THE SUPERSTAR STAFF SOLUTION
Hollie Gomez
Copyright 2011 by Hollie Gomez
Smashwords Edition
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Revere excellence in your business by bringing out the natural superstar in your staff
Dedication
Special thanks to Paul for all of your mentoring, constant guidance, continuous help and inspiration over the past ten years.
Thank you to my darling Malcolm for your amazing encouragement, your unconditional support and above all for believing in me, I am truly blessed to have you in my life.
and finally,
love goes out to my Mum & Dad and all my fantastic friends
xxx
Go here now and download your FREE Superstar Staff Solution action pack now, plus you will automatically qualify to receive my Superstar Snippets, hints, tip’s, motivators, advice and case studies:
http://www.superstar-staff.com/action-plan
Once you have absorbed ‘The Superstar Staff Solution’, start today by implementing the strategies and methods that have been revealed to you within these pages.
In order to make this as quick and easy as possible, I have put together a simple, easy to use, step by step action plan that within no more than 30 minutes will help you produce a definitive Plan of Action for your business.
Go here now and download your FREE Superstar Staff Solution action pack now, plus you will automatically qualify to receive my Superstar Snippets, hints, tip’s, motivators, advice and case studies.
FOREWORD
In 1997 my wife and I, newly married, occasionally whiled away a couple of lunchtime hours in a charming little Bistro in Canterbury, Kent. More often than not we were served by a young, welcoming, attentive waitress who, over the months, we got quite friendly with. In fact, it didn’t take long before we were a little disappointed if we stepped into the Bistro to discover this young person was not working on that day.
Something about the experience was never quite as satisfying without her being there serving us.
Her name was Hollie Wilson.
A few weeks after our first baby was born we were back at the Bistro, baby in tow, being welcomed back by Hollie.
Sensitively attentive as usual, she soon offered to look after our newborn for a short while so that we could have a little time on our own. Wow, yes please!
Not surprisingly, despite there being dozens of alluring little Bistros and Cafés in Canterbury, we kept returning to this particular one. We must have spent a good couple of thousand pounds over the weeks enjoying breakfasts and lunches, coffees and teas and taking pleasure in the genuine friendliness and thoughtfulness of particularly this young person, Hollie Wilson.
At the same time, my first book How to Out-Sell, Out-Market, Out-Promote, Out-Advertise Every One of Your Competitors was just published. I was in the process of making my marketing strategies, which until that time were available only to private clients, “public”. There was a lot going on and I needed an office assistant. A few weeks later that vacancy was filled by Hollie!
She’d warned me: “I only have a GNVQ and no office experience!” But I wasn’t looking as much for qualification as for niceness, willingness and personal drive. It seemed to both my wife and I that those three words had been created to describe Hollie.
There began the evolving of a person who, by pure self determination, grit and a never-ending personal insistence to serve and achieve the highest possible result for her employer (which, very luckily, happens to be me) and his customers and clients has become an indispensable right-hand colleague, office manager, a mine of knowledge and skill, and, most of all, a true and valued friend.
What frustrates Hollie more than anything I have witnessed? Staff inattentiveness, ineffectiveness and unreliability! To Hollie, when an individual accepts a job role, it should not only be for the benefits they get but for what they can give, bring high result to, and help make excellent.
Yet, in almost every company you visit, the opposite is prevalent. The great percentage of employees today are doing their work primarily for the wage and other benefits they receive rather than out of true passion for what they do and desire to give the most attention, talent and result to.
On the other hand, when niceness, willingness and drive
-- Plus a true passion for the particular company they work for -- is inherent in an individual, Hollie has discovered excellence can be nurtured, brought out and made into a tangible skill.
A Superstar employee is born.
I have seen her skill in doing this first-hand. On a number of occasions over the last decade, she has taken on a new staff member with little formal qualification but with true willingness and desire to excel, and nurtured that individual to Superstardom. Many business owners and professionals have witnessed the “result” when they meet our staff at my business-building programmes. Almost without fail, thousands of programme attendees, and tens of thousands on the phone over the years have been deeply impressed with our hard-working, attentive, knowledgeable and helpful staff. The truth is, these Big Sur Publishing “Superstar-staff” have had very little to do with my influencing them; they are virtually 100% Hollie’s protégés and prodigies.
It is for this reason that it gives me immense pleasure to have been asked to write a foreword for Hollie’s book “The Superstar Staff Solution”. The pages you hold in your hands have been a slowly evolving work of art for the last three or four years. -- “Slowly” only because Hollie has insisted she write only from true personal experience and hard-core results.
Every time there has been sign of a hick-up with a staff member she has put this entire project on hold while she works out why the hick-up surfaced, and found a solution to it that worked to bring an individual back to true, reliable Superstar performance.
The book you now own is the result. It is a look deep into Hollie’s thinking, method and actual day-by-day activity of first recognising, then hiring, welcoming, training, creating blueprints, nurturing and witnessing a willing but at the moment “normal” employee evolve into a Superstar. I can tell you from first-hand experience that every potential individual Hollie employs, trains and then deems a “Superstar” is worth one hundred times more than a “normal” employee -- in just about every way you can name, including greater bottom-line profits to your company.
