A Tight Labour Market for Cleaners - Essay Example

A Tight Labour Market for Cleaners Introduction: Though the publi about tight labour markets usually revolves around such jobs as engineers, builders, teachers and other skilled labour, some of the tightest markets are often found in some surprising places such as hiring good people. The typical dry-cleaning store is heavily dependent on hiring good managers, cleaner-spotters and pressers. Employees generally have no more than a high school education (some have less) and the market is very competitive. The reason is that the work is hot and uncomfortable; the hours are often long; the pay is often the same or less than the typical applicant could earn working in an air-conditioned environment, and the fringe benefits are usually non-existent. Complicating the problem is the problems faced in the continuing task of recruiting and hiring qualified and experienced workers out of a pool of individuals that are almost nomadic in their habit of moving around. This paper is a case study taking Catherine’s dry cleaning store and discusses the following issues: 1. Some suitable recruiting strategies that Catherine could use to increase the number of suitable job applicants so that her company need no longer hire just about anyone who walks in. 2. A complete advertisement which Catherine can publish in the local newspaper for suitable applicants. 3. Some practical suggestions that might help reduce turn over and make the stores an attractive place in which to work, thereby reducing recruiting problems. Recruitment Strategies: The first step to effective recruiting is to fully understand the type of employees the store needs and what skills and knowledge the employees need to succeed. Skills are those abilities needed to perform the job while knowledge is what the employee needs to know to perform the job. The second step is to identify potential employees who have the necessary skills and knowledge. Here the store needs to draw people in from outside its traditional pools like former employees, volunteers, homemakers, students, family members of present employees, older workers, people with mental or physical disabilities, ethnic minorities, people new to the community, people looking for part-time work ,people currently on welfare or assistance. The next step is to how to reach the people in these groups and let them know about opportunities at the store. Traditional methods such as job postings or classified advertising should not be ignored but the store should be prepared to expand beyond this especially when the store is trying to reach groups of people who have not been reached through traditional recruiting techniques. Here are some creative ways to notify people about employment opportunities: Meet representatives from minority agencies within the community, post notices at youth centers, advertise on bulletin boards, at the supermarket, library, health club, child care center, family restaurants, etc. ,place fliers on car windshields in parking lots, distribute leaflets at immigrant settlement centers, have an older worker to speak at a senior citizens center, distribute fliers at senior citizen housing complexes and meeting locations, publicize in the store’s employee publications or on employee bulletin boards information encouraging present employees to recommend family members for employment, offer a cash award for employees recommending a family member who is eventually hired and remains on the job for a specified time, visit schools that train people with disabilities, become acquainted with directors of local agencies offering services to people with disabilities, go to businesses that are closing and tell employees there about the store’s employment opportunities. (Successful Recruitment Strategies, 2002) Proactive approach: All recruiting strategies fit into two categories: "you find us" and "we find you." The "you find us" category is the most commonly used, where a firm essentially posts a notice that it is looking for someone to hire and then sorts through those individuals who respond. The more proactive category, however, is the "we find you" approach, where a firm instead attempts to identify the names of top performers as individuals and then contact them directly. The first approach almost by design attracts "the masses," while the other is more targeted to minimize the volume of applications and maximize the quality of the applicants. This relationship-based recruiting strategy is called the "we find you" approach, and if the store wants to hire the very best, its the only approach to use. The "we find you" approach is based on the premise that if you start recruiting before need (i.e., before you need to fill an open requirement), you have the time to identify the very best individuals by name and then build the relationship, so that you can, over time, better assess and "sell" them on your firm and the opportunities you can offer them. The next step in the "we find you" approach is "relationship recruiting." Unlike the "you find us" approach, this strategy adds a relationship-building step where trust building, assessment, and selling occur over a several month period. (Dr. John Sullivan, The Best Recruiting Strategy Is the "We Find You" Approach, Choosing between "we find you" and "you find us", 2005) Additional benefits: In order to attract and retain talented workers, the store can offer attention-grabbing benefits such as car leases in addition to salaries. This may be a great opportunity for stores to pick-up some new ideas and update their recruitment strategies. Today, prospective employees are being wooed by an incredible array of benefits. Aspects of workplace culture - particularly important to todays younger "Generation X" workers - are key to a successful package. (Jane B.Federer, “Competitive Recruitment”, Merrill Associates, 2000) Recruiting minorities: In many minority communities volunteerism is a close-knit and personal obligation. Whether a member of church group sewing quilts for the needy, the circle of mourners bringing dinner to bereaved families, or taking in the child of a relative, a rich tradition of high-level and undocumented volunteerism is alive and well in most minority communities. Most people refer to this as "helping out”. These minorities can be attracted through strategies for attracting minority volunteers, using minority media extensively etc. (National CASA Association, “Recruiting Minority Volunteers”, CASAnet Resources, May 1999). Advertisement: Catherine Dry Cleaning Store Experience the difference we offer Our requirement: Managers Cleaner-spotters Pressers Required Minimum Qualification: High School Education One year experience What do we offer? Attractive salary Additional Benefits Special allowances for minorities Good working environment Flexible working hours Attractive techniques like smart spacing hangers For any doubts contact us at: Catherine Dry Cleaning Store, XXXX. Contact no: XXXXXXXXXX. (“Dry Cleaner’s Ad Shop”, 2008) Suggestions for improvement: Using safe chemicals: Tetrachloroethylene is one of the solvents widely used for dry cleaning. It is colloquially called "perc.” It is stable, nonflammable, and has excellent cleaning power, and is gentle to most garments. However, perc was also the first chemical to be classified as a carcinogen by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Catherine Dry Cleaning Store can use an alternative chemical or method for dry cleaning thereby improving the safety of dry cleaners. This would reduce the turn over to a great extent. (“Dry Cleaning from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia”, March 30, 2008 ) Recruiting seniors: In recent years, there has been more focus on enticing retirees and seniors back into the labor market. This has been a great solution for many businesses as seniors bring a wealth of skills and experience with them. Some, however, are not interested in or able to work full-time due to social security earning limits, personal preference, or health reasons. Catherine Dry Cleaning Store can adopt this method as seniors won’t switch jobs compared to younger people. (Annette Miller,” Finding Workers in a Tight Labor Market”, Montana Economy at a glance, December 2006) Hiring foreign workers: Another option is to hire foreign workers. Foreign workers can be employed temporarily or permanently, when there are not sufficient native workers who are able, willing, qualified, or available to perform the job. Foreign workers will be more attracted and loyal in their work particularly if they are from poor countries. This method can also be adopted by Catherine Dry Cleaning Store. (Annette Miller,” Finding Workers in a Tight Labor Market”, Montana Economy at a glance, December 2006) Hiring offenders: Former inmates from prison can be recruited provided there is assurance that they are honest and moral. Some offenders spend time at a transitional facility such as a pre-release center. One of the conditions prior to release from such facilities is finding employment. Employers like hiring individuals in the pre-release centers because they are under a high level of supervision, have regular drug tests, are punctual, are presentable, and have job skills training. This method can also be adopted by Catherine Dry Cleaning Store. (Annette Miller,” Finding Workers in a Tight Labor Market”, Montana Economy at a glance, December 2006) Eco-friendly materials: By using eco-friendly materials in dry cleaning such as using hangers made of recycled paper can attract environment conscious applicants and they may develop loyalty to the store. Hence this method can be used to make Catherine Dry Cleaning Store an attractive store to work. ( Michael Kanellos, ”Earth-friendly hangers coming to a dry