No matter the industry, no one would say that staffing has been easy since the pandemic. When asked why, the usual responses are, “The younger generation just doesn’t want to work.” “These kids weren’t raised right.” “They want to make great money on day one!” Where does that mentality come from?
My mother was a police officer in Shreveport, Louisiana. Crime will always happen, but she was always interested as to why. What plight in a person’s life leads them to act this way? It is with this mentality that I wanted to look at why we as managers are having these issues and what we do to change it.
Over the course of my career at Hinton Lumber, I have had the opportunity to interview many prospective employees. Some of the interviews were hilarious. One time, when I asked for a good contact number, the man took out two phones. When I asked why he had two, he responded, “This is the one my wife knows about. This is the one she doesn’t.” I could barely keep myself composed. There was another instance where the interviewee’s mother came with her and insisted on being in the interview. When asked why she thought that was necessary, she said, “What if she doesn’t know the answer to your question?” To which I responded, “Then she probably doesn’t need to be here.” There are several funny stories like these. But the majority are normal, everyday people just looking for work.
Most of us in the pallet industry, including myself, did not dream of southern yellow pine and nails when we were growing up. So, it could be surmised that this is not the first choice for most, if not all, applicants. Those of us with sawdust in our souls love to talk about what we do to anyone who will listen. When a group of us gets together at a function from different companies, we might still be talking at two in the morning. But the average employee might not be excited to tell their friends and family they work at pallet company.
From my experience, a lot of us utilize staffing services. I found my way to Hinton Lumber through a staffing service. As a whole, I don’t think that they foster a good interview experience or help build company culture. The staffing company found the position, prepped, and wrote the resume. The prospective new hire was just told to show up for the interview. When interviewing the candidate, there is no excitement or anticipation in the interview. While I don’t want them to sweat bullets, I do want this meeting to be important to them.
On the other hand, if a job posting was used and the interviewee had to do the work to find the open position, then it’s a completely different experience. This does not mean that they will make the cut, but they will usually make the short list. A green worker that is excited to work for me can be much more valuable than an experienced worker who looks like they would rather be somewhere else.
While it may be tempting, my hardest lesson to learn was to stop saying “You’re hired!” in the interview. It’s a total power trip and feels awesome to do, but it is the enemy of the modern workforce. Even if the person is perfect, stop saying “yes.” Hiring someone is an important business decision and should not be driven solely by emotion. This thought was the driving force behind writing this article. We say “yes” for many reasons. First, we aren’t interviewing for kicks. You need to fill the position now! There is a hole in your production team, and your productivity is suffering because of it. Second, and I can’t emphasize this enough, we don’t have time for all of the interviews.
Despite what some might say, it is incredibly easy for the average worker to find a job. If everyone keeps saying yes, then we are the ones responsible for fostering the quitting culture. If we keep hiring people that genuinely don’t value the position they’re given, then they will quit, and the cycle continues. People used to go home and wait by the phone for days hoping for that “magic” call and then respond, “Thank you so much! I promise I won’t let you down.” I doubt you have heard that many times in the past ten years.
Good candidates exist but are often harder to find. Why? There are just more people in the job pool. I’ve seen people, including myself, who would be comfortable with choosing from three applicants. And when we have to do it again for the same position, we get frustrated. One thing to try, which was recommended to me by a good friend and mentor, is to rate the importance of the position you are hiring for on a scale from one to ten, ten being the highest. Whatever number you land on is how many interviews you should do. That same mentor always said that every employee was the most important employee.
The golden employee might be your tenth interview. Just as we cull lumber to make a quality pallet, we must cull through these candidates to get the right person to make that pallet.
Editor’s Note: James Eaves is the sales support manager at Hinton Lumber in Houston, Texas.
