In a branding seminar this morning at the Allegheny Sectional the subject of staff hiring and training came up in relation to the whole branding discussion. Believe me...your staff is a massive part of your brand. The thing is...they are either building your brand or they are eroding it every single day. Getting the right staff in place is far more important than just the right logo or your website color palette.
You should always look for attitude first. You need to find those people to whom love of the customer and love of service will always come first. I've noticed as I've travelled around that service is either something you get or something you don't. I'm sure people can be trained to serve but if they don't "get it" it'll always come out wrong and the customer can tell when it's not sincere.
You want people who will bend over backwards for others. Not because they've been told to do it but because they know it's the right thing to do...and because it's in their nature to do it.
When I hit the recruiting trail during my years at Shepherd's Fold, I usually knew I had a winner when I found someone who either came from a large family or someone who came from a family where there was a special needs person. In most cases, those people knew what it was to lay down their own wants and needs for the wants and needs of someone else. It's hard to do in a week of staff training what years of training at home can do. I didn't always get the right ones but in more cases than not, that rule proved to be true.
Once you get the staff with the right attitude in-house, then you can train them to do the things you need them to do or get them the appropriate certifications. There are many camp directors out there who can tell horror stories of hiring the skilled person instead of the person with the right attitude only to regret it later.
How do you determine the right attitude? Will they approach a situation with a camper or guest the same way you would if you were in their place? Will they build your brand? Can you trust them to guard the legacy? Getting the right person in the right place is critical and one of the signs of a successful leader. Do this one well. Your success depends on it.
Excellent post, Michael. Too often managers pore over resumes looking for the person who "has the skills" and ends up with an HR disaster. Passion and attitude beat skills hands-down every time. Maybe that's just a piece of wisdom that comes with age. :-)
Posted by: Michele Miller | February 25, 2009 at 05:13 PM
In my last ministry we needed a cook. We had cooks who were great at cooking but their people skills were-well you know the story. We looked for a person who worked great with young people and saw them as their ministry. We found a lady with a super attitude (very little large group cooking experience) and trained her to cook and she was one of the best hires we ever made. You can teach a person to cook but people skills are a lot harder to teach.
Posted by: David Lewis | February 26, 2009 at 07:41 PM
The young people that I will look to, for exactly the same reasons: farm kids.
I will quickly admit my bias b/c I'm a farm kid... but I found over 15 years as a camp director that you can count on farm kids to pitch in, work hard and be problem solvers. In short: good attitudes for a camp staff member. I have definitely had city kids who are all of those things but I have found it more reliably in farm kids.
Posted by: Zoic | March 09, 2009 at 11:18 AM