#1 Hiring Podcast Designed Specifically For Startup Founders & Entrepreneurs Tuesdays @12PM (PST), LIVE on LinkedIn, YouTube, & Facebook Our mission is to enable values-driven startups to win-win the strongest hires by sharing insights from top-performing entrepreneurs, game-changers, & industry thought leaders. www.hirepowerradio.com www.rickgirard.com
Episodes
Thursday Oct 10, 2019
The Challenges & Benefits of Hiring Refugees with Chris Chancey of Amplio Recruiting
Thursday Oct 10, 2019
Thursday Oct 10, 2019
We are in a negative unemployment market and there are just not enough workers on the open job market. The solution might be taking a different avenue... Hiring Refugees.
There is great value to expanding beyond your scope of the limited talent pool into unfamiliar waters. Consider people who are motivated, engaged and reliable to elevate company performance.
This show is proudly sponsored by Vidoori
Today’s Quote:
"We must find a way to balance our tradition as a state welcoming of refugees while ensuring the safety and security of our citizens." Bruce Rauner - Former Governor of Illinois
Guest Bio:
Amplio Recruiting is a staffing agency placing refugees into jobs across the US. Chris Chancey launched Amplio in 2014 after moving into a refugee community outside of Atlanta, GA and now leads a team that has placed over 5000 refugees from 40 different countries into full-time employment at over 300 US companies.
As a social entrepreneur, venture capitalist and author of Refugee Workforce, a book articulating the economic impact of refugees in America, Chris believes in leveraging business to create greater stability for the 70M displaced people around the globe.
Show Highlights:
- Why refugees make great hires
- Dispel some of the beliefs
- Provide a How-to guide to locate and hire
Why is this a good pool of talent?
- Legal to work
- High retention (80% @ 3 months & 70% after 1 year)
- Drug-free- zero
- Increase of productivity - high growth mindset
- Company's reporting back double quota
- Mostly Congo, Burma, middle east
What does a company need to know about hiring refugees?
- Language barrier
- They learn English faster when they have a job
- Software to help train
- Transportation
- Rely on public trans
- Mostly blue-collar
- Only 10-20% have advanced skills
- Cultural Awareness
- Diversity welcome
How does a company tap into the Refugee pool?
- First, open the culture to diversity thinking
- Are safety and other relevant signs posted in the native languages of employees to assure a full understanding of a safe environment?
- Do you have an intra-company multicultural calendar to avoid scheduling important events or meetings on major cultural holidays?
- In the onboarding process, are materials offered in both English and the employee’s native language?
- Are meet-and-greets, building tours, team lunches, and other activities in place to ease the new employee into a comfortable atmosphere?
- Are training materials or presentations reviewed before introducing them to employees of different cultures to see if anything needs to be modified or explained in a different way?
- Top-down approach
- Promote inclusivity: the focus is not diversity, the focus is inclusivity
- Specific examples:
- Systems in place to accommodate onboarding:
- Slow onboarding time: What you would typically cover in two days, with a traditional employee, spread it out over a week or so. It’s better to over-communicate on the front-end than have to make amends for lost time, resources and relationships on the back-end.
- Don’t leave anything to chance: Communicate, communicate, communicate. Be direct with instruction and don’t assume the other person immediately understands. Overstate tasks and ask questions to assess comprehension. Avoid demeaning tones and be patient with questions, and don’t assume employees understand even the most basic cultural norms.
- Second, search “refugee organizations near me” on google to connect with local non-profit refugee agencies. They will be willing to educate you on the community and can invite you to local community events. If you share a job description with them, they can help refer to potential candidates.
Key Takeaways:
- Recognize the value of refugee community (buy the book)
- Connect with your local refugee community
- Consider ways you can employ refugees at your company
Thursday Oct 03, 2019
Stacking the Deck with A-Player Talent with Kevin Lawrence of Lawrence & Co.
Thursday Oct 03, 2019
Thursday Oct 03, 2019
Today we are making a commitment to hiring excellence! To do this you must change your mindset, your expectations and your hiring method. The transition away from “best practices”, what everyone else is doing, is necessary to stand out.
Fill your staff with A-players! Develop your B-players into A-players and significantly increase the likelihood that your company will crush it. Today’s insight is the spark to set your standard in building an amazing company.
This show is proudly sponsored by Vidoori
Today’s Quote:
"Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work. " - Vince Lombardi
Guest Bio:
Kevin Lawrence is the CEO of Lawrence & Co. CEOs typically place their first call to Coach Kevin with a crisis to solve. They stay because of his business acumen and no-holds-barred, tell-it-like-it-is style. Kevin’s worked with hundreds of CEOs and executives, helping them to break through business challenges, grow their companies and find personal success along the way.
These experiences inspired Kevin’s book, Your Oxygen Mask First, in which he reveals the 17 habits every leader must know to transcend the perils of success and achieve even more.
Today we are going to cover:
- The philosophy behind poor hiring practices (attitude)
- What A, B & C players look like
- Implementing a methodology to fill every position with A-Players
The all too common Philosophy of most startups
- Aspirations are equivalent of a beer league hockey team with NHL aspirations
- Entrepreneurs drag mediocre people with them and they wonder why they don't win
- In your own business, you don't think it applies to them, yet if they were able to take
- Founding entrepreneurs
- Don't have good mentors that they
Understanding what the Hiring perspective should be
- Most leaders don't scrutinize hires enough
- Discipline and rigor around the hiring
- The result from hiring quickly in the beginning
- As they become a bigger business they use the same methodology
- Insanely critical all of the time. Each hire can make you or break you… especially you as a leader
You Must understand this
- True A-players are being taken care of…. It is a lot of work to dislodge them. A-players never get laid off.
- Patterns of A-players
Rick’s Input:
- Treat every hire like it is a Million dollar hire, changes your perspective on time investment to the hiring process
- Keep raising the bar!
How do we make the transition to hiring excellence?
- You Have to believe that you deserve and NHL caliber team
- The belief puts you into a different trajectory
- Review each of the key people in the business:
- A, B or C player - Philosophy is A to stay
- Strive for excellence. With a quarterly portfolio review
- Calibrating talent every 90 days. Take action, give feedback, support, development,
- -treat your review like an investment portfolio
How to Identify the A player
- Crystal clear on what you are looking for- a mathematical job description
- Get to know who they are… before the offer. It may take 3-4 hours to dig deep
- Understanding character, patterns
- Being able to rate someone accurately during the interview
- Steps Implementation
- Have an expert in the methodology
- Require key hire diligence & review the summary report before the hire.
- Reference checks- Talk to the managers only…. A-players easily give references and the managers will talk to you
- *mediocrity cant find their bosses
- *** Default to having an amazing team
- Find the smartest people who have built systems and follow them
- Earn the right to tweak a system. Systems work when you follow them completely, Humans screw it up.
- Relentless execution of the basic principles
Rick’s two cents:
- Deep behavioral discussion
- Gathering evidence of success
- Situational / Hypothetical interviews are a waste of your time!
Key Takeaways:
- Need amazing people to create amazing performing company
- Deep scrutinization is critical for all hires and promotions - these are million-dollar decisions.
- You have to focus on your own strength & Resilience to have sustainable success
Thursday Sep 19, 2019
Thursday Sep 19, 2019
Today we are taking an honest look at your hiring record. Data does not lie!
The success or failure of your hiring is a direct result of your interview process. Everything from the messaging, the experience of the first contact through to the way the interview is conducted determines your hiring outcome. It is NOT money!!
A shift in mindset is needed to understand that people have options and your company is not as special as you think. You need to stand out. You can do this by providing growth.
This show is proudly sponsored by Vidoori
Today’s Quote:
"You have to create a track record of breaking your own mold, or at least other people's idea of that mold." - William Hurt
Guest Bio:
David Patterson is the Founder and Managing Director of The Kineta Group and TheSAPRecruiter.com, and also a member of Sanford Rose, a top-10 ranked world-wide retained search firm (Executive Search Review).
He is The SAP Recruiter, and helps CIOs, IT Execs, and Talent Acquisition Pros hire and retain the best SAP talent in the known Universe. In his 15 years as an SAP Recruiter, David estimated that he personally interviewed between 5,000-6,000 candidates for all levels to include Architect up through the C-Suite.
Show Highlights:
- Why it is important to really dissect your hiring record
- Understanding what success should look like
- Evolve your own unique process into an experience that attracts the right people
Why is it important that you take an honest look at your hiring record
Your Hiring record is the result of your interview process.
What data should be measured?
- Number of people interviewed to get to an offer
- How many people turned down your offer
- Last 10-20 hires
What a record should look like?
- Where people fell out… timing issues. The truth about taking too long, dropping the ball, the impressions you are leaving
- Self-actualization- following the pack,
- Different interview process- repel as much as it attracts. How can I scare people off? (the anti-sell) - The Crossfit sell
Rick’s Input:
- Retraction: Video interview is all good … one way video interviews- Bad Idea!
- Past performance is a key indicator of future performance
- TRUTH: Money is not the reason someone turned down your offer
- Data
- First Interview to Placement ratio
- Offers extended
- Accepted / Rejected
How do we fix a broken Hiring record?
Use the strategy to drive the message.
- Be polarizing to attract the people who love you
- The majority of people don't get what you do, the ones that do become believers
- Finding that career wound…the pain that they have become habituated too. That’s where you pivot!
- (but you need to first find those common pains that most candidates in your industry have, as well as develop the skill to elegantly bring that out in people during interviews)
Create a “Special Sauce” where you attract the people you want.
- Cult-like following. Special tribe
- Don't be afraid to repel the wrong people.
- People who are attracted to the mavericks
Assessment of why you hire the way you do.
- Not seeing all the right people out there
- Based on the job descriptions
- View on the JD flows into how to recruit
- How you onboard/retain them
Rick’s two cents:
- Understand your Candidate
- Accept that you are one of many
- Fill the gap in the person’s career
- Provide a growth road map
- Target specific people and nurture
- 4:1 Interview to placement ratio
Key Takeaways:
If you don’t want to be just another commodity employer, you need to:
- Be willing to take a step back and figure out, fundamentally, the pains, fears, and dreams that drive the people you want to hire (and recognize that you are selling a product that solves a pain)
- Be willing to draw pain and dreams out of the people you are interviewing (to see what makes them tick, in their heart)
- Be willing to be polarizing and repel as much as you attract, if not more so!
Friday Sep 13, 2019
Tapping into Veteran Talent Pools! with Brian Erickson of Vidoori
Friday Sep 13, 2019
Friday Sep 13, 2019
A lot of companies shy away from hiring veterans because they don’t understand the value that they may bring to the table.
Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Cisco & Walgreens have programs in full force but the majority of startups have yet to really get on board. The diversity in thought that comes from hiring a vet may be the competitive edge that your startup needs to propel your business ahead of your competition.
This show is proudly sponsored by Vidoori
Today’s Quote:
"We hire military veterans because they make great employees. They bring proven technical and leadership skills. They understand teamwork, and they're adaptable. Bottom line, hiring veterans is good for business."
Randall L. Stephenson - CEO of AT&T
Guest Bio:
Brian Erickson serves as the Vice President, Strategy and Solutions at Vidoori, Inc. He leads company expansion strategies bringing the Vidoori brand to the west coast. Brian has over 26 years of experience in Naval Aviation, Cybersecurity, Information Technology, Information Operations, Strategic Programs and sourcing/acquisition. Brian is a retired Senior Naval Officer (Captain/O6) with proven experience and expertise across numerous technical domains bringing a warfighters perspective to Vidoori’s mission of delivering excellence.
Brian holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics from San Diego State University, a Master of Business Administration (Financial Management) from the Naval Postgraduate School, a Master of Science (Information Technology) from the Naval Postgraduate School and an Executive Management Certification from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. Additionally, Brian holds numerous defense and industry related certifications to include: CISSP, GSLC, CISSO, CISSM, DAWIA Level 3 PM, DAWIA Level 3 IT, CKM, ITIL.
Show Highlights:
- The benefits of hiring veterans
- Challenges in the crossover
- What is needed to hire veterans today
Why hire veterans?
- Advantages of hiring veterans
- Hard workers
- Trained
- All the same, competencies that civilians do +1
- Life experience
- Much harder workers, disciplined
Why do companies not hire veterans?
- Language Translation - understanding of Military terminology
- Skills Mismatch -
- Negative Stereotypes / Bias - too rigid, formal, chain of command
- “Alpha” mentality
- Aggression / PTSD / disability fears
- Cultural Fit
- Fear of future deployments
Rick’s Input:
- Military ranking & conditioning
- Diversity in thought
- Requires a shift in mindset
- Impactful behavior transfers
How to Successfully hire Veterans
Preparation is Key!
- Process & Structure
- Checklist oriented
- Understand rigidity in the government process
- Outline the Framework, Training & Direction
Rick’s two cents
- Embrace the differences in Mindset
- Seek to understand the mindset
- More important to have a structured interview process
Key Takeaways:
- Have an established interviewing team that works well together; bring in a technical “ringer” as required to round out the depth and breadth of conversation.
- Hire military...highly technical, lots of experience, trustworthy, bang for your buck
- Transactional vs relational (stick with relational)
Thursday Sep 05, 2019
Thursday Sep 05, 2019
Have you ever looked at a resume and thought this person is perfect! Only to find out after you have hired them that the person is a total mismatch to your organization. This is the result of being “Shopping Hungry” for the hire.
This is totally avoidable! By keeping the interview process consistent regardless of who the person is, where they came from you will serve you well!
NEEDING to fill a seat is not enough evidence to warrant making a hire!
Today’s Quote:
"If you take shortcuts, you get cut short." - Gary Busey
Guest Bio:
Kevin Castle is the Managing Partner and Co-founder of Technossus. He is responsible for motivating and leading an organization of technology experts who are laser-focused on exceptional client outcomes.
A highly engaged entrepreneur, Kevin has driven the Company’s strategy and supported the expansion of Technossus’ footprint from one office in Irvine to three worldwide. The firm has been recognized three times by the Orange County Business Journal (“OCBJ”) as one of the best places to work and four times by INC 5000 as one of the fastest-growing companies in America.
Show Highlights:
- The pitfalls of being “shopping hungry”
- How to avoid this pitfall
- A process to cure being shopping hungry
What is “Shopping Hungry” for last-minute hire? Why does this happen?
- Challenge - at the time you need to hire someone, you scramble to find them, make a hasty decision and do not go through all the of the checks and rigor to make sure they are the true long term fit and strategic hire for you
- Short cut the interview process
Why is it important not to shortcut the interview process when hiring?
- Hiring the right culture Fit
- Challenge - you hire someone who has the skills, knowledge, experience - but fails to make sure that they are the right culture fit. Hard to deal with, hard to get them out, and often can have a lasting impact of damage made with internal and with external people who interact with your company.
- Personal - hired someone that was not rooted in the same values - meaningful relationships, trust, sincere kindness.
Rick’s Input
- The purpose of the interview… The Truth!
- Short cuts get cut short … like the quote
How do we solve this problem?
- Acknowledge that you were the culprit of the mistakes made
- Solution - spend 5-10% of your week passively recruiting. Meet key persons, spend time networking and reaching out to people to learn more about background, desires. When you need to bring someone in, then a couple of friendly calls can get you moving quickly. Networking with people who may know other people like you may hire is a key strategy to get some great referrals
- Side benefit - a great way to get market aware (can teach you a lot). Also helps to give you a broader breadth of the skills in the market for the position.
