Utilities with new positions to fill face two problems – an overwhelming
number of applicants and the challenge of hiring the right people.
With so many people competing for jobs, applicants may say what they think the
human resources department wants to hear to get the job. And while utilities
strive to hire good people, they need to ask themselves if they are hiring
people who care about their customers.
Following are some tips on how to create a customer-focused staff.
What Is the Job? What are the skills
your prospective employees must have to do the job and which skills are the
most important from your point of view? Talk to other employees at your
utility who are already doing the job or who would be working with the new
hire. They likely will have an opinion on needed skills.
Try Depth-Perception Interviewing.
This type of interviewing will enhance the hiring process. This technique
focuses on capturing behavioral information that illustrates capabilities and
performance related to specific job competencies. A good predictor of future
behavior is past behavior and depth-perception interviewing will help you find
it. Create a list of questions that will give you insight into how a job
applicant performed in the past in a business environment.
Measure the Candidates. You need to
rank your candidates with a scoring system for the competencies you seek. A
ranking of 1 could mean the candidate lacks the necessary skills and a ranking
of 5 could mean the candidate has a high level of competency. This helps you
avoid hiring based on first impressions. Applicants who are great at
impressing someone are not necessarily good at doing a specific job.
Hire for Attitude, Train for Skill.
Southwest Airlines hires people who enjoy helping others and then gives them
the technical skills they need to do their jobs. Most companies look for
someone with experience in the industry, but Southwest is more interested in
having employees with a desire to help people. The airline knows it can train
new employees to do their jobs. Southwest has one of the best
customer-service records in the airline industry. If you are hiring people
who will interact with your customers, you want someone who cares about your
customers.
Buy A Personality Profile. It’s
expensive to hire a new person. Unfortunately, the average company spends 30
percent of an employee’s salary to replace them later for reasons such as
inability to learn skills and dissatisfaction with the job. In other words,
hiring mistakes can lead to firings. A personality profile tool can help
develop a better understanding of each candidate’s strengths and weaknesses.
There are a number of these tools available in the marketplace. Some
companies have their best employees take the profile and use that information
as a benchmark. Personality profiles can help you determine if someone is a
good match for your utility.
These tips will help you hire the right people for the job. But when it comes
to customer service, the bottom line is this: will this particular applicant
care about your customers and enjoy working with them?
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David Saxby is president of Measure-X, a Phoenix,
Ariz.-based measurement, training and recognition company that specializes in
customer service and sales skill training for utility companies. He can be
reached at 888-644-5499 or via e-mail at
david@measure-x.com. Visit the Measure-X Web site at
www.measure-x.com.
