@rx8pilot:
You'll find these kind of people all over the world.
But your original post hints at what might be the problem.
You write a lengthy post about about what YOU need, but you offer nothing (except "competitive pay").
Perhaps you should think about what might attract people to your job.
Pay, flexible working time, advancement possibilities, benefits, health insurance, empowerment, responsibility, the list is infinite.
Go from there, the right person will turn up if you try to put yourself in his/her place. Employer/employee relationship is a give-and-take relationship. The Walmart way won't work.
Totally.
The goal of this thread is not to be a job offer, but rather a discussion of exactly what you pointed out - how can I be attractive to the right people? If I looked back into my history, the two best people I ever had the pleasure of working with were total flukes.
The first one, had just moved into town and literally picked up a phone book and cold called various places that seemed interesting. I wasn't even looking at the time, but met with him and hired him the next day. He turned out to be so pivotal - he earned a piece of the sale price when I sold the business. Total rock star that came out of thin air.
The next one, was working a night shift near-by and saw that I was in the CNC shop late at night. He asked if I was looking for any new people and I responded that I only have an entry level position that I could offer, but during the day.
Both of these people had a built in interest to learn things and solve problems. I initially only offered a modest paycheck, but access to detailed training, equipment, software, business management, etc, etc. Both of them took the opportunity and moved vertically quickly, becoming indispensable.
For the 'intentional' hires over the years I managed to find mainly people that simply needed a job and were not so interested in moving up. Everyone wants a raise, few are interested in earning a raise of course. Agencies have provided the worst applicants. Job sites like Monster were somewhat better, but creates an enormously time consuming effort dealing with the noise.
Does it not make sense to spell out what the business needs first, find a person that has some level of fit, and then start sorting out what we can offer? For a sharply defined job at a larger company - the pay, benefits, schedule, etc are more known. In a very small business, it is very dynamic and risky to promise too much. I spoke with a friend last night that started with a new company a couple of years ago. They made all sorts of promises that the business could not support. It was not deception, the owners simply expected the business to do better and offer more to him. Needless to say, he is frustrated and looking to leave.
With all that said:
In general, I rarely keep a regular schedule and have rarely needed employees to keep regular hours either. If they want to avoid traffic - come in at 10A. If they have a kid in school, go pick them up. We have a couple of hot times of the year where vacations are discouraged - but other than that, the schedule is flexible. Need Monday off? Make it up on Saturday. I keep snacks and coffee available and regularly provide lunch. I spend a LOT of my time offering paid skill building training, but expect some off-line effort to move up to the next level.
Industrial design, mechanical engineering, 5 axis CNC machining, electrical engineering, PCB layout, automation, programming, test and validation, marketing, back office management, and more are all up for participation. Most people will lean toward 1-2 of those things, but some will also be able to switch gears and enjoy tackling a little of all of those challenges.
As an example: Shipping finished pieces. It is no small feat to design and implement an efficient shipping system, both conceptually and physically. It involves software, API's to FedEx/UPS, special printers, the right materials, a physical flow to minimize the time needed to ship, a way to capture mistakes and adjust to process to fix them, a set of metrics to understand if the system is working well. Even for a small business, it is a challenge and critical to do it well. We cannot bring in a specialty automation company like Amazon might do, we have to sort it out internally. There are dozens of short term projects that essentially boil down to internal infrastructure. If I hired someone that leans toward engineering, but cannot be bothered to design the shipping system first - busted. It would end up being all on me nights and weekends.
I try to assign a value to specific skills when possible. For example, if someone learns to setup and run the pick & place machine - that is worth real money that is likely paid out as a bonus. Once you have a skill, nothing can take that skill away. It goes on your resume so I have to continue to make the pay appropriate as the skills grow so that I don't lose this person after investing enormous effort training them. That is why I work hard to ensure any employee knows that I recognize and appreciate personal progress - hopefully continuing to progress.
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