This is not an intellectual work. In fact, often you will read a sentence, or whole paragraph, that a traditional publisher would throw out. I like that! -- much of my writing also would never make it through the traditional publisher’s acceptance standards. Then again, few traditionally published books sell as many copies. The same is true of The Superstar Staff Solution.
What matters most -- the raw knowledge and method of finding and nurturing staff who become as utterly indispensable to you as Hollie and every other Big Sur Publishing staff member is to me -- is what you have here in spades.
Every sentence you have here is written directly and only out of Hollies’ personal hard and ceaselessly tenacious work. Every paragraph let’s you “in” on the exact method she has developed and practised that actually results in training staff to super-high standards of performance.
I am so proud of Hollie and what she has achieved. From a young waitress barely formerly qualified to an indispensable right-hand business colleague, friend and confidant, respected by thousands of the smartest, hardened and wealthiest, and fledgling, business owners and professionals alike.
That is quite some achievement. And every ounce of it is her own.
Because of her generosity in sharing what has taken her no less than a full decade to progressively realise, develop, put into practice and perfect -- with many serious challenges along the journey, not one of which she allowed to dampen her remarkable performance at work, nor her enthusiasm in developing her method to a point where it is as near to 100% infallible as you can get -- you now have that method in your hands, and the true ability to hunt out, recruit, train and achieve an army of Superstars for your own business or profession, sometimes in unusual ways, as you will discover!
Listen to every word Hollie shares with you. Wisely see through any writing style that perhaps is not traditional or “correct”. This book has not been written to impress you but to provide you with a phenomenal, tested, finely-tuned and years-proven complete and quite infallible method of spotting and evolving raw, natural people-talent into Superstardom that becomes the inner driving force of your organisations’ extraordinary success. I’ll tell you: there is no other way of achieving unusually high success without Superstar-staff driving your dream and efforts to actuality.
Adapt what you discover here as needed for your own particular enterprise, certainly, but never change the principles revealed anymore than you would change the principles of flight and still expect to stay in the air.
Without wasting another minute dive into this important book now. Apply it without let-up each and every day and I promise you will witness business results -- and a working environment -- unequalled both in your experience to date and by any competitor who has not found this book and employed its proven techniques.
I am excited for you.
With every success,
Paul Gorman.
INTRODUCTION
This book has come about as a result of realising the lack of staff operating in businesses who have drive, motivation, care, understanding, responsibility, willingness and attention to detail. Staff are one of the biggest headaches for many business owners, managers, directors and customers!
It is written from years of my discovering and learning all of this on the frontline, with no qualifications or formality, rolling up my sleeves and having to do it for the company I work for, doing whatever was asked of me and more. I have had to learn BUT for some reason or another I was born with a huge desire to do the best I can do, and as a result I have always had the desire to learn, learn, learn, a day without learning to me is boring and point-less.
I started working for one of the UK’s leading Marketeers, Paul Gorman 10 years ago. I had a GNVQ in business, other than that I knew little about real business. But what I did have was an amazing willingness and commitment, which at the time was not necessarily a commitment to the business but to myself, although this quickly grew and translated into a deep commitment to the business.
I sometimes wonder if this all would have been easier if I was highly qualified, but I’m glad I’m not in a way as I have reached this point with the real nitty gritty, with hard learning curves, and being thrown to my knees regularly, and sometimes more than regularly, learning how and why, and to pick myself up, dust myself down and learn from the experience. It’s a compound skill, growing like a snowball and when you hit the next challenge or need, you know far more about how to handle it.
The purpose of this book is to help you to bring out the inherent Superstardom in anybody whose commitment to their own excellence is ready to be nurtured, irrespective of qualifications. It largely depends on the ability sitting within each person. It does not rely on an examination mark on a certificate. Even if you have a degree, going into any work place the same rules and expectations apply, it has to be your inherent ability to perform. That is “released” in the right, nurturous environment.
This is one of the processes I will take you through. It’s drawn from methodology created from my own growth and natural willingness to achieve and commit to exceptional performance, which has developed into a “process” that can be taught.
I am going to show you how to abolish negativity and team politics; promote confidence within your employees, motivate your staff, get people to take responsibility and ownership of any situation, intrinsically produce quality work, encourage staff to use their initiative. In short, how to get everyone to always go the extra mile, get staff to focus, to interview them, to train them, find the right calibre, evoke passion, promote loyalty and dedication, teach attention to detail, share your vision, with everyone wanting to be a member of the team, to be a team player and achieve the very best for you, your business, and your customers or clients in all areas.
Chapter 1: The two reasons your business needs superstars
Your obligation as a business owner or manager is to surround yourself with Superstar employees.
Why?
