Talent spotting
Article Date: Mar 26 2009
Peter Luen, Martek
Peter Luen turned his marine equipment company Martek into a successful enterprise with a turnover of £8 million and no debt – although some things went less swimmingly
I started the company with £6,000 in 2000. I was passionate about the opportunities available in the marine market, and frustrated by the lack of vision in my previous company.
If I could go back I would be a lot more selective about the people I employed. When the company was growing we tended to recruit just to fill vacancies rather than going for the best. We now have a much better system in place for hiring people.
I think the problem was that Rotherham [where the company was initially based] isn’t a very sexy area. People tend to see it as a run-down, ex-mining town. Attracting people to move down, and finding a pool of qualified labour has been a bit of a challenge.
We had situations where people came and struggled to adjust to our working environment; they just weren’t working at the right pace. The thing is anyone can fake an interview. It’s important to be brutal about who you recruit.
Expensive mistakes
A bad hire can cost you six times what you are paying in that person’s salary. It’s hard to calculate what this has cost us, but had we been more selective three years earlier we might be £2 million ahead compared with where we are now. And I would have a lot less grey hair.
In the end, we managed to combat this by advertising the roles in fresh new ways. Also, instead of asking people to send a CV, we now ask them to complete a one-page account of why they want to join us.
The result has been fewer applicants, but of a better quality. In the interview process we now place a lot of emphasis on checking candidates are suitable for the role through things like psychometric testing.
Growing pains
When we moved to larger offices in October 2007, it was a time when business
was growing by 60 per cent per annum. We increased our head count by 40 per cent and were introducing more products at the same time.
Because this was such a massive growth period, we placed too much trust in new people coming in. This had a huge impact on our business in terms of customer service. Where I previously used to view training as a luxury, I now see it as an absolute necessity. Going back, I would certainly have put the brakes on our
sales and marketing drive and instead concentrated on making sure the new
people were properly trained.
It’s all about getting the balance right by not wanting to stifle growth, but also
making sure you’re maintaining a good standard of customer service.
Putting in the hours
At that time, far too many less important decisions were made at the top of the company, as we didn’t have enough quality people below us to make them instead.
This had a huge effect on my work-life balance and I was doing crazy hours.
I was single at the time, but it still put a big strain on relationships with family and friends. My mother died three years ago and that was a very challenging period for me – she was only 53 years old. It made me evaluate the amount of time I had devoted to the business and to what extent I could have spent more time with her.
There have been points when the amount of time I spent working was grossly out
of balance. I’m now passionate about maintaining a better equilibrium. Getting the balance wrong is counterproductive because, in the end, it affects the quality of your work and the objectivity of your decision-making.
