ENX Magazine’s Elite Dealers for 2016 provided a great deal of information on their submission forms that we did not use in the December issue. One area was the dealers saw as their biggest challenges going forward. We received some insightful, well-reasoned responses, and we are sharing them here with you starting with recruiting and staff development. We will cover some of the other challenges–including keeping up with technology, maintaining margins and growth, and M&A–in upcoming The Week in Imaging enewsletters.
Recruiting and staff development go hand-in-hand, and it was by far the most common response to the question. Many of our Elite Dealers saw their ability to hire, train, and retain employees as critical to their future success. Below are some of the steps they are taking to ensure they meet this challenge.
Map out a plan. It pays to understand not only your upcoming personnel needs, but how your workforce is likely to change over the next few years. Who is approaching retirement age? What’s the profile of people likely to replace them once they retire? Who might be ready to replace company leaders once they retire? Perry ProTech mapped out how its workforce was likely to change through 2025 and was surprised to learn that it would need to replace as many as 17 leadership positions. “Understanding this issue is just the beginning. We have launched a targeted recruitment strategy for both internal and external candidates to fill these future positions. Along with attracting the right people to move us forward, we have created a detailed two-year leadership track to grow these individuals into new roles of prominence,” said Perry ProTech.
Get help. A number of Elite Dealers said they are working with outside recruiters or schools to find candidates. ImageNet Consulting, for example, works with 12 universities to fill its sales consultant hiring pipeline. Meritech has partnered with Kyocera to do after-hours recruiting events. Some, like Centric Business Systems, have brought the recruiting function in-house with four full-time recruiters. “We have reduced our dependency on employment agencies, hired better candidates that match our culture, and reduced turnover,” Centric stated.
Use social media as a vetting tool. You are not necessarily looking for red flags by browsing a candidate’s Facebook or LinkedIn profile. You are learning more about the candidate as a person. This will help identify candidates who best fit with your culture, and it provides information that might be useful during the interview process.
Go for quality, not quantity. Copy Concepts made a decision to go from 10 sales reps to their four most dedicated and driven reps, giving them bigger territories. The company also did its homework and brought their base pay up to levels on par with national and local trends, leaving the commission structure unchanged. This has not only motivated Copy Concepts’ sales team to perform better, it attracted much more qualified sales candidates than the company was used to hiring.
Focus people on their strengths. Many dealers are adding products and services, and this can create stress for employees who struggle to understand the new offerings. Kelley Imaging saw that this could lead to “becoming mediocre at a lot of things versus an expert at a few.” The company worked with its employees to learn where they wanted to focus and then helped them with training to become experts. This leads to more productive, less overwhelmed employees and higher customer satisfaction.
Invest in training and other career resources. TGI realized that in order to grow, it needed to hire people with an entrepreneurial spirit. To keep those people productive and happy, the company knew it needed the proper support infrastructure. TGI thinks of itself as a business incubator, and it has invested in the kinds of tools and resources that help inspire its employees to help grow the business. That includes training and education resources and marketing tools.
Some Elite Dealers believe that training needs to start on day 1 for new employees. For example, Fraser Advanced Information Systems puts its new sales personnel through a third-party professional selling skills training course. Modern Office Methods puts its new sales associates through a Fast Start 100-day orientation program.
Recognize and reward. A simple thank-you can make an employee’s day. Ongoing recognition and reward keeps them loyal and motivated. Making sure employees knew they were valued was a common theme among Elite Dealers–probably one of the biggest reasons why they are “elite.”
