How do owners of small businesses find good employees? The techniques vary.
Adam Talarek, president of PrintShack, a printing company in Addison, works with trade-school faculty to identify printing-program students who might make good employees.
Ellen Blum, president of Career Express, a downtown Chicago bookstore and resource center for people seeking career information, writes “clever ads” and posts them on the bulletin boards of Chicago-area college placement offices.
And Rebecca Korach, who heads Active Insurance Agency in Wicker Park on Chicago’s Near Northwest Side, sometimes asks employees to refer friends and acquaintances.
Though all have achieved a measure of success with their favored methods, these business owners report that finding and keeping good employees often is difficult.
On limited budgets, they can’t afford the human resource staffs and personnel screeners used by many large corporations. So, they report, they have to work harder at recruiting, and must inject more creativity into the employee search.
“We can’t invest in a quarter-column ad in a major newspaper, so that means we have to use a lot of other resources,” said Korach, whose agency, founded 30 years ago by her parents, has a staff of 15.
“I talk to as many people as possible. I ask current staff for referrals and I’ve gone through social service agencies. I’ve even asked employees of (other businesses) who seem overqualified for their positions if they might be interested in changing jobs.”
Elena Linarez, who opened her Elena Travel Inc. travel agency in Pilsen in February, also has tried several tacks to obtain her three employees.
In addition to seeking job candidates through radio and newspaper ads, she has hired a cousin as well as a woman who walked in and requested an application. Both have proven to be good workers.
“But it’s still extremely hard to find good employees, especially younger employees,” she said. “Most young people are thinking about what they’ll be doing on the weekend-not about the job.”
Retaining qualified employees also can be daunting, but some small business owners believe they may have a leg up on large corporations when it comes to keeping good staff members.
“I think retention can be higher with smaller companies,” Korach said. “We can be more flexible with salaries than some big employers. And in a smaller office, it can be easier to identify employees who are doing a great job and reward them with an increase in salary or responsibility.”
Blum, with two part-time and two full-time employees, and Talarek, who employs six, agree. “Big firms have their policies and procedures and their union contracts, and an entrepreneur may have more opportunity to offer incentives to good employees,” Blum said.
Owners of small businesses, she added, can help boost retention rates by making employees aware that their futures are tied closely to those of the firms.
In Blum’s case, that idea is reinforced through cash bonuses and gifts, tokens she buys on her vacation, which she dispenses to Career Express employees who sell above expectations or otherwise perform particularly well.
“It makes them feel special, and gives them a sense that our bottom line is their bottom line,” she said.
PrintShack’s Talarek also uses incentives to keep good workers. “We have all six of our employees, even our press operator, on a bonus program,” he said. “We’ve found incentives can help give employees a sense of commitment to the company’s long-term future.”
When small companies do encounter troubles hiring and retaining good personnel, the problem often can be traced to inadequate salary and benefit packages or poor training, said Steve Konkle, finance specialist with the Small Business Administration in Chicago.
Konkle reports that his organization offers counseling to entrepreneurs as well as startup owners.
“In the counseling process, we try to find out what their personnel problems are,” he said. “Maybe they are at fault, in that they’re not training workers properly. Or it could be that their compensation packages are a problem.”
After identifying the companies’ personnel woes, the SBA generally refers small business owners to resources that can deliver more specific help.
One such resource is the Illinois Department of Employment Security, which administers the state’s unemployment insurance program through its 60 offices statewide, 23 of which are in the Chicago area.
Spokeswoman Shari Kertez said the department offers two major benefits to employers who need help attracting qualified personnel. The first is a job service, which can match unemployed workers with small businesses that need their talents.
“What small-business people can do is contact one of our local offices and list their job openings with our department,” she said. “We have a large, statewide database of available workers. We do the preliminary screening, making sure available job candidates match the needs of the employers. Then we refer qualified individuals to those businesses.”
For the nearest office, check the blue pages of the telephone book under Illinois Department of Employment Security, Kertez said.
The department also offers an annual wage survey, which can keep growing companies from losing workers due to inadequate compensation.
According to Kertez, owners of small businesses can examine the survey to determine whether the employment compensation they offer is in line with that of other area employers. To request a wage survey, call the department’s Labor Market Information and Analysis Division at 312-793-2316.
The Job Training Partnership Act program, a federal training program overseen in Illinois by the Department of Commerce and Community Affairs (DCCA), is another resource small business owners can tap for qualified workers.
Among the primary objectives of the program is helping economically disadvantaged workers and those who have recently lost jobs.
Training programs are locally administered by 26 “service delivery area” offices throughout the state, said Jerry Burger, industrial training program manager, and Herb Dennis, director of Illinois’ Job Training Partnership Act program, with the DCCA in Springfield.
In Chicago, the Mayor’s Office of Employment and Training heads the training program, and training is provided by community colleges, private schools and community-based organizations, among others, Dennis said.
He added that small business owners can call the Mayor’s Office of Employment and Training to inquire about the availability of qualified job candidates or to link up with workers who need and want specific on-the-job training.
“(The Job Training Partnership Act) is a good source for any business looking for good, well-trained workers, regardless of whether it’s a small or large business,” said Lynn Morford, spokeswoman for the DCCA. “We work very hard to see that people are trained in skills and areas where we know there’s a need for workers. It’s a really good program.”