Two reasons;
Reason 1, to alleviate your time so you can spend every available minute driving the business forward, concentrating on marketing and not wasting your time in the day to day running of the organisation. It doesn’t matter how good your products or services are, or how hard you try to get everything right, if you do not have Superstars operating across your organisation you WILL constantly struggle and you will be plagued with the need to sort out staff inefficiencies and problems.
Reason 2, your priority as a business owner or manager is to primarily provide the customer with a high quality product or service.
Your business will be inefficient and incapable to the customer as a result of underperforming staff therefore making it impossible for your business to achieve its optimal success with continually increasing revenues and bottom line profits.
But how can you do this and still be safe in the knowledge that your business is running with the very same high standards, care and precision as if it were YOU personally hands-on answering the phone, fulfilling the products, cooking the food, cutting the hair, advising the client, caring for the patient, going to sales appointments, entering database information, cleaning, serving the customer and being hands on in each step of your production line?
I bet you sometimes wish you could clone yourself and be in all areas handling every aspect of your business! But that’s simply not possible, so, the equivalent is to have trustworthy Superstars running every aspect of your business for you.
Just imagine how glorious it would be if your staff had the same degree of enthusiasm with EVERY action performed, and with EVERY penny the business spends or invests and as if the success of the business was theirs.
Your business can have people with Superstardom ingrained in their soul and trained to think and act like entrepreneurs rather than employees!
Chapter 2: What constitutes a superstar?
A natural born Superstar employee has an inherent willingness to achieve and commit.
They burst at the seams to give exceptional performance. Overall they care about every single thing they do and aim to achieve the best results at all times.
There are personal elements in people which you can recognise and need to; 80% comes down to personality rather than the skills they may currently or historically have. In my experience they are the candidates that have come into the workplace and shown they care about you and the environment and, even more, are excited about you, your company, product or service and the opportunity of working within it. Even before they are fully trained in their new job with you, they purely and simply show signs that they care by doing small things that are not expected of them.
It can be so minute, like after emptying the bin under their desk they offer to empty other people’s bins nearby too or they are up to date with their workload and ask if anyone else needs help or a delivery comes into the office and they offer to help put it away.
Showing small glimmers of effort and help like this is potential Superstardom.
Do you see?
On the next level, Superstars are aware of keeping as much of the everyday running of the business away from you or high level managers, to relieve your time and your mind of everything unnecessary.
They have a reversed guarantee engineered thought process that looks at all their actions within the business situation with the question: If it was me on the receiving end, would I like to be treated like this?
They are so on-the-button and forward thinking. They analyse virtually any situation to see how it can be improved, remembering for next time if the same or similar situation arises. Superstars try their very best to predict an outcome and then act to produce that outcome. It’s about being one step ahead in mind.
They question themselves, project by project, telephone call by telephone call. There may be three alternative ways of dealing with any particular situation but they look at each of them in their mind and then select the one they feel will produce the highest, best and quickest result.
It’s the discipline of creating the most effective solutions to every single activity and demand that occurs during each day.
Superstar staff have a core desire to know they have done something well. They want to please, striving to be a perfectionist, be the best they possibly can be, although ‘effectiveness ’and ‘perfectionism’ mean different things depending on the possible involvement and result required but whatever it is, creating the very best solution for each situation is what is uppermost in the Superstar’s mind and actions.
It’s instinctive.
Finding staff with these natural personal elements is like sieving for gold! But rest assured it is something that can be taught. Don’t give up now thinking the traits described above are not realistically possible to obtain. Even if you have not yet found any Superstars for your business, you can begin the process of finding and employing the very best in your area the moment you know the kind of person you are looking for and how to interview and select them.
Chapter 3: Why superstar staff are so important to your business
Staff are one of the three major streams of life within your business. If any of these three are missing your business, by degree, is weak, inefficient and at risk.
They are:
1. A truly beneficial product or service
2. Strategy, Innovation and Marketing
3. Staff
My speciality is staff and here’s what I will tell you about them. It doesn’t matter how good, ethical, and committed you are, if your staff don’t totally back up every activity in the company, all the way down the line, then your business will be faced with problems. It will be weaker than it need be and will face problems each week that need not be there. Simply put, it will struggle as an enterprise and to be a key competitor in your market place.
There Are 2 Key Categories of Staff
1. Front Liners:
The staff that deal with customers directly. These are the front line of your business. They deal with customers from the first contact. Think of it like a first date. You have gone out your way to woo and attract someone but if the date is not interesting and fun they will not be interested in accepting a second date or speaking highly of you to their friends. First impressions play a large part in how well two people get along later and it certainly is a major factor in an individual’s decision, whether that individual be a social or love partner, or a customer, as to whether or not they want to continue the relationship.
2. Operational and Tactical:
These are staff that do not have direct contact with customers. It’s critical they too perform like Superstars, handle things with care, precision, and work like dynamos.
You, the boss or manager, have to communicate efficiently to your staff, and likewise, they have to communicate well with each other. If staff do not get on and support each other as a team, cracks will begin to appear and a chain of weakness and inefficiency will plague the business.
