How to Hire Movers for Your Moving Company

Who's got problems hiring movers right now or this summer? Okay. A lot of people that I talk to. I'm having trouble with movers. I'm having trouble with movers. All right, tell me what you do. Well, we put an ad.

We put an ad.

Okay, then what? And it's. Well, we didn't really get a response. We told our guys, hey, you know anybody? They didn't know anybody. Right. There's nobody out there. There's no drivers. Uber's taking them. All right. Yes. Is there a shortage? Absolutely. But it just means you got to get smarter while the dabblers struggle, while the dabblers can't grow because they don't have movers. You commit to mastery and say, you know what? I just need a process. When I need movers, I hit play. The process starts running and we've got movers. All right, so let's talk about this process. First of all, we need to talk about the qualities and skills that we're looking for. Mover skills. Okay. Lumping. Somebody might just have. Almost anybody could do that, right. They just have the skill to lump loading. It's a different skill set. Right. Takes a little more experience. Packing, assembling, disassembling, reassembling, inventorying. I know that's not a word, but I had to keep with the theme, Right. They know how to go in and do an inventory for storage jobs or for long distance jobs. Padding, wrapping, furniture. Estimating. Right. That's another skill set. You know, if you're given any type of flat rates or any type of binding estimates or anything like that, you need to be able to have movers that go out there and look at the inventory that you have, either on your tablet or on your bill lading or your sheet, whatever you're giving them with the inventory. And before they start the job, take a look at what the body of work is and make sure it matches so that if there needs to be a revision to the job, it's done ahead of time. But if they don't know how to estimate, they can't do that. Now, if you're just doing hourly rated moves, you don't need somebody with that skill set. But if you're doing flat rates, if you're doing binding, you need somebody with that skill set. Trading. You know, are they able to take this chandelier down and create it, you know, for us? We outsource that. I don't think I ever. I maybe in all my offices had one person that was good at that. Right. But It's a skill set, driving and communicating. Other than blatantly damaging stuff. The biggest customer service problems come from just pure. Forgot the word. I'm looking for poor, poor communication. See, it's like I'm trying to communicate and it's not coming out poor communication. I just like manifested poor communication by saying it. So. So those are skills, right? Those are skills. But we also have qualities because just because they have the skills doesn't mean you want them working for you. They're respectful, good hygiene, right? Helpful, cooperative, team player. Nobody's sending out one man, crews, right, to do moves. All right? So team player, physically capable. They don't have to be jacked, right? They just have to be physically capable to move stuff. And you know, most, as long as they're able bodied, they could do it. They're physically capable, they make the cut, reliable. I'm not even going to ask for a show of hands because I'm not going to waste them on something like this. How many people, you know, have movers not show up in the morning? I know it's everybody in the room. I'll save your shoulder. And they're coachable. They're coachable. You know, a lot of movers, they know it all, right? If you can't coach them and you can't work with them, you kind of know, like you kind of step off and then you can't make any corrections that you need, right? So you've got qualities and you've got skills. What we're doing right now is we're taking something that seems so complex and so challenging and so tough, and we're just breaking it down to a process that once you set it up, just runs in your company and makes it easier. The better the process, the less decision making needs to happen every single step of the way. And who makes the decisions? You make the decisions. So when everything that happens in the company requires a decision that has to come to you. Handcuffs, you're not going anywhere. No free time, no fun, right? The process has set you free. These are the four types of movers, the four types of applicants you're gonna get. Type one, they're experienced, they've got the skills and they've got good qualities. You know, they can load, they could pack. They're respectful, they've got good hygiene, they're coachable. Type two, inexperienced, good qualities. But they're eager to learn. They've never moved before. They've got good qualities, they're physically capable, they're respectable, they're coachable. And they're eager to learn. Type 3. They're experienced, but bad qualities, right? They're the master mover, but as a person, they're scumbag, right? Anybody got some of those or been around, okay. But we stay with them because we're like, oh, we need them because they know how to do it, right? Type four, inexperienced. They've got good qualities. You know, you interview them, they're like, I don't know how to move that or seem like a good person, but they're like, I don't really want to learn how to do this. Okay? They're not eager to learn. So those as you get applicants, really, the first step is you want to determine which bucket do they fall in. They're one of these four. If they're one, hire them, right? That's what you want. All day, type one, all day. If they're two, hire them and train them. It's going to be very, very difficult to broaden your labor pool. If you're only looking for movers that have moving experience, it's gonna be very challenging. And what you're gonna end up with is a lot of type threes, which. You know what? Add them to your mover database. You should keep a mover database of all the applicants that ever apply for your company and anybody that's ever worked for your company. Okay? You could do it as simple as having a spreadsheet. Okay. Or you could do it in your CRM, as simple as having a spreadsheet to where you know, you have a column. They're a driver. What type are they? They can only work weekends. This is how much money they need to get paid, minimum. Like, maybe you don't hire them is what I'm getting at. People come across, but summertime, it's the end of the month, it's busy. You know, you were like, man, we're turning down business. You