Assisting with a PEOPLE ISSUE

A well-established furniture manufacturing business with a good history and a creditable reputation began to experience a decline in sales.  Competitors started making inroads into a market formally dominated by the company.  The problem was finding good people to replace current employees leaving to move elsewhere for better jobs.  To meet the increasing need for replacement employees, the hiring managers had begun hiring lesser-qualified people.  Quality suffered and production time increased substantially. Recognizing they had a problem and did not have the time or resources to solve it, the company turned to Smith Group Consulting for help.

In interviews with the hiring managers, it was found that each looked for a different skill-set in people doing essentially the same work.  Individual and group meeting were held with the hiring managers to clarify the skills, abilities prospective employee must have in order to be considered for employment and what skills could be tough once they were hired.  Duties, responsibilities, performance standards and job expectations were defined and standardized. 

The hiring managers needed to improve their interviewing skills so an interviewing training program was conducted.  In these programs, the managers learned to what information  they needed to  obtain from the interviewee and what information the prospective employee needed to be given concerning the work and the company.  Time was spent practicing these techniques and actual interview were videotaped and critiqued. 

In a very short period of time the skills and attitudes of the hiring manages changed, competent people were hired, the culture of the organization changed and morale improved. The following fiscal year the company reversed all declining indicators and applications of highly skilled people were on file waiting openings and employment.