Jonathan Michael Monson, of Dirty To Dreamy Detailing, was kind enough to take time out of his very busy schedule to speak with me on the topic of hiring employees. I wanted to share a 1 on 1 discussion I had with a business owner who has successfully scaled a business that has seen yearly growth. This is someone who I view as a leader in the detailing community and as stated by Tony Robbins, success leaves clues. In my opinion, I reached out to the best person I could find on the subject.
Jonathan spoke of hiring employees with the mindset of someone joining a team versus merely filling a position. I think a lot of people forget the hiring process is an investment. From experience in work environments with high turnover, if the employer does not invest the energy to get this right, the output is going to show in the staff hired. Jonathan’s dedication to getting this right was what stood out to me.
He broke down his hiring process into these questions that need to be addressed/sub-communicated in the interview. He is looking for:
- Honesty
- Integrity
- Ability To Hold Eye Contact
- Dressing The Part (not over or under-dressing)
- Signs Of Work Ethic
The interview process is intentionally brutal. He wants to see your desire and determination before he hires you. If he or she can go through the tough times here that is telling of the adversity an employee will embrace at work. There is a two-interview process. Jonathan considers the first interview a show. He believes he gets to see the ‘real person’ in the second interview. Even after a second interview he does not hire immediately, unless he is blown away. He sleeps on an interview. He is quick to fire and slow to hire. There is a 30-day period, in which he wants to see if you will work out.
Jonathan is proactive! He does not hire someone when he needs them for a job immediately or for the following week. He hires employees for when he is going to scale his workload a month or further down the line. Many of us who have mentored others in the detailing community have talked about not forgetting we are business owners who may also detail cars. Being forward thinking comes with the territory of owning a business. This mindset is more conducive to recruiting and making quality decisions, that include hiring the right people for your business.
He enjoys finding employees who are inexperienced. This is conducive to training them without ego interference. It is more important he finds signs of experienced work ethic. For that reason, people who work long hours in restaurant work have been his favorite hires. Those people are already demonstrating the work ethic he is looking for in an interview.
Even before this interview, Jonathan has taken the time over the years to share his differences in the way he treats customers and employees. This dialogue has often left clues to why his business has seen such exponential growth over the years. Knowing the character of Jonathan, I feel confident that he leads an operation that is built on transparency and humanity. Following Jonathan, communicating and learning from him, I already know worker satisfaction is high.
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