How I solved my skills shortage with "bring a friend to work" day

David Snoad took over textiles manufacturing company Pinz from his parents several years ago and has enjoyed strong growth since, making this year’s Smart50 list with revenue of $5.4 million and a staff of 40.

But a few years ago, Snoad was hit with a skills shortage just as the company had won a huge contract. At a loss, Snoad took the advice of his general manager and implemented a “bring a friend to work” day to solve his problem.

The program worked, and Snoad gained four new staff in just a day – and they’re still with the company. He says SMEs should consider implementing a similar proposal if they’re having shortage issues.

How has the business been going lately?

We’ve really had quite a good time these past three years. We’ve managed to get on a couple of good fast growth lists, and our average annual growth has been about 45%. However, during the pre-election period, we found demand did taper off a little. In the consumer goods market people just wanted to stop spending money when there was a change of government. So we’re doing okay, we’re in line with where we were last year, it’s just a change from having so many years of fast growth.

When did you first realise you had a bit of a skills shortage?

There was a company producing land mine detecting equipment. They sold them to armies all over the world, and we had been making stuff for them for quite a while. However, they were bought out, and after a while, they looked at the stuff we made and wanted us to make more of it. They were using backpacks made by the Chinese, and they wanted us to make them instead.

And so how did you find new staff?

At that time, we were really, really struck for staff and we needed to get this equipment done. And my general manager actually came up with the plan for this. She went around to everyone and said they needed to bring a friend to work, who might be interested in working here. We had been discussing it, and the general manager told me about the plan.

Why did you decide to go with the plan? Did you think it was a risky move?

We use a lot of good machinists here. Over the years, they know people in other jobs and so on, and sure enough, there were people unemployed at the time. So we had four people show up, which is good on a day’s notice, and those people are still working here to this day.

Were you expecting such a high success rate?

We wanted people to recommend others who were high calibre. And we knew they were trained in what we expected, in terms of the manner we expect in our work. So basically, they were virtually vetted already. We gave them an induction when they came around, we showed them around, and once they started making the goods, we knew they were good choices.

Were you afraid that staff would just bring in unskilled workers?

The thing is, we’re talking about skilled workers here. It’s a skilled industry we’re working in. And my feeling is that was a far more useful process than sending out advertisements and doing the whole job application thing. Because to tell the truth, we’ve had plenty of cases in this industry where people have said they can do something, and they really don’t know what they’re doing.

This is also a cultural issue as well. How do you find these new workers fitted in?

We think we have a good culture here. It’s a hard working team, we work in small teams and we take a lot of pride in what we do. Non-performers get pushed out of the business, because we know what we expect and the staff know that. Our staff will only bring in people who know how to do the job and know how to do it right.

And have you been using the policy since then?

It’s interesting, because I went to a luncheon recently, and one guy who was there recognised me and happened to know about this particular effort. And he started talking about his own thing he had done in his business and how it had worked. And I spoke to someone at a large accounting firm, and they give bonuses to staff who make referrals. It’s a great policy and we still use it.

Do you still have days where staff are encouraged to bring friends to work?

Absolutely. Now, when we have a shortage and need people, our staff are the first point of contact. If it’s a single person we’ll arrange an interview with them straight away, figure out the performance and whether they’ll fit, and then go from there. But we still do have these bring friends to work days.

I would absolutely recommend it. We found four new people without the expense and hassle of recruiting, interviews and so on, and so far we have a 100% success rate.

You certainly need to know the skills you’re looking for. You need to know exactly what they’ll be doing, how they’re doing it and so on. And in most well-run businesses, your staff have a good knowledge of what the requirement is in the job. And they know people who will be able to do it. So get the staff knowledgeable and they will be able to help you out.

By Patrick Stafford

This article first appeared on SmartCompany.com.au, Australia’s premier site for business news, forums and blogs

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