When it comes to making sure you stay on top of your incoming field service jobs, there will come a time when you have to hire to get work done in a timely manner. Having more work is a great challenge to take on, but you’ll want to be ready to manage it. That means having your team in place to handle the growth.While hiring may seem like a simple thing to do, it can take more time and be more difficult than you might imagine. You’ll want to be prepared. After all, it always helps to do a little bit of homework before you go all in.
Make a Plan
Knowing who you are looking for, and the role they are going to fill is the first step. This is pretty straightforward, as it simply requires you to know about the aspects of the position(s) that you’re looking to fill. Below you’ll find a list of some things to gather prior to interviewing. Trust us when we say that it’s going to make things a lot easier and smoother.
- Are your applicants the type that you can depend on to stay long-term?
- Can you depend on the applicant to catch onto your processes/technologies quickly?
- Do they belong to any recognized construction or painting organizations?
- Have they been responsive in communications up until this point?
- How is their availability, and does it fit within your company’s needs?
- Identify specific questions and topics for this applicant to touch on during the interview.
- What is their industry experience like?
- What’s the most important lesson they’ve learned from their experience?
- What is their level of dependability like based upon their work history?
- What special skills do they possess and how do they benefit the company?
Involve Your Team
Including your current team in the interview process can have a positive impact on both the process and bringing a new team member onboard. But you may want to use your more seasoned employees for this process. By allowing team members to conduct interviews with prospective hires, you’re letting them feel more involved in their success. You’re also providing the opportunity for them to raise questions you may have overlooked or forgotten about. Be sure to prepare them for what questions can and can’t be asked during the interview. You want to make sure they don’t ask questions that could get you in trouble.They say two sets of eyes are better than one, and this is one of the parts of the field service business where this proves to be true. You can implement this strategy by involving them in one of the interviews if you have multiple, or you can just completely hand over the interview process to them if you trust them with such an important part of the company. If you do hand it over, make sure you still have one employee lead the process. That way, you’ll have one point of contact to discuss the hiring process.
Find Applicants That Stand Out
Think of the what kinds of accomplishments you could achieve with the best hire possible. Imagine what it will be like when you start onboarding this new team member for your growing field service business. What would be the absolute best hire you could ever dream of? What skills, certifications, and achievements would they possess?Now that you have a general idea, go ahead and store it in your memory. You’ll want to keep this at hand as you go through the stages of hiring. When you spot an ideal candidate, you’ll be able to come to a decision quickly if they match this list.
Consider Their Personality
Finding someone with the right personality is one of the most important parts of the hiring process. You want to make sure that they have a positive attitude and that they’ll fit in seamlessly with your current team. The last thing you want is to find out someone isn’t motivated or can’t work well with others.There are a few different ways to gauge a potential employee’s attitude during the interview process. If you do a Google search for “interview questions that reveal personality traits” you’ll find many articles that will give you ideas of great questions to ask. And there are many different approaches to uncovering this. To start with, this article from Inc. is one of the better overviews and provides some great questions you should consider.
Making a Final Decision
During the interview process, you should’ve been able to take notes on several things that stand out for each candidate that you’re considering. After bidding farewell and letting them know that you’ll be in touch when a decision is made, it’s time to bring it all together.Think of it as a story that you’re writing from their responses and other information that you’ve obtained about them. What you want to do is create a profile that will help you understand what kind of person each candidate is. While this does require a little bit of work, it will pay off in the long run when you’ve been able to build a “dream team.”
