The ECCT SME Centre event yesterday was really good. We had a good mix of business owners and managers from larger companies sharing their recruitment and retention tips. We all agreed that hiring people was very hard.
An informal poll showed that everyone has problems with candidates not showing up for interviews or even for the first day at work.
First out was Daphne Huang from 1111 Job Bank who introduced their experience helping companies hiring people.
Here are some of her suggestions:
[ul]When setting up an interview, send information to the candidate about the job, the company and culture.
Remember to “invite with passion” to attract people.
Threat and lure - offer some benefit like “we will pay your transportation fee after the interview but if you don’t show up we will blacklist you on 1111.”
At the interview, give the candidate a brochure about the company. I add my own observation is that this would be good for the candidate to show their parents and other advisers. At least I have heard a lot that an employee’s parents are influencing their choice of employment. The parents tend to push their kids to work for “famous” companies.
Daphne’s colleague Richard Pu mentioned that 1111 now offer their customers the option to show off their companies and job opportunities with a video.[/ul]
Second out was Teddy Lee, HR Manager from TGI Friday’s restaurants. When we first discussed having a workshop on this topic I immediately thought about Friday’s. I go there quite a bit and I am fascinated that even though they have a very high employee turnover, the employees keep a high level of service passion and a relatively high service quality.
- Teddy started with showing us a video that if I understand things right they show to potential employees. The video showed the type of people and environment that Friday’s have and want.
- He said they have defined very clearly what character traits a successful employee needs to have and they have a Uniform Interview Guide that makes sure to cover all those traits.
- They pay their employees a referral fee if they introduce new employees.
- They assign each new employee a coach who teaches the newbie the ropes. This coach can also get a bonus if the newbie stays long enough.
- Many companies are weary about spending too much on training for employees that they assume will quit pretty soon. Teddy said they never thought this way. Instead they know how much training a person needs to be able to do the job well, then they concentrate on what it will take to retain this employee.
- A question was raised about if they pay high salaries and Teddy said they pay slightly better than minimum wage.
After the presentations questions were asked and answers came from both the speakers and other attendants.
One manager of an office with mostly engineers said their strategy for hiring was
- a great office that catches new candidates attention
- pay higher base salaries than the industry norm 3. monthly happy hours for everyone.
Richard Pu said they give NTD100 bonuses for employees who sign a one year contract. I can’t imagine people would do it for the money per se but maybe it is a symbolic action that makes people think about staying at least a year?
These are just some of the many ideas and suggestions regarding hiring and retention that was covered last night. The ECCT SME Centre will have more events on business related topics, please visit http://sme-centre.ecct.com.tw to find out more.
Take care,
Elias