Finding Good Employees ? Are We Crazy

PrintingFools

Well-known member
From the beginning we have had a problem with finding good people.

We pay more than our competitors .

We offer paid holidays, paid vacation and paid sick days.

We have tried to find new people from :

Indeed.com , Craigslist , Facebook and Word of Mouth


We have been faced with some shocking situations when employees get fired or quit.


1. We had an employee we fired because she was embossing/stealing money ($20,000) from our company


2. We had an employee we let go and he said to us that if we didnt pay him a bribe of $5,000 he would try to close out company down by lying to the IRS. We didnt pay of course because we had nothing to fear from the IRS as we are 100% honest .


3. We had an employee quit because she said the job was to stressful and she wanted to spend more time with her kids. Then she filled a FAKE claim of harassment against us ( said she feared for her life) to try and get unemployment money. We won the case, because we never did anything 100% false. But the allegation really hurt , because we treated this person like a daughter.


4. We had an employee Transition from FEMALE to MALE , during their employment . We fully supported them. Even though we don’t offer insurance . We helped pay for her/his medical bills and went with her to doctors appointment ( because he didnt want to go alone). We even stood up for him to others as far as being “judged” . He would run and hide when a customer came in that had met him as a female, or before the change. I told him you have to be proud of who you are and you can’t hide from customers. Its your job to speak to them. Yet, he quit too and blamed us.


5. We had an interview set up for a person this Tuesday. The job interview was set and confirmed twice for 3:30,…….at 3:00 she called and said she would be 15 minutes late, at 3:40 they called again and said they were almost there, at 4:00 she still had not shown up. I had to leave for another meeting. At 4:01 she called and when she was told that we waited for 1/2 an hour and had to leave. She screamed at the receptionist that “We were F#cking Rude” and hung up.



I could go on and on with more weird and shocking stories.


All of the rest of our company is great, financials, clients, growth every month.

It is just this issue with staffing.

We have a 2 part interview process, we ask detailed questions.

We don’t just go with just anyone.

We tell the people in advance that the job of working in printing is hard.

I feel like we are giving everything we can to each employee.

Yes, we are always made out to be the bad guy.


I guess I am wondering what am I doing wrong ?

If we keep having problems …them maybe we have to look at “us”

Has anyone had a problem with finding good people?

How did you solve it?


Thank You
 
Sounds like there is a serious black cloud hanging over your company. Our small family business have had the same people for a very long time. Our pressman has been here longer then I have been alive and I am 39.

Maybe people are getting the impression they can walk all over you? Sounds like a good work environment. We have had a few people in and out but nothing even remotely close to that, everything that has ended has been amicable and we have always parted on speaking terms.
 
I'll come work for you. I don't do any of that stuff.:p

If I could only be so lucky,

you mean you dont also claim to be my best friend ......
even though I never met you before
and you just got hired 1 month ago.....then go crazy and rip all those doors off of the cabinets....
when you see I am hiring more employees ...because you think they could be a threat to our relationship that you made up in your mind.
#singlewhitefemalemovie

OK thats good you are hired...LOL
p.s. yes that actually happened, no kidding
 
My business community gets fantastic hires from Coast Guard families who are stationed here, though they move on after 24 to 36 months. You might reach out to your local public safety community about hiring family members. Besides military families, wildland firefighters in their off season could be good hires. A college intern program with decent pay is another idea.
 
Hello PrintingFools,


You look like a nice outfit to work for, so any chance of an old "Printers Devil" looking for a part time " Smudger of Ink on Paper" work, including a little sunshine ???

Regards, Alois
 
Sounds like you are trying to be Mummy and Daddy to your employees, I can apreciate that but in reality it never works, in a professional Environment the "Family" Approach will only get you so far.
 
Sounds like you are trying to be Mummy and Daddy to your employees, I can appreciate that but in reality it never works, in a professional Environment the "Family" Approach will only get you so far.

In an adult environment that delicately named "family approach" is counterproductive.

When you nurture immaturity, the most mature people will eventually leave because their legitimate needs are queued up behind the "need of the week".

