Am I looking at this the wrong way?

[Tyre Smoke]

I run a taxi company. We have 11 taxis and are based in Mid Devon. I am in desperate need of a right hand man/woman who can ease the pressure on me. It will be a position of responsibility (obviously) managing the employees and business. There will also be a need to drive if required.

I am really struggling to find the right person, I am willing to pay what (I think) is an excellent salary for the area of circa £26000 p.a. Ultimate responsibility still rests with me, but when I am on holiday then the Man/Girl Friday will run the business. It is essentially a 40 hour week, but will involve weekend working and some late night work, but not necessarily every weekend.

I am unsure of the best route to ensure I get the right person. The Job Centre website whilst free, is a waste of time as the wrong calibre of person reads it. Local paper might be an option, or a recruitment agency? The Agency will be too expensive I think, but can't decide if it will be worth it. I am finding it particularly hard to word out an advertisement.

Some advice would VERY gratefully received.

[edc]

Tyre Smoke said:

I run a taxi company. We have 11 taxis and are based in Mid Devon. I am in desperate need of a right hand man/woman who can ease the pressure on me. It will be a position of responsibility (obviously) managing the employees and business. There will also be a need to drive if required.

I am really struggling to find the right person, I am willing to pay what (I think) is an excellent salary for the area of circa £26000 p.a. Ultimate responsibility still rests with me, but when I am on holiday then the Man/Girl Friday will run the business. It is essentially a 40 hour week, but will involve weekend working and some late night work, but not necessarily every weekend.

I am unsure of the best route to ensure I get the right person. The Job Centre website whilst free, is a waste of time as the wrong calibre of person reads it. Local paper might be an option, or a recruitment agency? The Agency will be too expensive I think, but can't decide if it will be worth it. I am finding it particularly hard to word out an advertisement.

Some advice would VERY gratefully received.

It sounds like your need is less about experience and more about style and personal qualities and attributes. If you can't identify what is important to you then a recruitment agency isn't going to hit the spot. Are you looking for an early career person to grow with the company or are you looking perhaps for and end of career person for a steady pair of hands who may not have the same ambition? That might suit you as I guess there is only so much you can grow the business and responsibility of the role. Define what the job role is first, identify the attributes you will need, think about what background or similar roles you think would be useful. Your own network or a referral is possibly the best place to find a person for what is a small business.

[Gargamel]

Does this person already work in your business? Have you really thought about your 11 drivers and whether one of them might be the person to do this role.

Agencies have their place, I would guess a local firm might cost 20% of first years salary or even do a deal at 15% - so £3,700 IF they find the right person that you want to hire ? After all it would be no win no fee.

Personally I would see a few people through an agency, it might help you identify the the of skills you want

[STW2010]

That sounds like a fair bit of responsibility for the money. Plus they will have to give up evenings and weekends on occasion.

My first thoughts are that the money on offer is actually quite low.

[Tyre Smoke]

STW2010 said:

That sounds like a fair bit of responsibility for the money. Plus they will have to give up evenings and weekends on occasion.

My first thoughts are that the money on offer is actually quite low.

The average salary around here is far lower than the national average.

For example a qualified HGV workshop manager working nights only gets a total of £28k.

I want someone with 'a bit about them' with not necessarily any qualifications who can look after things for short periods. Not all the time.

I guess what I require is either a young person keen to grow with the business, or a safe pair of hands at the other end, although experience tells me that an old hand tend to be set in their ways and quite inflexible. To be clear, I'm not looking for someone to run the business, if I was I would be looking at much more money/bonuses. I just want a bit of support.

I have looked at the existing drivers, and no, there is nobody suitable. Either they are semi retired and happy with their lot, or (to be honest) not up to the challenge.

I want to employ someone who has a 'can do' attitude, can help me grow the business (and their rewards too) and look at the shift patterns, staffing levels, and be customer focussed. Streetwise, common sense and charisma are all I want.