Once the Superstardom bug has got inside all of your staff, it bursts out tangibly in all areas and into all staff; it rolls on through the company and emerges in all areas from staff efficiency, production, quality of your product and service, moral, attitude, cleanliness, atmosphere, revenue and profits and most importantly through every communication and result the customer receives from you.
If you don’t need any new members of staff at this moment, I have revealed a training method in these pages that will enable you to take existing staff members and gear up their performance, their desire to perform and their actual results by many, many multiples. Yes! You can have a stable team of Superstars quickly and realistically.
But always remember this: it might be that one or two members or more of your existing staff are never going to be the true Superstars you want and need for your business. Once you tighten things up and demand more, those who don’t even have a want to try, will often leave, which is good as it makes room for a Superstar. The business will squeeze them out if they don’t want to work hard at it, have an interest to that degree and be ethical.
Chapter 4: How to find superstars – the recruiting and interviewing process
It does not matter one bit whether you are looking for an admin person, operation person, cleaner, assistant, expansion person, marketing person, floor staff, sales person, manager or a director. There are basic guidelines that you can follow to help you seek out the Superstars and recognise the basic positive foundations in people that you can see scope to build on.
Decide what staff member you are looking for and list the activities you want them to relieve you from in the business. Or you may be looking to expand or replace a staff member who for one reason or another is leaving. You are ready now to recruit a Superstar for that role.
Successful Methods of Recruitment
The First Method of Recruiting is to Advertise. A recruitment advert should be no different than it would be if you were selling your product or service. Go into great detail when writing your ad. This way you immediately cut response BUT it will attract people more suited to the role and save you time in the interview process.
Why spend time interviewing thirty unsuitable candidates when you could see twelve more suitable targeted ones?
In your ad, talk about the skill and personal attributes you are looking for in that person.
Think about what would annoy you about a staff member. Include simple instructions and watch how they follow it or ignore it. For example, if you state ‘please call between 9am and 11am Monday to Thursday’, and someone calls outside of the allotted times on the advert or they call outside the times because, for instance, they were going on holiday the next day, that’s no excuse. A Superstar that really wants the job would make sure they have a way of calling for the application whilst on holiday. Now that would impress you! If they ignore your instruction they have immediately shown they cannot follow a simple request and bend themselves to fit as requested.
Put the basic plus highest potential bonus or commission figure they could earn from this position. Predominately someone will want a job with money in mind but it is not the money that keeps them, equally they will hardly ever take a well paid job if they will not enjoy it. Job satisfaction is most important to Superstars.
Once you have placed your ad and have responses coming in, you immediately get a feel for those who are not suitable. Look out for certain characteristics. For example, if you place an advert in a weekend paper, those who leave messages over the weekend are obviously very keen (as long as you have invited messages to be left at the weekend, of course!). If you request CV’s, look for candidates who make a special effort to get their CV to you as the recruiting & interviewing process quickly as possible, maybe by email or fax, even hand delivered. Any that deliver their CV in person to your place of business are great, but they should never expect to see you personally, off the cuff like this, and you should never allow them to. You are busy and do not appreciate people coming in unannounced. Equally important, you want to train them in respecting your time from the very first contact. Anyone who follows up with a chase call saying they have not heard anything back from you is a sure sign they are keen. But not necessarily right for the job.
The First Personal Communication...
The Telephone Interview
Initially talk to prospects on the phone as they respond.
What you are looking for is a conversation to form. For example, do they ask questions about the job? If a natural flow forms and they seem genuinely interested it is a very good sign. Don’t necessarily be overly nice; test their mettle especially if you are recruiting for a sales position.
You want to see how confident they are, how much THEY are willing to persuade you and talk back. You need to be vigilant in order to filter out the weaker people and save you time in the office interview process. Remember they need to persuade you why you need them, not the other way around!
If a candidate barges straight into questions like:
“How much is the salary?” or “What holiday do I get?” they do not really care about the job in hand and only care about themselves. Leave them to find a job with a different company.
Look out for their tone of voice and negativity. If anyone is negative at the first contact this is a big warning sign.
Just imagine working with that negativity every hour of every day!
If they pass the telephone interview stage, arrange an office interview with them straight away, or take down their details so you can call back and arrange a suitable time.
If you are not sure about one or more of the candidates, politely take their details and let them know you will call them back to talk further. For those who you do not think are in anyway suitable, call them back and say, “I am sorry but the position has been taken and we will not be holding any more interviews but thank you very much for your interest and best of luck in finding a fulfilling job.”
If they pass this initial stage arrange a formal interview, at your office, a hotel lounge or hired meeting room.
It’s impossible to know someone well after just one telephone meeting. To get a real, all-round feeling for a person, to glean if they are the right candidate and potentially the Superstar you are looking for, you should do at least three interviews, one or two formal and one or two informal. Using this rule you will distinguish who is genuinely nice and talented as opposed to those trying to be nice at the interview.
At The First Interview...
Plan the interviews so you go in knowing exactly what you are looking for in the candidate.
