I was invited to a meeting recently to discuss speed to hire tactics specifically targeted for recruiting parking talent. Typically, the first half of the conversation centers around what hiring managers are doing presently in this space so we can then identify opportunities for improvement. Surprisingly, it's still fairly uncommon to find a great degree of uniformity across any given organization when it comes to the individual leaders' approach toward interviewing and evaluating career seekers looking for their next parking opportunity.
Some will debate that no two parking careers are alike and I would agree - I think it's one of the universal reasons why so many of us have stayed in this industry for as long as we have - no two days are ever the same.
But in the same breath, I would add that there are certain fundamentals every parking manager should possess, regardless of the type of location he/she is managing that any given management team should universally agree with and know.
In these moments where a team may be wondering how close or far they are from each other when it comes to describing the ideal candidate, I'll facilitate a quick brainstorming exercise whereby each manager has to list all of the characteristics of a successful parking manager to then compare, prioritize and edit down to the absolute must-have's with their colleagues.
Then we'll validate the list through asking every participant to describe a situation where a particular characteristic is needed and plays a primary role in either resolving or progressing the stated example forward.
From there, then we can design interview questions and an evaluation tool that can be used to ensure each hiring manager is asking similar questions to learn about the candidate's attributes as measured against the ideal profile agreed upon before hand.
Over time, we've seen companies move from hiring parking talent who covered the breadth and depth when it came to institutional knowledge, behavioral attributes and experience into a very reasonable spectrum of consistency, while gaining the confidence that every new hire met minimum requirements (always a good thing when it comes to compliance!) and possessed the company's leadership competencies. Hand in hand, the company's talent retention rates went up, as did their year over year profitabiliity.
If you’d like learn more about improving your company's hiring practices, parking careers, or executive recruitment outsourcing, we can help. Drop us a line at letsconnect@marlyngroupllc.com to schedule a complementary one hour consultation or visit the Marlyn Group blog for more parking industry trends related to professional development and training, talent acquisition and human resources practices.