Hire Power Radio Show
 

Hire Power Radio Show

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Welcome to the Hire Power Radio Show, where entrepreneurs and business leaders learn to hire with confidence and precision. Hosted by Rick Girard, this show is your go-to resource for avoiding costly hiring mistakes and securing the right talent to drive your company’s success. We dive deep into hiring challenges each week, featuring candid conversations with top-performing rebel entrepreneurs, disruptors, and industry experts. Join us every Tuesday at noon (PT) on LinkedIn Live for actionable insights, proven strategies, and the latest trends to give you the hiring edge. Subscribe now and join the movement to transform your hiring game. Do you have thoughts or questions? We’d love to hear from you!

Episodes

How to Avoid Hiring a Bad Actor with Becky Wanta of Q5id

Thursday Jul 21, 2022

Thursday Jul 21, 2022

We have all become painfully aware that cybercrime is at all-time record highs. Now the bad actors have figured out how to hack your hiring process.

Stories have been surfacing about people accepting roles remotely that are different people from the ones attending the interview.

Let’s face it, hacking the interview process is probably the easiest way to infiltrate your company and ultimately your data. When the interviewers focus on the skills and do not dig deep enough into the truth about the other person the result can be the opportunity that puts your company in jeopardy.

Guest Bio:

Becky Wanta is the CTO of Q5id and a highly accomplished global senior executive with more than 30 years of success in applying extensive IT experience to guide companies in a wide variety of industries to achieve their goals. 

She has proven her ability to improve market share and profitability while establishing long-term business relations and recruiting and developing cross-functional and high-performing teams. 

She has also been profiled by various publications, including Profile magazine and Bloomberg News. She is the holder of two US patents.

Today We Discuss:

  • How bad actors can infiltrate your company
  • How to avoid hiring those who can decimate your company

Challenge today?

  • Not a guarantee that the person who you are hiring is who they say they are
    • No prevent identity
    • Billions are lost every year because of data breach
    • background check does not guarantee that the person is who they say they are
      • References, credit score, 
    • Remote workforce is giving rise to fake personas & identities

Why is this important to the company?

  • Cost the company Millions of dollars
  • The FBI just issued a warning on June 28 about fraudulent candidates applying for WFH positions and using deep fakes to hide their true identity. We can be sure this activity will increase, and we can be sure that these are professional criminals and foreign-state actors who want to hijack a company’s data. (source: https://tinyurl.com/mvsnz7bs)
  • Background checks are often perfunctory, particularly if a candidate has presented well and you really want to hire this person
  • if a person has an apparently clean record, but is a member of a criminal gang or a malicious state actor. Professional criminals are way ahead of you here.

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Targeted and focused search 
    • Totally negates the issue

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Tighten up and expand pre-employment and background check processes to include a proven identity process which includes:
    • Biometrics/personal identifiers that your employees control.  This needs to include liveness checks, biometric and AI-driven models to ensure individuals are who they say they are
    • Government ID checks
    • 15 se Face-to-face live view
  • Be Systematic
    • So, companies need to keep the entrepreneurial spirit alive while building a distributed team, with everyone focused on the product. They must be systematic about finding specific skillsets and finding those skillsets in people who want to work with other people.
    • prove their new employees are not working for someone who wants to break into your IT systems and steal everything they can.
    • The FBI says cybercrime cost in the form of phishing and other scams and data breaches cost US businesses almost $7 billion last year. With more criminal organizations and state actors involved, and now deploying deep fakes, that number could go up exponentially if companies don’t address this problem urgently. (Source: https://tinyurl.com/yc7abcht)
    • CEOs, C-suites, and Boards to implement a program that can combat deep fakes, I’d make sure my Board has at least one person who’s familiar with enterprise-grade security, and I’d make sure I have an A-team Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) on my team.
  • Implement a proven identity method
    • biometrics

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Targeted hiring approach
    • Identify & proactively develop a relationship with the person BEFORE you need to hire them.
    • Referrals!!!
  • Structured Interview process
    • Behavioral Interview
      • Train your interviewers!
      • Evidence
      • Values first, skills second
      • BS meter 
    • References 
      • Verified Managers only
      • Backdoor company references
  • Decision Making
    • “Hell Yes” or NO

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today! (Value):

  • Never compromise on finding the best people with the best-fitted skills 
  • Never forget you’re building a product for a specific reason and customer.
  • But never be lax in proving your exciting new employees are who they say they are. 
  •  Never be lax in finding out if your new employees are working for a criminal organization or malicious state.

Guest Links

Host Links:

Show Sponsor: www.stridesearch.com

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It’s Never Too Early to Lead through Core Values with Marc Reinfenrath of Spinutech

Thursday Jul 14, 2022

Thursday Jul 14, 2022

Last week I had a conversation with a CEO who thought it was too early to establish core values because his company was only 15 people. His thinking was that things would just change anyway and he would have to do them all over again as the company grows.

But here was the ginormous problem: Two of his people recently quit, the last 4 offers he made were turned down and the candidate pipeline was drying up.

… And he thought it was about the money.

Today, more than ever, people desire to be in alignment with the values of the organization. If they aren’t in alignment, they leave.

Here’s the truth: your company has values whether you like it or not. Solidifying your values and making them a decision-making tool can never happen too early and will only fuel company growth.

Guest Bio: 

Marc Reifenrath is the CEO & Co-founder of Spinutech, a full-service digital marketing agency with 165+ team members across the U.S. 

Marc has helped Spinutech grow from a college start-up to one of the premier full-service digital marketing agencies in the country. The secret ingredient? Company values that are truly lived, including a commitment to “Get Better Every Day”. 

In that capacity, Marc understands firsthand how critical a company’s culture is to achieving and maintaining success.

Today We Discuss:

  • When to implement your company values
  • How to weave them into the fabric of your company

Challenge today?

  • Had unwritten core values but were not formalized
  • Had a  miss on 2 or 10 or 20.
  • Talent outweighs the cultural fit
  • Drawn in by talent and weeded out by the environment 
  • 2 people hired that within 90 days were gone. Instant misalignment 
  • -realized culture pushed them out 

Why is this important to the company?

  • From a hiring perspective, it is a really quick filter
  • Not too aspirational. You have to own what you really are
  • We take too long to make the decision

Rick’s Nuggets:

  • Formalization attracts the right people and repels those who do not
  • Notion that you want to attract everyone is WRONG
  • Time!
    • Interviewing kills the production of your team
    • Assumptions, bias & personal motives… oh my!

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Leadership team development
    • People who understand the organization
    • Doesn't need to be perfect 
    • Needs to be honest
    • *** needs to be authentic, not aspirational
    • Values need to be actionable
      • We get better every day: better myself, team & clients
  • Work into a daily routine
    • Core values onboarding
    • Slack channel language is communicated
    • Natural part of how they do business
    • Lived every single day
  • Leaders need to show core values in Action!
    • Weekly video “get better every day”
    • In every part of the business
  • Without core values, a lot more problems. 
    • Stronger the core values the more you are prepared for growth
    • Every person who onboards becomes less of an attack
    • Inject DNA into people as quickly as possible
    • Feedback on how to enhance the value

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Be realistic about who YOU are
    • Aspirational values are worthless
    • North star for how everyone operates within the organization
  • Build interview questions around core values
  • Evaluate against values
    • Aligned = hire 
  • Build an interview question library
    • Assign interview questions to each interviewer

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today! (Value):

  • Honest about what your core values are, Lived not aspirational
  • Actionable values - 
  • Stay patient in the hiring process. Don't just put a butt in a seat.

Guest Links: 

Host Links:

Show Sponsor: 

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The Hiring 4-S: Strategy, Systems, Staff & Skills with Hilmon Sorey of CoachCRM

Thursday Jun 30, 2022

Thursday Jun 30, 2022

Are Strategy and Systems missing in your hiring process?

The answer is most likely “Yes” as 99.9% of entrepreneurs approach hiring as a reactive activity based on a current need. This is dangerous because it perpetuates the transactional mindset that sets you up for failure.

Strategy is not about “how do I turn on the funnel”. Strategy is about how you identify, contact & engage with the person who will thrive in your business. This means being able to articulate your value to align with each individual.

But, strategy is not enough to get an A-player to join your company. The structure of your interview process is the System that demonstrates excellence within the organization. And excellence is what every high performer strives for in their next company.

Guest Bio:

Hilmon Sorey is Co-Founder of CoachCRM sales coaching software for managers; Co-Founder of ClozeLoop, a sales strategy, training, and enablement firm with offices in New York, Houston, Silicon Valley, and Johannesburg; Partner in 2.12 Angels as a seed-stage venture capital firm; and author of 8 top-selling books on sales, sales management, and coaching. 

He has helped build teams in companies that range from early-stage startups to Salesforce, Box, SurveyMonkey, Bill.com, and some of the fastest-growing companies in the world totaling over $600B in valuation and market cap. 

