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| Welcome Business Managers
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Vol 3, No 5, May, 2004 |
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Have you ever heard someone say this or even
said it yourself, "It's okay if I take my time
hiring. I'll know the perfect candidate when I
see him."?
The hiring process is one business
discipline where it seems perfectly acceptable
if there is no time limit or deadline date
associated with making the hire. This month we
talk about the true cost of a vacancy in your
organization and how you can save money, and
even make money, by hiring in a timely fashion.
Betsy Harper
Managing Partner
Sales and Marketing Search
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| A Day Late and Six Thousand Dollars Short! |
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This past winter my husband Don and I decided to
have some carpentry work done to our home. We
found a carpenter at the recommendation of some
friends, his price was more than reasonable -
and we liked him. Because he had a day job, the
agreement was that he would do our job during
the week for a few hours every night and on
Saturdays. When we asked how long the job
would take, his projection was that it would be
"about three weeks."
What started out as every weeknight soon became
every other night or not at all during the week.
As week four slipped to week five which slid
into week six, I began to lose my usual good
sense of humor. Easter was coming and so
were out-of-town guests and family. With the
house unfinished, I became (quite frankly)
hysterical! With mounting pressure from me, our
friendly carpenter put in a few long days and
finally finished the job. While the
results were fine, there were frayed nerves
aplenty at the end of the process.
We Weren't Deadline
Driven.
You see, what Don and I realized about halfway
through the job was this - our carpenter
didn't have a deadline but we did! Our "drop
dead" deadline was Easter, but because we were
initially told three weeks, anything after that
felt long and late.
I see the same situation many times in companies
when they hire. Because some companies don't
have a deadline attached to their hiring, the
process tends to get stretched out - thereby
producing the very same "frayed nerves syndrome"
recently displayed in the Harper household.
Here are three tips to help you hire the
right person faster.
 Have a
Deadline
Date
Just like any other task in your
business, hiring should have a deadline or
completion date. Can you imagine if your #1
salesperson told you he was going to hit his
quota "maybe this month but that could slip a
month or two."? Or, what if your marketing
department manager told you that the website
revisions critical to your new product launch
would be "done when they are done."? As a
manager, you wouldn't stand for it. Why tolerate
it in hiring?
Pick a reasonable date that you would like your
new employee to start. In this market
that would realistically be anywhere from 4
to 8 weeks depending on level of
position.
If interview schedules, travel schedules,
difficulty identifying candidates, etc. put the
date back a bit, don't fret too much. But always
pick a date and use that as a goal.
Know How Much the
Unfilled Seat Is Costing Your
Company
Sometimes hiring managers think they might be
actually saving money (salary, benefits and
taxes) by not hiring. Au contraire! You're
losing money! This is especially true if you
are hiring for a salesperson.
Here's how to calculate exactly how much
you are really losing:
Take the annual quota that you
assign to your
salesperson. For the sake of simplicity, let's
say that's $1.2M per year. If you assume
there are 200
selling days in the year (365 days minus
vacations, holidays, weekends, etc.) that means
your salesperson is responsible for $6000 per
day of revenue. That means, my friend, that
you are losing $6000 every day that position is
open! If you had to sit down and write a
check for $6000 at the end of every day that
seat was unfilled, I'd be willing to bet that
hiring would go to the top of your
priorities!
While it's easy to calculate the loss of revenue
for the sales positions, other positions in
the organization have associated hidden
losses, such as fellow employees doing more
than their jobs because of the vacancy, morale
issues because of over-work, etc. Don't forget
these less-than-obvious, but just as
significant, costs.
Get Your
Team On
Board
More than likely your deadline for hiring will
be impacted by your team. If candidates have to
meet with people other than you, make sure
the process is spelled out and whoever else
is interviewing knows there is a deadline, or at
least a target date. If you are all shooting at
the same target, your chances for success are
greatly increased.
And remember, it's not that the date can't be
stretched a bit if you run into
unexpected problems. But, having a date
fixed in your mind will go a long, long way
towards making that hire a priority and
making sure you reach your goals as a
manager.
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 The
5 Deadly Sins of Hiring
The hiring process can be loaded with
pitfalls - even when you do everything right! Here are the five most
commonly made mistakes, or the "deadliest sins" in hiring.
Download Now
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| Nothing Succeeds Like Success |
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Smile. You're on Candid Camera! Or better yet, smile
because you're recruiting for SMaL Camera
Technologies and working with a dream hiring
team!
We were delighted to find a North American OEM
Sales Manager for the #1 Company in the "Rising
Star in North America" category in the 2003
Deloitte Technology Fast 500, a ranking of the
fastest growing technology companies.
Check out the "
credit card camera" here!
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| Our Readers Write |
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Dear Sales and Marketing
Search,
I have a question. I'm looking for a new job.
It's taking me quite a bit of time. Although my
employer is still paying me, my job search is
rigorous and I haven't been in the office in
months. Everybody knows I'm looking for a new
job yet I haven't been asked to leave by my
employer. What's the right thing to do?
JK
Washington, DC
We're just having fun of course. But after a few
stimulating discussions about political
campaigns and just how much time politicians do
spend "on the stump", we'd love to get your
opinion on this question:
Just how much time should you spend looking
for a job when you have a job?
Click here
to
let
us know. We'll publish the results (and maybe
some of the pithier comments!) next month.
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