We are interviewing today for a new reception role. Our main receptionist Amy will be leaving in a few months to have a child so we are getting in early to find a good candidate to fill her shoes. We hope to have the successful candidate on board within the next few weeks.

We are avertising on Seek (as of this morning) for a new person to join our systems installation team.  Based out of Melbourne but working nationally, this new role will expand the resources we have to help us install new systems in a timely manner.

We have a structured process for considering applicants to ensure that we do find the best candidate possible to join our team.

We have six interviews scheduled for today to fill a new admin support role for our Melbourne office.  This new position will help us better manage call traffic and cope with shipping, mail and other support processes.  We started wih well over 100 applicants and are thrilled with the quality of the final six for an important front line role.

Our two new technical team members start their orientation with us on Monday.  We have an intensive training program planned.  This will be handled our technology specialists first up before we start with training closer to the Help Desk.  The key is to complete thorough training on our software as well as a comprehensive orientation about Tower Systems and what we stand for.

One will be a full time Help Desk analyst and the other full time on our installation team.

We will introduce the two new team members in the coming weeks.  In the meantime, it is good to know we have new team members on the way to strengthen our resources.

The offers we sent out earlier this week to two candidates for Help Desk / Training roles have been accepted.  This is great news.  We have found two (yes, one more than first expected) well qualified candidates with experience in dealing with small business, good IT skills and a commitment to excellent customer service.  We will share more details closer to when they start to have customer contact.

Our plan to make a decision yesterday on hiring a new help desk employee didn’t pan out.  We had an excellent turn out and this is part of the challenge - separating excellent candidates.  We also had a last minute inclusion in our shortlist who we will see this morning.

We hope to reach a conclusion later today.

We have back to back interviews today from 8am through to 11am with the short list of candidates for our new help desk role in Melbourne.  We have seven candidates presenting today.  Three of us will do the interviews.  We will cover the technical skills, communication skills and personal interests.

Hopefully, after contemplation in the afternoon, we will end the day with the ideal candidate.

Yesterday I cut seventy applicants (yes, we received mroe after my last blog post) down to twelve.  I had hoped to get the four but it was too difficult.  To separate the twelve I sent each an email letting them know more about the role and that they were in the group for consideration for interview.  The responses I receive will guide the next cull.

I take a personal approach to hiring because it is crucial to get the balance right between skills, commitment, communication and connection.

By lunchtime today we should have the twelve cut to six of fewer for interview.

I am spending time this weekend (starting early today) developing a list of candidates to interview of the vacancy on our help desk.  I always enjoy this process, it is an interesting window on the world reading about people, their professional journeys, aspirations and personal interests.

In sifting the applicants I am looking for people with good skills, a commitment to excellent customer service and an affinity for small business, especially retail.  I am also looking for someone to add to our existing team.  There are often clues in resumes and application letters which show up one or more of these attributes.

I am confident that by tomorrow evening I will have the final four for consideration.  So confident in fact that I am pulling the ad.  The pool from which I am choosing is large and contains a diverse mix of candidates.

We received more than sixty applications in twenty four hours for the help desk position we are looking to fill.  I am culling these as they come in and currently have just under half on a list to be considered.  This group will be reduced over the weekend as I check resumes and other information provided.  I plan to have a short list of four candidates for interview by Monday and selection completed by Wednesday or Thursday.

The ad we ran contained a test for attention to detail.  This enabled us to knock out 10% of applicants.  We let them know why we knocked the out - hopefully they will pay more attention before they apply next time.

We have received some excellent applications for the software development position we are looking to fill even though we have only been advertising on seek for 24 hours.  The calibre and volume of applicants for our position suggests that many companies have cut back on their development budget.

We will be leaving applications open until mid week when we will start to select a shortlist for interview.

We are advertising for a commercially skilled software developer with good Delphi skills.  Please email me if you would like details of the position.

To help is manage excellent growth, we are looking for a technical support / system installation and training person to join our New South Wales team.  If you have good IT skills, love small business and enjoy helping people get real value from a computer investment then please email your resume.

We are preparing to advertise for a new Help Desk role in our Head Office but before we take that step, we would welcome applications from anyone with good IT skills, an affinity with small business and a desire to help people master technology. Please email your resume and a cover letter explaining why you think you would be a good fit for Tower Systems.

We tried a very different approach to advertising our latest new Help Desk position on Seek yesterday and it paid off. We received 39 applications within seven hours of the ad being posted. At this rate we are likely to take the ad down before the end of the week. We started culling the application list overnight and hope to have initial discussions with several candidates today.

In this labour scare marketplace moving quickly is vitally important. That plus the urgency of our need is driving rapid evaluation of the candidates.

Even though it is only a week since we advertised on Seek, tomorrow we are interviewing several candidates for two new positions.  We have received some excellent applications and have finalised a shortlist. 

One way we qualify candidates is their connectedness.  We pre-interview by email.  This allows us to assess written communication.  It also tests the accuracy of resume claims.  Given how much of our work is email and online based, communicating through a keyboard is important.

One candidate held themselves up as having excellent written communication skills and provided two references to support this.  They failed the email test, struggling to string together more than two or three words to answer a question which demanded more. 

Even though I read about a skills shortage, we seem to attract plenty of candidates.  We need to find reasons to not consider a candidate further, hence the email interview.

We are creating a new customer service position in our National Help Desk in Melbourne to help us better manage our growth. We listed the vacancy online at Seek yesterday morning. In twenty four hours we have received more than thirty applications. We expect to conduct our first interviews this week. We will leave the ad running since it is possible we will create another position in the customer service area.