cleaner near you”, HangerNetwork combines two hot concepts with venture capitalists--clean tech and kooky ad campaigns--to rid closets around the nation of pesky wire hangers. Photos: No more wire hangersFebruary 6, 2007, http://techrepublic-cnet.com.com,(accessed April 6,2008)) Providing service after dry cleaning: When a customer finds that the clothes he dry cleaned have been damaged or not properly dry cleaned he/she should be provided the comfort of being serviced by the store. He should not get disappointed and complain trade unions or consumer care centers if any. This will improve the store’s popularity and also job applicants will prefer such a people friendly company to work for. (Dry cleaning, 2008) Retention of employees: Employees currently working in the store can be retained by providing the following: Professional Development, Work/life initiatives like on-site child care center and employee assistance program, flexible benefits, health/life insurance, wellness program, vacation, leave and time-off, financial benefits and assistance, employee’s office, newsletters and communications etc.(Recruitment and Retention case study, Baptist hospital of Miami,2000) Ten ways to survive a tight market: The following ten ways can be adopted to survive a tight market: 1. Become indispensable 2. Gain the competitive advantage 3. Break up objectives into sub objectives 4. Make things happen 5. Assert yourself 6. Connect with optimistic people 7. Prepare yourself for change 8. Equip yourself 9. Explore all avenues 10. Keep your composure. These methods can be adopted by Catherine Dry Cleaning Store. (Tony Jacowski,”10 Ways To Survive A Tight Labor Market”) Conclusion: In today’s competitive world no industry enjoys the privilege of a safe environment or a nice market.Its a tough market, whether employers are looking for student workers, general labor or salaried professionals, human resource managers agree. They also agree it takes more than competitive wages and benefits to land the best workers today (Joan Kent,” Help wanted, Employers contend with tight labor market”, a Crosse Tribune, Sep 03, 2000). In case of dry cleaning the drop outs are more in number since the work involves more physical labour and also the working conditions are relatively uncomfortable. These provide the dry cleaning industry a tough challenge. Also with the job market as tight as a tick, the fast growing companies have to be extra-resourceful. With these in mind some strategies to improve the number of job applicants, a complete advertisement for Catherine Dry Cleaning Store and some practical suggestions to reduce turn over have been discussed in this case study. Recruiting people with adequate skill through various recruitment strategies, adopting “we find you” approach, providing additional benefits and recruiting minorities are recruitment strategies discussed. An advertisement is then provided for recruitment of people by Catherine Dry Cleaning Store with their mission, recruitments, offers and contact details. Finally methods for retaining employees like using safe chemicals, recruiting seniors, offenders, foreigners, using eco-friendly materials, being customer friendly are discussed. Finally ten ways to survive the tough labour market are mentioned. References Dr. Sullivan, John, The Best Recruiting Strategy Is the "We Find You" Approach, Choosing between "we find you" and "you find us", Monday, June 06, 2005, http://www.ere.net (accessed April 6, 2008) “Dry Cleaner’s Ad Shop”, http://www.dcadshop.com (accessed April 6, 2008) “Dry Cleaning from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia”, March 30, 2008, http://en.wikipedia.org (accessed April 6, 2008) Federer, Jane B, “Competitive Recruitment”, Merrill Associates, 2000 (accessed April 6, 2008) “Dry cleaning”, http://www.consumerline.org , (accessed April 6, 2008) Jacowski, Tony,”10 Ways To Survive A Tight Labor Market”, http://www.innoarticles.com (accessed April 6, 2008) Kanellos, Michael,”Earth-friendly hangers coming to a dry cleaner near you”, HangerNetwork combines two hot concepts with venture capitalists--clean tech and kooky ad campaigns--to rid closets around the nation of pesky wire hangers. Photos: No more wire hangersFebruary 6, 2007, http://techrepublic-cnet.com.com (accessed April 6,2008) Kent, Joan,” Help wanted, Employers contend with tight labor market”, a Crosse Tribune, Sep 03, 2000, http://www.cnet.com (accessed April 6, 2008) Miller,Annette,” Finding Workers in a Tight Labor Market”, Montana Economy at a glance, December 2006, http://www.findarticles.com (accessed April 6, 2008) National CASA Association, “Recruiting Minority Volunteers”, CASAnet Resources, May 1999, http://www.casanet.org (accessed April 6, 2008) Recruitment and Retention case study, Baptist hospital of Miami, 2000 Successful Recruitment Strategies, 2002, www.essortment.com (accessed April 6, 2008) Read More