EMPLOYEE SELECTION

Date: January 31

Subject: Hiring Issues

Thank you for taking the time to forward your questions. We are very interested in developing a stronger hiring process. Allow me to explain our company and some of the issues we see and respond to your questions.

Alamo Waste and Disposal has been one of the ten largest waste removal companies since we started in 1986. We serve residential contracts in the Houston, Texas, market. Our focus is on building relationships with our residential customers, and we are in a phase of rapid growth. The city is increasing in population, and we are entertaining the possibility of expanding to surrounding cities. We have a strong reputation for quality and consistency, and we strive to maintain that.

We employ mostly drivers and laborers, as well as a small administrative team, totaling about three hundred employees at this time. Our administrative team has a long track record with us, as do most of our drivers. Our team of laborers, however, has a turnover rate of about 300%. Two-thirds of our workforce is represented by laborers. About twenty-three of our laborers have been with us for over two years. We have noticed that most leave after two or three weeks and many walk away in the middle of a shift.

The job of a laborer is demanding. Laborers are the individuals who ride on the back of garbage trucks and lift and dump garbage bins into the truck. They typically work a ten-hour shift and, if they are willing, can work up to six days per week. We would like to get to the point where we assign two laborers to each driver and they work as a team throughout the week, but our turnover among laborers is so high that we are currently unable to count on them enough to develop teams. Laborers spend most of their day running behind the truck from driveway to driveway and then lifting 40 to 60 pounds at a time. The job is demanding, smelly, and physically exhausting. The starting pay for laborers is $8.50 per hour. Overtime is available for those who want it, but few take it. They are eligible for a 5% increase at their first anniversary, but rarely do they make it that far.

We typically post open positions with Craigslist, the local unemployment office, and a few community college job boards. Most of our candidates actually come from employee referrals. We have three hiring managers that manage the selection process. We review applications, check backgrounds, check references, and conduct a brief interview. At this time, the interview questions are determined by each hiring manager. Once the candidate is selected, an offer is made and we set a start date. There is a four-hour training period where we review safety procedures, talk about the company and our philosophy of customer service, review policies and procedures, and assign equipment. The new employee then reports for a route the next day. We require employees to attend safety training every six months as well as additional meetings on company issues as needed.

To qualify for the job of laborer, candidates must be able to work for long stretches, be on their feet for ten to twelve hours per day, be able to lift 50 pounds to waist height repeatedly, be able to climb onto and down from the truck, and be able to communicate in English with the crew and sometimes customers. Our candidates should not have any criminal background and no visible tattoos.

We realize that in order to grow, we need to streamline and improve some of these processes. We are very interested in establishing a better recruitment and selection process as well as a clearer employee development path. We struggle with choosing the best candidates and often find that what a candidate says and does are two different things. We would like to find a better way to assess whether candidates can actually do the physical part of the job, as that is the biggest contributor to our turnover rate.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts on ways we can recruit, select, and retain better employees. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Merle Jackson, CEO