Always be looking
One of the best ways to ensure that you get top people to come
work at your company is to always be looking for new hires,
whether you have an immediate need or not.
“I keep four to five business cards with me all the time,” Mays
says. “You look for them in places you wouldn’t expect to find
them. We just hired one that graduated in December that was a
direct result of a talk I made at Bloomington last year. We made
a job offer, and he’ll start in the next couple weeks. Be responsive when approached. You never know when the opportunity or
a vacancy might occur.”
Mays referred to a young female employee who suddenly had
to leave the company because her husband took a job in Texas.
“It’s something that 90 days ago, that wasn’t even an opening,” Mays says. “She wasn’t unhappy. It was her spouse that
was getting this opportunity.”
If you’re always looking for people, when those unexpected situations arise, you’ll be in a better position to respond.
When you bring candidates in for an interview, make sure they talk
to several of the people for whom they’ll be working.
“It’s not just my opinion, but there are five or six others that are
involved in that process,” Mays says. “The future employee has to
impress all of them or most of them or else he’s not going to get the
nod.
“You get different perspectives. Like I’m biased about certain
things; there are certain things that I have been exposed to.
Somebody from the liberal arts area may have been exposed to a different set of circumstances and may see a different quality that I may
have missed. There are always four or five different interviewers for
an employee.”
Once the best candidate is identified and brought on board, get him
or her with an experienced employee who can show him or her the
ropes.
“It’s a two-way street,” Mays says. “They get a chance to not only
take pride in helping an employee, they develop friendships and
they get to see other characteristics that they might consider appropriate for friendship outside the company.”
Those bonds can ultimately come back to help the company.
“People tend to look out for each other,” Mays says. “If someone is ill or sick today, other employees will step up and do that
work and say, ‘Hey, I’ll take care of this. I’ll stay a little longer. You
go on home and pick up the kid.’ I’ve seen that happen time and
time again.”