- Solution - be clear
- Important - to only hire people that represent your values
- Trust your gut
- Incident - several years back. Hired someone that I just knew was not going to work well. Did not click with me, and could not get through and understand why. I could not articulate what it was that made us not connect. The team was ecstatic in interviewing this person, all thumbs-up, and ultimately hired this person.
- What happened - It completely did not work out. Had to let them go and nobody was happy in the end. Did not get the job completed, trust was an issue from the start, had to let them go.
- Important - to click with the people who work for you. To start off with a genuine interest in someone is critical for them to be successful.
Having to let someone go who is loved by all - but is not performing
- Solution - having metrics-based performance tracking - we have this @ every single level in our organization - where goal setting, outcome, performance can be quantified - at times this ends up having to trump likability which is very difficult for people, companies, for us all.
- Have specific questions around the culture.
Rick’s two cents
- Performance-based metrics.
Key Takeaways:
- Passive recruiting- Network 5-10% of your time
- Cultural alignment matters
- Trust your gut
Thursday Aug 15, 2019
Cracking the Bootstrapped Startup Hiring Code with Meetul Shah of DemandMatrix Inc.
Thursday Aug 15, 2019
Thursday Aug 15, 2019
Why is raising capital more celebrated than building a business that is actually profitable? It may be a smarter play to join an actual business rather than a "concept company".
A bootstrapped company should be more attractive to people but for some reason, it is not. Today we are out to prove that driving a good business does not require venture capital and You do not need VC money to attract and hire the right talent.
Today’s Quote:
"Bootstrapping is a way to do something about the problems you have without letting someone else give you permission to do them."
- Tom Preson-Werner, co-founder of Github
Guest Bio:
Meetul Shah CEO of DemandMatrix, Inc., is a tech entrepreneur, having successfully built 3 companies prior to starting Demand Matrix. His “entrepreneurial” vision and inspiration comes from his desire to create and bring products to the marketplace that can help solve problems he himself has faced in his career. The combination of his years as a successful entrepreneur combined with his tenure at Microsoft has given a strong shape to his business acumen and technical expertise.
Meetul has been featured in several major publications, like CIO, NYT, WSJ, Washington Post, Huffington Post, Venture Beat, and more.
If you were to ask him to introduce himself in less than 5 seconds, he’d probably just say he’s an idea machine, health freak, and wine lover! He is deeply passionate about Sales and Marketing Productivity given his time working for and selling to enterprise companies like Microsoft, DocuSign, Google, Cisco.
Show Highlights:
- Bootstraping! What is it?
- Challenges & benefits to hiring in this type of organization
- A Process to hire when you do not have money to burn
What is Bootstrapping?
- A bootstrap is a business launched by an entrepreneur with little or no outside cash or other support.
Why Bootstrap your company?
- When you take the capital, you take more risks in hiring. You make bad hires under the pressure of VC money.
- The pressure to hire outweighs common sense.
Challenges faced while hiring
- Viewed like you don't have money
- May not be able to afford people because salaries are supported by the business.
- Lowering standards because people are not biting.
- Desperation takes over and you hire whoever you can.
- Hiring is misunderstood in startups
- False perception- you have money, you hiring
- Early-stage it costs the company a lot when you make a bad hire!
Rick’s Input:
- VC money opens doors but it
- Attracting people who are brainwashed by funding yet you will probably won't get a dime when the company exits
Solutions (what you learned):
As an Entrepreneur, where to Start?
- Understanding yourself, who you are
- Supplement & compliment people to support core values.
- Hiring community understand and can divide and conquer
Structure your process to allow for successful hiring
- Hire a really good TA person
- Build a recruiting process.
- -find a recruiting process, glassdoor
- Don't be desperation and be non-bias and do not ignore the warning signs
- Badmouthing employer, blaming others, sharing things they should not share (internal information), bad culture, bad boss
Rick's Process:
- Determine what the business needs, set performance metrics
- Build interview questions to gauge with company value alignment
- Formalize an interview structure for “Purpose”
- predetermined questions
- Timed
- Behavioral-based interviewing (like Amazon)
- Communication/Feedback channel
Key Takeaways:
- 1. Know yourself, and the values you care about
- 2. Pay attention to the warning signs
- 3. Build a solid business foundation so you can use VC money "as a fuel in the fire" to align incentives/goals
Wednesday Jul 31, 2019
Ryan Malone: Building a High Scale, High Performing Remote Company!
Wednesday Jul 31, 2019
Wednesday Jul 31, 2019
Today we are talking about building a high scale remote company. Try this on for size, a 75-person company without an office! The advantages are different than you might think yet you really must be mindful of who you are hiring.
A remote workforce is a time to talent advantage not a save money advantage
Today’s Quote:
“Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.” — Stephen Covey
Guest Bio:
Ryan Malone is the CEO of SmartBug Media, which he founded to give clients amazing results and employees a lifetime of memories. Before SmartBug, Ryan ran marketing at several venture-backed and public companies. Ryan enjoys the gym, live music, people watching, and playing terrible guitar. He lives in Orange County with his wife and two amazing daughters.
Show Highlights:
- Challenges & benefits of a remote organization
- The importance of cultural fit
- Interview structure for hiring remote employees
Challenges:
Why??
Building a business is hard enough. Why make it more difficult by building a remote business?
- Be part of the team and be part of the family
- Hire better and faster by being able to hire talent from around the country
- Only option to build the tribe
Talent Strategy:
- Recruit ahead- create a waiting list. Always interviewing.
Building a Marketing culture:
- People are bought in when they join
- Structure work culture
- Deep challenging relationships
- First people hired should be a marketing/pr person. Attract people who are already qualified to the process.
- Peer-based reference reviews prior to the interview. Inbound recruiting, skill survey
- Video submissions
Benefits of building a remote workforce:
- The talent pool is vast
- Work/ life integration-
- Flexibility
- The world will not end if you are not at your desk
Interview process:
- Inbound resume flow (into ATS)
- No headhunting
- ATS- kicks out instructions to make a video to submit
- Schedule an interview
- All video interviews, mix of behavioral interviewing
- One person focuses on skills, values, tools, cultural
- Look for Clean work environment, evidence of value, perseverance, curiosity
- Are you an additive to the culture?
Interview structure:
- A 30-minute call with everyone on the team
- Flexible work model
- Psychological permission be available for your customers/ team but the schedule
Key Takeaways:
- Hire marketing & pr first
- Use video as a screening tool
- Reference peer review early in the process
- Designate people to be experts in the interview process
- Always be interviewing
Thursday Jul 25, 2019
Martin Herrington: I'm Down With H1B... Yea, You Know Me!
Thursday Jul 25, 2019
Thursday Jul 25, 2019
Going old school with the title, don't judge!
STEM (science, technology, engineering & mathematics) hiring today is brutal as there are just not enough people to support the demand. Without bringing policy into the conversation we are going to tackle the challenge of how to hire around the limitations.
Today’s Quote:
"To maintain their own competitiveness, workers need to attain and stay current on the qualifications needed to advance in a constantly evolving economy." - Elaine Chao - Secretary of Transportation
Guest Bio:
An avid entrepreneur from University onward, Martin Herrington established a service industry business before graduation, partnered a real estate development company, and co-founded The Herrington Teddy Bear Company to move to the United States, creating a multinational sensation. As Chief Financial Officer and Managing General Partner, Martin was responsible for all aspects of the business including Sales, Production, HR, IT, and operations of the corporation before seeking additional challenges. Mr. Herrington holds a very distinguished record of service in non-profit organizations in Canada and the U.S. with his most recent focus growing the Youth Motivation Task Force of Orange County. An entrepreneurial graduate of the prestigious Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary with a Bachelor of Commerce, Martin also advanced his education credentials into the Series 7 and Series 66 US Securities Licenses and held the Wealth Advisory Associate role with Morgan Stanley before becoming a Financial Advisor as part of his creation strategies.
Martin is currently a founding partner and Vice-President with TEKCORUS Consulting, a Recruiting & RPO Agency based in Orange County, California specializing in recruiting high tech talent Recruitment Process Outsourcing Services. Martin has been a Toastmasters International member for many years, and speaks regularly at community events, business meetings, and consistently competes in Toastmasters International speaking contests.
Show Highlights:
- What an H1 is
- The benefits & challenges to hiring
- How to effectively hire someone under H1 status
Problem:
What is an H1?
- Long Term but not permanent work authorization / visa that is sponsored by employer.
Benefits of Hiring an H1
- Already has an h1b-
- wider pool of talent
- 3rd party intervention
- Better technical skills/expertise
- Better rate
Things to be Aware?
- Beware of agents
- Lying
- Different people showing up for different parts of the interview
- H1B is looking for a path to Green Card only
Quirks of Engineers - Knowing the individual to prepare for the interview
- Biggest challenge
- -Technically sound
- -asking basic questions
- -build a database of technical questions
How to sniff out the quirks, personality & culture fit
- Problem lies where
- Creating the right environment for an interview
- Knowing enough about your clients to be able to properly prepare candidates for interviews
Rick’s Input:
- Hire people who are already holding an H1b- Transfer
- Timing is S L O W - elimination of premium processing
Steps to Hire H1’s
First step - Go over resumes
- Watch for duplication - some resumes look too “familiar” or even identical!
- Look for excessively long resumes - ie. filled with same info. at each job experience
Second Step - initial phone call - screening for good communication skills - can be a challenge and if you cannot understand them, then your client or the team will likely not be able to either
- Go over each job experience by asking what they did and what technologies were used - making sure that it matches the resume, dates, etc.
- Listen for delays or background talking; candidate should know all details her/himself
- Confirm relocation details - do they have friends/family in New City; what is the likelihood that they will actually show up in New City? (ie. verify “Relocation Anywhere” and vet out tire kickers.
Third step - in-person or Skype interview
- Making sure the same person from phone call shows up for the in-person/Skype
- If by Skype - Watch for lip syncing, other people in the room speaking or signalling;
- Screening for communication,
Fourth step - get commitment for duration of contract;
- If necessary, contact Agency holding Visa to confirm
Rick’s two cents
- Communicate!
- No assumptions
Key Takeaways:
- Be diligent in your communications
- Find out Visa details; request copies of Visa/paperwork; allow extra time!
- Coach candidates through interview process
Thursday Jul 11, 2019
Ben Mones- Need to Fill VS. Cultural Alignment
Thursday Jul 11, 2019
Thursday Jul 11, 2019
The Battle between your Need to fill a role vs. hiring for cultural alignment.
More thought needs to go into “Who” you are going to hire than “What” you are going to hire. Meaning proven performers with transferable skills, not shiny objects.
Today’s Quote:
“Acquiring the right talent is the most important key to growth. Hiring was - and still is - the most important thing we do.”
- Marc Bennioff, Founder, Chairman and co-CEO of Salesforce
Guest Bio:
Ben Mones is the co-founder and CEO of Fama, an AI-based solution that identifies problematic behavior among potential hires and current employees by analyzing publicly available online information. He founded Fama in 2015 to address the needs of organizations everywhere that are grappling with the challenges of protecting their workplace culture and preventing harassment.
Prior to Fama, Ben held a number of executive roles at a variety of startups in the Bay Area, including Acceleprise, an independent accelerator focused on enterprise technology, where he served as Entreprenuer in Residence as well as Lanetix, a leading provider of cloud-based customer relationship management platforms as director, revenue operations. He also spent two years at content analytics and insights company Chartbeat. Ben has been tapped as a guest lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management, UCLA Anderson School of Management and USC Marshall School of Business, and has also been featured in CNBC, Fast Company, Los Angeles Times, TechCrunch and the Wall Street Journal. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Vanderbilt University and is based in Venice, California.
Show Highlights:
- Why & How culture shapes your business
- Ego over common sense- Hiring rock stars
- Lessons learned and a structure to follow
Problem:
Why is it important to invest in culture?
- Shaping the culture of your business.
- Human behavior drives business outcomes.
- The virtue of power, ability to destroy or drive excellence
- When you need a function desperately filled, how do you balance your need to fill with the cultural value
- People want to align with products and services that they are passionate about
Why does Ego make decisions over common sense?
Anybody with a legitimate amount of responsibility makes a difference.
Rockstar engineers, leaders, need to fit into the organization, not the other way around
*** first-time founders Story:
- They decided to bring in some rockstars. Someone to groom.
- Didn't really fit the culture, demographics, hustle & grit. They went for the big dog name!
- Knew almost immediately and he took a position of superiority
- Hostile, no empathy… what they thought was not the reality
Lesson Learned
- Hired but got rid of that person quickly.
Rick’s Input:
- Cultural alignment/values alignment increase productivity
- One wrong egg
- Hire Performers, not “Rockstars”
- Rockstars
Solutions:
What road map should leaders follow?
- Get to know yourselves first. What is important to your business to ensure your success, mission & values to drive success. Team-based decision
- Structured interview process. Strong candidate experience, all voices/perspectives are heard in the decision process… treat each person like a new hire from the very moment they get in contact with you
- If you think you have talked to enough people, talk to a few more.
- Confirmation bias
- Be swift. Hire slow, intervene quickly! A closer look on the first 60 days. Course correct early on! With more transparency
- Driving synergy is more important than putting a rockstar in a seat
Rick’s Framework
- Treat each Person as if they are your only person
- mindset eliminates bias
Key Takeaways:
- Human behavior drives business outcomes
- Before identifying the talent that can help drive your business forward, critical to dig-in and understand the values and culture drivers within your business.
- Intervening and course correcting is an easier option than you might think...terminating a person is a last resort.
Friday Jul 05, 2019
Lorraine Ladd: Learning Your ABC's. Always Be reCruiting!
Friday Jul 05, 2019
Friday Jul 05, 2019
That's right people, today we are talking about our ABC’s!
The reality of the talent market. Creativity and Contact are the keys to winning talent. We are going to clue you in on where the gold nuggets are and why you are missing out on great people.
Today’s Quote:
"Great vision without great people is irrelevant." - Jim Collins - Author: Good to Great, Built to Last
Guest Bio:
Lorraine Ladd is the Associate Director of Talent Acquisition for alliantgroup.
She is an experienced sales and Talent Acquisition executive with a demonstrated history of working in the staffing and recruiting industry. Strong professional skilled in Customer Acquisition, Sales, Executive Search, Customer Relationship and Executive Coaching. Lorraine started her career while in college in radio and was a successful radio morning show personality before deciding to go into the world of staffing and recruiting.
Show Highlights:
- Why you should always be recruiting
- The Truth about responding to your job postings
- Where to find great people now!
Problem:
Bold Statement: Recruiting is easier today than it ever has been!
Why is it important to be continuously recruiting?
Creative ways to recruit talent
- Not enough talent - Why?
- Low unemployment, not tapping into the right pools
- Active candidates
The Truth: where you are missing people … about responding to Ads
- There really is enough talent, people are just not tapping into it
- A lot of people that are out of work 50-65 can't really find a job as a white male.
- Perception: Less flexible , set in their ways
Rick’s Input:
- Requirements are FLEXIBLE
- Look for reasons to screen people IN
- My experiment…. Sent out resumes
Solutions:
Where to find good people now?
- Unexpected places to recruit talent
- Retail, cold calling, conferences
- Using every tactic you can
- Pick off the 50-65 talent pool
Rick’s Answer
- You are missing the people closest to you
- Applicants, former applicants, former employees
- Target Passive Talent
- Requires different positioning
- All about “what’s in it for them”
Key Takeaways:
- Always be Recruiting
- Hire people, not roles
- Network
Thursday Jun 27, 2019
Thursday Jun 27, 2019
Engagement!
Well, not the type of engagement you might be thinking of.