 He’s an award-winning trainer who has trained over 15,000 salespeople and over 5,000 executives. He is a sought-after speaker around the globe and a Forbes contributor.

Today We Discuss:

  • The 4 S’s: Strategy, Systems, Staff & Skills
  • How to implement the missing pieces into your organization

Challenge Today?

  • Ensuring that you are hiring the right people who will have impact
  • Understanding go-to-market strategy in how you hire
  • Strategy and Systems absent in most hiring process
  • How Companies Scale and How to Use Hiring as Competitive Advantage

Why is this important to the company?

  • Ask any CEO of a Unicorn what they consider to be their competitive advantage.   They’ll say their people.  
  • Tech eventually equals out, Markets change, Investors are wonderful - but even they invest in people.

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Strategy absent:
    • No time to do it
    • Feel it’s not important
      • It’s all bullshit anyways
  • System
    • No time to set up or train
  • The results you get are the fruits of the effort of the work put.

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Strategy 
    • Understanding GTM strategy
    • Competitive Differentiation (direct, indirect)
    • Winning Zone
    • Messaging and Channels
  • Systems 
    • Agile Tech Stack
    • Sales & Marketing Playbooks
    • Feedback Loop and Ecosystem
  • Staff   
    • Sales Strategy
    • Competency Matrix
    • Methodology for Alignment (proof)
    • Culture 
  • Skills
    •  Training
    • Coaching
    • Margin Gains

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Strategy:
    • Only hire people who align with company values!
    • Learn early
      • Understand YOU first
      • Only meet people who “lean in” 
  • System
    • Interview process
      • Documented, and communicated, 
  • Skills
    • Train your people

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today! (Value):

  • Focus on Strategy and Systems to create scale. 
  • Hiring is as critical as identifying customers

Guest Links

Host Links:

Show Sponsor: 

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#1 Question that Needs to be Asked During a Phone Screen with Rick Girard of Stride Search Inc.

Thursday Jun 23, 2022

Thursday Jun 23, 2022

Why is the phone screen is the most underutilized tool in hiring today?

There is this perception or fear that the person making the call will say the wrong thing and screw up the chances that the person will show up. So the phone screen is treated like a used car sale.

Tell people all the great things about our company, gather some basic information and invite the person in to interview.  And because we like them because look good on paper, we assume they will want to work for us.

Here’s the truth: High performing people do not want to work for your company based on your sales pitch. What people want is to be understood and to be positioned where they can deliver the greatest impact.

How do I get better with phone screens? 

Today we’re going to discuss:

  • Why Phone screens (Discovery calls) are critical to hiring A-players
  • The most important question you need answered before you bring ANYONE in for an interview

Challenge today?

  • Phone Screen! - Discovery call
    • Often skipped
    • Viewed as a time waster
      • Real time waster is the interview
      • 90% of the people that get interview will position themselves out
  • The most important question:
    • “What are 3 or 4 main criteria you need to see in an opportunity for you to accept an offer with a company”

Why is this important to the company?

  • First impression of your company
  • You need people to show up to your interview
  • Understand how to close the person at the end of the proces

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Value the Discovery call
    • Prioritize time   
  • Make the decision to call EVERYONE
    • Basic screening eliminates the bottom 10% but also the top 10%
    • A-players often hide 
  • Positioning before skills
    • Pain, Desire & Impact
    • Common info (skills, commute, interviewing, compensation expectations) 
  • Wrap up 
  • Main Criteria Question
    • “3 or 4 main criteria you need to see in an opportunity for you to accept an offer with a company”
  • Confirm if they desire what you offer
  • How you can get me to join your company!
  • Connect the dots
    • Allows them to take ownership
    • They show up, ready to succeed

Key Takeaways -Value:

  • Prioritize the phone screen/discovery call
  • Look for alignment of positioning for EVERY person you talk to BEFORE they are brought in for an interview 
  • Let the person ask for the interview

Links:

Show Sponsor:

  • www.stridesearch.com

Read more

Necessary Interview Intelligence for Hiring with Raphael Danilo of Yobs

Thursday Jun 16, 2022

Thursday Jun 16, 2022

Two people pop into a room together for an interview. What happens next?

No one knows! 

This is the eternal mystery that most companies have faced for decades. And the single point of failure in hiring!

Because we assume that everyone knows how to interview. But the truth is, they do not as most interviewers have only been trained on what NOT to say. There is no insight as to what is being said, the questions that are asked or personal motives that drive a person’s opinion on a hiring decision. 

So today we are going to help to give you insight into how you can gain valuable interviewing data to empower your people to make stronger hiring decisions for your company!

Guest Bio:

Raphael Danilo is a French entrepreneur and investor based in New York. He's the CEO and founder of Yobs, an Interview Intelligence platform that sits on top of Zoom and the ATS and enables every interviewer to feel prepared and be more efficient in hiring top talent. 

Raphael has helped 100+ high-growth organizations up level their recruiting organization with Interview Intelligence through Yobs and Evening Fund, the VC fund he runs on nights and weekends.

TODAY WE DISCUSS:

  • The importance of interview intelligence
  • How to gain data to secure accurate hiring decisions

Challenge today?

  • Recruiting is incredibility opinion spaced
    • Opinions about what we remember about the conversation
    • Not evidence based
    • High vs low quality question
  • Work about work
    • Labor intensive tasks - ie: interview plan, taking notes
    • Pre-interview 
    • During interview
    • Post interview- scorecard
  • Recruiting teams misaligned
    • Not having a shared view of reality
    • Not offering enough benefits, equity, pto
    • Opinions drive decision rather than data

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Interview is riddled with fail
  • Interviewers are not trained
    • Company values
    • Bias, assumptions & personal motives
    • To understand how good the person is across the desk

How do we solve the problem (solution)? 

  • Capture reality 
    • capture all candidate interactions - across web conferencing, dialers, phone, and email.
  • Invest in interviewer training and coaching 
  • Analyze Interview them and surfaces key moments automatically to...
    • Deliver insights to level-up your organization by better understanding your candidates, your teams and your hiring process.

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Interview intelligence 
  • Start with the company values
    • Decision making language throughout the organization
    • Interviewers champions of the values
      • Protectors of realm
    • Everyone buy’s in!
  • Assigned Interview questions
    • Behavioral interview questions 
    • Questions tied to a measurable of the core value
  • Train your interviewers
    • Assumptions allow bias & motives to fester
    • Listening skills - digging under the hood
    • Take diligent notes- 
      • what they said, not what you translated
  • Record & review the conversations
    • Video (zoom, teams, etc…) 
    • Review until you achieve consistent quality data

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today! (Value):

  • Capture reality- record your calls
  • Invest in coaching/training
  • Reduce bias in process 

Guest Links:

Host Links:

Show Sponsor:

  • www.stridesearch.com

Read more

Leveling the Interviewing Playing Field with Lee Rubin of Confetti

Friday Jun 10, 2022

Friday Jun 10, 2022

One big thing that we have learned over the past year is that employers no longer have control over the people they hire. The balance of power has shifted with the majority of people willing to walk away from an opportunity that does not align with their personal beliefs or values. 

Many companies are left scratching their heads as to why. So, the thinking has evolved into “it must be the money” so let’s increase compensation & benefits. Hoping this will solve the problem. But it hasn’t.

The interviewees today are the one’s making the selection, not the company. 
The interviewees are the ones evaluating the company for more than just the paycheck. 
And the interviewees are the people who have a lot of options, not the companies.

So to get people to choose your company to join you simply need to level the playing field by understanding “what’s in it for them”.

Guest Bio:

Lee Rubin is the Founder and CEO of Confetti. A platform that helps companies build stronger culture by providing shared experiences for a distributed workplace.  Their holistic tool empowers HR and other team leads to quickly discover, plan and book from a catalog of exclusive experiences that optimize corporate culture and employee’s professional growth. 

Lee is a visionary culture leader with a decade of experience in B2B sales. She's one of the world's experts on remote event planning and has built her company from 0 to 60 employees in just 3 years!

TODAY WE DISCUSS:

  • What the field really looks like today
  • How to stand out as an employer of choice through your interview process

Challenge today?

  • Differentiate the company
    • Higher chance of closing the person
    • Taste of the culture
    • Demonstrating a healthier dynamic
  • Not posting salary to optimized offer
    • Win-win scenario
    • Interests here aren’t aligned obviously (one wants the higher and one wants the lower). I once heard the phrase “Good deals can’t happen with bad people” and have kept hold of it. Brings me back to leveling the playing field… 

Why is this important to the company?

  • You don’t want your people to feel under-valued monetarily 
  • People feel respected because they get what they ask for
  • Not over spending on talent
  • We close 80-90% of the people we really want join 

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Optimize for remote vs. onsite

Authenticity - As you know from your book “healing career wounds” people are literally traumatized from their job and don’t want to make the mistake again of joining a company they don’t like. So how do you get to know them authentically, make them feel comfortable and close the deal better? 