Based on an initial scan of applications, there are many fine candidates looking for for a new role in the customer service / Help Desk area. We are fortunate to have a good pool from which to draw interviewees.

Finding the right Help Desk person is challenging. While technical skills are important, communication skills are more important. That and a genuine desire to help people. This is why our interviews are unusual - the focus on communication more so than what you know.

We are still receiving applications so if you know anyone looking for a career in IT please pass on our details.

Richard Lee applied for a job as a web developer with Tower Systems more than three years ago.  He missed the cut and I emailed a thanks but no thanks note.  Richard felt I had not fully considered what he could bring to the table and made contact.  We subsequently met and he was hired as our web developer.  Over the last three years Richard has made an excellent contribution to our corporate web presence and the web presence of several other businesses in which we are involved.

Unfortunately, Richard moved on last week.  I wish he hadn’t but he felt drawn to a change which promises to take his skills in an exciting new direction.

While it is frustrating to lose someone like Richard who has served the company so well, it is a pleasure to have provided them an opportunity to establish a career fresh from university and to have benefited considerably from his skill and commitment.  Richard resigned in style and graciously gave four weeks notice.  I made sure to let him know that he will always be welcome back.

We are fortunate in that staff turnover at Tower Systems is lower than the software industry average.  We intend to work at getting it lower.

Richard’s replacement starts in a few days.  We will welcome here with open arms and look forward to the opportunity of change.

Keith Terrell finished up with us last Friday in advance of him flying out to the US to work as a camp counsellor as part of the summer camp program.  He is following that with a month in Mexico, a month camping through the US and then a season working the Canadian ski slopes.

The last two and a half years have been Keith’s second stint with the company.  He was a key member of our on site installation and training team.  He knows we will always have a position here for him when he returns from his latest overseas travels.   When you find someone good and they leave on good terms the door for return ought to be left wide open.

Thankfully, Keith let us know plenty in advance of his travel plans.  We have been fortunate to resource up in advance.  If only it always worked that way.

We have had an excellent run at employing new team members over the past year with plenty of high caliber candidates from which to choose - except for the pre sales support role we have just created.  We have received a small number of applications from skilled people but none have the pre sales experience we need.  If you know someone who has experience supporting a growing sales team please get them to make contact with us at sales@towersystems.com.au.

We have been involved in interviews today for the three new positions we are looking to fill at our Head Office – pre sales support; software developer and help desk. The quality of candidates has been exceptional on a range of fronts. We appreciate people who come to an interview prepared, having done their homework about us and what we do. This demonstrates an attention to detail which is important to us and to our customers.

Based on the candidates we have seen today, we have some tough decisions to make for as always happens you see someone who may not fit a role you have advertised but they would be an excellent addition to the team.

We have received some excellent responses to the new positions available within Tower Systems. We hope to have a shortlist completed by mid this week with interviews commencing a couple of days after that.

As can happen when you advertises a position, we have had one or two apply with skills outside the advertised positions. This opens us to the possibility of expansion within the business, to areas we do not currently cover internally. We have been fortunate to create several new positions inside Tower Systems over the years by being open to people with skills outside the advertised areas.   This is one reason I enjoy reading resumes - the opportunities you can find can be valuable.

We bought four new Lexus vehicles last week for some of our sales team, the new IS 250x special edition model.  These cars have all the bits to excite anyone interested in cars, lots of buttons and lights and gadgets, yes, plenty of gadgets.

While I am not a car person and these lights and buttons and gadgets are lost on me, they are not lost on the sales team.  With these guys spending so much of their time on the road visiting with our customers and prospects, being safe and comfortable is important.  The car is part of the workplace.

Employee cars, are not something to cut corners with.  Beyond the health and safety issue there is the image they provide employees and others of your company.  This is why we are happy to partner with Lexus.

Our relationship with Lexus began in 2000.  The cars themselves are reliable (and comfortable) workhorses and the dealer through which we buy is a dream to work with.

We have seventeen cars in our company fleet.  It’s a challenge to manage.  As with the Lexus we look at the bigger picture and not just the raw vehicle cost.   The smile from the sales team makes the investment worth it.

We were interviewing yesterday for a new role in our Brisbane office. This time we approached it differently, culling applications by email and on the phone and flying a candidate into Melbourne to meet with several key team members.

While time will tell if the approach worked, I liked it because the responsibility is shared among more. Also, the culling process - phone and email - is closer to how we interact with team members on the road and working in our interstate offices. It lets us test more communication skills than just at an interview.

The hiring process is further challenged since we are attracting an excellent group of candidates. This changed about a year ago. many come to us now through word of mouth. In several instances we have created a role to fit the person knocking on our door - it pays to be opportunistic when it comes to finding good people.

Adding to our Brisbane office is a high priority for us as growth in Queensland is considerable. I doubt we will stay still once we fill this current position.

And the photo? That’s Gary, one of our software developers and the third longest service member of the Tower team. Gary’s the one on the right - in the green shirt. The naked dude, on the left, is a bear we just imported for one of our gift shops. He is currently sitting in reception with his twin while we work out how to transport him to the shop. In the meantime, he’s giving away free hugs. I had one - he’s great!

We have a very busy reception area. I wonder some days what people make of it - yesterday especially.

We’ve purchased two Nintendo DS units for lunchtime fun at our Head Office. These company owned units will supplement the DS units brought in by team members and lead to some more robust competition.  Even though I’m not one for computer games (not since moon alien and missile command in 1979/80 when I spent too much time playing), I’m pleased so many have a good time with them at lunch.

While the DS units may not directly help us write better software or provide better support, they will help people relax more at work and that’s got to be good.   Certainly, the cheers which reverberate through the office when someone wins makes those of us not playing smile.