Engagement in the business sense. Employee engagement is the one critical element that leads to the success of your business! Which I believe starts from the first point of contact with your organization… yes before someone is hired!
Today’s Quote:
“Not what you say, not what you do but how you make people feel.” - Maya Angelou
Guest Bio:
Steve Higginbotham is the Branch Manager of Volt Workforce Solutions. As an executive business partner and inclusive leader, Steve brings two decades’ of experience leading organizational transformations with leading companies. Changing the way Staffing Companies engage with their customers is vital. Having a deep connection with your business and an inclusive approach will continue to add value through a Total Talent Management partnership. Steve has expertise in Technical Recruiting, Business Development, Technology Consulting and Human Capital Solutions. He continues to deliver immense value to companies and business leaders through his strategic partnerships. Steve believes in a customer service approach for business success.
Steve has experience leading multiple types of organizations from Fortune 100, mid-market, private equity, & VC backed start-ups. In addition, Steve has developed 15 different divisions within eight different businesses while managing large business units & increasing enterprise accounts. His track record includes leading, coaching, mentoring and developing people into highly successful business leaders.
Steve has spent his career aligning business professionals with career opportunities. The value that he brings to companies identify with their strengths and opportunities for growth. Steve's experience coaching individuals helps improve communication. He has also conducted numerous presentations to board members and C-Level professionals with highly respected clients and industry associations.
A people oriented leader who drives business collaborative to maximize team performance while mentoring & coaching individuals through aligned approaches to achieve desired results.
Show Highlights:
- What Engagement is, what it isn’t
- Why engagement is critical today
- How to engage people to create emotional attachment!
What is engagement and why is it important? Engagement
- How you communicate with your company
Hiring managers - I want to hire the best talent, retain top talent
- What happens in the middle from what you want vs what you are getting
The company gave 3 hours of training, no orientation, on the job training.
- Employees responsibility - Who owns engagement??
Problem
3 sides of the engagement - Who’s responsibility is it these days
- If a person is not engaged correctly, they are going to bounce quickly… first 30 days.
- The company needs to train leaders to be better leaders
- The dual partnership between the company's & managers
People leave quickly or they stay and are just there because of the paycheck
Belief in mission, vision values.
Outlining issues that you cannot control
- Employee: losing engagement with the job… nothing more that is being contributed
Rick’s Thoughts
- Engagement starts with your job posting, email or phone call
- Critical in attraction & retention
- When you care, you win
Human Contact is the key
- 1:75 people call back.
- There has to be a personal approach.
Steps to maximize engagement
- Sources are not recruiters…
- Everyone with at least relevant experience NEED to be called
- train recruiters on what needs to be asked
- Discuss career worth
- Poor career planning. No mentoring, support or growth
Once they start:
- Not scaling back on your onboarding process
- Social media posts are not onboarding
- Clearly, have a process
Train your recruiters
- What information to gather
- The importance of a conversation
- Reward finding gold nuggets!
- Create a hiring bonus for people who were passed over because of a resume but are actually good
Pick up the phone and call people!
Key Takeaways:
- Differentiate yourself from the standard hiring process
- Create a structured and standardized interview process
- Train your employees to be Talent minded
Remember in engagement – how you make the candidate feel is more important – please be genuine in your approach, efforts and ensure timely and responsive feedback – always
Thursday Jun 20, 2019
Dr Deena Brown: The Hiring Power of Relationship Capital! Or You’ve Been Cat-fished
Thursday Jun 20, 2019
Thursday Jun 20, 2019
Offers do not get turned down because of the MONEY… They are turned down because you failed to Understand who the person is and then demonstrate a mutual alignment of career & personal goals to your organization.
The Truth is People turn you down because of the lack of care!
Today’s Quote:
"Truth is, I'll never know all there is to know about you just as you will never know all there is to know about me. Humans are by nature too complicated to be understood fully. So, we can choose either to approach our fellow human beings with suspicion or to approach them with an open mind, a dash of optimism and a great deal of candor." - Tom Hanks
Guest Bio:
Dr. Deena C. Brown is the founder and CEO of DC Brown International, a leadership and growth company created to pioneer innovative strategies that transform organizations into culturally diverse ecosystems.
Dr. Brown’s trademark C3 Blueprint for Success provides a strategic roadmap for organizational leaders to communicate and connect across a multi-generational workforce. Dr. Brown’s body of work includes identifying and remediating leadership gaps that are barriers to innovation and growth.
After identifying a significant deficit of women in key leadership roles, Dr. Brown founded The Leadhershift Movement. The Leadhershift Movement is designed to help women shift the way they think about themselves as women and how they develop and respond as leaders. The Leadhershift Movement provides a safe-space for professional women to get clear about their Why, confident about the What, and consistent about the How.
Show Highlights:
- Our approach
- How we humanize the process to gain greater engagement
- Process to Engage
Approach to talent
What is the problem?
- Ignoring the root of hiring. The human factor, the relationship capital
- Mindset
- Ignore the obvious
- Organizational view- transaction
- We need to fill the hole
- Disconnect on the level of importance for the person they are hiring.
- Simple things are ignored…
- Dealing with a new population of employees that are looking for more than just a paycheck
Why Offers are really Accepted or Turned Down
- We lie
- Arrogance & Ignorance
Rick’s Input
Our approach is Selfish
- We have become conditioned to believe that the company is the PRIZE
- Not the case in this market
- Positioning is a one size fits all …. Centered around perks & benefits
- Listen to understand, not to respond
Solutions
- Being aware
- transparent
What have we done about this?
- Training
- Using the data to support the discussion
- Awareness
- Brought to the attention & proper training
- Learning to remove ignorance
- Identify the gaps (pain)
- Education shift in mindset
The 3 C’s
- Clarity in Vision, Mission, and Organizational Values that paint a clear picture for potential hires.
- Consciousness about what today's workforce values such as authenticity and relatability which is more influential than a paycheck.
- Consistency in regards to expectations and responsibilities of your workforce.
Rick’s Contribution
- Engagement starts before the hire is made
- Too much focus on the money & perks
- What a person desires is far more powerful
Key Takeaways:
- Care about the Human relationship
- Having clear values … are you who you say you are
- Provide growth opportunities to augment or improve a person’s life
Thursday Jun 06, 2019
Anderee Berengian: Hiring Good People is Hard....Not if You Hire for Culture First
Thursday Jun 06, 2019
Thursday Jun 06, 2019
Here’s a shocker for you guys today… Hiring Good People is Hard! Or is it? Maybe we just make it hard on ourselves because we make compromises based on need.
Today we are going to take you on the hiring journey of one startup who have managed to beat the odds to build amazing teams.
Today’s Quote:
“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” - Winston Churchill
Guest Bio:
Anderee Berengian is Co-Founder & CEO at Cie Digital Labs, an interactive development firm and Managing Partner at RezVen Partners.
With more than 20 years of experience steering corporate and product strategy, Anderee is an accomplished entrepreneur, technologist, and investor passionate about driving progress through digital innovation. At Cie, Berengian is responsible for building a world-class execution-focused team and growing Cie’s digital transformation ideas into sustainable, profitable companies.
Show highlights:
- What really makes hiring hard
- How to make hiring easier
Problem:
“Organism rejects the thing that doesn't belong”
- So why do we hire people that are wrong for our companies?
- Used to screen - look at Skills first
- Are we truly interviewing and hiring for culture?
- *** Biggest pain point is time- Interview 10-12 to get a hire.
- Streamlining the process to save time
*The top dictates the culture
- Check for cultural & skills fit
- Make people comfortable .. Casual setting, get a much better sense of who they are and how they will fit.
- *** Bring back for social interaction
- Foster a lot of team-based interactions
- -heavy screening for culture
- Promoting people who propagate the way they think and execute
Rick’s Input
- Difference between Culture & Perks
- Culture is what happens when no one is looking- how people interact, treat others
- The icky stuff
Solutions:
What needs to happen in the interview process?
- The shift in recruiting to tell the story very clearly.
- The person can self select very quickly if they want to join.
- A structured process, lead drives the process
- The interview process for onsite
- Technical- screened, test-
- Artistic-
- Recruiting team-
- Bring in to interact with people.
- Meet with people in their department, adjacent teams,
- Offer stage-
- Had one candidate they really wanted, lost to another offer
Rick’s Input:
- A deeper level of understanding/vetting on the front end… ie: phone screen, recruiting call, introduction
- Target no more than 3-5 people to bring onsite for an interview. If #1 is a fit, hire! no need to comparison shop
Key Takeaways
- Build right so the organism rejects what doesn’t belong. Look for the cultural fit first
- Take your time hiring. Hire slow and then if you need to make staffing changes, do it quickly.
Thursday May 30, 2019
Thursday May 30, 2019
Attention comparison shoppers... waiting to see a “few more people” to compare before deciding to hire? Bad Idea, Time kills hires!
Riddling your interviews with randomly placed hurdles is just madness. Making the interview process challenging is essential but there is a correct order to the journey you create. Each step in your interviewing process must be intentional.
Today we are going to help you bring order to your interview process.
Today’s Quote:
"Comparison is a thug that robs your joy. But it's even more than that - Comparison makes you a thug who beats down somebody - or your soul."
- Ann Voskamp
Guest Bio:
With the resurgence of Big Data and AI, Shane Bernstein realized the tools needed to scale the effective outreach approach were finally available! His C-level customers were continuously frustrated with no viable and consistent solution, and unable to build the teams they needed in order to have the global impact each of their businesses required. So Shane founded Rolebot.
Utilizing the power of AI, he and his team have developed software enabling companies and staffing firms to reach their goals and measure ROI. As a result, Rolebot eliminates the way in which we traditionally pre-qualify talent, from days/weeks to seconds, and increases recruitment output and engagement results by 10x.
Show Highlights:
- What is making it impossible to hire Great people
- Over Interviewing- How much is too much
- Efficient Solution to come to a decision quickly
Problem:
Over interviewing is a direct result of Not having a solid hiring Structure
- Clarity of Intention
- Clarity of Values, Cultural & Skills Alignment
- Not Knowing how to ask the RIGHT Questions to gather clear evidence to support a decision
Where are the Obstacles?
Over interviewing makes it harder to get the hire.
- Timing (time kills placements)
- Too much time kills interest.
- Time allows time for competitors to steal… not an if, but a when
- Feedback channel
HR prescreens
- HR assesses for culture fit.
- The Team should screen for culture, not HR
- Take home assignments- Give BEFORE you get… mentality
- Pre-screen is a big waste of time.
What is Over Interviewing?
Reality vs. Perception
- Comparison Shopping
- Hurdles - Mindset Issue (You are not the only pretty girl in the bar)
- Demonstrates weak leadership
- Feedback channel. Is slow when the process is slow
****people hire on gut feeling…
Rick’s Input
- Why? Company does NOT have a strong interview structure
- Treat each person as though they are your Only option!
Solutions
The Set Up
- Recruiter - recruit & ask questions
- Is the recruiter/hiring manager bringing value?
- Manipulate time to gain accepted offers
- Someone needs to own the process
Interview Process
Two step process
Phone interview - lead, manager (not recruiter or HR)
- Credentials
- Technical skills assessment
- Skills-based conversation run by a team member
Onsite
- Get it done in 1 day… do not bring them back
- Has to be vesting on both sides.
- Have a hiring team & a process in play
- Put the decision makers and the people who will have to work closely with them
- Make sure the people can sell the position & the company
- Be able to sell: Why should I take this role?
Rick’s Input
- What’s in it for me???
- Phone Interview Establish -Why, Cultural Alignment, Impact
- Point person (CEO, Founder, Recruiter (not a farmer)
- Onsite
- Timed
- Structured (3-5 person Interview team)
- Challenging
- Knock Out Questions- aligned with Core Values
- A decision in 24 hours!
Key Takeaways:
- Assess the current process, does it align with the current marketplace, what ROI does each component bring, what is % of rejected offers, etc…
- Figure out what must stay, what can be omitted, or moved around and integrated
- The goal is to strike the right balance for your organization
Thursday May 23, 2019
Marinela Gombosev: An Alternate Route for a Startup to Hire Salespeople
Thursday May 23, 2019
Thursday May 23, 2019
Alternative ways to hire salespeople when your company is getting started. Sales are the lifeblood of a company but what do you do when you need to grow revenue but have a limited budget? You get creative. Today we are talking about an interesting alternative to driving sales in the form of Independent sales reps.
Today’s Quote:
"Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, 'Make me feel important.' Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life." - Mary Kay Ash
Guest Bio:
Marinela Gombosev is the President & COO of Evoke Neuroscience, a commercial-stage diagnostic company focusing on early detection of Alzheimer’s and other dementias with a vision of ultimately eradicating dementia. Marinela is a roll up the sleeves leader who strives to work across all levels of the organization, lead from a place of authenticity, and effectively represent the company to its clients, partners and investors.
Over 50,000 patients have been assessed using Evoke’s technology and under Marinela’s leadership, the company has twice been ranked in the Inc. 500|5000 fastest-growing private companies.
Show Highlights:
- The good bad & ugly of hiring independent sales reps
- How to hire them in the most efficient manner
Problem:
Why hire Independent sales reps?
Independent manufactures reps?
- Upside
- No money to spend, a great way to get growth
- Don't pay anything until they close a deal
- Fast
- Rephuner.net
- Downside
- Control or visibility
- Way to monitor, don't want to be managed
- Misunderstand the product, regulations, Get burned a lot
- Can put you in a legal liability
- Misrepresentation of contacts & skills
Solutions
How do you hire them?
- Dirty secret: You are buying their relationships
- Hiring because they are trained. Many are pretty bad. Where she has been successful are the ones with relationships. Once they sell their relationships.
- Similar types of products.
- Who are your call points? Personal network? Other reps that work with you?
- Place an ad and make sure profile is written for reps
- Who are you selling to, what are you selling, how much $ am I going to make
Schedule call
- Evaluate call points
- Level of interest
- Product Understanding
- Amount of time they can invest
- How many other clients they have
- Where am I on the priority scale
Hire
- Sign NDA
- Disclose comp plan
- Sales rep agreement
Comprehensive Training Plan
- On boarding program & test
- Access to all the training materials
Rules
- No exclusive territories
- Lead registration program / lead protection
- Demo product
- Short term play once the network is exhausted they usually burn out
- Internal expertise helps to close leads
- *One to Two phone call hire
- 3-4 hour time investment per person
- Product margins to support it
- A revolving door of recruiting. Have to constantly recruit
- Need 50 because most of them are not selling
- 80/20 rule
- *** Prepare for a love/hate relationship
Thursday May 16, 2019
Angel Iscovich: Routine Hiring is Great for Business!
Thursday May 16, 2019
Thursday May 16, 2019
We are hard-wired to follow a routine. This is why we perform certain tasks better throughout various times of the day. So designing your hiring routine to follow a person's optimal performance is crucial making the right hiring decision.
Understanding and evolving your personal and company routines are vital for attracting talent!
Today’s Quote:
"Celebrate life in all its glory - challenge yourself to let the routine sing, and the new dance." - Maximillian Degenerez
Guest Bio:
Conventional wisdom suggests the best way to navigate our noisy new world is to accept change: Open up to novelty. Go with the flow. Embrace the relentless pelting of content minute by minute. Dr. I. is here to say this is not the best way to journey through our lives — and in fact, may go against our very nature.
Dr. Angel Iscovich is the President of Inflexion, LLC and the Author of his new book: Routineology: the Art and Science of Routine. Find out more on his web page www.angeliscovich.com and Routineology for Instagram and Doctor I on Twitter.