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Getting people to feel comfortable
    • Body language, casual talk: friendly 
    • Excited to speak to you! casual conversation
    • Vibe fit
    • Learn about our culture
  • Showing respect
    • One of their core values 
  • 2 Minute Intro
    • About you, improvised 
    • Listen for concise, 
    • Pay attention to the time in the presentation
    • Coherent
    • Able to express their resume in the form of a story?
    • What did they learn? brother/sister, primarily professional
  • Assignment
    • Prepared with job posting
    • Each job has a different assignment
    • Core elements of the job
      • Ie: Customer success- create a customer response email
  • Negotiation
    • Negotiate respectfully
    • How much are you “hoping” to make
    • Tap into a person's dreams = context

Rick’s Nuggets

  •  Values driven experience
  • Get them to talk first
  • After emotional engagement

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today! (Value):

  • Optimize for people you want to go through the shit with
  • Optimize for those who share your same values
  • Academia is overrated
  • Loyalty is the #1 currency

Confetti Offer: *This special promo expires on July 9th

Redeem a $150 discount on your first event by sending an email (see below) to plan@withconfetti.com with the Subject line: HIRE POWER Confetti Discount

----------

Hello!

I'm a listener of HIRE POWER and am looking to redeem the exclusive HP150 discount to run my first team building experience with Confetti!

I’ve signed up to Confetti with the following email: USEREMAIL.

Could you please let me know once the discount has been applied?

Thank you!

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Guest Links:

Host Links:

Show Sponsor:

  • www.stridesearch.com

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Why do Company’s Need Data Scientists with Asim Razvi of Intertru Inc.

Thursday Jun 02, 2022

Thursday Jun 02, 2022

Do you really need a data scientist for your startup?

Throughout my career, I have placed a lot of data scientists at smaller companies. Most of the people placed left within a year of starting with the common feedback that the work didn't warrant having a data scientist.

In most cases a data engineer is more than sufficient to build the organization. Sure AI and machine learning may be critical to your business but the question that should be asked before anyone is hired.

Guest Bio:

Asim Razvi has been focused on Business Intelligence for the last 20 years. He leads the analytics and data strategy for high growth companies.  Asim brings a wide background across Media, Communications and Finance and has built Business Intelligence practices for PwC, Cognizant and Accenture.  

Formerly the Head of Education and Research for TDWI where his focus was to rebuild the TDWI brand through alignment with Analytics, Big Data and Cloud thought leadership.

TODAY WE DISCUSS:

  • Why to think twice before hiring a data scientist
  • How to hire once a need is established

Challenge today?

  • Why hire a data scientist?
    • Hiring company
    • Think they need AI & ML
    • Its a trademark
    • Organization set up for a data scientist
      • Organization 
      • Data maturity
  • Data Scientist
    • Build something valuable 
      • Not a subject matter expert on what the company wants
      • Insights that drive the company
      • Needs to be linked to the business level

Why is this important to the company?

  • Knowing when to hire a data scientist
    • Monetize data
    • Most companies don't need data scientists.
    • Data analyst - subject matter expert 
    • Provide the relevance

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Not enough challenging work

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Focus on data maturity
    • Sophisticated business users
    • Want business user to become information explorer - drill down
    • Power user- pair with analyst
  • Organization
    • Vertical chain
    • Data scientist working in the sweet spot- co-creation feedback loop
  • Readiness assessment
    • How prepared is the organization to hire a data scientist
    • Do I have the “track”?
    • Data engineer on board
  • Hire or use a Tool
  • Data robot 
    • Enable users to become data scientists
    • Predict algorithms that work
  • Hire
    • You don't need a data scientist as a startup
    • Learning - neural net capability

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today! (Value):

  • Don't hire earlier than you need to
  • Remember you need data for a data scientist to work
  • The Business needs to be mature enough in data to hire the data scientist
  • Make sure there is a career arc for the data scientist to grow in the organization

Guest Links:

Host Links: 

Show Sponsor:

  • www.stridesearch.com

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The Secret to People Accepting Your Offer with Jeff Wolfe of Veloce Energy

Friday May 27, 2022

Friday May 27, 2022

A company founder approached me last week with a problem. He has had a critical role open for the past 6 months and no one has accepted his offer. 5 people had been offered the job and every single person turned it down.

When asked why, the founder said, “I did a great job selling each one of them from the beginning so It must have been the money”.

Then I asked, “what was it that the person you were trying to hire really desired in their next role. To that his response was “I have no idea”.

We get so busy selling that we forget to ask.

Interviewing is not about selling. Interviewing is about understanding the truth of what is important to the person on the other side of the table.

And understanding is how we avoid turned down offers!

Guest Bio:

Jeff Wolfe is an energy and cleantech industry leader and serial entrepreneur. He has spent his career creating new solutions in the built environment and clean energy. As CEO of Veloce Energy he is working to accelerate the electrification of everything by creating systems that reduce the cost, time, and complexity of powering EV charging and building electrification.

He has been President for the Americas of a global EV charger manufacturer, worked in retail energy and in a multi-national oil company, and designed over a billion dollars of hospitals, laboratories, and other infrastructure. 

 Today we discuss:

  • Why listening during the interview process produces results
  • How to let candidates lead you to the truth and ultimately the right hiring decision

HIRING STORY:

  • Met 4th cofounder through 3rd party 
  • Brought him on over zoom
  • Didn't meet him for 5 months

Challenges today?

  • Aggressive employee environment
  • Wages going up
    • Lower wages 
    • Can't settle on talent
  • Show people that they want to work for us
  • Communicating mission (Why)

Why is this important to the company?

  • Able to hire good people for reasonable compensation
  • Need to find people who want to solve the problems, create the solutions as much as the founders do

Rick’s Nuggets

  • People not accepting or leaving - not the $$$
  • People compelled to align with values, mission & purpose

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Let the person tell you what they need
    • Why do people stay - three elements of compensation
      • Money & Benefits
      • A good work environment and good people to work for
      • Good and important work to do.
    • Provide 1 element, good people will stay for 6 months
    • Provide 2 elements and good people will stay for 2 years
    • Provide all 3 and good people will become great people and will stay a long time
  • Create company culture
    • Learn how to communicate it and own it
    • Don't worry about scaring people away
    • Share fact based beliefs - if people do not believe in the problem being solved, or in the solution, they will do a poor job of executing against it
  • Interview 
  • Look for value alignment early. Part of the filtering process
  • What does HR mean
    • Honest relationships
    • Get to a yes/no faster
    • Better yeses and nos
  • Create understanding of the what the fit is
    • Leadership communication
    • Constant reinforcement
    • Whole picture
  • Honest offers
    • No low balling
    • Get people to join rather than be hired
  • Not over-interviewing people
    • Take notes 
    • Different people focus on different aspects, based on their expertise, no one person can really do a complete interview
    • Cumulative thumbs up/down
    • It is partially a gut decision. Don’t ignore the facts, but the gut needs to align.

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Values
    • North star for strong team
    • Alignment fuels passion & engagement
  • Interview
    • Interviewing for value alignment

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today! (Value):

  • Learn to embody and externally express the company culture and mission. Do not be afraid of them
  • Don’t worry about being liked by every candidate. A strong culture and mission will attract the right people, especially in these times
  • Define HR as “honest relationships”

Guest Links

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffwolfeenergy/
  • Company: https://www.veloceenergy.com/
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/veloceenergy/
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/JeffWolfeSolar

Host Links:

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-girard-07722/
  • Company: https://www.stridesearch.com/
  • Podcast: https://www.hirepowerradio.com
  • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeEJm9RoCfu8y7AJpaxkxqQ
  • Authored:  "Healing Career Wounds"  https://amzn.to/3tGbtre
  • HireOS inquiry: rick@stridesearch.com

Show Sponsor:

www.stridesearch.com

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Creating Artificial Collisions in a Remote Workplace with David Wald of Aclaimant

Thursday May 19, 2022

Thursday May 19, 2022

A big push for people to return to the office is the argument that spontaneous interaction is critical to the growth of the business. The fear is that people are not communicating and it has hindered innovation.

However, let’s look at the number of fully remote companies who have been thriving throughout the past few years. The big differentiator is the structure and setting up interaction channels to foster communication.

Mastering the interview has been more challenging as it is often difficult to read nonverbal cues and interactions. As we have grown more comfortable with this method of interviewing, the structure of consistent interview questions has been the single most important element in hiring success.

Guest Bio:

David Wald is cofounder and CEO of Aclaimant, an insight driven workflow solution for safety and risk management. As CEO, David’s primary focus is driving the company’s vision, identifying and executing strategic partner and customer relationships, and growing the Aclaimant team and investor base. The company has been remote first for the past 8 years!

