By Tamara Lipori, Scrapbookempress@aol.com 
Copyright © 2003 Tamara Lipori  

Often employers put off the task of looking for a new staff member until they are at the end of their rope. Then what happens is what I refer to as "Warm Body Syndrome" or WBS. WBS is rampant among employers, particularly among small businesses. And it is small businesses that can least afford to hire badly. This article will give you a concise hiring plan. If you follow it, I can't promise you'll never make a bad hire again, but I can promise you'll make more great hires than you ever have before.

  First of all, you need to decide exactly why you are hiring and what you hope to accomplish. Do you want to increase sales? Then you are hiring a salesperson. Do you want someone to do a little of everything? Then you are hiring a personal assistant. Do you need help with the  books and ordering? Then you're hiring a bookkeeper or office clerk.

Once you've settled on why you're hiring, sit down and write out a Position Outline for this job. A Position Outline is a big picture of the outcome you expect. A Job Description is almost a checklist of what they need to do. The Job Description outlines tasks and focuses on the how's and what's. A Position Outline focuses on outcome. Here's an  example:

Job Description: Greet all customers within 30 seconds of entering the store, offer assistance. Keep store tidy, ring up customers, sign them up for classes.

Position Outline: Create relationships with all customers, make sure they feel cared for and pampered. We want them to feel that this is "their" store. Maintain shop appearance in a professional and inviting way, both in displays, and cleaning. Make sure customers know about classes and events that are coming up. Create sales opportunities that will ensure monthly goals are met.

After you've completed the outline, read it over and ask yourself if everything in that outline were accomplished, would you be happy with that employee's performance? If not, the outline needs to be tweaked until you can answer that question with a resounding "Yes!"

How much will you pay this person, and what (if any) other benefits will you offer? You need to look at your profit and see what you can reasonably afford. Now add 20  percent to the hourly. This will cover the additional worker's compensation insurance and employer tax contributions you will have to provide. If you are one of the very few shops that offers health insurance, etc., you'll need to include that in your total employee cost as well. What kind of discount will you offer? We give 30 percent, from day one. What we find is that most of that money goes right back to the  shop for our part-time moms that work here. The students spend their fair share of it here as well. I want my staff to be able to use all the new products so they can rave  about them to the customers. If they can't afford to use them, they will perceive them as "expensive" and will not sell them well.

Now think about how you will train this person. Are you personally going to train her, or will it be a group effort? In our store we have three senior employees that train. During training the new person does not work with anyone else. Those three employees discuss the new person's performance and in what areas they are in need of additional training, and how this will be accomplished. If you don't have other staff, or have minimal, you still need to do this. What training materials do you want them to read or use? I copy articles from various magazines (both trade and consumer) regularly. Set up (write it down) a training plan and what they will do during that time.

Do you have a good application? If you bought one from the office supply store, you don't. Make up your own, or you are welcome to e-mail me at Scrapbookempress@aol.com and I'll send you a copy of ours that you can use or modify.

How will you advertise for new staff? We are in a
University town, so we have a constant influx of new students looking for jobs. You might put a sign on your counter, or a notice in your newsletter. Look for free ways to advertise before you go to a pricey newspaper or internet classified ad. Be sure to put the hours and days you are looking for on the ad. Example: Part-time position available for scrapbook addict, must be available weekends and Wednesday evenings.

When you get inquiries about the position, the first thing you do is to schedule a time to bring in their scrapbook. Don't even hand out an application until you've seen their book. If they don't have a decent scrapbook (acid free environment, journaling, titles, page protectors) and pleasing layouts, they may not have enough knowledge to be of help to your customers. This is where you have to be aware of WBS setting in! Once you've approved their scrapbook, give them an application and ask them to return it at the  interview. There will be lots of people without the skills you need. How do you say no? I tell them (privately) that they have the makings of a wonderful scrapbooker (I believe everyone does) and that at this point they need more experience. I usually then hand them a class schedule and mark the classes I think they need and tell them that I'd love to see their book again when they have more techniques under their belt.

I have gotten a couple of great staff people this way. After they took a couple of classes it was as though the light turned on and they became fabulous scrapbook artists, and wonderful employees.

Read Part 2 here.

Copyright © 2003 Tamara Lipori  
 

Do you have a business article you'd like to share? We're offering a free book (up to $20) for every article that we choose to use! Send yours in to:
articles@funfactspublishing.com

Read many more free articles here (more than 70 at last count!)