Avoid the rush

by Rich Vurva

Think twice before hiring your next employee to avoid rushing into a decision you may regret later.

One of the biggest mistakes a distributor can make is hiring the wrong person for the job. It may take weeks, months or even years to get rid of a bad employee. The best way to avoid making a bad hiring decision, say distributors and industry experts we talked to, is to have a thoroughly planned hiring process and to take your time before uttering the words, “You’re hired.”

Although you might be tempted to act quickly – because you have other important tasks to attend to and a vacant job to fill – don’t make any hasty hiring decisions. Interview job candidates multiple times, consider using an objective testing instrument to gauge a candidate’s qualifications, and rely on outside expertise to avoid making a move you’ll regret later.

Interview multiple times
You probably wouldn’t want to conduct a 14-week hiring process like Donald Trump, but you can learn one thing from the billionaire developer’s popular TV show “The Apprentice.” Don’t base your hiring decision on a single job interview.

“I get as many people involved in the hiring decision as possible,” says Jim Johnson, vice president of sales and marketing for Stellar Industrial Supply in Tacoma, Wash. When hiring someone for an outside sales position, for example, the candidate will typically interview with a branch manager and a sales manager before sitting down for separate interviews with Johnson and company president John Wiborg.

“When we speak to the candidate, we follow a structured interview process,” Johnson adds.

The structured interview keeps the conversation on track and also enables Johnson to grade each applicant in specific areas. The first part of the interview is aimed at getting the applicant to talk about his skills and background. He determines the candidate’s educational background, job experience, product or customer knowledge, sales training history, computer skills and planning capabilities. During the interview, Johnson grades the applicant in each area on a scale from one to five. He might give a five to a candidate with three or more years of experience selling construction and industrial supplies, but a one to someone with little or no selling experience.

The second part of the structured interview focuses on intangibles such as the skills, behaviors and traits the candidate believes lead to success. The purpose of this part of the interview is to determine the applicant’s problem-solving abilities, and attitudes about customer service and teamwork. Johnson also likes to see how a candidate might respond to several hypothetical situations.

For example, he might describe a scenario where an important customer calls to complain about a botched order and asks the candidate how he or she would handle the situation. Johnson uses the question to help him determine if the candidate has the maturity to accept responsibility for the problem and seek an equitable solution, or point fingers and place blame on someone else in the company.

Consider testing
Before hiring a new employee at RW Connection, a hose and accessories distributorship in Landisville, Pa., president Don Fritzinger asks candidates to take an aptitude test.

Applicants to hourly positions in the warehouse and fabrication department complete a brief exam that tests their mechanical aptitude and math skills.

“While it may appear silly, it simply provides us an upfront look at the basic math skills required if you are fabricating rubber. This eliminates the headaches later when you find out an individual works hard but simply cannot read a tape measure,” says Fritzinger.

He asks sales candidates to complete a personality assessment available from sales trainer Dave Kahle, whose DaCo Corporation is an authorized dealer for the Profiles International line of hiring and coaching assessments. The two most popular assessment tools for hiring and evaluating salespeople are the Profile Sales Indicator (PSI), a 20-minute assessment tool that focuses on five primary sales aptitude characteristics, and the ProfileXT, a whole-person cognitive assessment tool that takes about an hour to complete. (To learn more, visit www.davekahle.com/.)

“Using one of these tools, a distributor can test any job applicant and get a simple, easy-to-read, objective assessment of that person’s capabilities,” says Kahle. “These tools take the guesswork out of the hiring decision, which is often fraught with feelings and emotions.”

Fritzinger and some of his top-performing salespeople and managers have taken the online assessments themselves so the company could have a benchmark for comparison purposes.

“I took the test along with some of our key people so we could develop a profile of the type of people we desire for inside and outside sales. It gives us a good feel for the job applicant’s ability to make decisions, while gauging their energy level and drive,” says Fritzinger.

Ask for help
In addition to seeking an outsider’s perspective to gauge a job candidate’s qualifications, some distributors also turn to local schools for developing a pipeline of employees. Jeff Pickelman at Northern Industrial Supply in Saginaw, Mich., works with the placement offices at Delta College, a local community college, and nearby Saginaw Valley State University, to find potential new hires.

“What I prefer to do is find a person in an undergraduate program and have them work here for 15 to 30 hours a week while they’re still in school in order to learn our business,” says Pickelman.

As 2007 president of the Power Transmission Distributors Association (PTDA), Pickelman is also excited about the potential for the Industrial Careers Pathway, the PTDA-sponsored program that is developing associate degree programs in industrial distribution at a number of community colleges throughout North America.

“The Industrial Careers Pathway is a valuable service for distributors and manufacturers,” Pickelman says. “A career in industrial distribution is not necessarily something that a lot of young people are familiar with or aspire to do. If they can come out of a community college with a degree in industrial distribution, you know you have someone that has a basic understanding of our business.”

He says the program will be especially valuable to independent distributors that don’t have full-time human resource departments or big budgets to place help wanted ads. The Industrial Careers Pathway can help match young job seekers interested in starting a career path with potential employers, Pickelman says. It’s one more tool to prevent distributors from rushing into a bad hiring decision.

This article originally appeared in the May/June 2007 issue of Progressive Distributor. Copyright 2007.

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