Prior to the interview, write a position descriptive of the requirements of the job and the person you need within the job and the skills and expertise needed. Also, any the recruiting & interviewing process traits that you think will not fit the position. Use this as a structure for the questions. Create provocative and challenging questions, not all about the job itself but about them personally too. Really dig deep to get a good idea of a person’s nature, if they have the niceness and the foundations of Superstardom.
An employee should be someone you would feel comfortable having dinner with or spending time socially with.
Don’t necessarily be fooled into thinking that if a person is highly skilled they will also be someone you would like to invite for dinner or spend social time with. So, during the interview, begin to glean whether you are liking the person as a person, and they you. This is very important for an effective, vibrant and innovative working environment.
Tips to look for:
Eye contact; this is important. Although people do get nervous, as long as they maintain a good or reasonable degree of eye contact you can be certain they are being natural, honest and confident. How is their dress code?
Are they dressed cleanly and smartly? Are they early, late or on time? If they are late and it is genuinely out of their control, have they telephoned to say, “Sorry I am running late because my child is unexpectedly unwell and has had to come home from school, so I am dropping them at my Mum’s, I will be there in 10 minutes, I am so sorry, is that ok?”
They have to communicate. Or do they just turn up late and expect you to be happy to still interview them? While you are left assuming they just can’t be bothered.
Do they listen intently to you the interviewer and thoughtfully answer each question? Are they high in confidence and energy levels? Do they speak negatively of other people, companies, and previous employers? This is not a good sign, it shows they focus on the negative and tend to blame other people in situations for their lack of results.
Are they only interested in salary, holiday and other benefits? Interviewees who ask this even before they know much about the job have already shown they are only interested in a ‘job’; they are not willing to go the extra mile.
A person with Superstar traits holds job satisfaction very highly and is eager to learn about the job and not worry too much about the nitty gritty. The other aspects can be worked out later even in a more beneficial way, for example working around school holidays and children if it’s appropriate to the position. They may need to leave two hours early on a Thursday and make up the time by working two extra hours another day.
One of the most important things is YOUR instinct. If you feel something, don’t let it go un-investigated. 9 times out of 10 natural instincts are always right! Don’t panic. Selecting staff is a time-consuming process. It can be very worrying because you may think if ‘I don’t get staff soon it will be difficult to run this place’. You cannot rush the process or you will end up with the wrong person and problems will pile up in the long run, including some big problems.
Be aware that a person may lie to make themselves look great, but you can tell, as they will have a rigid body language, they will not be confident and they will quickly the recruiting & interviewing process want to move away from the subject.
You, as the interviewer need to be relaxed to ease the truth out of them, get them feeling relaxed.
Ask your questions naturally in a conversational style.
Don’t just go diving in firing at them.
Here are some example interview questions. Adapt them to be able to draw out each candidate’s academic skills, ethics and personality traits, by asking questions and opening up an easy natural conversation and then build the interview question by question. If the flow is natural and intelligent you’re beginning to find your potential Superstar.
Example Interview Questions;
Here is just a real taster of interview questions designed to draw out the nature, personality, ethics, attitude, be-liefs, frustrations, motivators of the interviewee and more…
Ice Breakers
What are your interests outside work, what is it you love to do?
How would you describe yourself, both as an individual and within a team?
Before we go any further, is there anything you would like to add that we have not already covered in support of your application?
What are you looking for in a new job?
The Individual
What would you consider to be your greatest strengths and your biggest weaknesses?
What have you achieved in the past that you feel makes you constitute being a Superstar?
What would you say most annoys you or frustrates you, both in work and generally?
Why do you feel you want to come and join our team?
What has been your greatest success and what was involved in achieving it?
The Role
What, if anything do you know about our Business and the Products/Services we offer?
Tell me why you want this job?
What do you think of the last company you worked for; did the people and the business live up to your expectations?
How best, in your opinion, do you think you would significantly contribute to the Team and the Business?
Core Skills
How would you define good communication skills and do you think you possess these qualities?
If you needed to take on greater responsibility then how would you feel and how would you handle it?
What in your opinion makes for an outstanding Team Leader or Manager?
What would you say best motivates you?
How would you motivate other people in your Team?
AND… The final question:
If you develop good vibes about this person and think they are a definite potential for the job ask them:
‘Why would I be mad not to take you on?’
A real Superstar will always be enthused and ready to sel themselves to you with strength and gusto.
If you do not think they are right simply say so sincerely at this point: “I don’t think you are right for the job.”
If you are interviewing from an advert obviously you don’t know this person and you have not seen sustained performance. So you probably will need to do up to three interviews to really get a good idea.
The Second Interview
The second should be informal over a meal or a coffee, a more informal setting. This way the candidate will be more relaxed and chatty and probably reveal more about themselves more readily.
Maybe you have given them some material at the first interview to look at, absorb and learn about your company.
Have they thought about the first interview and come up with some of their own questions showing an eagerness to learn about your company and contribute?
The Third Interview
If you feel and want to do a third interview invite them to the place of work to show them around so they can see the working environment and other staff member’s.