go in a database, okay, which you connect to your email, you connect to text messages, and you blast out emails and texts looking for guys for this weekend. We'll pay you at the end of the weekend. You know, whatever your incentive is to get them to come work when you have that database, you can, you know, treat that. You know, those are leads. Those are leads. Remember, you need leads to book moves, right? Opportunities to book moves. But then you also have to pull this other piece together where you've got to get guys on a truck to go service the move. So if we're nurturing leads that come in, let's nurture the applicants that come in as well. Let's keep them in a mover database, right? Even if you don't use it for the next year until next summer. How nice would it be next summer when you're in a jam if you got like a few hundred people on a sheet that you could upload into something and text message all of them. Hey, we're looking for guys. If you can't work, we're paying 250 referral fee. Call me at this number or send an email. Right? Powerful mover database inexperience, good qualities, not eager to learn. Keep looking, don't waste your time. Right? So whoever's doing this, the filtration here, it becomes very easy for them, right? You're not telling your, your team or your dispatcher, your ops manager, hey, you know, if they're a good guy and they got experience, it's too vague. Put them in one of these buckets and then make the decision accordingly. So then we have the mover hiring process, right? How does it start, how does it finish? You got recruiting application interview rotation. Recruiting application interview rotation. Okay, so recruiting an employment ad still the best way to do it. You're going to have to place a lot of them. Somebody like, I put an ad on Craigslist. Look. How many? One. We really need movers, okay? Try five, right? When you place an ad on Craigslist, you guys probably know this already, but you know, when you place the ad and someone else places an ad, it pushes yours down and just keeps going down like that. When you're in hiring mode and you need people get aggressive with that. I know it costs money, but what costs more money? That or losing jobs that you could book or paying for leads to book moves to, then be told by operations, no more moves. Right? You want this thing flowing, you never want to stop booking moves. Never, never. We'll talk about that Sunday. Referrals, right? Your mover database. People that work for you already offer some money. If they refer someone to you that stays for 90 days, right? What's that worth to you? 100 bucks, 500 bucks? Community outreach, colleges, churches, or you're, you know, wherever you worship, you know, there's always. They've always got somebody there to pasture. Whoever's got somebody that you know is down on their luck, right? I'll do anything. I'm willing to work. I'm a good person. Talk to them, you know, see who they have. Application, right? So you get your recruiting going, right? And by the way, with recruiting, you could also do social media. You could also Run ads like on Facebook and stuff like that and target a certain demographic. However, to me, that's either an add on that you add on to a strong process or it's a hack, it's a dabbler tool. It's the person that says, no, it doesn't work to put an ad because I put one and nobody showed up. Let me try this. I gotta be in social media. Let me try this. Not to say it's bad, but that's the type of thing that you add on top of an existing process just to enhance it. Right. It doesn't replace a real proven process. Have your, all these people go to an application on your website. Okay? So like if you have a web form that is get a free estimate type type of thing. So think about that. But on a page where they're just filling out their application on the website, comes directly into your CRM, comes directly into an email. But this way you have that. And now if you guys are, you know, have been in moving sales academy and you know, I'm like, no, no, no, no applications, have them call. This is different. A mover is different. You want to see the application. It's not about how they sound on the phone. It doesn't matter how they sound on the phone. So get the application, then have somebody qualify the application. Okay, so you'll try to determine which type of mover in the quadrant they are. You're not gonna be able to fully know, but you know, you could probably eliminate some applications right off the bat and then put them in your mover database. Whether you're hiring them or you're not hiring them, get them in the mover database. It's a powerful tool when you're ready for it, which is in those moments where you're like, I need movers, you send out a text, you send out an email, or you start calling people down the list. My mover database started off as a piece of paper with coffee stains and fingerprints and dirt all over it taped to the side of the dispatch desk years ago. Right. Who has that? All right, well, it'd be nice to sort, right. Do certain things and be able to actually use some technology to make it a little bit easier. You need the mover database. Then interview, call them up, do a phone interview. If they sound promising, bring them in for an in person interview and then skill evaluation. What this means is you've interviewed them over the phone, you've brought them in, you've done an interview, you've gone through your interview questions, right? You're asking them about their experience. If they're like, yeah, I'm this and I'm that and I worked here and I did that. Yeah, I could load. Yeah, I could create. Yeah, I could do all this. Okay, cool interview, right? Then you grab a chair, you grab a pad right there on the spot in your office, have them pad the chair. Right? If they take the pad and throw it over the chair and they told you they were like an expert mover and they didn't lay the pad down and then put the chair on it and. Right. You know, doesn't mean you don't hire them. But, you know, now you're gonna have to train this person. Right. There's a difference. You have a credenza or whatever's in the office, Right. You don't need to bring in a whole big, you know, mock home, but, you know, put a dresser there or even a piece of your desk, have them pad that. Right? What questions are they asking? Are they saying, do you have any tape or rubber bands? Do you want me to shrink wrap this? Right. How are they folding it that way? You know what you're working