Hiring strategies

When Dave Sinclair, president of CEI Alarm of Sparks, needed to hire a top-flight installer and service technician, he did what many business owners do: put the word out to friends, co-workers and acquaintances.

To get their attention, Sinclair offered a $500 referral bonus and $500 yearly bonus for every year the new employee stays on with CEI Alarm.

David James, manager of business development for San Francisco Bay Area-based Crime Alert, recently received the first signing bonus for referring Mike Haanpaa to the CEI team.

Sinclair says the cash stipend is intended to lure the best employees. Despite high unemployment in the Reno-Sparks area, he says landing skilled alarm technicians can be difficult.

"It is kind of hard to find those kinds of guys," he says. "The industry is actually doing fairly well as soon as the economy goes down crime goes up. We are doing better than most, and we are not looking for guys in that 10 to 12 percent unemployment range. We are looking for 'A' players, and most 'A' players are probably the last people a company has held on to."

Sinclair compiles a list of qualified candidates through the referral program and takes them through a four-interview hiring process. About 90 percent of referrals are weeded out through the initial telephone interview, he says. The company uses the program for jobs ranging from receptionist to general manager.

And the cost?

"If you get an 'A' player on the team, he is going to produce 100 times that $500. That $500 is miniscule compared to what he can produce. And if you get the wrong person, it can cost you up to 15 times that person's yearly salary in mistakes."

Sinclair lifted the idea from the book "Who: The A Method For Hiring" by Geoff Smart.

"It really hit home with me," Sinclair says. "I read it once, and then I read it again and did an outline and made my hiring practices. This book was everything to me."