Prior to Aclaimant, David spent time with the Lightbank Venture Capital fund in Chicago on both the investment team, and as an operator and EIR. He was also a management consultant at Bain and Company. David graduated from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, and currently resides in Chicago with his wife and three kids.

Today we discuss:

  • What's critical in a remote work/interviewing environment
  • How to fuel communication away from the watercooler

Hiring Story:

  • Intro to our top candidate's brother's high school friend… 
  • Series of comedic events
  • Got drenched on the way to the meeting
  • He took the job anyway, now is their department head

Challenges today?

  • Artificial collisions- bumping into people in the hall, watercooler conversation across departments
  • In a remote environment there are no collisions that aren’t preplanned
  • Creating a knowledge transfer in a remote environment
    • Zoom is not good for rapid collaboration
    • More than 4 people in a meeting
    • Create feedback loops 
    • People feel disconnected

Why is this important to the company?

  • Cant have passive actors in a remote environment
    • I was waiting for….
    • Proactive collaborators
  • Remote vs scaling
    • Onboarding is challenging remotely 
    • A lot of time spent 

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Communication must be fueled by leadership
  • Daily huddles (connection)
    • Not mandatory, but everyone shows up

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Tooling:
  • Slack- internal connectivity tool
    • Every team, project & customer have their own room 
    • Sole service purpose in every room- avoid the noise
  • Zoom 
    • candidates , customers & internal
  • Zoom interviews
    • Scientific method
    • Each person testing on different topics
    • Prep the candidates
  • Notion - collaboration tool
    • Documenting every process and keeping it clean
      • True information source & driving everyone to that location
  • Dedicated team connected hours
    • Office hours for every team (meeting) once a week
    • Happy hour, game day, trivia, 
      • Informally stop and chat
    • Team members end up city hopping! 
  • Deliberate information distribution pathways
    • Information needs to get out 
      • Surveying tools, function specific data, 
      • all hands meetings (4-6 weeks)
      • Daily standups
  • Feedback Channel
    • Every manager & director is plugged into the right sequence of events to gather feedback
    • All very deliberate
    • Everyone in the know

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Remote (Zoom, Teams) interview 
  • Rules of engagement
    • Start on time, end on time
    • Interviewer questions assigned
      • Must gain evidence to support decision
    • Must take objective notes
    • Clear decision to move forward or release
      • No scorecard
    • Feedback

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today! (Value):

  • Very deliberate about how you create connectivity
  • Proper tools in place to facilitate
  • Right set of people who want to connect 

Guest Links

Host Links:

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-girard-07722/
  • Company: https://www.stridesearch.com/
  • Podcast: https://www.hirepowerradio.com
  • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeEJm9RoCfu8y7AJpaxkxqQ
  • Authored:  "Healing Career Wounds"  https://amzn.to/3tGbtre
  • HireOS inquiry: rick@stridesearch.com

Show Sponsor: www.stridesearch.com

 

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How Hiring the Wrong Person Eats Profits with Rocky Lalvani of Profit Comes First

Thursday May 12, 2022

Thursday May 12, 2022

We often hear data on how much bad hire costs you and your company. About 3x the person’s annual salary.

But how much did the interview process itself cost?

For a startup to make a hire, the company spends about 73 total hours interviewing. With the most significant cost being 30 hours of the production team's combined time. And this is assuming that 6 people make it through a full interview to get to the hire.

We have to ask ourselves, can we really afford to lose almost 4 days of productive activity to interview? Roughly $9,855 per role, not including candidate marketing or recruiting fees. 

As a small business, the answer is NO!

Guest Bio:

Rocky Lalvani of Profit Comes First, serves as Chief Profitability Adviser for business owners. He teaches them how to ensure they get paid and make profit a priority! As a certified Profit First Professional he implements Mike Michalowicz's Profit First System.  

Rocky started with nothing when his parents immigrated to the United States when he was two years old, and his parents were in their 40's. It was his parents' second time starting over in life as they moved here to experience the American dream. 

In spite of a lot of struggles and his mom passing away when Rocky was 7, he has been able to achieve financial and life success. Rocky loves to share his journey and inspire others to achieve their dreams even faster.

Today we discuss:

  • Why it is critical to understand what interviewing costs 
  • How to maximize your team's time with structure

Challenges today?

  • Employees are the major cost for the business 
    • Employee should provide a return for the business
    • Return of Cost of person (taxes, unemployment) 
    • Inefficiency does not show up anywhere on the p&l
  • Wealth is built on the balance sheet!

Why is this important to the company?

  • Costs to the company hiring 
    • Reduces morale
    • Loose customer 
  • Nobody is tracking interview or training costs 
  • Hard costs that are very difficult to figure out
  • As a client- doesn't want to do business with a company that hires wrong
  • (leadership issue)

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Team time waste!
    • People who meet the team must be positioned properly
    • Demonstrate strong leadership in protecting time

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Mission values purpose
    • This is the step most business owners skip!
    • Or in their head, but no one else knows
    • Hire to it
    • Have to live it
  • Hire in alignment with mission, values, purpose
    • Not who you like
    • Having a interview process
  • Understanding the real cost
    • Bad Hire- Employee does not provide any value
      • Mistakes 
      • Morale for everyone else
      • Lose clients/ client trust
      • Example Costco vs. Sam's
  • Gross profit / Total payroll including taxes
    • For every $1 in payroll returns x$ in gross profit
    • Measure & Know
    • Need to be making at least 2X payroll
    • It all comes back to leadership!

We change the accounting formula of Sales - Expenses = Profit to Sales - Profit = Expenses.  This ensures Profit comes first! (PS. It's not about money at all costs, people come before money!)

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Values - most important
  • Protect time costs
  • Structure interview 
    • Each step is a decision
    • Only progress value aligned, well positioned & accomplished people
    • Decisions must have evidence to back
  • Eliminate uncertainty
    • Assign interview questions
    • Prepare all for success 

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today! (Value):

  • Is mission vision purpose written down & do your employees know it?
  • Cost of a bad hire for you?
  • How much profit do your employees bring you?

Guest Links

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rocky-lalvani/
  • Company: https://profitcomesfirst.com/
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/profit-comes-first/
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/rockylalvani
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/richersoul/
  • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/richer.soul/?hl=en
  • Blog: http://richersoul.com/
  • Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/profit-answer-man-implementing-the-profit-first-system/id1508245322

Host Links:

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-girard-07722/
  • Company: https://www.stridesearch.com/
  • Authored:  "Healing Career Wounds"  https://amzn.to/3tGbtre
  • HireOS inquiry: rick@stridesearch.com
  • Podcast: https://www.hirepowerradio.com
  • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeEJm9RoCfu8y7AJpaxkxqQ/featured
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rick.girard.5
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/rick_girard?lang=en
  • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rickgirard1/?hl=en

Show Sponsor:

www.stridesearch.com

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The Blind Spots of Hiring Managers & Candidates with Varun Puri of Yoodli

Thursday May 05, 2022

Thursday May 05, 2022

Let's face it, a lot of people are BAD at interviewing on both sides of the table. 

It is easy to understand that candidates or job seekers are bad for numerous reasons. Being nervous, out of practice, and under pressure to do well because of NEED,  create a large margin for error. For seasoned interviewers, it becomes easier to perform because the person has a lot of practice interviewing. That practice is what eventually makes it easier to land a job. 

On the company side, interviewers get a lot of practice asking the same questions as everyone else, but the lack of structure & coordination does very little to uncover evidence to support the decision. The problem with that is that only surface information is gathered and at the end of the day, the hiring decision is made on circumstantial evidence, assumptions, and bias.

Guest Bio:

Varun Puri is the Founder of Yoodli and an Entrepreneur in Residence at Paul Allen's AI Institute. Yoodli uses AI to help people improve their public speaking and interviewing skills without the pressure of an audience. 

Prior to Yoodli, Varun worked on a GoogleX project to bring high speed internet to unconnected regions using invisible lasers. He also ran special projects for Sergey Brin, Google's co-founder.

 Today we discuss:

  • Why it is important to practice your interview (or any presentation)
  • How to practice effectively for an interview

HIRING STORY:

  • Struggle getting someone to hire him…
  • Now getting people to hire for his startup
  • The key to getting people to bet on you is how you communicate with them

PROBLEM:

  • Smart people on both sides of the fence (interviewers and candidates) who miss dream job and miss dream candidate
  • Outcome: Missed hiring on both sides 
  • Hiring managers may not represent companies in the best way

Challenges today?

  • Communication skills are an amorphous training concept. No clear way of measuring progress or diagnosing issues (we’re dealing with peoples’ deep insecurities).  We practice in front of the mirror, camera, and stopwatch. Or worse, avoid it altogether

Why is this important to the company?

