The David Strategy is a blog series that explains who pool and spa retailers can reinvent their business to become a "High Fidelity business," which is key to successfully battling our industry's version of Goliath — big box stores and online retailers. Past posts can be seen here.
Welcome back to our discussion on how to build a high definition pool and hot tub business. Today's post zeros in on one of the most critical “enablers” in any David Strategy transformation: getting your people strategy right. For most professional pool and hot tub businesses, this is typically the weakest link.
Think back to our story of David and Goliath. At its core, having the right person with the right skills, attitude and tools was what really won the day against Goliath. It is no different for any high-definition business.
For more than 40 years I have been blessed to work in our industry and almost exclusively with pool and hot tub professionals. When I travel to visit with business owners, I like to ask them one question: “What is your biggest headache?” Invariably, the conversation turns to finding and keeping great people. I like to ask a follow-up question: “Have you ever calculated the high cost of mis-hires?:
Most dealers haven’t, but it only takes a few moments for them to start listing the “pains” of hiring and their costs, such as antiquated processes that waste time, poorly suited new hires who can’t create and/or sustain PureWow experiences, lost or missed opportunities to sell more effectively, excessive consumption of management time “trying to get it right,” disgruntled consumers — the list is endless. And, it turns out, largely unnecessary if you modernize your people strategy and processes.
We all spend a lot of time and resources on our customer attraction strategies, but very few invest the appropriate amount of time on employee attraction strategies. The notion that “people make money” is misplaced. It’s having the right people with a winning business design that makes you money. Getting the people piece right and having it working 24/7, 365 days a year is critical to any business.
Let’s start with a blinding flash of the obvious: Our industry is always going to have a rotating door of employees. We are not the highest payers. There is a seasonal component. Long hours and weekend work is mandatory. It is not a highly attractive starting profile for new applicants.
The second reality is the science of hiring effectively has changed immensely; many businesses have not caught up to and/or gotten in front of the new realities. Young people have a much different view towards work than previous generations. On the plus side, they wish to lead more balanced lives: work is not everything to them. When the end of their shift arrives (expect to set your clock by their leaving), they are off to their other interests: their band, their friends, etc. It is not better or worse, just different. The younger generation does come enabled with new and valuable skills — the capacity to leverage technology, for example. But hiring smart in the modern world is different and we have to accommodate this new reality.
The way people look for jobs has also changed dramatically. It is all about technology. A candidate can send out hundreds of resumes in a day. How does a manager cope with this using outdated HR processes from the past? The simple answer is you can't. Time to look for better, technology-enabled solutions. The good news is there are lots available. Below, I will highlight one example that is working well for our industry and is really easy to implement: TalentSorter.
Before we get into that, let’s consider the characteristics one should look for in great hires.
One of the best and most affordable hiring solutions for backyard leisure businesses has been developed by a company called Hiring Smart. There are many pool and hot tub dealerships across North America who have leveraged their hiring and employee attraction solutions here for over a decade. They recently released an ever better one called TalentSorter.
TalentSorter is focused on allowing you to deploy what is referred to as an “employee attraction strategy” using the internet and a direct and unique web link to your company (for example, www.jobswithus.com). It then focuses on shifting most of the work to the candidates and automatically screening whether or not they would make a great candidate for the job you’ve posted.
TalentSorter is different in a few key ways. It allows you to tailor questionnaires for various positions in your company — after all, a questionnaire for a seasonal staffer shouldn't be the same as one for a store manager. It assesses candidates across 25 different personality traits to offer you a comprehensive idea of who each candidate is. Finally, the entire process focuses on "jobfit" for both sides, so you get a good employee and they get a good job.
TalentSorter is just one way to hire new employees, though — what works for you? Comment with your thoughts.
Dennis Gray is the co-founder — along with one of the most experienced teams of innovative industry professionals — of Backyard Brands Inc., and former President of Biolab’s International Group of companies. Backyard Brands is focused on one mission: to develop differentiated and remarkable backyard water wellness products sold exclusively through Backyard Leisure Professionals who have a passion for reinventing their businesses to compete more successfully in this new age.
