It has been said that employees are a business's greatest asset. This is never truer than when it applies to funeral homes. This is an area where your employees can make or break your business—a failure to provide good service at such an important time could devastate your funeral home's future. These three tips should help you choose the right staff for your business.
Take Your Time
When you're short staffed, it can be tempting to rush into hiring somebody simply because you need help fast. However, this haste is likely to result in you hiring somebody who doesn't suit the job. An error like this could mean extra work if you have to micromanage them or hire a replacement later on. No matter the position you're hiring for, even if it's just front of house staff that need no specialist skills, you should take your time to find the right person for the role. Your persistence now will pay off in the long run.
Be Rigorous with Your Checks
People often exaggerate and lie on applications and at interviews. The lies can be small, such as exaggerating their last salary, or large, like lying about qualifications. You need to know how to spot those who are not suitably qualified for the post. You may be fortunate enough to have a natural talent for spotting fakes. If so, you'll be fine. If not, being thorough with your fact checking is the way to go. Contact potential employees' referees. Most of what you need to know can be picked up from checking with their past employers. If you want to be more thorough, consider hiring a professional company to run a thorough background check. This small outlay could save you a lot in the long-term.
Use Your Existing Staff Members as a Model
As a funeral home manager, you know your employees need particular personality traits as well as skills to work in proximity to death and grief on a daily basis. The best way to hone in on what these specific traits are is to take a close look at your best employees—what characteristics do they possess that make them great at their job? Make a list of these qualities. You can then use the list to devise a set of questions that will help you decide whether a potential employee has these traits. Your new employee should demonstrate the characteristics you deem necessary to shine in their position as well as mesh with your funeral home's existing staff.
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