  • Individual: 
    • Land your dream job. Get access to the opportunities you deserve and don’t miss out on them because of how you speak
  • Corporation: 
    • Get your dream candidate 
    • Ensure your team is aligned
    • Help people become more confident communicators and leaders

Rick’s Nuggets

  • We don’t set Expectations
    • Allow people to prepare 
    • Makes interviewers seem unimpressive - demonstrate 
    • Unable to 

How do we solve the problem? 

  • 3 pronged solution needed:
    • Be aware of your biases/ way you communicate
    • Collaborate with your team to ensure you’re all saying the same story
    • Diagnose the issues and work on them
  • Solution:
  • Practice interviewing skills for hiring managers:
    • Be aware of your biases/ way you communicate
      •  
    • Stay on company brand
      • Collaborate with your team to ensure you’re all saying the same story
    • Don’t say the wrong thing (non inclusive language, berate competition)
    • Diagnose the issues and work on them
      • Time stamped feedback
    • Convey energy
  • Practice for candidates

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Interview Structure- expectations
  • Repeatable & predictable process
    • Timing and Steps in process
    • Interview question scripts
    • Feedback loop
  • Interview training
    • Documentation habits
    • Interview preparation 
      • How to prepare the candidate
      • How the interviewer prepares

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today! (Value):

  • Align with your team with a set of interview questions you want to ask and follow up with the Why questions to dig deeper.
  • Conduct the work as a team
  • Watch the post-game highlight reel & critique 

Guest Links

Host Links: 

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-girard-07722/
  • Company: https://www.stridesearch.com/
  • Podcast: https://www.hirepowerradio.com
  • Authored:  "Healing Career Wounds"  https://amzn.to/3tGbtre
  • HireOS inquiry: rick@stridesearch.com

Show Sponsor:

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How Innocent Interview Questions Can Become Litigation with Victor Xu of Fisher Phillips

Friday Apr 29, 2022

Friday Apr 29, 2022

Sometimes an innocent conversation during an interview can have horrific consequences, especially if you end up not hiring a person.

The biggest problem every company faces during the hiring process is the interview. 

Two people go into a room together for a conversation and no one knows what transpires. Conversations flow and curiosity carries the conversation.

As we all know, curiosity killed the cat… and possibly your company.

Let’s replace curiosity with consistency.

Because the lack of consistency is what breeds unfair interviewing practices by promoting assumptions and cultivating bias. By simply eliminating assumptions & bias from the interview, we can create a process where evidence is gathered that supports the decision.

Minimizing your exposure to future litigation.

Guest Bio: 

Victor Xu is attorney extraordinaire in the Fisher Phillips Irvine office where he represents companies in all aspects of labor and employment litigation, from inception through trial, in state and federal courts throughout California. 

 Victor also has significant experience in conducting internal investigations into alleged employee/supervisor misconduct, including harassment and discrimination, and has provided recommendations for remedial measures, including preparation of new company policies.

Today we discuss:

  • Ways your interview might be harming your company 
  • How to set a process that minimizes potential litigation

Challenges today?

What gets you in trouble when interviewing

  • Telling people “you are a perfect candidate” 
  • California is pro-plaintiff
  • People grasp on to certain words

Having a standard in place where interviewers are not just shooting from the hip in the interview

  • Mitigate risk 
  • What kind of music do you like?
  • Fishing questions
    • Trying to be personal but it is going too far
    • Too much feedback

Why is this important to the company?

  • Serial interviewees who doesn't get the job claiming discrimination
  • Going after tech companies
  • Puts handcuffs on the company to settle
  • People catch wind of who was hired

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Interviews tend to be shallow and decisions are made on assumptions & bias

How do we solve the problem? 

Train people to interview and use trained people exclusively

  • Select interview team
  • All people trained 
  • Stick to the interview outline and consider a list of no-go questions.
  • Training limits the liability of what is said/asked (extra layer of protection)

Create an interview guide of objective questions

  • Consistent & fair process
  • Questions for everyone & role specific questions
    • Questions vetted to mitigate risk
    • Off-handed comments 
      • “Your a perfect candidate”
      • “Youthful culture” 
      • Religious assumptions - questions about drinking, etc.
      • “What's your ethnic background?” 
    • Relating to the candidate can get you in trouble

Honest response for hiring choice

  • We are going to pass at this time: Thank you for applying, but we have decided to pursue other applicants.  We wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors. 

Values cannot be discriminatory, Legitimate business reason- values

  • Information to disclose
    • We decided to go with another person

Rick’s Nuggets

Tie your interview questions to values

  • Assign the questions to a specific interview position (ie: interview #1) 
  • Remove opinion from the decision making process
    • Score card ranking - highly subjective
  • Weigh values alignment above skills
  • Evaluate skills based on performance metrics for the role

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today! (Value):

  • Brewery of the perks that you offer candidates and understand their consequences. 
  • Ensure employees are properly classified even where both sides agree.
  • Train and prepare your team on appropriate interview questions. 

Guest Links

Host Links:

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-girard-07722/
  • Company: https://www.stridesearch.com/
  • Podcast: https://www.hirepowerradio.com
  • Authored:  "Healing Career Wounds"  https://amzn.to/3tGbtre
  • HireOS inquiry: rick@stridesearch.com

Show Sponsor:

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Founder Led Recruiting Produces Extraordinary ROI with Rick Girard of Stride Search Inc.

Friday Apr 22, 2022

Friday Apr 22, 2022

As a company founder you have A LOT on your plate. So much,  that it is often overwhelming so you scramble to delegate the things you don’t like to do as quickly as possible.

At the top of the delegation list is offloading hiring. Today I'm going to challenge you to own your people function for as long as possible because it is so critical to your success!.

Last week our guest, Steve Newcomb, exposed his key principles for building successful companies. The most important element in building a successful company is … the foundation.

“Do the big things right and then everything becomes exponentially easier”. This means doing the hard things first because if the foundation isn't right, everything else will be more difficult.

Getting really good at the things you hate… recruiting, interviewing & hiring, translates into onboarding the strongest people early and builds personal credibility in you as a leader.

Today we’re going to discuss:

  • Why you as the founder needs to own hiring as long as possible
  • How to build your foundation to enable your business to grow exponentially easier

Challenge today?

  • Founders can't wait to delegate hiring
  • Not good at it
  • Don't want to invest the time to learn
    • ROI?
  • Buy into the belief that there is no “Right Way” to hire
  • Don’t believe 

Why is this important to the company?

  • To Build a company:
  • Having a founder that is excellent at recruiting makes it easier to succeed
  • Build  a company that matters, 
  • Bonus: something with a mission that’s embedded into the product

How do we solve the problem? 

  • The Foundation
    • Pre-determine the Interview questions
    • Assign positions in the interview process
    • Assign interview responsibilities
    • Role play to gain competence throughout the interview
  • The interview
    • Start with the Discovery Call
      • Determine Positioning & Value
      • Positioning: Does what the interviewee desires align with what your organization is?
      • growth?
      • Value: Is this person an A-player? 
      • Evidence of impact that was made in the current role?
      • Step by step 
  • Founder leads recruiting (Steve Newcomb)
    • Communicate expectations to team
    • Shoot for the Moon
      • You can hire a-players
    • Treat everyone like gold
    • Do not waste the team's time with duds. 
  • Team Interviews scripted
    • Easy to gain evidence to support a decision
    • 3-4 questions each person for 45 minutes
      • Hell Yes….. or No
    • Skills Interview
      • Real life problem that will give an accurate experience of how the team will work together to solve problems
      • Prepare candidate for success or failure
    • Get & give feedback
      • Empower people to make the decision at each stage
      • Trust their decisions
      • Let the interviewee provide feedback

Key Takeaways -Value:

  • Strong foundation makes everything exponentially easier
  • Own hiring as long as you can
  • Set teams up for success by scripting the interview questions

Host Links

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Hiring Super A-Players with Steve Newcomb of Powerset

Thursday Apr 14, 2022

Thursday Apr 14, 2022

Let’s talk about why your company is not stacked with A-players. It is not because you cannot afford them.

At its root, the reason is narrowed down to one thing, your foundation

We tend to think of hiring as an activity rather than an essential function like product or finance or even your pitch deck. So much time is invested into these activities.  Yet, hiring is the most critical component of building a successful business. In fact, most investors' decisions are heavily influenced by the people who are onboard.

Solidifying a foundation for hiring requires the same amount of care and work as do the other components of your company. It cannot be outsourced. Hiring needs to be owned by leadership, documented and taught to everyone in the organization. 

Foundation is what attracts high performers to want to join your company, not the paycheck.

Guest Bio:

Steve Newcomb is a product/engineering led serial entrepreneur who has co-founded four successful venture backed mission-driven startups. He’s best known for co-founding Powerset (now Microsoft Bing) and scaling its engineering team, culture, and operations. 

He is the author of some of the most fundamental essays on hiring, culture, and scaling engineering teams, including the original “Cult(ure) Creation” and “In Defense of Introverts”

Today we discuss:

  • Building a strong hiring foundation
  • How to execute an outstanding interview 

Challenges today?

