churches and community centers. The employee can choose the type of program they want to attend. It teaches how to live debt free.
We also have a set pay range and way to get increases. We tie it to
IICRC classes. Everyone starts at the same pay I do not care who you are. You find out in about 30 days what a guy is really worth and after the initial training we can make adjustments.
Maybe you could get a truck with a sleeper cab to help with housing as a perk.