Personnel Matters

There’s plenty of truth in the old adage, good help is hard to find. And nowhere is this more evident than in the kitchen and bath industry over the past few years. While many industries have floundered in the last five years, the building and remodeling industries have continued to see strong growth, thanks to record-low interest rates, an aging U.S. housing stock and consumers’ growing fascination with all things home-related.

Savvy kitchen and bath dealerships have reaped the rewards, garnering more clients, more projects and more profit. However, all of this growth has created an increased demand for quality employees that the market hasn’t always been able to meet.

As a result, dealers are increasingly reporting difficulty securing top-quality designers, salespeople, installers and administrative personnel, according to a new survey by Kitchen & Bath Design News.

The survey, which polled more than 240 kitchen and bath dealers from across the nation and Canada, showed dealerships plan to increase their staff by an average of 1.2 employees in 2006, with the majority looking to add sales/designers and installers. Many said they would like to grow their staff even more, but are at a loss for how to find the right people (see related Editorial).

“It wasn’t always this way,” lamented an East Coast dealer who responded to the survey by detailing his own struggles to find a quality installer. “My business has practically doubled in the last few years, and other dealers are also growing. [But] there just aren’t enough quality people to go around. You feel guilty complaining that business is ‘too good,’ but it’s a very real problem, not having people at the level you need them to be to handle the jobs properly.

“And it can be a vicious cycle. You get the referrals for doing good work, but then you get so many referrals that you can’t do as good a job, and then you lose the work that you struggled so hard to get and damage your reputation in the process.”

Finding Talent
So, where do dealers go to find talented personnel to handle the increase in business?

According to the survey, dealers are relying more on referrals to ensure quality hires whose work is as good as it appears on their resumés. In fact, nearly three quarters (74.6%) of those surveyed cited referrals as one of their most frequently used sources for new employees (see Graph 1).

“It just makes sense,” said an East Coast dealer. “Anyone can look good on paper, but if someone who personally knows someone else recommends [that person], I feel much better about bringing [that person] on board. “When I’m ready to hire someone, I talk to everyone I know – employees, reps, builders, other business owners, teachers at one of the design schools near me, even friends and family not in the industry. After all, character matters as much as skill. I also offer employees a bonus for bringing in someone who is still with us after six months.”

The classic newspaper ad remains a popular option, with 42% of respondents reporting frequent use of them. Design schools were also a strong source for dealers seeking new employees, garnering 20.2% of dealer votes.

As one dealer explained: “Once, I wouldn’t consider hiring someone without experience. But these days, I’m willing to trade work experience for a quality education at a top design school. Then I can train them the way I want, rather than having to break them of bad habits that they may have learned in other positions.”

Not all dealers agree, however, with many citing concerns that design schools don’t teach practical applications, just theory.

As one put it: “I find design schools and colleges don’t teach the basics of construction. I hired two young people [from design schools], and both knew CAD, but they couldn’t draw cabinet plans and had no real knowledge of how to lay out kitchens.”