Have you ever heard that you only get one chance to make a first impression? I\u2019m Marty T Hawkins and I\u2019d like to thank you for checking in with us here at Warehouse and Operations as a Career! Whither you are a Supervisor or a lead, an Employee, Recruiter or an HR Generalist, maybe you\u2019re in Benefits, we\u2019re all some of the first people our new and existing associates see. We greet them, walk them through the on-boarding process and sell them on how great our company is and how happy we are that they chose to work with us! Us as a Warehouse Supervisor, lead or Trainer are going to greet them and its our responsibility to walk them thru our Facility, give them a great orientation to all the rules, safety procedures and processes and cover any regulatory concerns with them, right? As a recruiter or hiring agent it is our job to kind of size them up. Do they possess the skills and have the experience to do the task they\u2019ve applied for? Your probably going to watch our body language, how confidently we speak about our work experiences, then you may even check our references and look us up on social media, and your going to put all that together and decide if we would be a great fit for the position! Ever wonder what that applicant is thinking about you and the experience there having? I spoke with several new hires last week, kind of being a welcoming wagon for them. This gave me the opportunity to observe and set in on several interviews. I also got to follow some of those new hires on through the on-boarding process and all the way to their facility orientation and welcome to the team speeches. I had a blast, I love being around young, new talent and it excites me to see their enthusiasm about getting a new job and earning for their families! As great as everything went, I did have a few thoughts though and today I wanted to talk about, are we as employers and us as employees really doing all we can for each other? Let me give you a couple of examples. OK, a recruiter was interviewing an individual for a skilled warehouse position, I was asked to follow up with the applicant as this was a bit of a unique situation and task. Anyway, the recruiter had interviewed them, told them I would be right in, and went next door to start interviewing another applicant. The recruiter finished up there and came to get me to speak with the first one while telling the other one I\u2019d be with them next. Now, I don\u2019t think the recruiter did particularly anything wrong, but I got to wondering if the applicants maybe felt they we\u2019re part of a conveyor system? As you can imagine, my interviews can take a bit. Especially if I\u2019m trying to ascertain one\u2019s actual skills and work history. You all know how easily I can get of subject and run down an entirely off subject rabbit hole. I mean, isn\u2019t the applicant probability gathering an impression of us and the company too? That\u2019s kind of the first opportunity the prospect has met us, face to face anyway. They may have checked out our website, learned a little about the company, maybe even reached out to a friend that may have had an experience with us, but this is the first time their seeing our building, meeting us and seeing a little interaction around our offices. Do you think we always make a great and grand first impression? If we appear to be hurrying through an interview and trying to get to the next person in the room next door, or maybe have a little bit of a long delay waiting on the second interviewer to come visit with them, even if its just their perception, did we give them the first impression we deserve? We\u2019re good people, we care about them & helping them find work. But could they tell that, do we always make them feel that way as hiring agents, Human Resource and Benefits departments?
\nI went out to several facilities while the new hires were being walked in and passed on to their new leads, Supervisors or trainers.