Do a trial day. Give them a few tasks to do. See how they handle them. How do they actually act in the environment? How do they interact with others? How do they actually show initiative? Even at this very early stage their actions speak miles more than anything they may say about their skill, interacting, initiative and abilities. For example, they finish the task you have given them but ask what’s next or if anyone else needs help, instead of just sitting there waiting.
I interviewed a potential candidate once who seemed suitable for the job but when I invited her for a day at the office she had her mobile phone on her desk and actually answered personal calls!!! Unwittingly, she showed me that she was more interested in her personal goings on the recruiting & interviewing process than her personal commitment to the job. If this happened on the first test day imagine what it would be like-full-time!
If after these 3 processes you are still impressed then there is a very good chance they will perform to the standards you want. You want to offer the candidate the position, what about pay? Depending on the position you are hiring for make it the lowest possible basic, even minimum wage, then have a performance related bonus scheme to top it up. Always start a new employee on a 3 month trial basis, then if they really do not work out you can easily let them go if you have made the contract for three months. If after the 3 months you and the new employee are happy then you can review the basic figure.
This is also an incentive for them to prove themselves throughout the trial.
Performance Related Pay...
Performance related pay is a great motivational tool, it gives you control and you get to see how determined the new staff member really is as they will want to top up their wage with the maximum the bonus scheme offers.
So how does it work?
For example, you pay a £15k basic wage, plus a £300.00 bonus each month. So you are in effect offering £18,600 possible wage. But only £15,000 is guaranteed.
The remaining £3600.00 is based on a penalty system.
Each month the employee would start with a £300 bonus.
You decide what the fixed penalty will be for making a silly mistake that could have been avoided if they had just paid more attention, it could be £20.
Each time they make a mistake through attention to detail £20 gets taken off their potential bonus.
It really does encourage all staff to double and triple check their work at all times.
As an employer, show support. You say “there is nothing more I want this month than to give you the full bonus”
If after the trial a new staff member’s performance is high, you should increase the basic salary but increase the penalty amount too! Work the basic salary and penalty amount out depending on the position.
Performance related pay stops staff thinking, “Oh well, no matter what I do or how hard I work I will get paid anyway”.
The Second Method of Recruiting is to Hire Away From Another Company
People you come across working in other companies that impress you surely are your ideal Superstar employees, so why not offer them a position in your company and have them working for you! You may spot nice people making an extra effort in the environment they are in or showing an unusual skill. They may be working in a coffee shop which is not what your business is, BUT if they have very good customer communication skills then they would be perfect on the phone, or on your shop floor. Do you see how the foundation can be built on? It’s not always about a niche skill. As long as the willingness is there, it can pretty much be connected to any area and the recruiting & interviewing process they can be trained in the particular skills needed for the position. You may eat out in a restaurant and the waiter or waitress continually impresses you by going the extra mile and giving great friendly and attentive service.
For example this is my story:
Waitress to Second in Command…
I have always worked hard as far back as I can remember, I did a business GNVQ in my school sixth form. I always knew that I one day would like to have my own business.
When I left school, I hesitated about going to university.
So in the meantime I became a full time waitress in a restaurant where I had been working at weekends whilst studying. I had fun for a couple of years and thought I will knuckle down and go to university and develop my business knowledge.
Then I met Paul Gorman, a regular customer who came to eat with his wife who at the time was expecting a baby.
Over the weeks I got to know them as I served them generally chatting, laughing and catching up.
Once Tristan was born they used to bring him along too.
On these days when they came in, if we were not too busy in the restaurant I would entertain Tristan while Paul and Joanie ate their food, giving them a break and some time to talk. Paul and Joanie came to like me as a person and asked if I would baby sit once in a while. Then I started to look after Tristan on my day off from the restaurant.
Paul worked from home running his Marketing Consultancy business. While Tristan would take his afternoon nap I would go into Paul’s office and see if he would like any help with anything. He was impressed with my passion to work as hard as I could and my interest in business. He and Joanie offered me a full time job working in their marketing consultancy and publishing company, where I have now been for over 10 years! I am now second in command and I feel I have learnt and achieved so much.
Looking back I now see that even as a waitress in a small local restaurant I always excelled myself and pushed myself further. I would clean the drinks fridges out if it was quiet or check customers were happy, if they would like more drinks and they were comfortable.
I developed relationships with regular customers. I even remembered details they would tell me about there lives so the next time they were in I would ask about it, for example did their son pass his driving test?
You could see it made them genuinely happy that I knew.
In a small way this contributed to the love of the restaurant and it made me happy to see happy customers. I got regular pay rises and even took on some duty manager roles like wages and stock control.
It has always been ingrained in me to push my limits and I get an unrequited sense of satisfaction.
Since working with Paul I have discovered that one of the biggest questions that arise with our clients is the issue of staff!
By observing someone in their place of work you can look for the sustained performance and gradually realise if they would fit into your environment. You may even have a chance to talk to them and interview them without them knowing!
If you always have in mind the list of activities, roles and skills you are looking for you can always be on the lookout for people in other organisations. Approach them and say “I am impressed with you and I think I may have a position for you”.
