When I first started my staffing company, I was amazed at the number of people who didn’t show to work.
It had never occurred to me that someone would accept a job and not show to work. I went through all types of emotions: frustration, anger, resentment, and fear (of losing client companies).
As I talked with others in management, human resources, and staffing, I realized that I wasn’t alone.
The easy thing to do was to complain about workers. We could complain that people don’t have a strong work ethic, bemoan the fact that there isn’t enough of an employment base, or just grumble that this new, younger generation just isn’t reliable.
This may be true, but it doesn’t help to improve the situation.
I also found that many of my clients and prospects said they that all of the staffing companies said they same thing. They all said they had the best “pool of candidates” and would find them employees who showed up.
They all said the same thing, and they all struggled to find employees.
It was only while I was reading a sales book that I began to realize the solution. Well, I didn’t find “the solution.” I did, however, find several techniques that would help improve the situation.
In the book “Cold Calling Techniques (That Really Work!),” author Stephan Schiffman points to five ways that a salesperson can improve his or her chances of landing a sale.
In Chapter, 2 Schiffman points out five ways a salesperson can increase his or her numbers:
- Double the Number of Calls
- Ge Through More Often
- Get More Appointments
- Close More Sales
- Generate More Dollars Per Sale
Improve your ratios with any of those five methods listed above, and you will close more sales. He also recounts a story of one salesperson who became the No. 1 salesperson in his company by making just one more call a day.
We can apply these types of techniques with just about any job we have.
In my industry, there are several ways we can increase the number of workers who show to work.
For example, we can:
- Talk to one more candidate a day to increase our pool of candidates.
- Review five more applications a day.
- Ask for five more referrals a week from current good employees.
- Connect with our candidates in more meaningful ways to show them we care more. (i.e. talk to them on the phone rather than just email them)
- Follow up with them via an email or text before they are scheduled to start their job and remind them we are there for them if they have any questions.
BONUS: Connect with one employee a week to tell them we appreciate them.
In other words, there are things we can do in my industry to improve the ratio of candidates who show to work. By doing these tasks I listed above, we can:
- Talk to more candidates to increase our pool of candidates and thereby increase our chances of finding the best candidates possible.
- Increase the number of people who apply to us through referrals. (Usually the best source of good quality candidates.)
- Improve our reputation and thereby attract higher quality candidates.
Note that none of these items will solve all of our problems or guarantee a 100% show rate. However, it will improve our ratios.
If we can just improve in any one of the five areas listed, we’ll be doing better.
So my advice to anyone reading this column: find out how to improve the ratios in your job. You may not be in sales or recruiting, but I’m sure there are specific steps you can do to improve your job.
Yes, you can improve.
Spreadsheets and Overalls 