The crux of Dr. I’s book is that humans not only require structure, they thrive in it. From the womb to the tomb, we create and recreate numerous dynamic “Time Bubbles,” offering us meaning, fulfillment, and purpose. He is excited to show how implementing routine in one's life can lead to better, health, joy, and fulfillment.
Show highlights:
- The science of a routine
- Benefits and negatives of a routine
- Build a strong routine into your hiring practice
Problem:
What is a routine and why does this matter?
The science of a routine
- We are wired for regularity
- Change is not necessarily good for us.
- Routine is boring because you are doing the wrong things, wrong habits
Leadership
- Importance to develop regularity, routine & structure
- Routines become rituals and rituals drive the culture of the company
- Doing things regularly enhances performance
Solutions:
Personal Routine
- Make a routine of spending 45 minutes alone - reflecting
- Turn off the data, social media
- Especially if you are being creative or making a big decision
- Wired to regularity: being smart about what we do and when we do it
- Knowing your Circadian rhythm
- Technology is not able to replace Humanity, “Techmanity”, or how we are wired, is important in hiring talented people.
- Company rituals need to be re-engineered to meet the needs of the people
Interview & work productivity routine
- Task-related activity 8-10 am
- People Engagement 10-12pm (people are most social)
- Postprandial dip after lunch recovery time (task-related)
- Cortisol levels drop by 3 pm (Starbucks coffee, tea time) - Innovation time
- Least productive time - the body needs an energy boost
- Good time to meditate
- NOT a good time to interview!
- Great time for Innovation though... brainstorming
- Another hour of productivity 4-6pm
- Send people home at 3 pm and log on for another hour of work at 7 pm
- *Optimal interview time between 10-3
Rick’s Input
- Hiring routine with the purpose of being impressive
- Interview people when they are most
Key Takeaways:
- We are wired for Regularity and our unique Routines in themselves give us meaning and purpose.
- Our Circadian Rhythm provides us with when we are at our best and when we can be most productive.
- We need leaders to make for stable environments for our team members that create Routines, Rituals, and our Company Culture.
Thursday May 09, 2019
Lee Caraher: Boomerang Hires Knock Out All Others!
Thursday May 09, 2019
Thursday May 09, 2019
Is it a good or bad idea to hire former employees back? In today's job market, people may exit a company to experience life at a startup, change industry, or even go back to school. So why would you have a no-return policy?
Jack Dorsey left Twitter to found Square between his two stints as CEO of Twitter. And Steve Jobs was a boomerang hire. We need to start treating departing employees as future brand ambassadors, potential customers, hiring references, and even boomerang — returning employees.
Today’s Quote:
"There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered."
- Nelson Mandela
Guest Bio:
Lee McEnany Caraher is the founder and CEO of Double Forte PR & Digital Marketing, a 15-year-old national agency that works with beloved and up- and-coming consumer,technology, and wine brands. An acclaimed communication strategist, Lee is known for her practical solutions to big problems. Lee has a reputation for building cohesive, high- producing teams who get a lot done well and have fun at the same time. She is a straight talker who doesn't hold too many punches, although she does her best to be pleasant about it. Her big laugh and sense of humor have gotten her out of a lot of trouble.
The author of Millennials & Management: The Essential Guide to Making it Work at Work, Lee based the book on her experience with epically failing and then succeeding at retaining Millennials in her business. Her second book, The Boomerang Principle:Inspiring Lifetime Loyalty From Employees, published in 2017, is a pragmatic and actionable guide to creating high-performing work cultures ready for the future (available on Amazon).
Lee is a popular guest expert on leadership, intergenerational workplaces, public relations, crisis communications, social media and integrated marketing. She splits her time between San Francisco and New York City, and puts her medieval history degree to work every day.
Show Highlights:
- What a boomerang hire is
- Why you should absolutely integrate this practice into your talent acquisition process
- How to acquire boomerang hires
Problem:
Why would you hire someone again?
- If they come back to you it means they liked it there
- Not going to hire them for the same job
- They will be even more valuable to your company the second time bring something of value to your company
- Take less time for them to come up to speed 2-4 months (up to 12 months for new hires)
- Boomerangs are the highest performing hires at google
- More than 45% of millennials say they would absolutely return to a former employer
What would make someone eligible for rehire?
- Anyone who leaves in good standing
- Building loyalty beyond employment
Rick’s Input
- Already familiar with the culture
- Boomerang trend pioneered by millennials
- Rehires are less risky-
- would not choose over someone outstanding (rockstar)
- The decision should be made based on the exit interview
Solutions:
Mindset:
Understanding why people left
- Take a long view
When they leave
- Be happy for them
- Never counter
- Ask “how can I help you?”
Steps to create a re-hire program:
Create a program or environment - keep in touch with the people who left on their own volition
- Set up an Alumni program (company run) facebook group (not a Linkedin group)
- Content engagement
Keep the universe up to speed with what you are doing….media relations
- Birthday card
- Share wins
Interaction… stay close to the universe of potential
Hiring- share new roles with the alumni group letting them know that hey can came back.
How is Onboarding different?
Rick’s Input:
- Why did people leave in the first place
- One survey found 70% of employees say job related training and development opportunities — or lack thereof — impacted their decision to stay at their job.
- Growth & training
- Leadership does not have their back
- Trust - transparency, communication, investment (not perks)
- Consider re-hiring people who left due to a poor leader (toxic executive)
Key Takeaways
- If we aren’t open to hiring former employees you are SHRINKING your potential talent pool of great employees
- Everyone who leaves you can hurt you or help you. Do everything you can to let them help you! Help you find new employees, help you spread the word, help you find good partners.
- Take the long view – your business will be BETTER all the way around if your employees are loyal to you – NOT because you pay them but because they WANT to. And then every time someone leaves the company you are actually GROWING your footprint not shrinking it.
Friday Apr 05, 2019
Friday Apr 05, 2019
Diversity & Inclusion is critical to your company’s success but it is not a strategy. Here’s why... D&I needs to be built into the DNA of your company instead of being treated with kid gloves. Besides, hiring like-minded people is bad for business!
Today’s Quote:
"Our diversity is our strength. What a dull and pointless life it would be if everyone was the same." - Angelina Jolie
About the Guest:
Mike “Batman” Cohen is the Founder of Wayne Technologies, a recruitment training and search firm. Mike has over a decade of experience placing technologists, recruiters, and business development professionals, and has conducted training for Corporate and Agency Recruiters.
Throughout his career he’s learned several things that he’s committed to paying forward:
- We can’t make it on our own - we need community
- There is no “secret sauce” - we should be sharing our skills, tips, tricks, etc. openly
- Data is extremely important
- Being a good human is more important than data
He has worked with a diverse group of clients ranging from GIPHY, Spotify, TripAdvisor, Digital Asset, MacDonald Miller, etc.
He contributes articles to SourceCon, has a chair in the Program Committee with ATAP, helps run SourceHouston, and is a Brand Ambassador for ERE.
Mike has spoken at:
- Talent42 (June 2019)
- TechRecruit Los Angeles (July 2019)
- TechRecruit Chicago (September 2019)
- HireConf (October 2019)
- HRTX Dallas
- RecruitCon
- ATAP Webinars
- TalentNet
- SourceHouston
- ERE
- HR Houston
- Scala Up North
- Scala.io
Show Highlights:
- Why Diversity & Inclusion is not a strategy
- How to embed diversity into your Company's DNA while staying true to your company values
Problem:
Why is Diversity & Inclusion such a hot topic?
-
- Diverse communities are growing and matriculating faster than any other
- Organizations are realizing that diverse thought doesn’t just come from people who went to different schools or studied different subjects, it comes from background, upbringing, etc.
- We all want females, minorities & orientations.
- Candidates are placing a large focus on organizations that put a value on D&I - if you want the best candidates - this is one of the things that’s important to them!
Why is this important to organizations?
- Are we hiring because of D&I to check off boxes?
- Shouldn’t we be looking deeper into diversity of thought rather than physical characteristics?
- Hiring people who are different from you and are included in your culture
Shouldn't we just be concerned with hiring the best person?
- Just start hiring people who make you uncomfortable
- Embrace the differences
- Hiring like minded people is bad for business
What about the alignment of core corporate values?
- Define corporate culture.
Solutions:
If Diversity & Inclusion isn’t a strategy, how do we accomplish it?
- You don't want to hire someone just because they are a certain classification
- It has to go beyond “skin deep” - this isn’t about the way someone looks, it’s about integrating all different walks of life or trains of thought or images into your brand.
- Not to diversify to make things different, but to create a culture where diversity is the norm - that is how you create inclusion
- The desire to have different people is not a business strategy
- It is a top-down mind-set as to how the business operates and what it considers important, successful, and a good fit
- Vetting issue- how does one determine who the best person is. Not the values or mission
- Grey area- Defining the gray area or you will fail.
- Focus for cultural alignment vs skills
- Perks that attract like-minded people, like Ping pong and foosball tables & kegerators, reduce D&I.
- The Strategies to achieving D&I are merely the execution of a goal.
- Companies aren’t built on strategies - they are built on vision and mission - Strategy is simply how we get there - is your company built on top of a foundation (mission and vision) that doesn’t celebrate diversity, but instead values it as a competitive advantage?
- These values and mission themselves should come with a very diverse perspective.
- The more avenues of thought the quicker and higher quality it will take you to that mission.
Rick’s two cents:
What should be your strategy?
- Hire People who perform
- Hire People who bring different perspectives
- Hire People who will challenge you
Key Takeaways:
- D&I isn’t a strategy, it’s a business mindset
- Dissonance is a good thing! Just be respectful
- Diversity is a mindset, Inclusion is turning that mindset into the norm
Friday Mar 29, 2019
Special Event: Erik Huberman from TiECon SoCal
Friday Mar 29, 2019
Friday Mar 29, 2019
Erik Huberman, Founder and CEO of Hawke Media, Managing Director of Nest Equity Partners, and Operating Partner of Arrowroot Capital Management
Thursday Mar 28, 2019
Mark Angel: How to Hire, Build Process & Lead in a Distributed Startup
Thursday Mar 28, 2019
Thursday Mar 28, 2019
What are the biggest challenges in building a distributed team as a startup? Today we discuss how to Hire, build process and lead in a distributed model. We will learn that uncovering the right people hinges on the Individual's desire and their emotional intelligence.
Today’s Quote:
“Completing one another is more important than competing with one another." - John C. Maxwell
Show Guest:
Mark Angel is the CEO and Co-founder of Amira Learning, the company reinventing learning to read with AI. Amira is a rapidly growing, venture-funded startup bringing the first intelligent reading assistant into K-3 classrooms.
Mark formerly served as Chief Technology Officer at Renaissance Learning, where he led the R&D organization and worked on the two most successful reading apps in the United States – Accelerated Reader and STAR. He has worked for 30 years in the Silicon Valley as a CEO, CTO and General Manager for innovators in the realm of Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing (Ernst & Young, Nuance, KANA Software).
Mr. Angel is the founder of three successful start-ups. He is a chief inventor on more than 10 patents in the areas of search.
Episode Highlights:
- The Story of the Challenges faced when building a distributed company
- 3 biggest issues you struggled with
- Tools & solutions that worked best for your team
Problem:
Challenges in Hiring a Distributed Team:
- Hire for the distributed model
- Learn to screen for people who are truly able to function in a distributed environment
- People not really self-aware.
- Build process around the distributed model;
- Challenge: creating infrastructure and culture of behavior to help people to collaborate
- Choices in tooling that turned out to be wrong
- Have to "servant-lead" for the distributed model.
What issues have we struggled with around hiring?
- Where they will Thrive!
- People are not self-aware around work mode…
- The focus seems to be around the technologies they want to use or the comp they want.
Discuss the Model
- Need to put the issue up front before people get excited about the rest of the story and fool themselves and consequently us
Core Values alignment
- We need to be conscious that some folks like talking/collaborating and for others, it’s not the most pleasant part of the day. We aren't going to change a leopard’s spots.
Creating a situation where there is a balance of work and not having too many meetings. Keeping people in a place where they are getting constructive work behavior. Getting that work done but also helping others to get the work done. People are happiest when you find the “groove”.
Rick’s Challenges
- An issue of Upfront Expectations alignment
- Continually ask “Why”
Solutions
What have we done about this?
- Put this issue front & center in the interviewing process
- Getting out of the skills-based mindset.
- Screening - needed to find people who are able to cope with the nature of the model.
- Intentional about the need for people who are wired to work in a distributed environment.
- -talk about the distributed issue up front.
- Hired a recruiting expert
- Learned to screen for being at least somewhat "outgoing" and "opinionated"
- "Servant-leadership" for the distributed model.
How do we manage work?
Baking collaboration into everyday environment. Tools like google suite/slack/zoom/github/atlassian -- basically emphasis is on creating the norms around the tools. Understand when they should be using the tools
- Slack, Zoom, Gmail suite, Google docs works really well, hangouts did not for them.
- tools around design thinking.
- Set of heuristics and norms around the tools.
Allow people Flexibility
What went right & wrong in the process?
- right -- took a "team experiment" approach
- right -- recognized they needed help & hired an expert
- wrong -- didn’t push hard enough to create norms
Rick’s first step
- Take the time to understand a person’s desires before you “Pitch” the company
- People will tell you what they want. You just have to ask.
- "If you could design your ideal company, what would that look like for you?"
- A company where you will Thrive!
Key Takeaways:
- Hire people who are self-aware - Hire for EQ & cultural fit first
- Experiment with popular tools to find the tools that “best fit" for your team
- Recognize you are fighting human nature and hire to overcome
Thursday Mar 28, 2019
Special Event: Beerud Sheth from TiECon SoCal
Thursday Mar 28, 2019
Thursday Mar 28, 2019
Beerud Sheth, Co-Founder and CEO of Gupshup
Thursday Mar 21, 2019
Ernie Basulto: Non-Verbal Clues to Discover the Truth in the Interview
Thursday Mar 21, 2019
Thursday Mar 21, 2019
Non-verbal communication and digging for clues to get to the root of who people really are. 93% of our communication is delivered non-verbally. Extracting the correct information starts with your openness and then observing how things unfold.
Today we are going to hone your ability to read people better in an interview!
Today’s Quote
"You don't have to tell me what your limits are when the decisions you make, your actions and body language says it all."
Show Guest
Ernie Basulto developed an early interest in cultural and human relations as he grew up in two separate countries. He was inspired by his father to develop the ongoing needs of the Hispanic workforce, and has done so by providing support and guidance to both business leaders and employees throughout his 26-year tenure in Human Resources. Ernie holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Management from the University of Phoenix.
Recently, Ernie was a Senior Human Resources Business Partner at the 5th largest retail mortgage lender in the nation, and is currently the Director of Human Resources at Antis Roofing & Waterproofing. At Antis he provides leadership in all aspects of HR including hiring practices, establishes company culture, and guides employees to find their Purpose at work.
Episode Highlights
- How to build rapport
- Reading verbal and nonverbal cues (body language)
Problem
Focus on “Skills” clouds our vision so we misread people. Why is this such a problem? First, we need to get people comfortable in a manner that is congruent with your environment
- Open interaction
- Ask a Basic question: walk me through your resume to gather a baseline.
- Settle the nerves, get comfortable
- Observe & Mirror to build rapport
- Listening to them
- Experience questions where they tell him stories to evaluate thought process, how the person treats others, react under stress. You can tell a lot about a person by the way they tell a story
- Depends on the type of role they are hiring for.. Look for little signs, hints
- Example: story- stories focused on complaining about their company throughout the story. Pivot into what did you do to fix the problem. Tone of arrogance. He released him from the process and gave him the feedback.