Explain, you have spotted and admire their work and you think they will be an asset to your organisation. And say
‘I am not sure until you are in the business whether or not you would suit the position I have in mind because you haven’t done anything like this before, but from what I have seen of you, if you continue to be like that I think it will work out.’
People you have already seen with these great attributes are like sponges wanting to absorb everything and try so hard. It is critical that you make it clear to them if you are putting them in a totally different position that it is performance related-pay.
But, if a person has already been performing the kind of work that your position demands of them but wants to climb the career ladder and shows the Superstar character traits, you can bet you have a winner.
They would then go through the interview and selection process as anyone else, but you already have your eye on them.
Be clear, you will take them on a three month trial basis.
This makes sure they are deadly serious and confident they think they are good for the job. Not only for you but for them too. They might actually hate it! I really cannot emphasise enough how, if you spot Superstar traits in a person offer them a chance to talk about a position in your company straight away. This applies to the third method too...
The Third Method of Recruiting is to Look Within Your Organisation to Fill Roles
If a person already works for you and have shown they are dedicated, caring, hardworking and take ownership, offer them a promotion! You already know they are loyal, hardworking and dedicated all you need to do is train them for the particular role you need.
For example, we had a wonderful lady, Jan, working for us in the mailing and fulfilment department. She was fantastic, always hard working; she would go the extra mile by staying late if a deadline had to be met. If there was nothing to do she would find things to do and come up with ideas.
Jan had little computer skills when she first came but I could see she had Superstardom ingrained in her soul. A natural willingness was there, and, with that, she could be trained.
We were looking to replace an admin person, so I immediately offered Jan hours to suit her, more money and training. She was happy to take the position. Jan turned out to be my right arm. Anything I asked I knew would be done and she would not be scared to try something new.
If I had not yet shown her how to do something she would have a go at it herself then come to me and say, “I have done this what do you think?” Nine times out of ten she had achieved what we wanted, if not more. Jan ended up running all our accounts and order processing! I would always give her a job and I knew whatever she did she would always give it her all! Imagine virtually every one of your staff members being a Jan.
Once your new staff member is on board he or she needs to be trained specifically.
Give immediate responsibility even if it is small. Train and re-train, critique and measure work, give feedback and help to mould that person into what they need to be within your company in order to be the Superstar they have demonstrated they are.
Always give clear instructions, always recognise their work and praise it, nurture, motivate and be their friend.
In the next section we look at the ‘Philosophy’ of being your staff’s friend and how to start building relationships, get staff to share your vision, purpose and passion for the business.
Chapter 5: The ‘philosophy’ of being your staff’s best friend and the method of getting them to share your vision
In exactly the same way you must never loosen the attention you’re putting towards training each member of your staff, you must also never loosen the attention you’re putting into being your staff’s friend. You need to continually let them know you are on their side. Devote quality time to them, listen to them and take a genuine interest.
This plays a huge role in keeping them motivated and keeping their morale up. They each must know you support, respect, trust and appreciate them.
Don’t get complacent; don’t get comfortable and sit back thinking everyone is working well. They NEED constant reminding that they are doing a good job and appreciated as members of your business family.
One major key is that staff need to feel valued. A workforce that knows it is valued is a considerably more productive workforce.
Each individual’s higher productivity leads of course to your businesses higher profits, but not only higher but easier and more enjoyable too. Your staff turnover will also be less, and we all know how very stressful and time-consuming it is looking for, training and taking on and making those staff most effective.
Many companies have difficulty holding onto their staff and motivating them and this is because they fail to de-vote quality time and attention to them. Staff frustrations are one of the biggest problems I have come across in business...don’t let this happen to you!
Remember, the one and most important thing you are dealing with is human nature.
Once you understand this you can train your staff in a way that will get the best from them. You will find they will suddenly work their tails off, take responsibility and most importantly show extraordinary loyalty to your company.
Let’s take a live example. Let’s say you have taken on a member of staff or you are creating a Superstar staff system that you are beginning to implement. How do you motivate them and get them working reliably, as if it was their own business?
The importance of explaining the Purpose of your Business…
Sit down and explain the nitty gritty of the work that they will be performing. It’s almost the same as your marketing, you are selling a result. Be honest and sincere. Explain to them the result you are trying to achieve. This the way they can understand the true purpose of the business which will help them understand why they are being asked to do each and every task. Write a Purpose Statement for your company: the goals you have, where you want the business to go and how each team member plays an important part in that progress. Outline what is expected of them and what they should expect from you.
This is a great way to give them understanding and confidence that they must not expect anything less than a certain standard or treatment from the company. Tell them where you are on the ladder right now and let them help you reach the higher goals you are aiming for, or to improve on them.
It will become the backbone of the entire purpose or activity of every member of your staff, the pure essence of why your business exists and why your staff should always relate back to it.
Mission statements and job descriptions hardly ever contain information about values. They are generally about rules and regulations. Companies suffer from the way employees talk to and treat customers and colleagues.
