[My Biggest Mistake] We're only as strong as our weakest link

My company has five trucks. I knew where four of them were.

The other truck was missing, along with the technician that my business partner and I had just hired at our company, Arrow American Pest & Termite, La Plata, Md. The employee had completed a termite control job hours before, and was supposed to return to the office promptly. At the time, we didn’t have GPS devices in our vehicles.

Did the technician get into a traffic accident? Was he knocking on doors, explaining our company’s pest control program to prospective clients? Or was he just taking a joyride?

A friend of mine spotted the truck in a place that seemed suspicious, and called to inform me. I soon reached the employee on his cell phone. He seemed unconcerned and said, "I’ll be back in a few minutes." I told him I was disappointed, and that we had much to discuss.

He showed up three hours later.

Maybe the incident shouldn’t have surprised me. After all, many small-business owners face new-hire headaches. But mine have felt like migraines.

One morning, I received a phone call from the police, asking if I employed a man who was being questioned in a burglary and attempted drug-theft case. (Yes, the person worked for us. No, it didn’t sound like something he would do.) Charges against the employee were eventually dropped, but I asked him to take a drug test. It came back positive for heroin and marijuana.

I’m positive that service and accountability are vital in the pest control industry, so any breach of conduct by a team member is a big deal. I believe the best asset a company can have is trust — not only from commercial and residential clients seeking pest management solutions, but also from each other.

My biggest mistake has been hiring new employees unsystematically. Until recently, we placed newspaper ads, but didn’t have a process for maximizing the use of our networking groups. We interviewed candidates, but didn’t ask questions that elicited thought-provoking answers. We scanned résumés, but didn’t approach them with a skeptic’s eye. We overlooked a harsh truth about small companies: We’re only as good as our weakest link.

Hiring is one of the pest control industry’s most serious challenges. It’s difficult to weed out the people who want to grow from the people who simply want a paycheck, and making a bad choice is costly to a company’s reputation as well as its bottom line. In fact, the U.S. Department of Labor calculates that it costs one-third of a new hire’s annual salary to replace him. These figures include money spent on recruitment, selection and training, plus costs due to decreased productivity as other employees fill in to take up the slack.

I’m keeping that in mind today, as Arrow American searches for a new sales representative who can also serve as a technician. We’re looking for an inquisitive self-starter who understands the importance of customer service and attention to detail.

This time, my business partner and I are taking a more judicious, structured approach to the selection process. Believing relationships are more valuable than classified ads, we’ve reached out to members of our business groups for referrals. We’re also formulating a better job description that details the list of required personal attributes needed to succeed in the role.

When we interview candidates, we’ll pay closer attention to what they ask us (or don’t ask us) instead of only what we ask them. We’ll push for details and examples, hoping candidates can show their qualities instead of just naming them.

We can’t control someone else’s actions or attitudes, but we can take a slower, more thorough approach to hiring, so it’s more likely the new hire’s behavior will represent the company in the way we expect.

We feel our measured approach will help us find someone who can bring our company more productivity and profitability. That’s better than needing to find a truck.

—As told to Darin Painter