For example, one of Brannick’s clients discovered many of its best hires were new homeowners who enjoyed visiting area house and garden shows on the weekend. The company set up a booth at the next such event and found new potential candidates, without the competition they faced at local job fairs.

Companies Doing it Right

Michael Strong, vice president of Houston-based Brothers Strong Remodeling Design & Build and GreenHaus Builders, took the time a couple years ago to put together a formalized hiring program. The company is small — currently only eight employees — but Strong says he learned from experience that even modestly sized organizations need to think through their hiring processes.

“We screwed up on a ton of hires,” he says. In response, he signed up for an online human-resources course through Remodelers University. Using knowledge gained through his studies and the accompanying conference-call-based class discussions, he documented formalized policies and procedures in a binder he now distributes to his managers.

John Cannon, president of Sarasota, Fla.-based John Cannon Homes is a similar believer in a formalized hiring process. His company, with approximately 25 on staff, has worked with a consultant to help managers improve their interviewing and listening skills and to develop a list of open-ended questions designed to help interviewers learn more about their candidates. In addition, candidates who make it past the first interview round take two tests — the DESA personality test and the Wonderlic Personnel Test — to help establish their suitability for the open position.

Fitting In

Beyond specific abilities, however, Cannon’s managers also are trained to hone in on a more abstract qualification, which is how good a match the candidate is with the company’s overall culture. Cannon Homes values fast-paced problem solvers who show an excitement for the custom-building industry, according to chief operating officer T.J. Nutter, and applicants who don’t meet that standard, no matter how strong their résumé or test scores, probably won’t make it onto the company’s payroll.