Solutions
How do we structure the interview and what should we be looking for?
- Opening question to behavioral
- Company values, requirements of the position, Fit with the team (cultural fit)
- Hiring Manager > on occasion they meet with the team.
- So important at all levels, especially where you are exposed.
- Raising the bar on performance
Reading Body language
- What to look for?
- Depends on your culture/environment
- Positive body language
- Body Language flags
Rick's Points
- Be Aware of your own body language! Open & Positive
- Past nervousness, fear & discomfort
- Important to make people comfortable first
- Get past
- Mirroring- Unconscious sometimes
- person trying too hard to build rapport
- Shoulder movements communicate emotions
- Positioning & movement
- Uncertain or lying -slow rise - lack confidence
- Extreme behaviors- pay attention
Key Takeaways
- Observe & Mirror
- Get past the nerves
- Shoulder movement tells all!
Wednesday Mar 20, 2019
Special Event: Brian Frankel from TiECon SoCal
Wednesday Mar 20, 2019
Wednesday Mar 20, 2019
Brian Frankel, Marketing Consultant of Ignite.Consulting, TiE Charter Member, and Founder, of Mentor Matchmaker
Tuesday Mar 19, 2019
Special Event: Ravi Sharma from TiECon SoCal
Tuesday Mar 19, 2019
Tuesday Mar 19, 2019
Ravi Sharma, Co-Founder & CEO of OOtify, TiE Charter Member, Investor, and Mentor
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Erik Huberman: Dissecting a Hire Gone Wrong
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
The mistakes we, as entrepreneurs and hiring managers, make when building our companies. Often our need to fill overrides our logic in determining the fit between both parties and as result Core Values are often ignored. Assumptions, unclear expectations, and lack of diligence make for a perfect storm of a disastrous hire.
Today’s Quote
"Hiring people is like making friends. Pick good ones, and they'll enrich your life. Make bad choices, and they'll bring you down." - Jason Fried
Show Guest
Erik Huberman is the founder and CEO of Hawke Media, the fastest growing marketing agency in the United States. Launched in 2014, Hawke Media has serviced over 1000 brands of all sizes, ranging from startups like Tamara Mellon, SiO Beauty and Bottlekeeper to household names like Red Bull, Verizon Wireless and Alibaba. Hawke Media has taken home numerous industry awards including inclusion on the Inc. 5000 2017 list of “Fastest Growing Companies”, Fortune Magazine’s “50 Best Workplaces in Southern California” and Forbes’ “Content Marketing Companies to Check Out in 2018."
"Prior to Hawke, Erik founded, grew and sold two successful e-commerce companies. Huberman is the recipient of numerous awards including Forbes “30 Under 30,” Inc. Magazine’s “Top 25 Marketing Influencers,” and Best in Biz North America’s “Marketing Executive of the Year.” A regular contributor to major publications like Forbes, Entrepreneur and CS Q. Huberman is also a well-known keynote speaker.
Episode Highlights
- Break down one of your early hires and talk about the decisions that were made and why
- What we learned and how you can avoid making our mistakes
Making a wrong Hire: Walk through the story
- Hired an executive, all-star, great background
- “Why would you buy a dog if you're the one barking on the corner”
- Discussing expectations, but not the HOW.
- Had a budget, revenue numbers, really clear…
- Takes time for executives to ramp up
- Hired from a large company- a different mindset
- Taking people through a more formalized process.
- Properly frames the mindset as a professional environment
- You are taken more seriously
- *Onboarding Process
- Didn’t have a process. Throw people to the wind
- Unprofessional entrance + people didn't view it professionally
- Made the mistake of selling perks
- Hired 7 people in the beginning, only one stayed past 6 months.
- Bridging the gap with the business.
* Post hire, you are not done once you made the hire. Once someone is hired, real-time investment into their success.
Rick’s Hiring Mistake
- Hiring Friends without clear expectations
- created an expectations document
Key Takeaways
- Stick to a hiring process - It must be Professional
- The more senior the hire, the more time investment to align expectations - May take up to a year to come up to speed
Thursday Mar 07, 2019
Tevis Trower: Re-Humanizing the Interview Process By Shifting Our Language
Thursday Mar 07, 2019
Thursday Mar 07, 2019
We don't hire for human competency but for skill set. Our language is inhuman in spite of the very real experience of working with HUMANS. People want Connection and Authentic Interaction. We need to understand What makes you, you?
Today’s Quote:
“Learn everything humanly possible about everyone you do business with." -Harvey Mackay (Swim with the Sharks)
Show Guest:
CEO of Balance Integration Corporation | Advocate for Corporate Culture & Employee Engagement
Tevis Trower is a pioneer in optimizing corporate cultures. Heralded in bestselling Megatrends 2010 as “corporate mindfulness guru for the new millennium”, Tevis has assisted powerful organizations ranging from Disney to Morgan Stanley in optimizing their most precious assets: human beings. She has created and facilitated global executive immersions for prestigious organizations including Harvard Business Review Events, Young Presidents Organization, PWC, Bloomberg LP, Viacom, Google and The Economist on issues including mindfulness, executive lifestyle, personal mastery, innovation, and the role of consciousness in creating radical success.
You can find profiles and expert advice from Tevis featured in respected media outlets including Forbes, Fortune, BusinessWeek, Glamour, YogaJournal, CIO, Pink, RealSimple, Crain’s, New York Post, Financial Times, WWD, New York Observer, MSNBC, FoxBusiness, NY1 and Martha Stewart. As NYU Faculty teaching Business Creativity & Personal Mastery, Tevis has also served as worklife expert to WebMD and Huffington Post. Tevis lives what she teaches spending time in NYC, Montauk and Woodstock, enjoying surfing, snowboarding and entertaining friends at home with her dachshund, Ruby.
Episode highlights:
- Why it is important to re-humanize your hiring process
- Changing the mindset by shifting the language
- The formula for a successful shift
Problem:
Why is this important?
- Because we focus upon skill development to get into the roles we aspire to, we buy into the notion that work and life are separate. But the reality is that we are only one person, one being.
- Through this buy-in to self-abnegation, we leave ourselves out of the workplace and all but guarantee to burn out and disillusionment. When we approach interviewing that way, we’re bound to forget that the person across from us is first and foremost a human being.
- Impostor syndrome of the interviewers (hiring managers!)
- IS-is there a place for me here? Everyone feels a little like a fake/fraud.
- Myth: This person is only as good as their resume.
- Truth: Most of the best people, have the worst resumes
Mindset
- Creating a corporate culture happens one conversation at a time. Talking about what you are passionate about, what matters to you.
- Work is home
- It is a demand market.
- * we forget we are hiring a human being… not filling a seat.
- Bring an entire life into the company
Rick’s Thoughts
- Stay away from “stinkin thinkin” - Transactional thought
- Judging people based on a piece of paper
- Restructuring the recruiting department to touch those who apply
Solutions:
By shifting the language we begin to shift the mindset.
Changing the language - humanize
- What does it mean to be human at your company?
- Don’t talk headcount, filling a seat
- life count, heart count.
- Talk about finding the “right new colleague”
- Not filling a seat or role, rounding out our community
- Shift to human terms
The breadth and depth of this person.
- Talk about the eulogy and not the resume
- Think of everyone in terms of a peer
- Values -
- The framework is in the questions, not the answers
If the adage is that people leave managers, not companies, they probably refuse offers from managers as well. Foster a culture that supports the value for success. Are they Google-ly? And what happens when being googly becomes a weakness? Homogeneity can be a downfall.
Rick's Plan
Cut out words like “candidate”, Job Description, industry terms
Key Take Away:
- Tune into your own Humanity
- Humanize the language
- Slow down the interview process to give more room & space
Thursday Feb 28, 2019
Thursday Feb 28, 2019
Before you hire, you need a clear understanding of what you need and Why. What is required needs to be focused on the work that needs to be accomplished. And that’s Why it helps to prioritize the level of importance.
The most crucial part of the recruiting process is understanding why this is really needed. It is often overlooked.
Today’s Quote:
"There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure." -Colin Powell
Show Guest:
Greg Toroosian has spent the best part of a decade recruiting for technical positions across software, IT, and hardware verticals. He also has experience building non-technical teams including finance, marketing, business strategy, legal and operations. His career started in the UK as an agency recruiter working with companies in various industries and at different growth stages. He’s currently the Director of Talent Acquisition at sweetgreen where he oversees the team that manages all corporate hiring for technical and non-technical teams. sweetgreen is set to grow rapidly this year due to their focus on technology and the recent large round of investment they received.
Episode highlights:
- Defining what is needed and why
- Our Methods for defining and prioritizing your roles
Problem:
- Hiring managers don’t really know what they need
- Understand the gap, skillsets, and planning for growth
- I need another one of this person
- Job description we used last time
- Factoring in lead time to make the hire and then bring someone up to speed.
- Realistic Timelines
- Inefficient time spent on the wrong people because the hiring manager is really not
- Sitting down and outlining the work that needs to get done
- Prioritizing the work
- Setting performance benchmarks
Solutions:
Focus on the What and then the Why
- Greg’s Intake Process to define the What & Why - Request Greg's Intake Form: andrea@stridesearch.com
- Prioritization: is this really needed?
- What will the person be doing?
- How will that add value here?
- How is the work being done right now? (light bulb of urgency)
- Forward-thinking- hiring ahead of the plan
- Hire toward the body of work
Rick's Input:
- Write down the actual work that needs to be done with a timeline
- Define the expectations by setting at least 3 Performance metrics for the first 90 days
- The Problems that need to be solved help to gain emotional buy-in
- Tie the work to Growth - Impact
Key Take Aways:
- People are attracted to the problems you solve
- For hiring managers: Upfront time spent configuring the process and fleshing out then real need is crucial to a successful, smooth and efficient process. Give your recruiting partner adequate time, think through the real need and purpose of the role, and be clear on what the success criteria is.
- For recruiters: Know that this is where you can add a lot of value as a partner. Be confident in the questions you ask, be inquisitive, think about what you need to align on and focus on unearthing that information. This document and the information it contains will be what you refer back to throughout the process to make sure you’re on the right path and to push back when necessary.
Thursday Feb 21, 2019
Thursday Feb 21, 2019
Employer branding is a very hot topic! Today we are here to challenge conventional wisdom and say that people pitch their company and themselves wrong.
They pitch what the company does and the perks they offer rather than the problems they are solving first. Talented people want to solve challenging problems!
Now I am a huge believer in looking at what everyone else is doing and doing the opposite… it works for me!
Today’s Quote
"A problem is a chance for you to do your best." - Duke Ellington
Show Guest
As a global Keynote Speaker and Managing Partner of InfluenceTree, Ryan Foland helps executives harness the power of vulnerability and authenticity to build better, more relatable, more profitable brands. Recognized by Inc. Magazine as a Top Marketer and named a Top Personal Branding Expert by Entrepreneur Magazine, Ryan is the inventor of 3-1-3® Method, a discovery process that helps communicate ideas into three sentences, which is condensed into one sentence and then ultimately boiled down to three words. His book Ditch The Act: Unleash the Surprising Power of the Real You for Greater Success, will be published in October 2019 by McGraw-Hill. When he is not speaking, he is likely sailing.
Episode highlights
- Why the positioning of your messaging does not attract people to your company
- Share our methods for engaging talent to be drawn to your company
Problem
- No one cares what you do or who you are.
- Try instead promote the core problem you solve.
- Lack of Aspirational influence.
- People not Inspired by the impact your company will have on the world
Psychology
- The mindset of the person you are talking to when presenting your opportunity
- Reptilian brain- in charge of our survival
- Fight or flight, sexual behaviors, anger & fear reside
- Keeping people out of the fear zones
- Rick’s Switch theory
- The words that you chose to come out of your mouth either turn people on or off
Solutions
3-1-3 process - Tease out the problem you solve to uncover the actual pain! Solve the problem of.....
- 3-problem you solve in one sentence (problem, solution, market)
- 1- condense to 1 sentence
- 3- Words (Marriott of marketing)
Pain being solved by the position & pain of the company that they solved by their customers. Alignment of pain points.
Eliminates being another me too company
Example of a good 3-1-3
The difference between success and failure hinges almost entirely on a company’s ability to hire the right team. One bad hire can destroy the company. We provide a step by step process that eliminates wrong hiring decisions. Startups need a competitive advantage when fighting for talent.
Rick’s first step
- Open with a slap in the face by Locating a career wound!
- Locate the pain first. Match the problems solved with the solutions the person can gain by joining your company.
- Lead people down a path and let them draw their own conclusions
Key takeaways
- Nobody cares about the words coming out of your mouth
- People are attracted to the problems you solve
- Change your messaging! Problem, Solution and Market
Ryan's Social Media
Thursday Feb 14, 2019
Chris Russell: Better Ways to Post & Pray Your Job Descriptions to Life
Thursday Feb 14, 2019
Thursday Feb 14, 2019
"Post and Pray" yields mediocre results and yet It is the go-to method for most companies, especially startups. Look, dating apps have evolved so let's take a page from them and figure out creative ways to attract talent. After all, your companies success or failure hinges on it!
Today’s Quote:
"Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work." - Aristotle
Show Guest:
Chris Russell is the Managing Director of RecTech Media. He is a digital recruiting expert. He began his career as a job board owner where he first learned the craft of attracting talent online. He's also a former corporate recruiter with real-world experience in the recruitment process and technology implementation.
As as a recruiting technology/marketing consultant he advises both employers and vendors on how to attract candidates or clients. He frequently blogs on the news site, RecruitingHeadlines.com, podcasts a weekly show called “RecTech” and conducts live video training on recruitment marketing tools and tactics at RecTechLive.com.
Episode highlights:
- Why you should look at approaching job postings differently
- The best ways to market your opportunities
- Tools available to help you automate the process
Let’s talk about the approach almost all companies take
- Write “job descriptions” (wish lists)
- Do Not copy old ones!
- Post on job boards
- Farm the Job boards
- Passively work employee referrals
The Job Description Format
- -short 300 words or less - According to Linkedin?
- Employer value proposition
- Q&A job descriptions
- Video
- Cybersn.com
- Harry joiner - long form job
Rick’s Format:
- Build your job descriptions around uncovering a Career Wound
- Build in Performance Metrics! - Let people know how they will be evaluated in their first 90 days
Tools to Use
- Ripl- social media video slideshows
- Buffer, deliverance, smarterqueue
- Legend.im- turns text into animation gif
- clipomac
Where & How to Post
- Indeed- biggest board out there. - active candidate pool
- Linkedin-
- Facebook job board-blue-collar, hear
- Google for jobs - Take advantage of all the free avenues
- Take an Omnichannel approach- you need to be on all the channels. Be where your candidates are and continuously add content
- Automate the flow of content out.
- Be resourceful - text or email creative pictures (you next to a whiteboard with the person’s name written on it)
- Angelist?
- **Pushing out to facebook, twitter & LinkedIn. Video gets the most engagement and exposure
- Times to post 4-6 pm at night FB- 3 pm on Wednesday
Key Take-Aways
- Go Short or Go Long!
- Re-format your job descriptions to Attract people! Define the % of time spent on tasks as well as performance metrics
- Market your jobs by taking an omnichannel approach
- Get Creative & use Tools to automate getting out your message
Monday Feb 11, 2019
Monday Feb 11, 2019
Today we are discussing the Steps to building & scaling headcount in growth mode. Making sure that execution & time to fill are aligned.