[acd80]

It sounds like you need to speak to this lot.

https://www.ctp.org.uk/employers

[STW2010]

Tyre Smoke said:

The average salary around here is far lower than the national average.

For example a qualified HGV workshop manager working nights only gets a total of £28k.

I want someone with 'a bit about them' with not necessarily any qualifications who can look after things for short periods. Not all the time.

I guess what I require is either a young person keen to grow with the business, or a safe pair of hands at the other end, although experience tells me that an old hand tend to be set in their ways and quite inflexible. To be clear, I'm not looking for someone to run the business, if I was I would be looking at much more money/bonuses. I just want a bit of support.

I have looked at the existing drivers, and no, there is nobody suitable. Either they are semi retired and happy with their lot, or (to be honest) not up to the challenge.

I want to employ someone who has a 'can do' attitude, can help me grow the business (and their rewards too) and look at the shift patterns, staffing levels, and be customer focussed. Streetwise, common sense and charisma are all I want.

Ok, you definitely know more about where the salary sits better than I do.

Parking the salary for now, I would say it is actually an excellent opportunity for someone to learn a lot, so would advertise it on that basis 'Excellent opportunity to grow with the business, learn a wide range of business-relevant skills etc'.

The administrators at my place do this sort of thing- organising people, being flexible in tasks and being excellent with people.

[egor110]

Tyre Smoke said:

STW2010 said:

That sounds like a fair bit of responsibility for the money. Plus they will have to give up evenings and weekends on occasion.

My first thoughts are that the money on offer is actually quite low.

The average salary around here is far lower than the national average.

For example a qualified HGV workshop manager working nights only gets a total of £28k.

I want someone with 'a bit about them' with not necessarily any qualifications who can look after things for short periods. Not all the time.

I guess what I require is either a young person keen to grow with the business, or a safe pair of hands at the other end, although experience tells me that an old hand tend to be set in their ways and quite inflexible. To be clear, I'm not looking for someone to run the business, if I was I would be looking at much more money/bonuses. I just want a bit of support.

I have looked at the existing drivers, and no, there is nobody suitable. Either they are semi retired and happy with their lot, or (to be honest) not up to the challenge.

I want to employ someone who has a 'can do' attitude, can help me grow the business (and their rewards too) and look at the shift patterns, staffing levels, and be customer focussed. Streetwise, common sense and charisma are all I want.

Got any ex marines knocking about down there?

We've had 2 as managers and as a fully paid up union bod (me) they've been great.

They have real life man/people management skills whereas some of the graduates we have are just totally useless and wind the staff up creating situations, then wonder why staff won't work extra hours for them.

The ex marines, most staff would help them out because they know if they needed to come in late/go early they'd let them.

[Tyre Smoke]

42 are just up the road in Taunton, and Lympstone is an equal distance down the road past Exeter.

RM might be the way to go.

[egor110]

Tyre Smoke said:

42 are just up the road in Taunton, and Lympstone is an equal distance down the road past Exeter.

RM might be the way to go.

i live behind 42, like i said my experience in a very pro union workplace of ex marines has been very good, they take the piss out of staff they are able to have the piss taken out of them and they are very fair, rather than managing according to what they were taught at uni or becoming a mananger by just being crap at the manual work and getting onto a managers course with no experience.

Another example we work in a tiny depot at xmas our busiest time we are totally left to fend for ourselves with no input from any managers to check how things are going or to say how there doing things in the main office.

A few years ago one of the old marines comes along one morning and says 'alright village wkers i've bought you breakfast , put the kettle on' and he'd come out to see how things were going , if staff had any concerns re doing overtime etc, little things like that count and we did all work extra hours to complete.

[ChasW]

I am struggling to remember the name of the organisation/charity, they were quite small when I met them, but they placed highly skilled disabled ex-servicemen in high pressure roles. I used to work for a high end mission critical IT service provider which is why I was approached because the support centres are ideal for people with poor mobility who need to use their brains, initiative and judgement and take charge of situations. I'll have a trawl around. I was really impressed with people I met.