Making it Harder to Get to California

Can’t believe that Southwest Airlines is starting to knuckle under. They announced today that they are cutting back on flights. Of course, one of the routes getting the axe is the one I take - the only nonstop from Nashville to Oakland. All the other flights add 2 hours to that trip and it’s long enough as it is. And changing planes always puts you at risk of missing that connection. To be honest, the most I am comfortable on a plane is the 4 hour flight to Las Vegas from here. Anything farther than that and I start feeling cooped up and get really restless sitting on a plane - especially when there are crying babies on board.

On a good note, Southwest is the only airline this year that is still operating in the black. All the others are in the red. That says a lot for Southwest’s excellent management practices and their customer service. They’ve always been good to me and I can’t say that for the other airlines, especially with some of the horrendous experiences I’ve had with American and Northwest. So I’m glad to see the good guys are still winning.

When I fly, I always check Southwest for an available flight first and it has to be an extreme situation for me to fly on a different airline. There are only a few cities that Southwest does not service from here, and most of the time I don’t have to go there, thank goodness. I love their website - its so easy to make reservations and check in online - I can’t believe we used have to make long phones calls and stand in line for everything that now just takes a few clicks.

Phone Interviews Save Time

Got three emails from people who read my Craigslist ad for drivers and I sent them each a reply that we still have the positions available and the next step of the hiring process is to call me and we’ll do a phone interview. It doesn’t make sense to meet these candidates in person when so few of them pan out to be a good prospect. It would be a huge waste of time for me to sit around waiting on these people to show up, if they even manage to show up, and then talk to them face to face and have only 1 in maybe 30 be worth making an offer. The phone interview saves a lot of time and even when I get one to come in, only 1 in 10 can handle it. About half don’t come back for the second night and the rest might last a week. Even though I take great pains to explain how much work is involved, I really think most of them think I’m exaggerating and are shocked to find out that they actually have to work.

All of this interview and hiring aggravating might pay off, though. I found a website that is hosted by a human resources consulting company and they are asking people to take an online survey. Anyone who interviews people or has been interviewed for a job over the past 12 months can take this survey. Anyone who completes the survey is automatically entered into a drawing to win an iPod. Winning that would be sweet!

Click here to take the survey if you’ve interviewed this past year and want a chance to win an iPod.

Help Wanted

We have a lot of turnover at our company and we are almost always trying to hire for at least one open position. It’s hard work and rough hours, but the pay is good and I do my best to treat everyone well and keep them motivated.

We have been running a classified ad in the daily newspaper for over a year. The ad runs every day and is always on the front page of the newspaper’s classified section. As far as I can tell, we have not gotten one single call from that ad, in all this time.

The calls that we do get are from the ad we put up on Craigslist. Isn’t that amazing? That in just a few years, Craigslist can become the best resource for help wanted? They have decimated the classified section in the daily paper - no one goes to the newspaper for jobs. It used to be a large section, especially on Sundays. Now they are down to just one or two printed pages. But Craigslist has all the listings now and the search feature really helps target what you want. Almost everyone in town has access to the internet - either at their place of employment, in their homes, at schools and in all the libraries. It really has changed the quality of our lives in many ways and affected the way we do business, too.

Outsourcing HR

A good friend of mine has worked in Human Resources all her professional life. At the company where we worked together for a couple years, she was taking night time college courses to get her Master’s Degree in HR and the company was helping her with the tuition for the classes. She was so proud to finally graduate with her Master’s and I must say that it was quite an accomplishment, as she not only had a very demanding job at the company, with long hours there, but she was also mother to three children in school and wife of a musician who traveled quite a bit and because of his touring schedule he would leave her alone at home with the kids for weeks at a time.

We were all shocked and amazed when our company made the announcement that the Board of Directors had decided to eliminate the Human Resources department and outsource those tasks as part of our staff reduction and reorganization plans. My friend was laid off and we were all instructed on the new processes for HR support within our departments. After the initial shock of losing a friend and co-worker, I must say that the new processes are not bad.

My company found that most HR functions can be easily standardized, and outsourcing makes financial sense. There are good companies who can step up and take over the HR processes, like payroll services, handbooks, insurance forms, etc. by using computer programs and the internet.

If you are not familiar with outsourcing HR, you might be interested in reading the website of a Professional Employer Organization (PEO) to learn what they can do for your company or organization. Of particular concern to a lot of employers is compliance with the new immigration laws and hiring requirements. National PEO has a great program to E Verify new hires and rehires, including follow-up on discrepancies, auditing the required forms, and being available to answer questions.

There’s a lot of responsibility with administering Human Resources. My friend has found another position and is very happy with her new company as VP of HR, and our company is happy with the move to outsourcing their HR. So it was a win-win change for all.

To Catch a Thief

For the past couple of weeks we’ve had a puzzling series of events in one of our districts. Someone has been stealing our product from the stores, sometime in the wee hours of the morning between when we deliver it and when the store personnel arrive to take it inside. For many customers we place the product in a discretely placed black box, off to the side of the store entrance. Although the box can be locked, most merchants prefer to not lock it, as the fact that the product is not all that expensive and the black box keeps it out of sight, therefore out of mind. Plus there is a lot of police presence in this area and this kind of thing just doesn’t happen here.

But someone familiar with our system has been taking advantage of the unlocked boxes and raiding the boxes. For at least 2 weeks. They are smart enough to not take from the same store every morning - they switch out their target at random, and there are about a dozen from which to choose.

We finally caught on when one of the store managers saw a man getting into a large black Suburban parked in front of their black box. He had been standing in front of the black box and the manager thought he might have been delivering the product, although she had never seen this man before and didn’t recognize his car. It wasn’t until he sped off and she went to retrieve the product and found it missing that she realized she had almost caught the thief red-handed.

So now I am on the lookout for a tall white man with short dark hair who drives a black Suburban between 4:30 and 5:00 each morning. When I catch him, there will be drama, as I intend to have him arrested and prosecuted, and if he is who I think he is, I intend to have him lose his job, as well.