Some people name this "family approach" as "co-dependent behavior". Another way to spell "co-dependent" is "sucker".

Call it for what it is.

I suggest that you be much more careful about judging character in the hiring process. Unfortunately, character is really hard for most people to judge.

Bring someone into the hiring process whose character judgment skills seem to be really good. That might be all that's needed for a good beginning.
 
Last edited:
We tell the people in advance that the job of working in printing is hard.

Is working in printing really harder than anything else?
I've never worked in any other industry so I wouldn't know
Just believe in doing a good day's work for a good day's pay
 
Is working in printing really harder than anything else?
I've never worked in any other industry so I wouldn't know
Just believe in doing a good day's work for a good day's pay

that was not said so (although sometimes it can feel like that ...), it was just said that it is "hard" work (can be) ...

What is so hard? The competition, the time pressure, the daily varying qualitative and quantitative requirements?
Is there anywhere else, too, but what may not be unique, but it is really special and can sometimes be too stressful for those involved, is the fact that under the above conditions, most of the jobs are to be coordinated by specialists in their respective department.
Feeling it is very often so - at least in my situation in the prepress, that either too less or too much to do, this constant change in alertness and resilience of the balance of power tears alone sometimes even on the nerves.

The better the conditions (reliably functioning technology, existing know-how, management, organization, working atmosphere), the greater the chance that in the end there will be a satisfactory result for all parties involved and that the tasks have to be mastered.

Ulrich
 
Last edited:
UPDATE: Thank you for everyones advice.

I think I have learned that we have made the mistake of treating our employees like we are "Mom and Dad" .
I had always thought that a workplace of care and compassion was the #1 most important thing.
But, now I see that has just lead to employees walking all over us , with no respect.

As far as it being a hard job.
We are a shop of 80% RUSH jobs and 20% regular turnaround.
This means that there is a higher level of demand put on us than maybe other print shops.

An example would be :
A. client calls at 3am , is flying in from the UK and needs 1,000 36 Page books by the end of the day.
B. client calls at 8am and needs 15 4X8 Foot gatorboard prints by end of day
We work with clients that demand perfection on a short deadline.
Its hard, but we make a much higher profit on rush orders.
This allows us to pay a higher salary than our competitors.

I explain to future hires that this is not like other shops and its very fast pace.
They always say yes thats fine. I guess because they want the higher pay.
Then it seems they cant take it.
 
Does not mean, that's a good salary.
No sh1t, here it is a standard, not mention full medical insurance with dentist care :)

Maybe it is a time to rethink?
Chris

I think you'd be surprised at how much of a benefit this is for the US. Especially if you are in a position that is not very technical/professional. Paid vacation, sick and holidays is a pretty good gig. Small companies here generally cannot offer insurance. Its just so damn expensive. But I think its crazy when we hear how many vacation days European workers get. And paid maternity. I can honestly say that if we went to 6 months to 1 year paid maternity leave, women ages 20-40 would have a hard time finding jobs.
 
Gentlemen,


America ---- the poor get poorer, the rich get richer equals a very unequal sociiety.


Regards, Alois

Ah, the good ole capitalism is bad, America is greedy post. I’ll pose these questions to you then.

1. Why is it a rich persons concern that poor people get poorer? Do you know what directly impacts being poor? Doing poor things. A study showed that in America, if you graduate high school, get a job, and don’t have a child out of wedlock then you have something like 85% or better chance of not being poor? I know I know, too old fashioned for these days.

3. Is society supposed to be equal in terms of economics? If we wanted true equality, everything would be free correct? Of the government would allot the same items or wages to everyone. So how about all monies goes to the government, and the government gives everyone 100k/year salary regardless of your job. CEO, 100k. Burger flipper, 100k. Equality.
 

PressWise

A 30-day Fix for Managed Chaos

As any print professional knows, printing can be managed chaos. Software that solves multiple problems and provides measurable and monetizable value has a direct impact on the bottom-line.

“We reduced order entry costs by about 40%.” Significant savings in a shop that turns about 500 jobs a month.


Learn how…….

   
Back
Top