Hiring employees - what's your take?

[Rob]

Caution! Caution! Achtung! Achtung! This is a business related thread Caution! Caution! Achtung! Achtung!

I have a problem and I would like to know everyone's philosophy on hiring new employees. I will present my philosophy and if you could, let me know if there are any flaws in it.

I am a quality over quantity kind of guy. The way I like to operate is to hire one person to multi-task and pay him/her over the standard rate. For instance; rather than hiring a customer service person, a sales rep, and a designer I would hire a designer that can do customer service and sales and pay him more money. My partner doesn't agree so he hired people to work in certain departments rather than multi-taskers.

The problem I'm running into is that my employees are starting to rattle the "I want a raise" tree and it's not in my budget to give them raises. I have a customer service department, a prepress department, a design department, and a shipping department. Each with their own employees doing only what that department is responsible for. I pay them what I think is the going rate for that respective position.

My designers won't answer the phones, my customer service people can't design...it's causing small rifts. I want to scratch my entire customer service department and tell my designers and prepress to start answering the phones. I can give them pay raises since they'll be doing more work but it will still be less than paying my customer service people.

I'm having a tough decision on what to do and I know it's a stretch, but get some solid business advice from another business owner.

[NoWhErE]

In my experience, customer service people can easily be replaced but designers (good ones anyhow) are hard to find. Cut back on the monkeys (customer service) and pay the ones you keep a bit more to make them happy. They may have to work harder, but at least they got their raise and you'll save money by cutting back on 1-2 salaries.


If they're not happy, fire them all and get a few students. Like I said, its an easy position to fill and if they're not happy, they can go some where else.

Just don't let them become unionised! lol otherwise you're screwed!

[jukeboxfrank]

Well the problem is not making a person multi-task to be of value. It is to put a person who has drive to earn more into a place in the company that will make both you and that person more money. IE.. sales, more sales more commission. Faster better design more work done and able to sell more. But in a dead end position only doing donkey labor just replace a unhappy worker because to pay more would just be a hand out and they will be just as unhappy next year.

[aflex]

cut the customer service role to the sales guys.. offer the sales guy more incentives for sales.. i dont agree with making a designer a secretary/office grunt..

[aflex]

besides if a sales guy landed some accounts.. he should be the customers contact at your company anyway (customer service)..

[GTS Mark]

Ahhh the wonderful world of hiring employees. ;)

DH

[C_U_Next_Tuesday]

designers need to design which takes creativity.. have them answering phones and you fuck that creativity up.

[NoWhErE]

Originally Posted by aflex

cut the customer service role to the sales guys.. offer the sales guy more incentives for sales.. i dont agree with making a designer a secretary/office grunt..

True, usually artists don't mix well in PR lol, USUALLY, not always...


But incentives is also a good idea, gives people a purpose for working. Invent snazzy little titles for whomever you give a promotion too, etc. Whenever they get a promotion, give them more responsabilities and a wee little raise. It seemed to work for Mcdonald's.

[Raven]

Originally Posted by Rob

Caution! Caution! Achtung! Achtung! This is a business related thread Caution! Caution! Achtung! Achtung!

I have a problem and I would like to know everyone's philosophy on hiring new employees. I will present my philosophy and if you could, let me know if there are any flaws in it.

I am a quality over quantity kind of guy. The way I like to operate is to hire one person to multi-task and pay him/her over the standard rate. For instance; rather than hiring a customer service person, a sales rep, and a designer I would hire a designer that can do customer service and sales and pay him more money. My partner doesn't agree so he hired people to work in certain departments rather than multi-taskers.

The problem I'm running into is that my employees are starting to rattle the "I want a raise" tree and it's not in my budget to give them raises. I have a customer service department, a prepress department, a design department, and a shipping department. Each with their own employees doing only what that department is responsible for. I pay them what I think is the going rate for that respective position.

My designers won't answer the phones, my customer service people can't design...it's causing small rifts. I want to scratch my entire customer service department and tell my designers and prepress to start answering the phones. I can give them pay raises since they'll be doing more work but it will still be less than paying my customer service people.

I'm having a tough decision on what to do and I know it's a stretch, but get some solid business advice from another business owner.

Our company policy is whoever is around does customer support, whether it's affiliates or site members. We have specific people doing some jobs; but, if there is a death in the family or time off for sickness, even the President sweeps the floors at times.

Our customer support team works six days a week, in shifts, to cover 24 hours per day. But, shit happens. Our programmers are in job specific titles; but, that doesn't mean they can't add text to a page or fix some little tiny html issues.

Our designers have been known to do small tasks which do not involve design, although we keep them pretty busy with design.

Then, we have a specialist for traffic generation, but that doesn't stop him from doing tedious bullshit.

I personally think putting a team together, a well oiled machine..is difficult...and paying them what they are worth is very subjective.

I'm here on a Sunday covering a shift for one of our customer reps, because her grandmother died. It's secretary work.....but, it is necessary. The owner of the company has been known to work well into the wee hours of the night because we had an issue when one of our staff wasn't present, for whatever reason.

I think someone else said it best....it's motivation and drive within the individual.....that makes the difference. If the company thrives, everyone benefits.....at least, that is as it should be.

[Paul Waters]

Good sales people and good designers are invaluable.

Making them do customer service is a huge waste of their time, and will piss them off. You would be incenting them to look for a new job.

[Raven]

Originally Posted by Paul Waters

Good sales people and good designers are invaluable.

Making them do customer service is a huge waste of their time, and will piss them off. You would be incenting them to look for a new job.

I agree that good sales people and good designers are invaluable. Much also depends on personality. I would never ask anyone to perform something for which they are not suited...and, not everyone is wired to deal with affiliates and customers.

On the other hand, whatever it takes to keep the company in positive shape is up to the executives .....customer support is the front line for most businesses. I have a list of stores I will no longer frequent because of poor customer relationship practises.....it's a touchy balance for a company to achieve.

Ask Fujitsu about customer support and me. I figure, by the time I DO get this F** laptop, it will be free.