Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue II, 2015 | Page 90

People BY STEVE ADAMS

Talent Management
System Pays Off
Your people deliver the brand experience

F

or many years, our organization
struggled to create a solid, stable
team. We were guilty of hiring to
fill spots rather than thinking of
our people as guardians of our brand. We
stepped bac k and decided to create a system.
We started from scratch and asked, “What
does the ideal employee look like?” Then
we found a tool that profiles the work style
of the employee.
The tool is not a personality test per
se; it is an assessment of work style. We applied it to all our employees and found a
consistent profile of our best employees.
We were able to determine that when we
were outside that profile, in general we had
employees who did not fit well for us. In
a sense, we were asking people who were
“off profile” to work in a way that was
inconsistent with who they were. Those
people, in turn, tended to be the ones we
had problems with, and they struggled the
most to live out the brand.
Today, the hiring profile is a big part of
our talent management system. We rarely
hire anyone who doesn’t meet the profile.
Now it is hard to hire: we go through dozens of applications to hire one employee.
Our managers complain about that. The
good news is that when we do find someone,
they almost always work out great, which
reminds the managers why they went to
such trouble. A by-product of this process
is that the in-store culture is now so strong
that we lose fewer people.
We also rank our employees A, B, or
C. This is not a ranking of their value as
a person; rather, it is ranking of fit. Our
A employees are fully trained, have fully
bought into the vision, and live it. Our B
employees have fully bought into the vision
and live it, but lack training and experience.
Our C employees may be fully trained, but
they lack buy-in and do not live the vision.
When we identify Cs, we make plans to
help them find a job somewhere else because they just do not fit. When someone
doesn’t fit, it is often because their internal
wiring doesn’t work well in retail.
The ranking system and profiling have

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helped us to avoid mismatching people
in their jobs. Those whom we helped to
leave—and we did it appropriately, we did
not just kick them out—had a chance to find
a better job where they would be a good fit.
In addition, we have an online, systematic hiring and intake process. This
is nitty-gritty, but you have to do it well.
There are many federal regulations on the
documentation of new employees, and you
must have a robust system for that. Then,
we have a scripted training schedule for
the first year—we know what we are go-

“We feel that we
have a vigorous
and complete
training program,
and the payoff is
a workforce who
fit their roles and
feel invested in
their positions.”
ing to do the first week, the first month,
and from there on out.
The next level is the 30-day action
plan. This mini-review between employee
and supervisor leads to improvements,
month by month. The idea came from
a store manager, not come from on high
in some ivory tower. As a result, all employees, down to the newest hire, know
where they stand and what is expected.
When we applied the system companywide, morale improved.
We expect all employees to buy into
our mission, including our young people,
still in school. We do not hire just for
the summer. We expect any high school
students to train and develop and buy in,

or they do not stay with us. We also hire
people twice that age for entry-level jobs
and look at them as great opportunities.
For whatever reason, they have not found
their niche yet. We have known such people
who really caught fire while working for
us. For the first time they felt that an employer was investing in them. Helping to
develop employees was always fun for me.
That happens at the store level, so I am not
immediately involved in it anymore, but it
is quite fulfilling to see someone thriving
under our guidance.
To further develop our talent, we purchased a training program for our store
managers on the importance of a positive, success-oriented mindset. They get
monthly installments of that program, in
printed materials and a CD. We also have
our continuing leadership development
program. As new people come in, we develop their ability to think like a leader. In
addition, we have the pet nutrition certification for our store managers and assistant
managers, and a nine-month, online, pet
care training program.
We feel that we have a vigorous and
complete training program, and the payoff is a workforce who fit their roles and
feel invested in their positions. They are
growing and they want to be with us. We
hold people accountable, but we do not
try to motivate through external rewards
or the fear of being hurt or suffering consequences for failing. We aim to create an
environment where people are on fire and
motivated from within.
When you engage people at the heart
level and they are excited, they give you so
much more. They contribute a lot of new,
exciting things and unique approaches to
the business, and that is really what we want.
“We need all the brains in the game,” Jack
Welch, former chief executive of General
Electric, once said, an expression we have
borrowed. Our talent management system
ensures that is what we have.
Steve Adams, based in Muskegon, Mich., is a multi-unit
franchisee with more than 20
Pet Supplies Plus stores across
4 states. Before that, he spent
15 years as a commercial loan
officer assisting start-up and
established companies in their growth plans.
This is an excerpt from his book, The Passionate Entrepreneur. For more, visit passionateentrepreneur.com.

MULTI-UNIT FRANCHISEE IS S UE II, 2015

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