CHICAGO —Many employers are unsuccessful in their efforts to attract quality frontline workers and retain them long enough to realize a return on their investment. With the high turnover rates among hourly workers, hiring and retaining the best people can seem like an insurmountable challenge for many employers. According to a new paper issued by The Workforce Institute at Kronos Incorporated, there is a solution. "How to Find and Recruit the Best Hourly Employees," written by Mel Kleiman, a member of the board of advisors of The Workforce Institute and author of such books as Hire Tough, Manage Easy, and Recruit Smarter, Not Harder, provides managers with actionable advice on how to define their ideal candidate and hire the best people.
Who makes up the hourly workforce?
Kleiman says that employers must start by better understanding the hourly workforce: who they are; where they live; and what motivates them. This helps tremendously in effectively targeting the right people. Kleiman provides many specifics to help employers understand the demographics of the hourly workforce. For example:
r While 39 percent of hourly employees are under 25 years old, 33 percent are age 25-44, and 28 percent are 45 or older
r More than 80 percent of hourly workers work within a five-mile radius of their homes
r 74 percent of hourly workers prefer to work 30 hours or fewer per week
What are you looking for in an employee?
Kleiman believes that crafting a detailed job description is an important and often-overlooked aspect of successful hourly hiring.
"Looking for an employee without knowing exactly what you need is like going grocery shopping without a list," notes Kleiman. "You spend more time and money than you should; you don't get everything that you need; and you usually have to go back and do it again."
In addition, Kleiman recommends that managers create a lesser-known document called a job analysis. This document accurately reflects the job as it is today and its potential for the future.
"An effective job analysis starts with the reasons a job exists, and why it's essential to the company and its key objectives," says Kleiman. "Hiring managers should re-visit the job analysis every time they hire for the position to ensure that it reflects any technological, environmental, or managerial changes."
Some questions the job analysis should address for hiring managers:
r What must the job holder do well to earn a raise?
r Why would you reprimand or fire a person in this job?
r What did the last job holder do well and poorly?
r What would you like to see done differently?
r What has kept previous job holders from being successful?
Making a match
Once hiring managers have identified their potential workforce and conducted their job analysis, they need to actually find these people. Kleiman has several recommendations, including the suggestion to take a marketing approach to recruiting.
"Recruiting should be an ongoing process," says Kleiman. "Hiring managers should recruit new employees the same way their organization markets to attract new customers — proactively and consistently, 24/7. If managers recruit only when job openings exist, they won't get the best people because the pressure to hire may cause them to be less selective and sometimes may result in bad hiring decisions."