Today’s Quote:
"Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together." - James Cash Penney
Show Guest:
Brendan Rogers, Co-Founder & Leading Recruiting of Wag Labs, has raised over $360 million in venture capital, most recently $300 million from Softbank's Vision Fund. Wag! connects pet parents to dog walkers and is currently live in over 110 U.S. cities. He co-founded a social discovery service to meet new people which grew to over 50 million users in over 10 countries and was acquired by IAC in 2014.
Brendan's next big event will be speaking at the ERE Conference on April 22-24th.
Episode Highlights:
- How to ramp up from 0 to hero
- Steps to put in place to avoid making hiring mistakes
You company closes your first round of funding
- 10 -12 roles from Nothing
- no resources & no systems in place
- Spreadsheets, manual task-oriented, process
Preparation before go mode
- Building out pipelines, similar spaces, consumer-related companies.
- How to avoid making the wrong hire.
- How to scale for maximum impact
- Tools needed. Process in place, a foundation to scale.
- Get really good at identifying the right people, connecting the dots, sourcing- research
- He does a ton of research, knows his space.
- Strive to keep quality really high. Target specific businesses.
Action Plan & Execution
- First hire should be a recruiter
- Identify what is needed & write job descriptions
- Right messaging
- Tackled building pipeline, hired.com
- Spreadsheet
- Hired a recruiter, brought in an ATS (applicant tracking system)
First:
- Get an ATS system first! -like Newton, Google (hire with Google) Greenhouse, lever
- - take open requirements and intake with each hiring manager. Know the roles from top to bottom
Second:
- Build a pipeline, training managers on how to use the ats, become partners with the hiring managers
Third:
- Hire a recruiter only after 5+ open roles.
- Admin- for cost savings
- Having a foundation will only help you to scale.
Key Take-Aways
- Be best friends with your Hiring Managers
- Be on top of everything
- Always be available
- Invest in the right tools
Thursday Jan 24, 2019
Katie Weber: Evaluating Your Team to Get the Right People in the Right Seats
Thursday Jan 24, 2019
Thursday Jan 24, 2019
Today we are talking about Workforce Planning and our goal is to provide Clarity of what is really needed vs. what you think you want. Evaluating Your Internal Team and Your Mission is crucial to get the right people in the right seats at your company!
Today’s Quote:
"Never look back unless you are planning to go that way." - Henry David Thoreau
Show Guest:
Katie Weber, Founder & CEO of KMW Recruitment Consulting, a recruitment and coaching firm specializing in high-growth and transition scenarios for small to mid-size companies. With nearly 20 years of diverse recruitment experience, Katie has worked around the world with early stage start-ups to Global Fortune 500s. She now utilizes that experience to quickly assess recruitment challenges, recommend and implement best practices, and find creative solutions ranging from engaged search to plug and play recruitment teams for her clients. She has developed a Recruiting Search Framework with supporting tools that facilitates organizational communication, reinforces recruitment branding, eliminates bias, and attracts the right talent. With the addition of High Performance & Career Coaching, she ensures that the candidates she places change the game with levels of confidence, employee engagement, productivity and influence that are off the charts. Her hires are often the company's best hires and top performers. The company motto is: It's not just about filling a position, it's about fueling your mission!
Katie serves on the Advisory Board for London-based start-up, Grad DNA, holds a BA in Psychology from Elizabethtown College, and has a coaching certification from High Performance Institute. She is available for speaking engagements or workshops and will be a speaker at the April ERE Recruiting Conference in San Diego.
Episode highlights:
- What happens when you don't plan?
- Where to start
- How to implement your hiring plan
Why is it important?
- Run Lean- Instagram sold for $1B to Facebook with just 13 employees (2013)
- Cost of a Bad Hire
- Kills Morale, productivity
- Disengagement is contagious
Planning & Kicking off your hiring plans for 2019
-
- Evaluating the Mission
- Defining what needs to be accomplished
- Think about leadership first.
- Evaluate the team that is already in place (workforce planning)
- Budget & Timeline
- The volume of positions needed to be filled, vs lack of internal leadership to manage them- open headcount before leadership.
- Evaluating the Mission
- Invest in hiring / promoting strong leaders
-
- To chose the right recruiting strategy (partner, in-house recruiter)
Define who “We” are and Who we need
- First Who, Then What - Jim Collins
- Dare to Go From "Good to Great" - “First the people, then the direction”
- Get the Right people on the bus, In the Right seats
- Get the Wrong people off the bus
Evaluating your internal team
-
- Cultural fit (Values, Attitude, Mission Ownership)
- Education & Training required
- Provide resources
- Work Performance
- Current
- Growth
- Accomplishments- Recognize even the small wins
- Fulfillment- breeds engagement > Increased Productivity
Employment Branding/Messaging
- Define the 3 things that are most important to them in terms of the job search
- (open leadership) for greater collaboration
- Top 3 trait alignment
- What does that mean
- Usually describing a company challenge
- Transparency
Take Aways
- Evaluate your mission, evaluate your people
- Over communicate everything!
- Fit people into your Company and not your Job
Thursday Jan 03, 2019
Joe Mullings: How to Choose the Right Recruiting Partner for the New Year.
Thursday Jan 03, 2019
Thursday Jan 03, 2019
A true partner has your back! Look for the person who shares your values and invests the time to understand the intricacies of your company.
Today’s Quote:
"Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved."
- William Jennings Bryan
Show highlights:
- Reflect on your internal process
- Walk through understanding & managing expectations
- Provide you some tools to evaluate the right partner for you
Be honest about your internal process
- What are your main hiring challenges
- moving too slow?
- Too many cooks in the kitchen.
- Recruiter relationship
- Type of search you choose makes a huge difference
Clearly define & communicate Expectations
- Partner for process
- Partners ask for a slide deck & messaging collateral at a minimum
- Diligence
- Ask for a synopsis of what they think they heard, what the positions about what methodology and the messaging they are going to use
- How you are being represented is crucial
- Candidate Management expectations
- What will I become? Make it easy for the individual.
- Make it easy for the person to plug in. put together a landing page, catered toward the person.
- Ghosting is unacceptable on either front
- Live document to get them to lean in.
Recommendation for evaluating the best firm for your needs
- Evaluation of the process
- Well thought through the process
- Preparation emphasis- prep call beforehand
- Ask for references
- The last 3 candidates placed- How well did you service the people who did not get the job
- How did you represent your candidate on behalf of your client?
- Agility and endurance
Learn about the liability of the organization
- How do people handle information
- Over-indexing toward behavior way too far to the left
- Stability is really an illusion, It doesn't exist
Words of Wisdom
- Compensation goes up and down due to interest level.
- Cadence- value of cadence
- Provide a flex deck tease
Joe Mullings is a serial entrepreneur, Founder, and CEO of The Mullings Group (TMG), the world’s leading executive talent acquisition firm in the medical device industry. TMG specializes in cultural transformations for emerging technology start-ups and has placed over 5000 people in over 500 companies. Joe is an innovator and thought leader who has been featured on CNBC and in The Wall Street Journal. Joe’s philosophy ‘Build, Inspire, Teach’ has guided his work over the past 25 years specifically through his establishment of The Mullings Foundation, a non-profit with a focus on supporting veterans of war during times of transition. Joe recently served on the board of MassMEDIC and holds a BS in Engineering from the University of Dayton.
Thursday Dec 20, 2018
Christian Spletzer: Managing Expectations of Time to Hire Key Talent
Thursday Dec 20, 2018
Thursday Dec 20, 2018
After years of experience in the challenging world of executive search, Christian Spletzer founded Clockwork Recruiting to improve how search firms and their clients work together on retained search projects. He designed Clockwork to help recruiters demonstrate their consultative value to their clients at every stage of each project.
Prior to founding Clockwork, Christian worked as a recruiter and in operations at CT Partners, a Top 10 Global Executive Search firm. Previous to that, he worked within the Private Client Group of Merrill Lynch, and in an e-commerce start-up, 86.com, where he met his Clockwork co-founder, Jay Greene. Christian has a BA in Economics and a Juris Doctorate, and is a licensed attorney in NY, CT, and SC.
Today is all about Timing! Managing expectations for time and performance to make a key hire is more important than ever. The data is in and we are going to give you performance benchmarks of what your expectations should be.
Today’s Quote:
“If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.” - Colin Powell
Show highlights:
- The challenges and data to support today’s hiring challenges
- Measurement for performance and what a Great search looks like
Measuring your search performance
- Data from over 30,000 search projects
- Placement rate
- Days to Placement
- **Missing: Quality of Hire
- Key hires are taking an average of 123 days with a 71% placement rate on retained search
- People don't know how to pick a retained search firm. Most buyers of a retained search run off of bad data. No objective criteria to measure a search firm.
- Time matters- the longer it takes to get the seat filled, the shorter the ROI. Amazingly costly if a search fails.
- 22% failure rate
- Motivations may be wrong.
- The company is 50% of the equation in a successful outcome
Companies can go to:Benchmarks - Clockwork Recruiting
What good search looks like and how to choose the right partner
Detailed analysis
- Great- Average under 115 days and over 83% success rate
- Seniority
- Managers- lowest placement rate, 80+ days to place
- C-Level 130+ days, 78% placement rate
- Department
- Industry
- Region
- New York City - 60% success rate with longest days to hire
- Seniority
What to look for in a search firm
- Judge on time/success rate. Buy based on the experience and track record of success.
- Access to that information. Pick based on the one best suited for the search.
- Do not bet on the relationship only. Find the company with the track record- if you don't know where to look, you don't want to be sold. Getting more data before buying
- Track record
- Specialization in that particular department
- Inquire about Success rate/Stick rate: good hire vs. bad hire. Still around after a year, two years.
- Expectations: are very different than contingency search
- Meta data on actual projects. Who does it the best
- Hire the firm who brings value above and beyond just presenting candidates
Thursday Dec 13, 2018
Charles Antis: Discovering Your Company's Purpose
Thursday Dec 13, 2018
Thursday Dec 13, 2018
It’s all about Purpose... Why? Because if your model exists just to make money, you won’t be relevant anymore. What is your companies purpose? Today we are going to help you discover your purpose and share ways to build purpose into to your hiring process.
Today’s Quote:
“When you're surrounded by people who share a passionate commitment around a common purpose, anything is possible.” - Howard Schultz
Show highlights:
- Discovering your purpose
- Getting others to rally around your company’s purpose (super power)
- How to hire Purpose-driven people
Let’s start by talking about how you discovered your companies purpose
- Origin Story:
- Reason to exist other than making money
- you have to have a Why
- “We exist to keep families safe and dry” - Antis purpose
Why is it important to have a purpose?
- The purpose of a company is to make money!
- Involved in changing people’s lives
- Benefits of Purpose
- Retention
- Increased productivity
Hiring with Purpose
- Have a reason why
- Getting others to buy in
- Knowing your “Why” and building it from the inside out.
- Helping employees discover their “Superpowers”
Tribal leadership- when the culture goes wrong. survival
Demonstrating that as a leader, you are there to serve them
Interviewing for Purpose
- Messaging
- Clear and consistent with how the leaders lead
- Interview
- Core values alignment
- Hire for alignment over skills
- Discovery of superpowers in the interview
Results
- 20% culture lift in a month- gift card that they can donate to a cause that is near and dear. To someone who did
- Retain 93%
- Melt away silos builds a stronger bond between individuals and departments
Charles Antis, Founder & CEO of Antis Roofing & Waterproofing is a well-respected and widely known roofing expert, entrepreneur and humanitarian. Charles began his career as a roofing professional in 1984. Since then, he has become one of the most trusted names in the Southern California roofing industry, as well as an inspirational business leader championing social corporate responsibility.
Charles has been the recipient of many prestigious awards over the years and was recently honored with the 2017 US Chamber of Commerce Foundation Corporate Citizen Award, Small and Mid-Size Business. In 2017, he was also named as National Philanthropy Day Honoree, Outstanding Corporation or Business, Mid-Size; the Civic 50 Orange County Honoree; and received the top honor with the CNA Insurance/National Roofing Contractors Association (CAN/NRCA) Community Involvement Award.
Friday Nov 23, 2018
Monica Lukoschek: The Immigration Mess!
Friday Nov 23, 2018
Friday Nov 23, 2018
The Immigration Mess ie: Immigration 10.142! Turning away great people due to immigration issues is just tragic.
Today’s Quote:
“The U.S. immigration laws are bad - really, really bad. I'd say treatment of immigrants is one of the greatest injustices done in our government's name.” - Bill Gates
Show highlights:
- The current immigration landscape
- Changes in policy for 2019
- Creative steps to navigate today’s immigration laws
Quick breakdown on the different types of Visa:
- Hirable visa categories
- E1, E2, - investor visa
- F 1 Visa- Student visa practical training
- H1B – Specialty Occupation (Cap vs. non-cap) 65,000, plus 20,000 for US masters/PhD last year 190,000 petitions filed. Highest in 2017 236,000 filed (historical: annual cap to 115,000 for Fiscal Year 1999; 115,000 in Fiscal Year 2000; and 107,500 in Fiscal Year 2001. The cap would return to 65,000 starting with Fiscal Year 2002.
- J-1 Visa- exchange visitor can work, receive training, study or do research
- L-1A/B- Intracompany Transferee (manager, executive, specialized knowledge)
- O-1 Extraordinary Ability in the arts, science or business.
- TN Visa- NAFTA
- R-1 Religious Worker
Immigration policy
April 18, 2017 Executive Order Buy American, Hire American – seeks to create higher wages and employment rates for U.S. workers and protect their economic interests
Allows for rule-making, policy memos and operational changes. Ensure H-1B visas go to only the highest skilled and highest paid.
- The H1 B Visa Changes
- Focus on wages is a Level I wage a specialty occupation?
- Challenging if a degree is necessary for the job… specific degree required? Can you prove alternative eligibility requirements?
- Computer Programmer Analyst – March 30, 2017 Rescinded 2000 memo. Now stating that Bachelor’s not required for job. What other computer-related occupations could this extend to?
- Third party worksite/direct employer/employee relationship. i.e., even accountants at an accounting firm. February 22, 2018 policy memo supersedes prior memo
- Rescission of guidance allowing USCIS to defer to prior
- *Change in the information required for approval
- Policy changing almost daily and hurts smaller companies most
Just last week, the DHS and the DOL proposed new regulations:
- Electronic Registration for Cap subject petitioners by next April. Initially Proposed in 2011
- Only open two weeks?
- Multiple registrations?
- Elimination of work permits for spouses of H-1B workers waiting more than 6 years for green card (taking more than 10 years for certain countries)
- Hiring challenge- Foreign workers need H-1Bs
Missing out on A-players
What we need to do to navigate this mine field:
- Consult your attorney before investing too much time
- What to ask? What to look for?
- Does the position require a degree and does the applicant have the specific degree?
- Will the employer be required to seek a work visa? H-1B employers required to pay for attorney’s fees and filing fees. Can employer wait until October 1 (or beyond) for the employee to begin working?
- If transferring from a previous H-1B – how many years on H-1B, do they have an approved immigrant petition (could extend time beyond 6 years). Premium Processing suspended until at least February. Will employee risk transfer?
- Will the employment be “off-site”? Must show proof of right to control the employee and cannot “bench” Can you provide SOWs, itinerary, etc. See itinerary requirements.
- Creative solutions to still be able to hire the person your company needs!
- Is the applicant from Chile, Singapore, Northern Mariana Islands, Canada, Mexico, Australia? May be other alternatives.
- Is spouse on a visa category which extends work authorization to employee? (E-3, L-1, etc.)
- STEM OPT extension to 36 months.
