Hiring a First-Class Manager
Hiring a First-Class Manager. It takes time, a comprehensive plan, and money. This article is from my second book: “The Turnaround” and is a true story.
My initial problem was that the sales staff was not willing to sell the company’s highest gross profit product. Poor management and bad service stopped the salespeople from trying to sell service to their customers.
I interviewed the service manager to determine if I should put him back in the field repairing computers. When we talked, he told me that he hated managing the department. The owner forced him into the management position when the old service manager left the company. I had talked to several other of the service technicians who told me that the manager was their “Go to Guy.” When any techs had a problem on a customer’s network that they could not solve, they called their manager. The company had a substantial backlog of open service orders with customers. Therefore it made sense to keep him in the department. I decided that I would hire a more qualified manager to supervise the service department.
Hiring a first-class manager! – The difference between a successful service department and one that is losing money is a qualified first-class manager.
I had a friend (Chris) who played on my men’s basketball league team at the local YMCA. He worked as the service department manager for a competitor’s computer distributor. Chris, a six foot six inches tall great athletic with a very friendly personality is married with a three-year-old son. Chris was an excellent candidate to fill the manager’s position. I asked him after our basketball game to meet me for a beer after and he agreed.
At the local sports pub, I told him that I had an opening for a service manager’s position. My goal was to see if he was interested in the job. He said that he did not want to work for the owner of my company because of his poor reputation. I told him that I was now the president/CEO and the owner had no daily decision-making responsibility. Chris agreed to meet with me at the company on the following Monday.
Hiring a first-class manager – Hiring a manager is very expensive if you make a mistake and hire the wrong person!
On Monday, Chris arrived at our office at 10:00 am. We talked for two hours about the company, the position, and what I had planned for the long-term future of the organization. While he was there, I had him fill out an employment application and a release to do a background check. He was a little taken back about the background check but agreed to sign it. Doing background checks on all management candidates is a firm rule of mine.
We went to lunch at noon and continued our conversation for two hours. We discussed salary, bonus, employee benefits including reimbursement technical training classes. When we finished eating, Chris said that he would talk over the situation with his wife.
Hiring a first-class manager!
Immediately, when I arrived back at the office, I had the HR manager do the background check. I was hoping that his talks with his wife went well. If so, I would be in the position to offer him the job if there were no problems in his past.
That evening, I received a phone call from Chris. He wanted to know if some of his service techs were interested in coming with him, would I consider hiring them also. I told him that I was open to his suggestion, but probably not all on the same day that he was going to start. Chris said that he was going to sleep on everything tonight and he would call me by noon the next day.
When hiring a first-class manager, I always do background, credit checks, and a drug test regardless if it was a friend or a stranger.
The next morning, my HR person got back the results of the background checks, and there were no problems. Chris called me at 11:30 am and said he would accept the position. I told him that I was going to send him an offer letter documenting everything that we agreed to regarding his employment. If he agreed to the terms and conditions in the letter, I asked him to please sign, date it, scan it, and email it back. At the end of the conversation, I said: “Welcome aboard, see you in two weeks.”
Hiring a first-class manager!
I felt great about recruiting and hiring Chris. I knew him for a long time; he had a strong reputation in his technical field and the industry. Placing a “first class” manager in the service department would be the first step towards cleaning up the service group. As a result, once he cleaned up the department, the service team could grow in sales and profits.
Please click on the links below to read my other articles like Hiring a First-Class Manager!
Six “Must Do’s” to Improve Cash Flow!
5 Important Steps to Upgrade Your Organization!
My name is Robert Curry, and I am an Author, CEO Coach, Keynote Speaker, and Turnaround Specialist. Over the past 20 years, I turned around more than 70 companies taking their businesses from Loses to Profits.
Recently, I published two books about turnarounds: “From Red to Black – A Business Turnaround” and “The Turnaround.” Both books are true stories about turnarounds of real companies that I have turned around during my career. In both books, I shared all my Profit Improvement Recommendations (“PIR’s”). PIR’s help to grow sales, reduce expenses, improve cash flow, and most importantly, strengthen the management teams.
If the information in this article Hiring a First-Class Manager! helps you, your family or a business associate, please email me at bob@ceorsc.com and please share the story with me.
If you would like to purchase either or both books autographed by the author, please click on the following link: Losses to Profits Series.
“The Turnaround” and “From Red to Black“