Foundation: Do the big things right and then everything becomes exponentially easier

Be the valedictorian of Stanford. Do the hard things early

  • Money tier 1 VC
  • Mission
  • Product that represents a true and novel breakthrough
    • Purpose above just flipping the company
    • Oh my god… 
  • Founder that is technical, thought & cultural leader, good @ recruiting 
    • excellent at recruiting- study how to speak to people, how to talk to introverts & inspire them. How to be inspiring. 
    • Have founders that are technical, thought, and culture leaders
    • Have a company that matters, something with a mission that’s embedded 
  • Be a Super A
    • Have a founder that is excellent at recruiting and is a Super A
    • Track everyone who has ever worked for you. Keep in contact
    • A=A, B=C
    • Get the right people in early
    • VPE needs to be a baller! 
  • Why buy silver when you can rent gold
    • Friends that want to be founders- get them to help 3 days a week?
    • Often worth 10 engineers
    • Obvious Yes then there is everything else = automatically hire slower

Without this?

  • How to hire good people? 
    • Lie to them & pay them a lot of money

Rick’s Nuggets

Chad Walters from Powerset

  • Foundation = Structure & Process
  • Structure- steps, timing & interview questions
  • Process - flow of the steps, transition & feedback timing, decision

How do we solve the problem? 

Principles of doing good interview process. Treat everyone like gold.

You interview me

  • Earn your job first
    • Change the power dynamic 
    • De stress
    • Have they done any research to come up with questions
  • Do not negotiate
    • Pay should be at the 50th percentile not pay above market
    • When you have to pay above market the worse your product is
    • Tier one vc firm gives - data 
    • Design for introverts and socially awkward situations
    • Don’t repeat

Creative Tactics: Don't work without good fundamentals 

  • Look for “Thank you’s” in IRC/stack overflow
  • Reverse layup- founders reverse lookup on everyone that follows you
    • Already interested in what you have to say. Know who they are
  • Sit down with your A’s
    • Ask who they know, names
    • Release from the social awkwardness of asking their friends
    • Who follows your A’s?
    • Super A’s are how you fire fast
  • Jr engineers
    • Hack reactor- meet everyone and ask ”who is the best engineer is”
  • Kill the weeds
    • Don't need a unanimous vote to say yes
    • If you build trust, they trust you to hire the right people

The interview

  • Assign jobs
  • Assign interview responsibilities
  • Founder leads recruiting
  • Do not waste the  team's time with duds. 
  • The highest level Founder/Exec does the filtering so that every candidate that makes it to a full spread interview is a Super A, or an A.
  • Do this well, you build trust, followers. Do this poorly and you deserve to fail.

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Purpose is to get to the TRUTH
  • Script the questions
  • Discovery call 
    • Positioning & Impact
  • Value aligned interview
    • Do behaviors align with the values, mission & vision of the business
  • Working session
    • Real life scenario of how the team will work together
    • Solve a real problem

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today! (Value):

  • If the foundation is right. Everything else becomes easier
  • Spend all your time getting the first people done right
  • Be relentlessly creative

Guest Links

Host Links:

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-girard-07722/
  • Company: https://www.stridesearch.com/
  • Podcast: https://www.hirepowerradio.com
  • Authored:  "Healing Career Wounds"  https://amzn.to/3tGbtre
  • HireOS inquiry: rick@stridesearch.com

 

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How Employee CEO for the Day Scales Your Organization with Ville Houttu of Vincit

Friday Apr 08, 2022

Friday Apr 08, 2022

Let’s talk about what really draws people to your company… and keeps them there. Trust

Trust is what drives better decision making, customer experience and profitability. But trust is not gained after a person starts working for your company. It is established during the interview process.

You see, people’s job mindset has evolved over the past few years.  We are being judged throughout the process for clarity, purpose and structural integrity.  Elements that demonstrate that you take your business seriously and are playing to win.

When hiring, start with the end in mind. Focus on retention, with the intention of building trust through the experience for maximum engagement & long term growth.

Guest Bio:

Ville Houttu is the Founder and CEO of Vincit USA. Previously, he helped Vincit Finland to reach 350 employees and make it public on Nasdaq First North marketplace. After the IPO, Ville moved to California to start Vincit’s local subsidiary. 

Ville and the company have been recognized by several notable institutions, including 5000 Fastest-Growing Companies in America List. In 2020, he led the company to rank top-50 on the FAST Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators list.

Ville is a known public speaker and his leadership has been featured in several leading publications, including TechCrunch, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and Entrepreneur. 

Today we discuss:

  • Why and how to build trust
  • Concept of the CEO of the Day 

Challenges today?

  • title wave of people leaving your companies
  • Don't want to work for people who don't trust them
  • Not looking for dollars & sense anymore
  • People want a culture that fits
    • Let your people build the culture 

Why is this important to the company?

  • It builds trust 
  • We are at the end of us telling employees what to do
  • Keeping employees happy, healthy and engaged
  • Make the Inc 5000 list
  • *** how this translates to business! 
  • Up 65% year on year growth over last year

How do we solve the problem? 

  • CEO for a day every month
  • How to deploy in your organization
  • Get everyone on board 
    • One person who will be the first CEO of the day
  • Management team needs to step aside
    • Open discussion agreeing to not get involved
    • No approval needed from management
  • It’s your call
    • Decision based on what you feel the people need 
    • The Question: does the decision make the workplace better tomorrow than it is today?
    • Value in engagement far outweighs the cost
    • Goal: helps sales, marketing, operational, engineering
    • Can be a very focused area of improvement
    • Unlimited budget, everyone gets a turn, no one goes twice

Here’s how CEO of the Day works:

  1. Every month we select one employee to be a CEO for the Day.  
  2. He will have an unlimited budget to improve our workplace.
  3. Whatever the CEO of the day decides, we all live with.
  4. We encourage discussion among colleagues, but I do not weigh in.
  5. The CEO will announce his decision in our monthly meeting.
  6. After sharing his decision, the CEO selects the next CEO of the Day.
  7. All employees will get their turn, but nobody goes twice.

Rick’s Nuggets

  • What if someone (me) wants to buy a Ferrari?

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today! (Value):

  • Join the movement of companies making their employees CEO’s of the Day, and TRUSTING them to build a culture that FITS. Because when you do, you will see that BY TRUSTING your employees you will EARN their trust and LOYALTY in return. And with employees like that, there’s no STOPPING where your business can go. 

Guest Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vhouttu/
Company: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vincit-oyj/
LinkedIn: https://www.vincit.fi/en/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Vincit_Plc
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VincitOyj
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vincit_plc/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/VincitFlix/featured
Medium:  https://medium.com/vincit
GitHub: https://github.com/Vincit

Host Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-girard-07722/
Company: https://www.stridesearch.com/
Podcast: https://www.hirepowerradio.com
Authored:  "Healing Career Wounds"  https://amzn.to/3tGbtre
HireOS inquiry: rick@stridesearch.com

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What Makes People Stay or Jump Ship with Nicolas Vandenberghe of Chili Piper

Thursday Mar 31, 2022

Thursday Mar 31, 2022

In 2021 38 million people left their jobs and found new ones. This accounts for 57.3% attrition for US-based companies.  It seems as the trend continues as 4.3 million people quit in January of this year as well.

A lot of companies are experiencing turnover today and It makes one wonder, who is winning?

The companies that are winning today are those that focus on their people. Focusing on setting systems to enable productivity, fostering personal growth, career-pathing, and quite frankly, listening to what their people want.

Gone are the days of providing free snacks and providing a ping pong table. What people want is much deeper now and requires more effort. what are you doing that is improving their lives and professional growth? If you are unwilling to provide it, they’ll just go somewhere else.

 Guest Bio:

Nicolas Vandenberghe is the co-founder and CEO of Chili Piper, a SaaS platform helping B2B companies double their inbound conversion rates. Since its founding in 2016, the SaaS platform has thrived with a 100% remote work culture. 

Nicolas is a four-time serial entrepreneur, in diverse verticals from consumer software to biometrics. He builds his companies under the principles of flexibility, professional growth and communication.

Today we discuss:

  • What makes people stay or jump ship
  • How to make your company sticky for retention

Challenges today?

  • Great resignation
  • People quit managers

Why is this important to the company?