with, right? Because some people, you don't have to waste any time training them. But other people, they're a good person. They're eager to work and they're eager to learn. But they're also in a job interview. People lie in job interviews. They need a job, don't look at anybody. Oh, they lied. They're dead to me. Right? They're gonna steal, they're gonna be the worst person. If they were like, yeah, I got experience. It's just that they're thinking, how hard is it moving furniture? Yeah, I've moved before. Right. But it just puts you in a position to know what you're working with. Do I need to get them in training or can I. Can they go right out on the truck? And now you want to get them in the rotation, right. Because what's another big concern, you hire too many movers. And how do you get them in the rotation when you have other guys that want the hours? Right. Well, first assign a mover mentor. Even if you could start with one, if that one has to be you, okay. But eventually you'll have multiple mover mentors. So instead of making them a trainer or let's say you don't have a full on training program and you don't, you know, want to do this whole week long thing and you're ready to get them out there, you take one of your best guys, you Say, listen, I'd really like your help to help me bring on and mentor new movers, right? Not train. When you give somebody a mentor label, you know, feels a little, oh yeah, I'm a mentor, right? It's different than I'm a trainer, they feel different level of significance. And so now when this new person goes with the mentor, it's established, like, this is your mentor. You know, they're going to show you the ropes, they're going to show you how things are done and the mentor knows what they need to show the trainee. And so now even in the truck, on the drive to the job, the mentor is like, you know, this is what we do, this is how we do it, right? Kind of laying the groundwork. And the mentee knows that they need to kind of pass this test, if you will, in order to get hired on. Now, you know, know that when you first try, you might give somebody such a big head that they're just like an asshole, right? They're like a mentor all of a sudden. And now they're just like, you know, really do this, do that, shine my shoes, right? Like just, you just might have to reel them in a little bit. You know, you start giving people a position of power that have never been in a position of power and they might not take it gracefully, right? But again, don't rule them out, mentor them, coach them, right? I built my entire business on taking people that, you know, had a certain basic skill set and coaching them and mentoring them to keep rising up within the company. Keep rising up within the company, then on the job training. I know some of you might disagree with this, but if I'm sending someone on a job, I'm never sending an extra person. Like if it's a three man job, I'm not sending the customer four, right? Maybe if it's a flat rate, maybe. But I'm not sending the customer four on like an hourly rated job and saying they're in training, we're giving them to you for free. Doesn't take much to lump, right? You don't have to do a full on training, but send three. Let the trainee be one of the three and collect for three men, right? Even your experienced guys break shit. You don't not charge for them. So I know some people disagree and they're like, no, if they're training, I want to be, you know, customer doesn't need to know it's their first day on the job, okay? They want people to move them and as long as there's somebody there that's like loading and, you know, packing and doing all the padding. You know, you could get somebody up to speed really quick. That's eager to learn. Remember, they're eager to learn. You didn't just pick them up in the Home Depot parking lot like, hey, you want to work today? Get in. Right? There's nothing wrong with that if it comes down to it. You know, when I first. When I was still in the truck rental yard, I had such a problem with movers. I mean, part of it was they showed up, they saw this young kid working out of his car, and it was like a joke. One of them was like, hey, man, I know. You know, Greybull, they got all these. You know, their headquarters was in Denver. They got a whole cafeteria where all the lumpers just hang out. Yeah, let's go. Get in. Right? Had a Mercury Mountaineer suv, drove down to Greybull, go get them. Went inside, came out with more guys that we could even fit in the car. They were in the cargo area. I don't know how many were in there, but. But if we got pulled over, it was gonna look like I was, like, smuggling people into the country, Right? So you do what you have to do. But if, you know, they're eager to learn, I would get paid while they're on the job. And then you rotate out your C team. So you wanna establish an A team, a B team, and a C team. You don't have to tell them, please, like, you're a C team. You're a B team. You're an A team. It's an internal thing. Unless you have a really good succession plan where you clearly lay out how you move from C to B to A. Like, if you have that laid out, then I think it is good for someone to know where they stand. But they need to know, how do I get. How do I move up? Specifically, what do I need to do? So unless you have that A team, B team. C team is internal. A team, those are the guys. You wish you could have them on every single job. B team, yeah. Okay. C team, you're nervous when they go out. You're waiting for a phone call, right? It's like extreme measures that you're sending them out. So what you do is you just start rotating them out. You don't have to fire them, but, you know, I don't need you today. I don't need you, you know, and you've got to get them in the rotation. I know. It's one of the toughest things to do when You've got, you know, if any of you have ever had, you know, grown men, you know, crying to you that they need hours. Who's ever had that? It's tough. It's tough. So, you know, don't, don't drag somebody through the mud. But you also can't, you know, take people with you that aren't helping your company. Right? So rotate out the C team. Does everybody see how this could be helpful to hire movers to just run them through this process? Okay, no more just like placing an ad and going, it didn't work. You need to get these movers because we're also going to increase your sales this weekend. No movers sales are useless.

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