- 3rd party firms as a protective layer?
- Offshore options - Canada or Mexico?
- Work remote
As a founding partner at U.S. Immigration Law Group, LLP, Monica Lukoschek’s practice focuses on employment-based immigration law, assisting businesses in hiring and retaining foreign personnel and managing their immigration compliance programs, assisting entrepreneurs and investors in the United States, and providing advice to employers and employees with all aspects of immigration law compliance.
Thursday Nov 08, 2018
Lindon Crow: The Anatomy of a Recruiting Call. Stop Triggering Fight or Flight!
Thursday Nov 08, 2018
Thursday Nov 08, 2018
The Anatomy of a Recruiting Call. People do not respond to you because you are sending the wrong message! What do You Say that is Triggering a person’s Fight or Flight Response?
Today’s Quote:
“Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge”. - Plato
Show highlights:
- What happens in the brain when someone is trying to recruit you
- What Triggers Fight or Flight response
- Techniques to approach the conversation to avoid triggering negative responses
I call you to recruit you for a new job.
- What happens in the brain
- What is naturally desired by people - intrinsic desire
- What choices or options mean to a mind. What too many/too few options means
- What motivates people - primal instinct, reptilian brain
- Tune out to the sales pitch
- How do I get rid of this person?
What triggers Fight or Flight response?
- Recruiting is disruptive to the brain. It breaks safety
- Create environment of loving, self esteem, self actualization
The Conversation
- Creating a process that creates a sense of Familiarity & Achievement
- Authority (achievement) Daniel pink's Drive
- $ is a motivator up until $70k
- Positioning:
- Purpose of the call is to get to the Truth
- It’s not about you!
- Listening:
- Stop Fishing
- People are busy and don't care about what you are selling
- “What's happening in your current role…”
- Test the waters - Question the timing & the Why
- Lead the Path:
- What problem needs to be solved?
- How they desire it to be fixed?
- Wound, Desire, Achievement - like Plato’s emotion, desire, knowledge
- Celebrate their wins
Lindon Crow is the President of Productive Learning. As a workshop facilitator and trainer, he has helped more than 2,500 clients achieve higher levels of emotional awareness, self-mastery, and personal fulfillment. Lindon is known for his provocative, straightforward, and compassionate communication style and his keen ability to forecast potential outcomes. This helps his clients make better educated decisions about their current directions and opportunities for growth.
Thursday Nov 01, 2018
Brenan German: Can AI be the Solution to a Bad Interviewing Experience?
Thursday Nov 01, 2018
Thursday Nov 01, 2018
Did you know that according to LinkedIn “83% of talent say a negative interview experience can change their mind about a role or company they once liked, while 87% of talent say a positive interview experience can change their mind about a role or company they once doubted.” Candidate Experience Matters!
Today's Quote:
“The only source of knowledge is experience.” - Albert Einstein
Show highlights:
- The impact of candidate experience on your ability to hire
- AI
- Our solution to create a positive candidate experience
What is candidate experience? Why is it important:
-
- Job descriptions
- Application process
- Interview Experience
- Feedback/Closing the Loop
- Nearly 60% of Job Seekers Have Had a Poor Candidate Experience & 72% Talk About It (GlassDoor)
The VALUE of AI:
- AI- Recruitment Automation
-
- Sourcing 58%
- Screening 56%
- Nurturing 55%
- Scheduling 42%
- Engagement 24%
- Interviewing 6%
- AI will eliminate the transactional pieces of recruiting but it won't solve the most critical portions….Engagement, Interviewing
Let’s lay out our structure for creating an impressive candidate experience:
Engagement:
-
- Marketing/Messaging aligned with company values
- Job Descriptions with clear performance metrics
- Application process…. RESPOND!
Interview:
-
- Set Expectations
- Structure (Organized, Timed, real time feedback)
- Pre-determined questions
- Give & Receive Feedback
Closure:
- Professionally release each person from the process
-
- Do Not Ghost
- Listen to your bad glassdoor reviews
Brenan German is Founder and President at Bright Talent Resources, Inc., Which is a boutique Human Resources Advisory, Project Management, Training, and Recruiting Services firm..
Brenan’s particular expertise involves the alignment of talent management strategies to business goals, and the implementation of systems and processes to reach measurable objectives, demonstrating clearly the bottom line impact expected of strategic Human Resources programs.
Thursday Oct 25, 2018
Sherry Benjamins: Build a Strategic Plan to Avoid Costly Hiring Mistakes
Thursday Oct 25, 2018
Thursday Oct 25, 2018
Do you and your company have a strategic hiring plan? If you are like most companies, you don’t. Today we are going to help shift your model from a reactive to a proactive hiring model and change your world!
Today's Quote:
“Everyone chooses how to approach life. If you're proactive, you focus on preparing. If you're reactive, you end up focusing on repairing.”
― John C. Maxwell
Show highlights:
- Why you hire poorly
- A structure to build a strategic hiring plan
The problems with a reactive hiring process (why you can't hire):
-
- Transactional
- Paying too much for people
- Not solving a problem
- Your company is just a paycheck
- High failure rate
- 67% of people earning $100K+ plan to make a job change in the next 12 months.
- Companies in React mode all the time
- Forecasting recruiting like you forecast your finances
Creating a Strategic Plan for Talent
Five elements you must have to develop a solid strategic plan:
- 1) Define your value agenda –
- what is the source of value in your business? Is it in operations
- How you structure the teams,
- Where the highest value resources are in the organization?
- How are you dealing with automation, big data, AI, innovation, customer satisfaction.
- 2) What is your leadership agenda?
- Do you have the right people in the highest impact roles
- 3) Strategic priorities –
- what is the hottest priority for success given where the value will be most critical?
- Does the leadership team agree on these?
- 4) A Winning culture – with this focus, is everyone ready and believing and behaving in what it takes to win?
- Energy required – where is the energy and if there are “vampires” sucking the energy from the team, truly evaluate the pay off or drain
- 5) Road map
- Specific & Actionable… Need to get some early wins
- Send a message to the organization
- Accountability & results
Ricks Input:
- Know who you are- Company values
- Break down the work that needs to be accomplished & timeline
- Establish Performance metrics 90/180 day
- Establish Interviewing strategy and process
- -Closing the hiring managers and candidates for mutual success
Sherry Benjamins has over 25 years of experience in business management, HR, consulting services and helping companies solve for their talent challenges. Her expertise is helping clients shift from the old model of reacting to talent needs to starting a new conversation that is forward looking and focused on adding value to their business.
Sherry is the President of S.Benjamins & Company. Her company does three things; they find management talent for their clients, they help clients create a strategic talent plan and lastly, she brings talent together in quarterly executive learning sessions. Her experience includes work in the HR corporate world, P&L leadership of a regional career services firm, and founder of her own firm for the past 21 years. She has an MBA from Pepperdine and speaks frequently to new MBA graduates about the world of work today.
Thursday Oct 18, 2018
Nicole Washington: You Closed Your First Round of Funding, Now What?
Thursday Oct 18, 2018
Thursday Oct 18, 2018
Congratulations! You closed your first round of funding, what's next? To scale, you better have a plan, a structure and commitments for who’s on board.
Today's Quote:
“If you're trying to create a company, it's like baking a cake. You have to have all the ingredients in the right proportion.”
- Elon Musk
Show highlights:
- The importance of having a structured plan
- Stick to the plan
- Layout structural elements
Stick to the defined plan!
- Cause, Mission, Vision
- Should have an active pipeline ready to go
- Key positions in place, partners, hr strategy in place
- Hiring without compromise- values and mission driven alignment
- Investors should have dig into core company values and compromise levels of hiring
- Just a bunch of people winging it… you won't be able to hire right in today’s landscape
Create a team that investors will continue to invest in
- No, no’s
- Knowing the difficulty creating a team
- Hard for people to find a good technical people
- Don't hang out in the same places
- Setting Expectations & writing them down
- What happens when it doesn't work?
Structure… Have everything lined up!
- Company values in cement
- Define your Road map
- Set the stage for what happens next
- All documents & agreements in place
- Getting people to join before you have funding or a product
- Leverage university talent, students, - easier to get people to resonate with them
- Students: finding the ones who are doing research in your particular field
- Develop the relationship with the professors
- Reach out directly to the student *attractive to investors
Takeaways:
- Do not make compromises!
- Goals of the company first
- Hire with the end result in mind
Nicole Washington, Director of Innovation and Growth of OCTANe OC, focuses on engaging with strategic partners to accelerate the growth of early to later stage ventures and small to medium size business throughout the entire Southern California Ecosystem.
She currently serves as Chair of the Academic Committee and Trustee of the Board of Education for Samueli Academy. A (STEM) high school that delivers state of the art education to a large population of underrepresented youth.
Nicole is a member of the Ohio TechAngel Fund, the 2nd largest Angel Investor Network in the United States, where she served as the due diligence team, technology lead for several years.
Thursday Oct 11, 2018
Rocky Romanella: Define and Build Your Core Company Values
Thursday Oct 11, 2018
Thursday Oct 11, 2018
Define and build your core company values. Companies with clearly defined values & purpose consistently outperform their competitors by as much as 10x. Today’s episode is focused on helping you define who you are.
Today's Quote:
"Effectiveness without values is a tool without a purpose." - Edward de Bono (1933 - ), Author and Inventor
Show Guest:
Rocky Romanella is currently the Founder and CEO of 3SIXTY Management Services, LLC, a management consulting firm specializing in Executive Speaking, Leadership Development, and Consulting Services.
Rocky is an experienced CEO who led one of the largest rebranding initiatives in franchising history – The UPS Store, revolutionizing the $9 billion retail shipping and business services market. He steered UPS’s entry into the healthcare industry and created the mantra, “It’s a patient, not a package. ®”
He also led the integration of more than 20 acquisitions to improve financial performance, capabilities and global network footprint. Rocky has the rare ability to see a clear vision of the changing business landscape, the passion to develop strategies, tactics and metrics to drive desired results. He is the Author of Tighten the Lug Nuts: the Principles of Balanced Leadership(Amazon.com).
Episode highlights:
- Who you are?
- Defining your company values
- How to align your hiring with your values
“Without a strong set of values, the best leadership strategy can go awry. With a good value structure in place, the worst leadership approach can right itself and eventually lead to the desired outcome.” - Rocky Romanella
Why is this Important?
- People desire a sense of purpose to really thrive
- Core values are the Foundation for defining your Mission & Purpose
- Attrition issues/bad hires
- *small business don't believe they need to have values well defined... Wrong!
How do you define who you are?
- Start with your personal brand
- “Your true character is defined by your honesty of purpose”
- Ask peers
- Company Survey
- What won't I compromise
Step by step of how to define and build your core company values:
Rick’s process:
- Start with Personal values first
- KPI driven VS. People driven
- Established Leadership Team
- Define everyone’s core values and build from there.
- Prioritize top values
- Own your Values!
- Understand your values? You must:
- Articulate clearly in writing.
- Test your values through daily decision-making.
- Rocky’s Structure:
- Mission
- Vision
- Strategy
- Roadmap
How to transfer your values into your hiring:
- Values Alignment
- Values drive hiring
- Behavioral interview process
- Assessments: Disc, Predictive Learning
- Don’t compromise on hiring!
Wednesday Sep 26, 2018
Wednesday Sep 26, 2018
In honor of this weeks DisruptHR, today we are talking about disruption. Disruption will impact your business and it is coming faster than you think! You can either eat your own lunch or someone will eat it for you. Are you prepared?
Today's Quote:
"Disruptors don’t have to discover something new; they just have to discover a practical use for new discoveries.” - Jay Samit
Show highlights:
- What is disruption & are you prepared
- Confirm that someone is going to eat your lunch for you
- How to disrupt your business starting with how you hire
What is disruption?
- Term synonymously used with both innovation and transformation
- Disruptive innovation is happening at a staggering rate.
- (uber, airbnb, facebook)
Where does disruption come from? How will it affect your business?
- Blindsided disruption?
- Self-disruption
- Technology (ie: AI, ML, Blockchain, Automation)
Why it is important to start by innovating the way you approach hiring?
- Values
- Live & breath your values
- business strategy
- What can I eliminate
- Reduce
- Need to expand
- What to create
- Automation is making recruiting more Transactional
- Less engaging
- Problem-solving is the Key!
- Solve a real problem for the candidate / heal the career wound
- Desire: What does someone really want?
- Listen …. Channel potential
How to disrupt your organization
- Not forcing the talent to the job specifications but hiring talent and allowing them to innovate.
- Building a Tiger Team
- Change your mindset!
- The game has changed…. Adapt or Perish!
- Approach
- Solving a problem for your customer- potential employee (Career Wound)
- Desire alignment
- Accomplishment- evidence of success
- Do the Opposite of what you are doing now!
- Shift the focus from the work to the person
- Organize-
- Build hiring process like your sales process
Scott Hamilton is CEO of the Executive Next Practices Institute, a large C-suite research and forum organization that is a community partner organization located at the University of California-UCI Applied Innovation. He is also NextWORKS Strategy (2018 Innovators of the Year nominee- Orange County Business Journal), a premier provider/advisors of strategy development, alignment, talent management, board effectiveness, and executive performance programs to middle-market companies. He serves on the boards of several organizations.
Hamilton is a well-known thought leader & speaker in the field of “next practices” improvement of leadership and organizational performance for the Global 1000, emerging and mid-market companies. Scott helps leaders and organizations be more effective in how they strategize and perform.
Thursday Sep 20, 2018
Shawn Andrews: What Is Emotional Intelligence And How Is It Relevant To Hiring?
Thursday Sep 20, 2018
Thursday Sep 20, 2018
Why should we care about Emotional Intelligence when building a company today? People with high EQ, work better with others, manage customers more effectively and cultivate an accepting company culture.
Today's Quote:
“Emotion is more powerful than logic” - Albert Einstein
Show Guest:
Dr. Shawn Andrews is a keynote speaker, organizational consultant, and the founder and CEO of Andrews Research International. She serves as adjunct professor at Pepperdine Graziadio Business School, where she teaches courses on Organizational Behavior, Women in Leadership, Diversity in Organizations, and Leadership and Ethics. She was the 2017 Diversity & Inclusion columnist for Training Industry Magazine, and is the author of the book, The Power of Perception: Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, and the Gender Divide (Amazon.com)
Episode highlights:
-
- EQ, What is it?
- How to you get it?
- Incorporate into your hiring
What is EQ?
Set of emotional and social skills that collectively establish how well we:
- Perceive and express ourselves
- Develop and maintain social relationships
- Cope with challenges, manage stress and make decisions
- Use emotional information to guide our thinking and action
- Managing emotions
- Manage stress
- Overcome obstacles
- Inspire toward collective goals
- Self perception, Self expression, interpersonal, decision making, Stress Management
- Tied into core company values
Why is it Important?
- Low Emotional Intelligence breeds bad cultures
- “Hire hard, manage easy”
What if you don’t have EQ? How do you get it?
- Get EQ assessment
- Read a book
EQ for different roles:
Leadership:
- Interpersonal relationships
- Assertiveness
- Self-awareness
Sales:
- Self-actualization
- Assertiveness
- Happiness
Marketing / Creative:
- Optimism
- Reality testing
- Independence
Customer Service:
- Stress tolerance
- Assertiveness
- Happiness
Product Development /Manufacturing:
- Flexibility
- Problem solving
- Independence
Interviewing for EQ
- Behavioral Interviewing
- Comfortable candidate- feel conversational, warm & informal
- Start: difficult challenge that was solved, commend… then go granular
- “Hire hard, manage easy”
- Deep reference checking
- Evidence of low & high EQ behaviors
Thursday Sep 13, 2018
Darrell Gurney: Breaking Bad, Career And Hiring Habits!