  • Internal promotions keeps people growing
  • Teaching management 
  • Avoid hostility in communication 
  • Non violence communication training
  • Especially applicable to managers
  • Avoid conflict without avoiding disagreements
  • Conflict around the disagreement- NOT GOOD

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Flexibility
    • High performers - no barriers
    • Anywhere in the world
    • No schedule requirement (exception) scheduled meetings 
    • Open & accepting of everyone
    • Unlimited vacation schedule
  • *** Professional growth- formailized 
    • Quality of the work focus
    • Okr’s - not kpi’s- Actions to yield to projected outcome
    •  Avoid ultimatums, were expectations correct
    • Hired 3 coaches 
    • Developing a piper plan
    • Getting it out to eht puclic
    • Abolish performance review
    • Proactive 
  • Communication hostility avoidance
    •  Method to rethink your engagements
    •  Training everyone on the book 

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Career pathing - Huge retention 
  • Link everything to help- core value

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today! (Value):

  • Professional development. Work on the foundation

Guest Links:

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nvandenberghe/
  • Company: http://www.chilipiper.com/
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/chilipiper/
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/chilipiper/
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TeamChiliPiper/

Host Links:

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-girard-07722/
  • Company: https://www.stridesearch.com/
  • Podcast: https://www.hirepowerradio.com
  • Authored:  "Healing Career Wounds"  https://amzn.to/3tGbtre
  • HireOS inquiry: rick@stridesearch.com

Show Sponsor:

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Building a Performance Based Service Organization with Johnny Robinson of Orange Window Cleaning

Thursday Mar 24, 2022

Thursday Mar 24, 2022

Today I’d like to start with a question: What if you could 15x your company in 24 months?

We all understand that this is virtually impossible as a solopreneur. As delegation creates the space for growth. 

It is very possible for you to 15x your business by dedicating yourself to becoming really good at hiring. This starts with changing your attitude. “I hate hiring”, or “I’m not good at hiring” or “I'll delegate this to someone else” will not get you where you want to go. It also sets you and your team up for failure.

Today is your wake-up call to embrace getting really good at hiring.

Because the lifeblood of Your business is WHO you hire.

Guest: 

Johnny Robinson is owner of Orange Window Cleaning & Mary & A Mop (Maid Service).

During his freshman year of college, Johnny and his best friend Sergio started a window cleaning company by going door to door to small mom and pop businesses. As they continued to pound the pavement, the business started to grow through word of mouth. They started to see the potential for an actual business by building a great reputation, and doubling down on digital marketing. 

Fast forward to today, Orange Window Cleaning has AT LEAST doubled every year since starting the business. One key component to this rapid growth has been hiring for performance.

Today we discuss:

  • Why it is important change your relationship with hiring

Hiring Story

Johnny’s Story - employee doing cocaine at the customer's house. Left residue in the bathroom. 2 months of problems ignored. Operated out to the scarcity mindset and kept them.  Confronted and they wouldn’t own up to it. The customer sent pictures. Fired them on the spot.

Shifted mindset- take hiring process more seriously

Challenges today?

  • Running off emotion over kpi’s
  • Hate hiring!
  • Hiring whoever/ too fast
    • Desperate for people 
    • Hiring family or friends
  • Keeping people too long

Why is this important to the company?

  • Hiring is hard
  • Hard to see the problems when you are in the trenches
  • Treat hiring like marketing-
    • Keep the funnel full when you run into problems

Rick’s Nuggets:

  • Don't hate hiring if you are good at it
  • Tell yourself- I’m Awesome at hiring 
  • The lifeblood of your business is who you hire

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Listen to podcasts related to industry
    • Home Service Expert
    •  
  • Stop taking referrals from the wrong people (c- players)
    • Hired 2 people from one underperformer 
  • Vetting with pre-qualification questions tied to core values
    • Situational questions
    • Hired one of their best people this way
  • Always be hiring
    • Funnel full of applicants
    • Run ads - like sales
    • Appointment setter (vetting) and Interviewer -closer 
  • Performance based pay structure
    • Incentive based- review bonus, upsell bonus, 
    • Commission - selling a neighbor
    • Hourly was killing morale 
    • rewarded for hard work

Rick’s Nuggets:

  • Hire power radio?? 
  • Document & Practice 
    • Treat like your pitch deck
    • Internalize and teach
  • Discovery call

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today! (Value):

  • Performance based pay structure - making sure our employees were aligned with the companies goals - growth
  • ABH - Always be hiring
  • Join a peer group - EO

Guest Links:

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnny-robinson-a2b632120/
  • Company: https://orangewindowcleaning.com/
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/orange-window-cleaning/
  • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/orange_windowcleaning/

Host Links:

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-girard-07722/
  • Company: https://www.stridesearch.com/
  • Podcast: https://www.hirepowerradio.com
  • Authored:  "Healing Career Wounds"  https://amzn.to/3tGbtre
  • HireOS inquiry: rick@stridesearch.com

Show Sponsor:

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The Interview Working Session (Skills Assessment) with Rick Girard of Stride Search Inc.

Thursday Mar 17, 2022

Thursday Mar 17, 2022

How does one evaluate a subject matter expert when you have limited knowledge or expertise in that discipline?

Most individual technical/skills based interviews last about an hour. Where time is wasted quizzing on subject matter that may or may not be relevant to the actual role itself. Scratching the surface on the level of depth that is brought to the table.

Consider another option. What I like to call a “working session”.

Invite the person to collaborate on a real problem that is relevant to the opportunity. This gives you unbridled insight into how a person thinks, communicates and solves problems within the context of real life.

This allows you to really drill down to gain evidence to support the hiring decision either way.

Today we’re going to discuss:

  • Why should I care about a working session
  • How to structure and execute a working session/ skills interview in your company

Challenge today?

  • Skills not matching up to what someone claimed (faker)
  • Or... Claimed to be able to handle more than capable (over exaggerator) 
  • Or… Just here for the perks & paycheck (freeloader)
  • What's happening?
    • Hiring Maintainers for builder or improver roles
  • Testing 
  • Outdated concepts - learned in college
  • Focusing on irreverent problems
    • How many quarters can fit in a VW van
    • Smart is good, smart with people is much better
  • Going too shallow
    • Not knowing what to ask
    • Not digging deeper to discover the truth

Why is this important to the company?

  • Too shallow conceals the truth
  • Smart doesn't ensure success 
  • Relevant skills give evidence of alignment 

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Build Interview Structure
    • Only need one technical/skills based interview
    • Timing
    • 2 hours- ½ day
    • Pay for their time (optional)
    • Who’s involved?
    • Co-workers, direct team, anyone in close interaction
  • Define the problem to be solved
    • A current problem that needs to be solved (reason to compensate $)
    • 3 components (key hires)
    • Goals review- understand expectations of KPI’s
    • Data or Gap Analysis- how does the candidate interpret data/requirements/etc
    • Collaboration- Review the details of the problem. Work to solve!
    • Example
      • Goals review - (5 minutes max) 
      • Data Analysis / Gap Analysis - (10 minutes max) 
      • Marketing Plan & Strategy (1: 45 minutes) 
      • Let’s discuss the marketing plan starting with what you feel is the best strategy 
      • Really try to dig into the "Why" How would you bring this plan to life? Based on what you know, what would be your recommendations for reaching the goals? Why? What other angles can we take? What would be the priority? Why?
  • Preparation for Candidate & Team
    • Candidate
    • Let them prepare. Send details in advance
    • Set expectations and discuss next steps
    • Team
    • Coach to be open minded and bias free
    • Ignore opinions, praise evidence
    • Work true - how they act daily
  • Execute to core values
    • Everyone should act as to the standards of the company values

Key Takeaways -Value:

  • Build a working session for each role. Becomes really easy when you get used to doing it.
  • Prepare the candidate for success
  • Team collaboration & buy in based on evidence not “uncertain feelings” - bias

Host Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-girard-07722/ Company: https://www.stridesearch.com/ Podcast: https://www.stridesearch.com/hire-power-radio Authored: Healing Career Wounds (Amazon) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B094TL14CD/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 HireOS inquiry: rick@stridesearch.com

 

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

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How to Hire in Three Conversations with Nick Livingston of Honeit Software

Thursday Mar 10, 2022

Thursday Mar 10, 2022

10 business days is the optimal time to bring an interview process to a successful outcome. 

The way to achieve this is to tighten timelines from stage to stage and cut down the number of people involved in the process. Now I know what you are thinking, that more people should be involved. Which is incorrect.

The reason we involve more people in the interview process is because we value their “opinion” or “input” on the individual. But opinion has no value when it comes to making a hiring decision. And opinion is what you get when your interview questions are not tied to gathering evidence. 

Opinion breeds assumptions, bias & personal motives. Which do NOT serve the growth of the business.

I’m Rick Girard and welcome to the Hire Power Radio Show. We help Entrepreneurs and executives WIN-WIN the strongest hires. 

By sharing insights from top-performing rebel entrepreneurs, game-changers & industry leaders. Like our guest today:  Nick Livingston 

Nick is the Co-Founder & CEO of Honeit Software. 

Formerly the Head of Recruiting at TubeMogul (Adobe), Nick and his team scaled the company from 60 to 360 employees through a successful IPO ($TUBE) in just over 26 months. 

