Hiring WORTHWHILE employees

Jonathan Ellis

Jonathan Ellis

moderator
I am having the hardest time with this. I am looking for good quality help and can not find it. I had a guy to start at 9 yesterday morning, and he never showed. I offer benefits and what I consider good pay.

How do you guys find good qualith employees?
 
I have an unlimited supply of potential employees. I literally went through about 50 before I committed to keeping 2 busy. There are plenty of good folks unemployed these days, but there will always be those who are unemployed because they ffail to be quality employees.

Keep test driving employees, it takes less that an hour to tell if they have what it takes. I usually let the individual work throughout the day, pay him what he was worth and explain to him that if I need his services in the future, I will call him.
 
We landed our guy by accident sort of. We put an ad on craigslist and he called along with about 10 others. About 5 showed up and he was our least favorite. Skinny 20 year old, mumbled a little, never been on a roof before etc.. We ended up only using him the first couple of weeks a couple of times when we needed someone extra.

During those first couple of weeks he was the only one who showed up on time and worked his a$$ off. Now he is like a spider monkey on roofs and because he is only about 130 pounds, he is ideal for walking til roofs.

I think just hire a bunch and weed out the bad apples. I dont think there is a secret formula.
 
it seems to be just a matter of luck. I used to go through so many employees I didn't even bother learning there names. The applications mean very little. Some of the worst employees have the best looking applications. Usually because most of it is a lie.
 
Find a guy who just got out the military..... he will show up on time... Most will be hard working! I only used veterens!
 
I like the military and old guy angle. I have one guy that is a retired first sergeant that gave up Command Sergeant Major school to retire. He only has to be told once.
The other is 63 years old, and for what I use him for, he is perfect. He has no family, lives with his Brother In Law, and is absolutely dependable. The best part is that both these guys understand that the business needs to make money, so that they are constantly on the lookout for other opportunities.
I also have had some that were less than desirable. You gotta hire em and fire em until you find one that works.
 
I have a part timmer that is 75 and he is the best that I have had. He is not interested in full time.
 
Jonathan Ellis said:
Thanks Jeff, why do you recommend someone currently working?
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They have a proven work ethic, they been with a company for over a couple years it shows they re looking at your company to move forward, they want to better themselves. My top guy had to give a notice of two weekks beffore he came on, it shows he has old school ethics. I dont like hiring guys that have 10 jobs in two years. Man I have some real horror story past hires
 
Palmetto Roof said:
Find a guy who just got out the military..... he will show up on time... Most will be hard working! I only used veterens!
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I agree, both of my guys are Vet's.
 
Finding good help

What we did at my other company is in the ad, put specific instructions, Like call between 1:00 and 1:30, if they can't follow instructions before the job, they wont follow them after.
 
I pressure wash every other week so most of the time it is just me....but when I do get a large job that I need help with I have a few that I can call that work their butts off......of course they are already working and just looking for extra cash.
I believe trying to find someone that is already in a manual labor type job or one that has had those type jobs is your best bet.
 
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