How To Recruit & Train

February 12, 2020

By Landry Jones, Updated 2/12/20

Recently, we had Jeff Fabian, Vice President of Sales at ONIT Energy USA, on our Webinar Series. Jeff has been in the Service Industry for 12 plus years, and have really become a recruiting and training expert. Check out his 3 steps to recruiting and keeping employees!

Find Recruits

The first step in recruiting is of course finding the recruit(s). You need to know what kind of employees you are looking for, and where to find them. Think, what kind of qualities, or unique abilities, do you want them to have? Do you need a Quick Starter, Follow Through-er or a Digger? A quick start recruit is one that will start a project quickly but may not be able to follow through. A Follow Through recruit is someone who may not be able to start but will most definitely follow through. A digger is going to be someone who is very organized and detailed-oriented. Think IT, HR or Call Center recruits. When attempting to recruit employees, understand their personality, and where they could fit in in your company.

There are several ways to recruit employees. What methods are you currently using? Jeff always uses the following methods: Top 100 List, Social Media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Indeed, Monster, Zip Recruiter), Colleges, Shoulder Tapping and Business Cards.

Top 100 List – Your top 100 list is simply a list of 100 people you know that could be looking for a job, career change, etc. Don’t think you know 100 people? Go pull up your contact list in your phone!

Social Media- We’ll say it over and over again. Social media is here, and you need to be utilizing it on different fronts. Social Media platforms like LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster, and ZipRecruiter are made specifically for business connections and job/employee seekers.

Colleges - Jeff goes to colleges to find recruits because students are hungry for post-graduate jobs, have the skills/training already (free of charge for you), and typically accept a smaller pay to get experience. Jeff will go and setup camp outside a certain school in correlation with the type of employee he’s looking for. If he needs someone for sales or marketing, he’ll head over to the business school.

Shoulder Tapping- Shoulder tapping tends to make some people uncomfortable, but hey, you need recruits!

Business Cards-No, he’s not talking about handing out his business cards, because that can get pricey, but rather collection business cards of others at gas stations, stores, colleges, etc. He will take business cards and reach out about a career that way.

Sign Recruits

Are you wondering how long it takes on average to sign up a recruit? Don’t worry, us too, but Jeff shared that it takes 2-3 weeks. There are various reasons the process can be longer or shorter, but if you catch the process getting lengthier, ask yourself, “Why are you not following up?” Jeff believes the reasons for not following up range from laziness and inorganization to being scared of rejection. Following up is key to securing your thoughtfully curated recruits. If you are not talking to them someone else is!

Want to create an experience for your recruits? Of course, you do! It’s a way to set apart your brand from the others who have offered that person a job too. You must CREATE URGENCY with your offer letter. Include a letter with a deadline of when the offer expires.

Keep Employees

You just went through a lot of work to get that recruit, now what are you going to do to keep them? To keep employees, you need to be good boss, create a good environment and experience, and have great benefits. Jeff has a few tips to keep employees by being a great boss!

• Lead from the front - Do not ask anyone you hire to do something that you will not do yourself. Have them work with you and NOT for you.
• Build Loyalty- Loyalty is earned not given. Are you making decisions that are for the employee’s best interest or just your own?
• Gratitude- This is the #1 ingredient for loyalty. Simply letting someone know you are thankful for them and that what they do goes a long way… and it's FREE!
• Don’t let your role be your excuse!
• Let your work speak for itself.
• Teach don’t do.

If you want to watch Jeff's full presentation on our Webinar, watch it here!