by Kirby Lindsay, posted 18 April 2012
The Fremont business district has a significant percentage of small businesses – businesses where the owner is likely be the person handing over your change, answering the phone, or serving the beer. Still, even small businesses will hire employees, and owners of three of Fremont’s well-established businesses spoke about their process.
The Hiring Process
Craig Wilson, owner of Video Isle, admitted, “I have not figured out an exact science,” to the hiring process. In his twenty years operating the video store (with its two locations,) he has tried using corporate H.R. practices, “and they’ve failed miserably.” The predetermined questions, and answers, didn’t work he found because, “people are unique.” Ultimately, he said, “when I have ignored my guts, I have made the biggest mistakes.”
“Currently, I am the main partner in 5 restaurants,” explained Peter Glick by e-mail, “I’ve had as many as 8 or 9 at a time. Two are in NY and run by my partner there,” and here in Fremont he now has three – Roxy’s Diner, Backdoor @ Roxy’s and Pete’s Fremont Fire Pit. “Hiring is a bit easier now,” he wrote, “with all the existing employees you have a wider base of word of mouth. And friends of employees are usually a better choice than just random people applying for a job.”
“So far, I’ve hand-picked my employees,” explained Michelle Conley. Her two locations of her retail clothing boutique, Mishu, require that she employ shop gals – especially as Conley still sells the clothes she designs at the festivals and the Fremont Sunday Market, where she started her company. She conducts interviews when she needs someone, she said, but it isn’t a common occurrence. “The first two employees I had,” when she opened the Fremont store five years ago, “never left,” she announced proudly.
The Retention Plan
Conley recently discovered that the wages she pays her retail clerks comes in at the highest percentile, although she wasn’t surprised. “I care about them,” she said and, “I want to be fair.” She admitted, “the reason I have as many amazing women working for me is that the economy is crappy, and I pay a good wage.”
Glick also gave the current economy, in part, credit for his better than average employee retention. “In this economy keeping employees is not a problem,” he wrote, “and in my experience, turnover is not a big problem when you match the right person to the right job.” When the hiring pool shrinks, when jobs are easier to find, he has found it more difficult to make those good matches.
He has also found that operating a well-run business retains quality employees. “Of course, when the shop is busy the employees are making more money so they are more likely to stay,” he explained, “When it is slow they start looking for better opportunities.”
For Wilson, retention isn’t a goal. He’s had employees that have stayed 5 to 10 years, and “I’ve had good employees that have come back,” he said, when they needed another part-time, fill-in job. However, he hires only expecting about 2 to 3 years. “I don’t want it to be a career,” he said about the clerk position, “I don’t offer career benefits, or wages,” that support a family.
The Perfect Hire?
“The number one thing I look for,” Wilson said about hiring for Video Isle, “is that they want to work for my company.” He weeds out the people that hand in applications just anywhere. He looks for applicants with a “people friendly personality,” he explained. As for an encyclopedic knowledge of movies, “I would love that,” he said, but it isn’t a deal-breaker. “I have met some good young people that didn’t know a thing about movies,” he admitted, “When I got into the business myself I didn’t know much about movies, except that I liked them.”
For Conley, “the first thing is a sense of integrity, and honesty.” For Mishu, she needs clerks that care about people, individually as well as a group – and can sell. Because her employees have stayed on, they are now older than the average retail clerk, which Conley enjoys. At thirty, or older, they tend to be more mature and better at meeting the public. It also helps which the characteristics she returned to over and over; “I think integrity is the biggest thing for me.”
The Hiring Horror Story
“You have to have courage to be in business,” Wilson said, and “you have to be willing to fire to be able to hire.”
Conley reported that she has fired one employee, after catching her stealing merchandise with a boyfriend. Conley has stayed friends with the former employee, she reported, but she won’t hire her again.
Glick, who has owned approximately 15 restaurants or food businesses in his history, so far, shared a horror story about a recent near-hire. “I was looking to hire a new chef. A guy applied from Alaska,” Glick wrote. The chef interviewed well, and his references sounded good – but Glick decided to Google him as well, based on a comment the chef made during the phone interview that triggered Glick’s instinct. “Up pops his photo and a large warning: Scam Artist! Wanted for Bigamy, Arson, and Con Artist,” Glick reported, “The only thing truthful about what he had told me was that he was a chef!!”
“I love what I do,” Wilson stated, “I can’t think of a better business, and I’m proud of my employees.” That came through clearly in talking with all three of these successful business owners – they genuinely seem to like their employees, and care about them and the work they do.
“If I don’t like them,” Wilson explained, “I get rid of them. As a small business person, you have to follow your instincts because that’s all you have.”
Fremont has a significant percentage of stable and long-lived small businesses. The secret to their success, as simple as it sounds, may be a willingness to listen to instinct, and a love of what they do – and the people they must work with every day.
Related Articles
- Where We Welcome Favs From The Past
- by Kirby Lindsay, February 22, 2012
- Business Building At The Fremont Market
- by Kirby Lindsay, December 24, 2009
©2012 Kirby Lindsay. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.