Hiring and Firing

  • Getting rid of employees

    You may find that the people who were perfect for your company when you started often aren't the right people today.

     
  • Tips for job descriptions

    When finding carpenters gets tough, tough remodelers get creative. In his help-wanted ads, Gary Potter of Potter Construction, Seattle, uses the words that his own carpenters selected to describe themselves in their DISC profiles.

     
  • Try a Staffing Company

    When it came time to hire an office manager, Trish Schroeder, co-owner of Schroeder Design/Build, Fairfax, Va., was dismayed. After being part owner of a successful remodeling company for years, she knew that the process of hiring a management-level employee was extensive and that the time needed...

     
  • Sound hiring and firing practices

    Riggs Construction didn't act quickly enough to terminate a difficult executive and so subjected its entire staff to his toxic attitude for five damaging years. By contrast, a criminal background check that is part of the meticulous hiring process at Rockland Inc. prevented the company from putting...

     
  • People + Skills: Deep Background

    Hiring the right people is a tough job. Every prospective employee works hard to present a fantastic first impression. Someone who doesn't frequently hire can be fooled into hiring the wrong person. It's important to use every tool to dig beneath the enthusiastic veneer to get to the real person...

     
  • Work + Life: Work Buddies

    Is it ever OK to hire a friend to work in my company?

     
  • Fielding Questions

    Though most remodeling company owners focus on skills when hiring field staff, many recognize that attitude is equally or even more important than construction skills. “A lot of this business is about attitude,” says REMODELING contributor and consultant Tim Faller of Field Training Services in...

     
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    Good Form: Finding a Good Fit

    Have you ever hired someone who turned out to be a bad fit for their position? Wait, don't answer that — of course you have. Everyone has. This self-rating form is a way that one company solves this common problem when hiring field personnel.

     
  • Targeting Marketing

    Considering hiring a marketing person? Don't waste your time advertising. “The days of business owners sorting through 200 resumes, not knowing what they're looking for, are over,” marketing consultant Adrienne Zoble says.

     
  • Day laborers pose opportunity, challenge

    Remodelers around the country are wrestling with a dilemma that could be either an answer to their labor woes or a potential employment nightmare: day laborers. Many contractors see these workers, who gather on sidewalks and street corners to solicit jobs from passers-by, as an inexpensive and...