Thursday Sep 13, 2018
Thursday Sep 13, 2018
Why is it that we put more thought into lunch choices than we do our career or hiring decisions?
Today we are going to discuss the top three bad habits that both candidates and companies do throughout the hiring process that kill their ability to make a smart decision.
Today's Quote:
“To change habits, we must study the habits of successful role models.” – Jack Canfield
Show Guest:
Darrell Gurney is a career expert, executive coach and authority in supporting people through successful transitions. He brings back the power of social connection by teaching professionals that you’re simply one face-to-face relationship away from your dream job life.
He is the author of the Amazon bestseller “Never Apply for a Job Again: Break the Rules, Cut the Line, Beat the Rest."
As founder of both CareerGuy.com and TheBackForty.com, Darrell’s motto for both career and life is, as Frank Sinatra sings, “the best is yet to come, and won’t it be fine!”
Episode highlights:
- The top 3 bad habits we need to stop right now!
- Why these habits are so detrimental
- Good habits to replace the bad
Hiring bad habits from both sides:
Darrell’s top 3:
- 1. Looking to see what jobs are available & Going through the front door by applying for open positions.
- Take charge of their career path vs be at the effect
- Get out of your box: the house, the computer screen, the phone, and get in front of people.
- 80% of all jobs are filled before they are ever advertised by the people in the know bringing in the people they know
- 2. Failing to develop relationships beyond the job search process.
- Never submerge in your job or your life. Get out, be making connections, be talking to people about your interests and passions
- 3. Not treating yourself like a business
- Realize that you have your own business, and you always have -- you simply lease out your employable assets
- A business owner is always concerned first and foremost about two measures: ROI (Return on Investment) and ROE (Return on Equity). You want to similarly always watch, manage and monitor your own Return on Individuality and Return on Effort.
Rick’s top 3:
- Winging it-
- company values -clueless
- Not clear on what the business needs
- Work that needs to be accomplished
- Listening!
- Interview Process
- Not clearly defined
- Following the pack -
- Accepting the Status quo
- Testing people before engaging
- Transactional relationship
- Not understanding the person across from you
- Focus on skills
- Protective of the culture
Why are these habits bad?
- How can you get where you are going when you don’t know where you are?
How do we fix these habits?
- Winging it- not clear on what the business needs
- Build preparation time into your schedule
- Define what the business needs (not your wants) and who you need to take you there
- Interview Process
- Structured, Organized, Timed & Purpose Driven
- Get to the Truth!
- Transactional relationship
- Heal the person’s wound with your opportunity
Thursday Sep 06, 2018
Thursday Sep 06, 2018
Founders need to build the cultural foundation before building the product! Building the right team is more important than just any team.
Today's Quote:
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much” ― Helen Keller
Show highlights:
- The importance of taking the time to select the right team
- Recognizing the team challenges
- How to set the right foundation for building a great team
Challenges we see with teams:
- What you really need in a team...Taking anyone is not the right thing to do
- Hiring anyone or for skills dramatically increases the likelihood of failure.
- Founder need to develop their muscles to make smart hiring decisions
- The foundation- transparency & culture
- Purpose- What's in it for me?
- How and who makes decisions?
- Most importantly, How does the team solve problems?
- Develop the EQ to have the difficult conversations
Framework for Building the Right Team from the Beginning:
- Establish mission, vision & values (as a team)
- Communication standards
- Foster transparency
- Business Model Canvas (product driven)
- Establish process
- Define who you are BEFORE you make your first hire
- Only hire people who mirror your core values and align with your vision
- Great things often come out of conflict
Takeaways:
- Culture first
- Transparency
- Hire people who will take you where you want to go
Melinda Kim is the Executive Director, co-founder of PeopleSpaceOC, an incubator and workspace located in Irvine, Ca. She is a proven executive/entrepreneur who facilitates collaboration and innovation between developers and business entrepreneurs from around the world.
Aside from her responsibilities, Melinda is also a Startup Weekend Facilitator and NASA Space Apps Lead. She specialize in Statistics Driven Product Analysis, Business Strategy, Growth, Community and Social impact.
Thursday Aug 16, 2018
Lori Torres - Diligence and Vetting are Critical in Building an Outstanding Company
Thursday Aug 16, 2018
Thursday Aug 16, 2018
Invest the time to really get to know the people you are going to hire. Especially in the beginning stages of your company. Be picky! Your companies success hinges on your ability to hire people who will help push the car uphill. Do not let your need to hire override the fit for both parties.
Today's Quote:
"Chaos is inherent in all compounded things. Strive on with diligence."
-Buddha
Show highlights
-
- Experience hiring at the early stages
- Hiring challenges as you grow
- Provide solutions for hiring through the various stages
Your experience when you first started hiring & received the funding, what happened next?
- Hard to hire- Keys: networking & due diligence
- First 60-70 people came from referrals
- Plan out company needs
- Build, cultivate and maintain a candidate pipeline
- Utilize your Referral network
The challenges you faced
- Attraction in a tight job market
- Company’s mission vs. $$
- Think in a bigger way
- Ignoring people’s bias
- Ways to measure ownership in an interview
- needed big thinkers & doers
- Desperation takes over & bad hires result
- Your need overwhelms your reason sometimes
- Hired a person hastily, due to desperate need and it was not a good fit for either party.
Start with your Core Company Values
- Why these values?
- Integrity
- Comradery
- Customer Centric
- Relentless
- Solution finders
- Knowing & Living your company values!
Interview process:
- Garnering accurate information! -The Truth!
- Interview process:
- Interview tools for vetting-
- culture index
- Interview- multiple times, 3+ interviews-* test endurance … up to 5 people interviews - own agenda.
- Due diligence & vetting
- Checking references!
- Backdoor references
- Leading people down the path
- Betterment of both parties -healing a wound
- Preparation for the desired outcome
Take Aways
- Use outside resources to hire
- Ask for help... people are willing help you!
- Believe in and listen to your Gut
- Planning for the desired outcome
- Hiring is not a sprint, it is a marathonResult of proper veting is a great company
Lori A. Torres is the founder and CEO of Parcel Pending, the nation’s leading provider of innovative package management solutions. Prior to Parcel Pending, Lori was SVP of property operations at The Irvine Company.
She has been recognized on multiple occasions for her leadership, including being named 2017 “Innovator of the Year” by the Orange County Business Journal and chosen as one of 13 entrepreneurs admitted into the EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women™ 2017 North America class.
Thursday Aug 09, 2018
Thursday Aug 09, 2018
Don't underestimate the power of giving and receiving feedback in the interview process. Feedback helps your company improve your hiring process and it provides a positive “candidate experience” for the interviewee!
Today's Quote:
“Feedback is the breakfast of champions.” – Ken Blanchard (one minute manager books)
Show highlights:
-
- The Whys’ of interview feedback
- Giving & receiving feedback
- Provide the tools to create feedback channels into your Interview process
You must first have an interview process:
- Feedback is process improvement
- Candidate Experience
- Time management &
- Candidate Attraction
Feedback Challenges:
- Don't have it - Go get it!
- Have it but not sure how to deliver it
- Companies not required to provide feedback
- Legality of feedback - fear of litigation
- Fear of Discrimination lawsuit
- Not everyone can accept feedback - low EQ
- CASE STUDY: 70% of companies do not provide unselected job applicants with any feedback
- Make feedback a constant throughout the process- give & receive
- Is there any reason why you would not hire me
- Is there any reason why you would not accept an offer with our company
*Mystery creates distrust
What you can and cannot give as feedback:
- Skills
- Problem solving abilities
- Interview Preparation
- Alignment with Cultural/Values
- Evidence based feedback
- Discriminatory in nature
- Your too Old
- Never give a woman feedback that she is not assertive enough
- Body odor
Aaron’s process for giving & receiving feedback:
- Balanced
- Build in feedback time (10 minutes after the interview has ended)
- Feedback based on competency - bullet points, not short stories
Rick’s process for giving & receiving feedback:
- Feedback starts at the first contact (gauge ability to give/receive feedback)
- discuss concerns & fit between career & company goals
- Ask Questions:
- What are your thoughts?
- How do you feel about that?
- Why is that important?
- Assign a facilitator of Feedback
- Ie: recruiter or admin
- Provide something constructive
- Give & Get feedback in Real Time -interview wrap up
How to professionally release a person from the process:
- Call Them!
- A 5-10 minute phone call to ensure a positive image of your company.
- Be specific. Facts without any value judgment.
- Help people to learn. Focus on improvement & help them to find the right fit
- Be empathetic.
The candidate experience: Integrity & Transparency in the hiring process creates less likelihood of a lawsuit, especially when you leave the door open.
Erin Wilson is the Co-Founder & Talent Engineer of Hirepool, Inc. He has personally interviewed more than 10,000 job seekers. Erin has helped build a company that exited for $640M, and just released a consumer Interview preparation software product (Hirepool.io) being used by job seekers around the world.
Friday Aug 03, 2018
Friday Aug 03, 2018
Today we are talking about the chemistry of your team! Look, you can have the greatest product in the world but without a strong team chemistry, your company will ultimately fail.
Today's Quote:
"Skills are Cheap. Chemistry is expensive" ― Mal Pancoast
Show highlights:
- Why chemistry is so important
- How to Monitor your team chemistry
- What to do to encourage or change the chemistry
Elements of good team chemistry:
- Constructive Chemistry
- *Good chemistry, Your brains produce more Oxytocin, which is the hormone that helps us feel more connected to other people. Higher levels of Oxytocin produce more pleasure, deeper trust, and stronger intimacy.
Warning signs of bad chemistry:
- Destructive Chemistry
- Identify bad chemistry early on… disrespectful, not being productive, dropping the ball, personal issues.
- Adding value or afraid of adding value
- Lieing, false information or not saying anything.
- Personal Issues- ie: How do you deal with someone involved with drugs? (JC’s Story)
Monitoring your chemistry:
- Proactive, Honest
- Best Monitor: Praise is the most important element of a team. People will give more because they feel valued
- checks and balances, always questioning
Interviewing to uncover chemistry:
- Understanding Yourself & Your business needs…. Vision - opposing working styles
- How to identify in the interview - Wound, Desire, Accomplishment
- Best job in vetting people. Honesty is not that common. People can turn in a heartbeat
- Optimistic pessimism
- Behavioral Questions - Evidence & Knockouts!
Ways to omit bad chemistry:
- Communicate
- Identify & change with minimum impact to the organization
- Hire slow, fire quickly
J.C. Ruffalo joined the OCTANe OC team in June 2014 and is the Director of LaunchPad SBDC and Investor Relations. JC Mentor's hundreds of companies each year and has assisted LaunchPad companies to achieve over $750 million in capital infusion and, as a result, create over 3,500 new jobs in Southern California.
Prior to Octane, JC co-founded a small startup (Double Splash Media), which was involved with email marketing. He also worked for LKQ, a large corporation that is the world’s largest supplier of automotive replacement parts, as a buyer and general manager.
Thursday Jul 19, 2018
Dane Petchul: College Debt Is Hindering Your Ability To Hire the Strongest Talent!
Thursday Jul 19, 2018
Thursday Jul 19, 2018
Student loan debt is certainly a major issue and yet it is not often addressed in the hiring process. Some would argue that the overwhelming pressure to start paying back the loan often results in a person making the wrong career decision out of necessity. Companies could do more to alleviate some of that pain by targeting talent out of their specific industry and creating benefits or incentives to help with this burden.
“When you get in debt you become a slave.” - Andrew Jackson
Show highlights:
- The effect student loans have on career choices
- How companies might capitalize on debt to help attract talent
Ways in which an individual can reduce the amount of student loan debt:
- Planning
- Cost reduction programs
- Hidden gems of free money?
What are the inherent challenges related to student loan debt:
- Default on the loan -7 million people are in default
- Limits ability to get a job- ie:govt related
- License suspension -nursing, teachers, lawyers, realtors emergency technicians
- Shackled to what you hate to pay the bills
When people make poor career choices because of necessity it impacts the company that they join. The regret over poor job choice does not only impact the employee but the employer as well. Job regret leads to:
- Apathy
- Low motivation
- Poor employee performance
- Spend work time searching for other employment
How might companies be able to attract the right people by helping to alleviate the student loan debt wound?
- benefits
- Recruit people from outside industries (look outside the box)- accomplishment based hiring
- Opportunity
- Provide an avenue
- Look at the debt as an opportunity to provide performance incentives to offset the debt
Dane Petchul is the Founder and President of Oracle College Planning. With a long history of helping people with their retirement in the finance world, Dane shifted the focus to help families – parents and children – identify the best path to take for a financially responsible college experience..
Dane committed himself to helping families carefully protect their life-savings from soaring college costs while ensuring that a proper financial pathway would be in place so that students wouldn’t be saddled in debt after graduating. Therefore enabling them to make better career decisions.
Thursday Jun 21, 2018
Mark James: Preparing for Your Interview is the Key to Winning a Great Hire!
Thursday Jun 21, 2018
Thursday Jun 21, 2018
Today’s show is all about Preparation! Preparation is the first step in conducting an effective Interview. Both interviewer and interviewee parties need to be prepared. Just showing up without an idea of where you are going is the quickest way to lose an opportunity. An Interview without Preparation is really just PreparationH! In this episode we stressed the importance of preparation and how it needs to happen.
Show Guest:
Mark James is the Founder and President of Hire Consulting Services and the author of his new book, “Keys to the C Suite”. (Amazon.com) Mark is a Certified Personnel Consultant and has been providing executive career transition coaching and executive search consulting services for over 20 years. He is also a Certified Partner with the Predictive Index suite of behavior assessments. Mark coaches executives in career transition on a daily basis which makes him an expert in today's topic.
Episode highlights:
- Interviewee/candidate preparation
- Hiring manager preparation
- Provide a process for how each party needs to prepare
Why is it important to prepare for an interview?
- Preparation puts you in the right MINDSET … sets the tone, eliminates surprises
- Set proper objective - get the offer/make the hire
- Being prepared = being impressive- demonstrates success
Interviewee:
- Research the company to determine something that the company may not know themselves
- Not prepared to tell their story
- Ask for the interview schedule & format
Hiring Manager (company):
- Research the person
- Knowing what needs to be accomplished
- Prepare your interview team
The dangers of not preparing for the interview:
- Wasted time, frustration
- Inaccurate picture of who you really are
- Lose the person
- Increase the likelihood of making a bad decision
How to best prepare to get hired:
- Self-assessment, presenting yourself, researching the company
- Research company
- Ask targeted questions
- Know how to showcase your accomplishments to make them relevant to the company mission
- Proactive
Best preparation practices to attract the right talent:
- Schedule time to prepare - assuming all else has been covered
- Review assessment notes, LinkedIn profile, social channels, resume- look for commonalities, interests & data points to cover
- Prepare interview team- provide targeted behavioral questions
Look for cultural fit, evidence of success & transferable skills:
- Performance Metrics- what needs to be accomplished
- Have a plan: Connect the dots- competitive advantage
- Give & receive feedback -in real time
Wednesday Jun 13, 2018
Event Interview:Paul Pickle From Octane OC's Technology Innovation Forum
Wednesday Jun 13, 2018
Wednesday Jun 13, 2018
Paul Pickle, Former President & COO, of Microsemi & MC of Octane OC's 2018 Technology Innovation Forum. We discussed the future of Semiconductor and whats on the horizon.