hiring manual

The shop relies in large part on experienced, hard-working, highly-trained employees. This

all starts when we hire.

Be on the lookout for employees who can contribute to the shop bottom line by:

•Becoming mechanics•Being very self-motivated

•Using design skills for advertising•Being independent, quick learners

•Being extremely friendly and outgoing with customers

Hiring Employees

OU Hiring Manual 2The Problem

35%turnover rate

following Winter Semester alone

23%employees stay a year or longer

43%employees stay less than two full

semesters.

52%yearly turnover rate from 2011-12, much from

graduation.

92%yearly turnover

rate from 2013-15, more from em-ployees leaving.

That equates to, on average,

replacing almost all 18 shop em-

ployees per year!

Your job is to find motivated, hard-working employees who will stick around!

OU Hiring Manual 3OU Hiring Manual 3Timeline

The process consists of 7 steps and repeats itself as people graduate, find new jobs, leave on missions, etc.

Establish needs for new employment

Recruit Scan Resumes

Preliminary Interviews

Figure out schedule

Interviews with Gardner

Final Hiring

10 weeks before end of semester

10 weeks before end of the semester






OU Hiring Manual 4Recruiting

Social Media

A lot of our appli-cants become aware of the job from social

media posts. Make sure to post early

and often from both the shop Facebook

and employees’ Facebook accounts.

Inbox Scouring

A bunch of people e-mail the shop about jobs when we’re not

hiring. There’s also left-overs from the last hir-ing cycle. Check the inbox and let people know that there are

openings!

Campus Recruiting

Call Campus Scheduling (801-422-3134) and sched-

ule a time and a place, they’ll set up a table and chairs. We have a large “We’re Hiring” sign, it’s

in Gardner’s office. Inter-est level is generally fairly high from passerby. Don’t discriminate, invite every-

one to apply, we want as many applicants as pos-

sible. Go to campus a few times and you’ll attract

good applicants!

The more applicants we have, the better chance we have of

getting the perfect fit. Shoot for 30 applicants or more!


OU Hiring Manual 5Scan Resumes

Don’t be too discriminatory when looking through resumes, but look for some of the following traits:

Certain Majors

Industrial Design majors have made GREAT mechanics in the past. Recreation Management majors often are interested in

the experience and outdoor industry contacts that our job offers. Past Experience

Longevity

Schedule Fit

People that have worked in the out-doors industry definitely have a

leg up. Outdoor experience (river guides, ski patrol, experienced

mountain bikers, etc.) is a big plus.

This might be the most important thing we need to know: how long can our applicants work for us? It takes an employee about a year to really start to heavily con-tribute to the shop. Are they graduating in a semester?

Will they be leaving on a mission soon?

This shouldn’t be the end-all decider for hiring, but it’s important. Don’t

assume that schedules are immov-able: often, applicants are willing to change classes, especially if they’re taking classes with lots of sections.


OU Hiring Manual 6Preliminary Interviews

There’s only so much that you can learn from a resume. Don’t feel bad about scheduling almost every

applicant for an interview.

Find employees who will stick around for AT LEAST one year!

Want cool managerial exerience? Each hiring cycle, several experienced, capable employees will per-

form preliminary interviews with applicants.

Possible Questions • What are your long-term plans?

• How do you see this job as being different than, say,

being a cashier at the bookstore?

• Why do you want to work here?

• Give an example from previous work experience

of a contribution you made without being told to.

• How long do you plan on working here? What would

be your employment goal if you were hired here?

Motivators Ask applicants to rank the following incentives in order of

importance to them:

• Pay over $8.50• Enjoyable work

• Free summer rentals (bikes, kayaks, tents, backpacks)• Free winter rentals (skis, snowshoes)/ski passes

• Opportunities to gain new skills• Experience/contacts in the Outdoor Industry

• Relaxed work environment


OU Hiring Manual 7Interview Findings

Preliminary interviews are the biggest step in find-ing employees that will become good employees

for the shop. Get together with the other employees who conducted interviews and figure out which ap-

plicants move on to interviews with Gardner.

Possible Criteria• Who is planning on staying for

the longest?• Which applicants will be good employees AND match big holes

in the schedule?• Who has the most previous expe-

rience at an outdoor shop?• Who seemed the most impressive

during the interview?


Make a small list of reasons to hire each applicant that moves on to an interview

with Gardner. Give Gardner the list, so that he has some

more information about each applicant.

OU Hiring Manual 8Figure out Schedule6 weeks before end of semester

Now for the slightly boring, extremely important part. All applicants who pass the preliminary interviews have to fit into the schedule puzzle. Sometimes, certain holes in the

schedule are very hard to fill, and good applicants have to be turned away because their schedules don’t fit.

Don’t be afraid to negoti-ate with applicants about

their schedules. Many classes can be switched

around, especially Religion and 100- and

200- level classes.

Make sure to keep all of the current employees’

schedules in mind. If you find holes in the

schedule, many current employees can be

shifted around.

OU Hiring Manual 9Gardner’s Interviews

By this point, some applicants have been chosen for their desire for longevity, previous experience, out-

doors aptitude and good preliminary interview. Gardner will then interview the remaining applicants.


How long will they stay?

Does the applicant fit in the schedule?

Do they seem they’ll be a strong,

independent worker?

Do you have a list of abso-lutely every applicant?

Final things to remember before Gardner’s Interview

OU Hiring Manual 10Final Hiring4 weeks before end of semester

You did it! You found the right people for the job! To finish up, do the following:

1. Call the new hires and let them know they got the job! Have them come in and talk with Gardner to be officially hired.

2. Call all the other applicants and let them know that, unfortunately, they didn’t get the job. Make sure they know that we’ll be hiring near the start

of the next semester!

3. Have new employees set up their tax status with Student Employment. If they’ve worked on campus in the past year or so, they

should already be in the system. If not, they need to show their SS card.

4. Come into the shop to begin training!

hiring manual

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