In the fast-paced world of retail home furnishings, the spotlight often shines brightest on the sales force, and rightly so—they’re the gladiators in the arena, bringing in the revenue that fuels growth. But, lurking behind the scenes is an unsung cohort critical to every organization’s sustained success—the back-end operations team. It’s time to shine a light on these pivotal players and recognize that hiring for these roles demands as much deliberation and foresight as hiring for the front lines. In this blog, we address the indispensable value of back-end operations employees and explore why special care and time must be invested in their hiring process to secure the backbone of your retail operations.
Staffing these “back-end” operation positions is a special challenge and can sometimes be considered secondary to sales and office staff. But these teams play a critical part in handling and stocking our costly inventory in the warehouse – from receiving and handling to wrapping and the final mile of delivery to the customer’s home, placing it in the right spot with no damage. So they must be considered equally important regarding the hiring effort – time spent and quality sought. Especially when we consider how many types of people we need:
- Dock and Freight Handlers
- Delivery Drivers
- Driver Assistants / Movers
- Warehouse Staff
- Inventory/Stock Control
- Safety Specialists/managers
- Maintenance & Repairs
- Forklift/Equipment Operators
- Dispatchers
- Schedulers
- Call Center/Expeditors
- Supervisors/Team Leads
While all positions may be in the background to the customer, they affect YOUR:
- Operational efficiency
- Safety record
- Reputation as a business an employer
- Customer satisfaction
- Shrinkage and damage
- Insurance costs – and liabilities!
These are very diverse positions. And in a smaller business, you will have people performing more than one of these jobs at a time. But, for each of them, the steps and tools to hire them remain the same as they are for ANY position in your business.
- Create an accurate, equitable Job Description, ensuring physical, training/certification, and licensing requirements (e.g., Class C License for drivers) are specified.
- Know what the market is paying for these jobs, and budget accordingly. Remember that you want them to STAY and not be looking for more money the day they join you. Pay below average, get below average.
- Post an opening and/or reach out to potential candidates and review candidates and applications.
- As part of the application process, have promising candidates complete assessments for basic skills and attributes (such as job-specific knowledge, reliability, and safety). You know they are not serious if they won’t do them.
- Have effective and defensible interview questions (tailored to the specific job, and a method to record results and decisions. And keep those on file!
- Have a standard job offer process and letter (including permissions for background and drug screens). Ensure the job expectations and pay are clear and that passing the background and drug screens are CONDITIONS of employment.
- Have a reliable and fast provider for drug and background checks, especially for Driver DOT regulations. DO NOT let people start until after background and drug screens clear!
- A way to notify unsuccessful candidates (end the process well – it helps your replication).
- An onboarding process (including work authorization confirmations and the orientation/training plan).
- An employee manual (which thoroughly covers safety and driver requirements) is provided to the new hire.
These guidelines may sound like a lot and one of the reasons you may think that is that these employees tend to come and go. If that works for you, then a thorough process is needed to ensure a constant stream of candidates and that you are at least compliant with state and federal regulations. But if you want to have more team and company stability, to be able to hire and keep quality people, and keep training and hiring costs down, then this investment is worthwhile.
A Starting Point
Having accurate job descriptions (JDs) is a given – how else can you tell applicants what you need and hold them accountable? And, of course, the HFA has a whole reference base of descriptions available to members (click here). So, assuming you have JDs, our advice is to have at least a simple interview tool based on questions looking for core competencies of people in the job. Here is an example of questions for a warehouse employee that the author used while working for a transport and warehousing company:
WORK HISTORY:
Describe your Warehouse experience and what you like about the job. Tell me about how you handle working long shifts and nights. Which job has been the worst – and why?
STRESS RESILIENCE:
Describe how you most recently handled a challenging problem at your job. [Ask for more than one]
FREIGHT & STOCK HANDLING:
Describe how you go about ensuring your physical safety at work. How about protecting teammates? What precautions do you take to remain safe at work? Tell me about a time you saw a risk – and what you did about it. Tell me about the physically toughest job you’ve had.
PROCESS/TIME DISCIPLINE:
Tell me about how you make sure you are doing things right. Tell me about how you ensure you always arrive to work on time. Tell me about your last job error and what you did about it.=,
SELF ORGANIZATION: Tell me about your routine on a workday morning. How do you plan your workday? How do you ensure you are ready if and when needed unexpectedly?
Additionally, having all of your employees have questions looking for what we believe is the most important attribute in the warehouse: RELIABILITY. Download an example of questions and what to look for (good and bad).
Taking your hiring for back-end operations seriously can make a huge difference to your operational efficiency and your safety record, reputation, customer satisfaction, and insurance costs.
Your HFA Service Partner, Mosswood can help you with hiring for back-end operations employees and your other hiring and organizational needs. Visit us at www.mosswoodhr.com or call (817) 703 4579.
