also stresses the importance of keeping competitive with local wages. “A lot of it comes down to what you are paying people. If there is a shortage in supply, the entry-lev- el salaries start to creep up,” he said. “You have to stay on top of the local pay and be proactive around that.”


Service mindset While a large organization like the Mayo Clinic can set its sights on the long game, for Teri Serrano hiring frontliners is all about basic block and tackle: Referrals, word of mouth, carefully crafted advertising. That’s what it takes for the vice president of people services to keep 450 jobs filled at the 16-prop- erty boutique chain Broughton Hotels. In cities like Palm Springs and Monte-


rey, Calif., hourly workers are thin on the ground and Serrano has to compete against a range of other service industries. “When you meet somebody at a restau-


rant or a coffee shop and you really appre- ciate their service level, you approach them. Maybe they are looking for a second job or maybe they know someone else with a great attitude, and so you hand out your business card,” she said. Serrano will do some paid advertising in


markets where labor is especially tight, “but how you write the ad is really important if you want to find people who have the same atti- tudes that you do as an organization,” she said. “I use the verbiage that is on our web-


sites, language about having ‘radical ideas’ about how to run a hotel company. If you are someone who connects with that idea, you will respond to my ad,” she said. “In the same way, I look for people who use that same language in their response. That shows me that they have taken the time to research the organization. It tells me they are authentically interested in how we man- age and what we want to do.” Serrano also leverages a tactic familiar


to many in senior living, paying referral bo- nuses of $100 or more. To make the most of that investment, she always tries to dig a little deeper before pursuing the referral, rather than just calling the candidate cold. “I will ask that person making the referral: ‘How do you know John? How long have you known him? Why do you think John would be a great candidate for us?’” she said. Such


questions can save time and effort when it comes to vetting the potential candidate. It helps, too, to think about the type of


employee you are seeking, when specific skills are not required. “These are transfor- mational activities, not transactional,” she said. That means an individual with a flair for interpersonal work may be a good fit, regardless of specific background. “I find that folks who work in theme parks


or who volunteer someplace are actually real- ly great in this industry. If you enjoy making people happy, if you enjoy giving back, this is a good industry for you,” she said. The same could be said of senior living, so it’s important not to write off a candidate just because the fit is less than precise. Even making all the right moves, Serrano


sometimes strikes out. She describes a recent effort to hire for a front-line position in Santa Cruz. “We posted on Indeed, we posted on HCareers, and the resumés appear to have the right qualifications. But I’ve interviewed 60 people and still can’t find the right candi- date,” she said. The problem is not with the labor pool


but rather with the hotel’s own approach to the position. “I think we budgeted the wrong wage for the position, we underval- ued that individual for that market. The price point was off. We may also need to rethink the job description. Maybe we are looking at the wrong skill sets,” she said. Her point is just this: That if you are doing


everything right in a front-line job search and you still aren’t getting the right candidates, it may be time for a review. Is the pay right? Is the job description on target? Finding the right candidate often comes down to making the right offer, in the right way–and that’s something that is in your control.


Working the interview Senior living knows it’s competing for front- line talent with health care and hotels. But the industry is also up against LaShena Mat- thews. As talent acquisition partner for soft- ware company Sage, she helps to keep some 13,000 jobs filled, and half of them are cus- tomer service positions—the same entry-level employees senior living is trying to hire. Between online ads and referrals, Matthews usually has plenty of resumes to read. What she needs, though, are people who bring the


right type of character to the table. “We need people who can think and who are problem solvers. That is the differentiating factor. We need someone who can really make a differ- ence for our customers,” she said. So how does Matthews find these people?


Mostly by listening very carefully. “It’s not that we have set questions. It’s about having a range of questions available that help us uncover those soft skills,” she said. A person- al favorite: Why is a manhole round? The answer doesn’t matter. What’s important is the way in which the interviewee reasons through the problem. “Each person may interpret the question


differently. Even if they don’t know the an- swer, you want to see them think through a creative answer,” she said. It helps, too, to ask open-ended questions.


In a recent interview Matthews simply asked the subject to rate his customer service skills on a scale of one to 10. Instead of just giv- ing a figure, “this person went further: ‘I would rate myself an eight because of this or that experience.’ It showed me someone who was solution-oriented, who could un- derstand what being an eight really means and could help me to understand what it meant to them.” Bottom line: It takes good interviewing to make good hires. That’s why Sage recently launched a training academy to help man- agers beef up their interview skills. Invest in training for hiring managers?


It’s expensive and the outcomes seem in- tangible. But take a step back and listen to all these voices from across these competing industries. They call on hiring managers to invest in training, to invest in long-term rep- utation building for the industry, to invest in partnerships to build the pipeline. They call for investments of managerial time and effort in community outreach, as a way to build bridges to potential employees. And they call for investing in things like adver- tising and referral bonuses. So the short answer is: There is no quick fix. These leading companies from across a


breadth of competing sectors share a com- mon approach to front-line recruiting. They all work on the premise that successful re- cruiting is neither quick nor easy, but rath- er the product of a patient and deliberate effort played out over time.


ISSUE 4 2017 / ARGENTUM.ORG 37


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