Once you have good systems in place to run your business, the next thing you need to concentrate on is finding the right people to run the systems. Of course, I'm taking a very simplistic view here, because most readers will probably already have people working for them. You can't just fire everyone and start over again with a clean slate. That's simply not possible.
Existing team members can, of course, be molded and developed according to your overall plans and ambitions. This is what this book is all about. But the time will come when you need to recruit new team members.
The aim of this part is to outline how I go about it. I will use real examples taken straight from my own recruitment system at Action International.
When you hire new team members, you have the advantage of being able to impress upon them, right at the outset, what you expect of them, what the rules of the game are, and how they must go about performing their duties. You see, they will be coming into your organisation fresh; they will be totally unaware o any situation that might have existed previously, before you set about hanging your company to meet new objectives or goals.
Experience with many business I've worked with shows that, when new systems or smarter ways of going about the way they do things are instituted, many existing team members leave. They become uncomfortable and don't like the idea of either having to learn new ways or having to move outside their comfort zones.
Recruiting new team members becomes necessary.
And this isn't always such a bad thing, because these new team members will accept the situation they find as being normal. They are therefore usually very much easier to work with.
A great team is one of the best assets a business owner or operator can invest in. The way in which organizations find or recruit team members is important, as excellent people can only enhance your business.
So how should you go about finding excellent people?
The Action Recruitment Process is broken down into four securities, and I'll cover them in turn. This system is designed to be flexible enough to work over and over again. It is also designed to take the stress and hassle out of employing team members. The sections are as follows:
Advertising
Before you begin drafting your classified advertisement, there are some important issues you first need to get clear on.
You need to spend some time thinking about the type of people you are trying to attract. Who is it you want to employ? What skills and characteristics do you want them to have? What other attributes would you like them to have? Can you form a mental picture of such people in your mind?
You see, most employer's focus only on the skills needed to do the job. Other attributes like personality traits, passion for that type of job, or what they can contribute to the workplace simply don't come into it. This is a shame because these "heart" and "spirit" aspects of any job applicant are, to my mind, the most important. Skills can always be learned, improved upon, or acquired, but passion personality, and heart are the things that will give any team that winning edge.
Once you've decided what types of people you want to attract, how do you go about writing an ad that will make them not only take notice, but actually want to call you?
Most people wrongly believe that good ads have to be funny, well written, or visually dramatic. The truth is that the very best ads work because of the strategy behind them.
Here's a good analogy. If you've prepared a delicious meal and your dinner guests are hungry, they won't care what kind of plates you use. Put another way, if your message appeals to the people you're writing to, it barely matters how you present it.
Of course, there are things that you can do to make your ad clearer, more direct, and more interesting, but these are definitely secondary concern. If your strategy is wrong, the best penmanship combined with the best graphic design in the world won't save you.
Imagine trying to encourage teenagers to invest $400 a week for their retirement. On the surface, it sounds like a reasonable idea, but realistically, you'd be lucky to get a single interested adolescent. The strategy is completely wrong. First, you're going after the wrong groups of people, and second, the amount you're asking for probably exceeds their weekly income.
That's an extreme example, but a good one to highlight the problem with most ads - they say the wrong things to the wrong people.
By now I hope You realize that the most important aspect about writing any ad is to target it properly. This is why you must have a very good idea of the type of person you can see filling your vacant position. The most important component of any ad is the target - the person the ad is aimed at.
The only things you really need to consider when writing copy for an ad are:
- How to target your ad to the people you are trying to reach?
- What will make them respond?
- What is the best way to communicate this to them through your copy?
When it comes to writing the copy, here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Be specific
- Be exciting
- Focus on the benefit of the job
- Write as you speak
- Write in the present tense
- Keep in simple
- Follow the AIDA formula - Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action It must attract their attention, then make them interested enough to read further and build their desire enough for them to take action and to apply
- Be credible
- Include a good headline that's easy to understand -- loner ones work better than short ones
- The headline should be a question, as this is the most successful type
- Include an element of curiosity
- Qualify the reader
- Use words your reader can relate to
- Get to the point, as soon as possible
- Keep your sentences short
- Include a call to Action
- Include contact details.
Excerpted from:
Instant Team Building by Bradley J Sugars. Copyright 2006 by Bradley J Sugars. Price: Rs 229. Reprinted by permission of Tata McGraw Hill Publishing Company Limited. All rights reserved.
Sugars is a renowned entrepreneur, author and business coach who has helped nearly a million clients around the world find success.