Job descriptions should include this information. This is where the best friend philosophy comes in. Installing the right attitude within your Superstar team. A good team is built on values and expertise first discovered at the interview stage so really explore personal values. It’s about actions; technical brilliance is not enough.
A Purpose Statement should include: The reason your business exists, for example it could be:
To create the best, most practical, most application-specific, most immediately-resultful education, information, advice or products.
To help business owners and professionals achieve outstanding success in the particular business or practice they own.
To always provide the best and highest level of service in every way we possibly can.
What your staff should relate back to at all times:
1. We should each strive to be the best we can be. It’s vitally important to do everything we do in the best, most complete and accurate way we can. This is the key to our success.
We want to strive to get the highest and best result from every hour we spend at it, every pound it costs to do it, every effort we put into it and every consumable we use to get it done.
In other words, we optimise everything we do. When we optimise everything we do, we are a highly efficient business. Only by being a highly efficient business, can we provide the very highest and best service and value to our customers and to each other.
PLUS, only by being a highly efficient business can we pay you, our staff, the highest wages for the job you do—based on performance—and make it possible for you to live a higher than average personal lifestyle, which is my goal for you.
2. We respect and value people first. We are in business first and foremost to provide people—our customers—with extreme value. We take on staff to do a specific job but never forget that they are people. We expect hard, dedicated and accurate work. But at the same time, we never forget that our staff are people who we respect and highly value. We are also in business because we love what we do. You also should love what you do here.
3. We listen closely to customers and each other. Listening closely and interestedly to another person is one of the greatest gifts you can give. Let’s always give that gift to each other—and our customers.
4. We get the details right. Getting the details right is the keystone to achieving our Mission and Values. When you get the details right you can be the best you can be.
When you get the details right you can optimise your performance and generate higher value for the business—and for yourself in higher wages, promotions and recognition.
5. We provide superior quality and service. Not only to our customers—but to ourselves! If everything we do, we aim to do with superior quality and superior service, we cannot fail to optimise our performance to our customers, and our performance to ourselves.
Then cover what you expect from your staff members and what they should expect from you:
For example:
As a valued and respected person in our employment, you should expect a certain number of things from us.
What we expect of you:
We expect you to be 100% dedicated to our purpose of providing the best and highest value and service to our customers.
We expect you to study and learn all necessary procedures, systems, and product knowledge in order to provide meaningful and knowledgeable input internally, and to customers every time they communicate with us.
We expect you to be project and customer focused, rather than time-focused. If, to complete a job or a customer request, you need to stay on after your ‘official’ hours, then we expect you to do that. If, on the other hand, you have completed your projects before your ‘official’ hours, we don’t expect you to hang around waiting for the clock! Use your common sense and judgment both ways.
We expect you to take responsibility for the work you do.
We give and expect you to take authority for the work you do. After you have been trained, I am not your ‘boss’, you are your boss. Or if you are part of a team, you are an important and authoritative member of that team, which makes its own decisions based on the business or project goals we have set as a company.
Everyday work is straight forward. But when something unusual occurs, or a problem arises, or a customer calls with an unusual request, you have the authority to decide on, and take what action you think is best, focused on a customer oriented solution.
We don’t accept whinging. Whingers have no place here. If you don’t like the way something is being done, suggest something creative to improve it.
We expect you to have a positive attitude—a ‘can-do’ attitude. Anything less is a drain on you and other people around you. It also means you are not doing the best job you can do (no one can do a good job with a negative, grumpy attitude.) If we see you with a negative or grumpy attitude, we’ll want to know why.
We expect you to talk to us if you are ever unhappy or dissatisfied about anything. Don’t store it up and be miserable. You are always able to talk. We will listen to and appreciate what you say, and try to help solve the problem.
We expect you to let us know what direction you want to go in. You might be perfectly happy doing the job you are doing. Or you might one day yearn to slide into a different aspect of our business. If so, tell us, and we’ll help you make the right career move.
We expect you to be a team player. When you are a star team player, you are making a considerable contribution.
Most of all, we expect you to study, absorb, and take on the Strategy of Giving. Whether you are an employee, a director, a business owner—a partner in any type of relationship—it is no different. When your whole attitude is one of giving as much as you can to the position or relationship you are involved in—you will receive maximum enjoyment, fulfilment and reward as a result.
What you should expect of us:
You should expect us to appreciate you as a valuable and important employee.
You should expect us to trust you.
You should expect us to respect you.
You should expect us to inspire you with purpose.
You should expect us to let you know what we expect of you.
You should expect us to provide you with the power to complete your job function in the best way possible.
You should expect us to include you in our Purpose as a business.
You should expect us to create a productive atmosphere and attitude.
You should expect us to measure your performance and provide you with regular feedback.
You should expect us to generate quality communication between us.
You should expect us to create an atmosphere that encourages free airing and resolution of conflict.
You should expect us to include you in decision making processes.
You should expect us to provide an environment that nurtures creativity.
You should expect us to promote good time management.
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