Thoughts from small business- Chapter 1

Alternatively called musings from the front line.

Here at Volo Aero MRO we face challanges and opportunities on a daily basis the same as many companies across the country  and arround the wold. So we thought it would be interesting to shine a light on some of our experiances with the hope it will bring a smile and possibly some insite for others.

After all we all like a good story and a giggle at someone elses expense, otherwise known as a learning opportunity!

So a little bit about Volo Aero MRO- Its OK you can skip this paragraph if you want. We are an aerospace company that performs specialized machining services to fix broken parts and to complete the manufacture of new parts. Established over 50 years ago and located in East Longmeadow MA we mainly perform grinding services with Jig grinders and OD/ID grinders. In a moment of weakness I purchased the business in 2015 with the hope of world domintion or at least a living wage!

The subject of todays musings is the people challange, specifically is it really that difficult to find good people? Through the years I have had the pleasure of working for some great teams and hiring and developing great people, but like most people I have also worked with some people I would prefer not to have and in my case I have hired some people which in hindsite had me asking " what the heck was I thinking"

Lets start with the mistakes- or Things I now know:

1) When hiring for customer service positions in a sales type environment, the similar type of charactoristics I was looking for I found in an exotic dancer- in my defense I did not ask if that had been a career decision as it was not on the resume or came up in the interview!

2) When hiring a machinist - its important that when they arrive for work their clothing isn't offensive, did not think that would be an issue, but hey thats why we now have a uniform policy...

3) When hiring keep interviewing at least until the new hire turns up for the first day, or at least comes back after lunch on the first day, yep had both of those.

4) As an FAA certified repair facility we have pre employment drug and alcohol tests, which we tell all prospective hires about, and yes we still get people failing them.

So what do we do now: Things we learnt and pit into practice!

We hire people- not skills (these can be trained), so we look for people who can join our team and fit our culture, we want people with our values as we know these people will be happier working in our environment. Thats why we have our values by the front door and we talk about them all the time.