contractor success Filling The Employment By: David Kelly H Hiring practices for both in-house facilities operations and building service contractors (BSCs) is a critical business area for suc-cessful operation of a department. Hiring practices is a broad topic, but a successful hiring program should have the following four elements: 1. Recruiting 2. Applications and interviewing 3. Onboarding and initial training 4. Ongoing training. Void Second Element: Applications And Interviewing Receiving and reviewing applications can be a chore for hiring managers. In the current economic environment, even entry-level open positions generate substantial response. It is important to have sufficient resources — such as a dedicated human resources (HR) department — to sort those applicants with input from management. Interviews can then be conducted with those applicants who have been chosen to move forward in the process. One note: Successful companies look at more than just the résumé and have methods for sorting candidates based on attitudes. The attitudes or outlook of the applicants is likely the single most important factor in Every company needs employ-ees, but how can you be sure you are hiring the right candi-dates? First Element: Recruiting Recruiting needs to be an ongoing process for every facility type and business model. All too often, management determines a “need” and then goes into “hiring mode,” which is a mistake. An ongoing recruitment strategy is essen-tial for maintaining a topflight frontline work-force and for top grading an existing work-force when management deems necessary, rather than from a position of need. Effective strategies for recruiting are many. Some firms run ads continually either with paid job boards, in newspapers or on free job posting sites. Other companies find effective recruit-ment methods through current employees and contacts and incentivize those pro-grams to motivate those influencers to refer top quality candidates. Incentives are usually based around an actual hire and subsequent onboarding and tenure goals. For instance, management may pay an incentive bonus to an employee only after a candidate has been hired, trained, onboard-ed and has worked successfully with high evaluations for a period of 90 days. successful hiring and retention of a frontline custodial workforce. Do you want workers that take pride in their work? If so, you need a method to identify that attitude, among others, during the applica-tion screening process. The bottom line here is that successful operations hire for attitude and then teach and coach to the skills necessary for job performance. When interviewing, make certain you’re following all applicable laws and best prac-tices — both state and federal. The interview is an opportune time to further explore attitudes you’re seeking from your frontline custodial workforce, not just ask questions about technical competence. A face-to-face interview is a great opportunity to ask the applicant some questions that stray from the ordinary to get a sense of their personality type. 36 CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ® • May 2012
CMM – Archives May 2012: 36