In the same two years, he attended business school at UC Berkeley, started a family (three daughters) and co-founded Honeit Software, which is the all-in-one interview platform designed by recruiters to schedule, record, transcribe, search and share interview answers for quick collaboration and higher quality hiring.

Today we discuss:

  • Why anything more than 3 interviews it too much
  • How to interview & hire in 3 meetings

In today’s market, a candidate doesn’t have time to speak with 8 different people in your organization. 

Challenge today?

  • Interview simplification
  • Bad solutions that repel solid people
  • Screening
  • One way video interviews

Why is this important to the company?

  • Interview data gets lost
  • Transparency attracts talent
  • Job seekers have become really savvy
  • Humans have changed 

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Value of the discovery call is lost
  • Reason why people are not showing up for a job interview
  • Positioning 
    • What a person desires
    • Are they an A-player

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Interview conversations as business intelligence conversations
    • Competitive intelligence
    • If you record business conversations, you can tag, search, and rewind the tape.
  • Interview structure:
    • Questions related to core values
    • Questions related to the specific role/skill/need
    • Who’s asking the questions? Who knows a good vs. great answer.
  • Interview Collaboration
    • role of the recruiter was to give ‘time back’ to hiring managers
    • But recruiters are not SME…. where the phone screen falls flat.. 
    • Coordinated questions
  • Share interview data/answers/highlights.
    • Record the interview
    • Who are good interviewers
    • What makes a good question, what makes a great answer.
  • Better Interview experience
    • Do we still need 8 separate 45-minute conversations for 8 people to be involved with the interview process? NO!
  • Hiring kick off call… 

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Discovery call
  • Interview #1 - Value alignment
  • Interview #2 - Skills 
    • Working session
  • Interview #3 - Value Alignment / offer 

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today! (Value):

  • Interviews are two-way conversation… Candidates are interviewing YOU and your team.
  • Record interviews for - transparency, accountability, to rewind the tape, to protect your company (discrimination lawsuits). 

Guest Links
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicklivingston/
Company: https://www.honeit.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/honeit/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/honeit/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/honeit

Host Links: 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-girard-07722/
Company: https://www.stridesearch.com/
Podcast: https://www.hirepowerradio.com
Authored:  "Healing Career Wounds"  https://amzn.to/3tGbtre
HireOS inquiry: rick@stridesearch.com

Show Sponsor: Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

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Today’s Hiring Complaints Solved with Ashish Rampal of All Imaging Systems

Thursday Mar 03, 2022

Thursday Mar 03, 2022

The two biggest complaints I hear today from entrepreneurs are “I can't find good people” and “when I hire people, the skills don’t match up”.

The first issue, not being able to “find good people” is an easy one to solve. You're fishing in the wrong ponds! Posting & praying may be working for some roles but the more crucial roles require that more creative tactics be deployed. Go to where your audience is interacting regularly. Hint: Not job boards.

The second issue, “skills not matching” with what a person represented in the interview, is a HUGE indicator of a poor interview process.

Too often we hear what we want to hear (confirmation bias) and we quickly move to get the person to accept the position. Never digging deeper to understand the what, when & how of a person’s work.

Remember the purpose of the interview is to understand the truth of the person across the desk from you.

I’m Rick Girard and welcome to the Hire Power Radio Show. We help Entrepreneurs and executives WIN-WIN the strongest hires. 

By sharing insights from top-performing rebel entrepreneurs, game-changers & industry leaders. Like our guest today: Ashish Rampal

Ashish serves as President and CEO of All Imaging Systems. He brings nearly 30 years of experience delivering high growth among, Service and Green Tech companies. 

His passion for bringing strategy and innovation together has fueled a long list of leadership accomplishments. Ashish has risen to complex challenges where he has crafted growth strategies, tapped new emerging markets and energized global teams – with many successes coming within turnaround environments. 

His leadership approach reflects his deep expertise in creating and leveraging teams that are driven to innovate and excel.

Today we discuss:

  • How to find the right people outside of job boards
  • How to dig deeper on skills to gain evidence of competency

Hiring Story

  • Hire - skills did not match the skills for the job
  • Kept on for 8 months moving from role to role
    • Right person on the wrong bus
  • Demonstrated Ashish being a weak leader 
  • Intention was one of care & empathy but it was misaligned with the goal of making high performance be their best
  • Warning signs
  • Pushbacks from key people not to have to interact with that person
  • Cost 8 months of salary- $40k
  • Impact to culture
  • Impact the trust of his team

Challenge today?

  • Finding people through social networks who are not on LinkedIn
    • Resources are not digital natives
    • No LinkedIn account
    • Meetups
    • Training programs alumni 

Why is this important to the company?

  • People are the path to which we scale
    • To be a relevant business need to bring value over the OEM’s
    • More cost effective option
    • Reverse engineering to repair

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Sources
    • Passive referrals
    • LinkedIn sourcing
    • Professional groups /associations
    • Meetups, repositories, college faculty

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Bring complex challenges into the company
    • Unique business - OEM agnostic, lot of learning opportunities and exposure to different technology
    • Full exposure to business life cycle
    • Solving a problem with minimal competitor
  • Talent is recognized 
    • People Feel respected
    • Have a voice - Let you know when a bad hire has been made
    • Love the challenge
    • Like who they work with
    • Failure is accepted and celebrated
  • Demonstrate Leadership
    • Trust through empowerment
    • Focus on Morale
    • Self introspection
    • Culture of win or affirm, working on today, need help
    • Inject energy -”try to change the weather”
    • Let the team connect emotionally  

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Competency digging
  • First discussed on the Discovery call
    • Impact made in the organization
    • The exact steps taken to complete the project 
  • Interview- Working Session 
    • Solve a relevant problem together with the team

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today!  -Value:

  • You are the custodian of the culture - you define
  • In times of fear or uncertainty the best response is ACTION
  • Teams prefer a leader who is REAL as opposed to one who is CORRECT

Guest Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashishrampal/ Company: https://allimaging.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/all-imaging-systems/

Host Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-girard-07722/ Company: https://www.stridesearch.com/ Podcast: https://www.hirepowerradio.com Authored: "Healing Career Wounds" https://amzn.to/3tGbtre HireOS inquiry: rick@stridesearch.com Show

Sponsor: Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

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How to Tie Your Core Values to Interview with Rick Girard of Stride Search Inc.

Thursday Feb 24, 2022

Thursday Feb 24, 2022

Two people sit down in an interview. What happens next??? What happens is that, well, we have no idea what happens. 

But the data suggests that a decision is made on behalf of the interviewer in the first 7 minutes of the conversation. The remainder of the time is used to confirm the decision. 

There is no way that a person can extract enough evidence to support making a correct decision without bias or personal motives in an unstructured process. 

A perfect breeding ground for Murphy’s law- Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong

How well a person aligns with the company’s values, vision & purpose is the only way to ensure the success of the person you hire.

Today we discuss:

  • Why tying values to interview questions is the only way to eliminate bias
  • How to build an  interview question for a company value

Challenge today?

  • Interviews are purely subjective
    • Still ranking candidates - Scorecards
    • Compare & contrast conversations
    • Evaluate exclusively for Skills 
    • Interviewer coordination 
      • Different interviewers asking same questions

Why is this important to the company?

  • The wrong hire costs 3-10x annual salary
    • Think of each person being worth $2M to the company.
      • Perspective change?
    • Wrong hire costs in employee morale & your credibility as a leader
  •  People are the #1 reason for failure
    • All your business problems are people problems in disguise 

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Define Core Values
    • Define attributes for each core value (traits)
    • Prioritize values (rank in order of importance)
    • Measurables of each value 
    • Agree on values (are they lived daily)   
  • Dig Deeper (Committed, Expertise, Curious)
    • Invest the time to fully comprehend the root of your challenges
    • Listen to Understand, not to respond
  • Build Interview Question Library
    • Craft Behavioral questions (2-3)
    • Determine **Knockouts
    • Agree on questions

Sample Question  

Tell me about the most difficult customer interaction you encountered in your current role (Dig Deeper) 

  • Tell me more…
  • Walk me through that…
  • What were the circumstances that led to the difficulty?
  • What was the root of the customer issue?
  • What solutions did you come up with?
  • How were you able to calm them down?
  • Break down the steps you took to resolve the problem
  • Why was their view important to you?
  • How were you able to deliver beyond their expectations? 
  • How did the interaction end?

Assign Questions to Interviewer

  • Easier on the interviewer
    • Very little prep time for interview
    • Gathers concrete evidence
    • Eliminates Bias & personal motives from the interview!

Key Takeaways -Value:

  • Break your Values down in measurable components to which you can evaluate a person’s fit
  • Interview questions must have sub questions to keep the conversation flowing. We want deep data from each interviewee!

Host Links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-girard-07722/
Company: https://www.stridesearch.com/
Podcast: https://www.stridesearch.com/hire-power-radio
Authored:  Healing Career Wounds (Amazon)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B094TL14CD/
HireOS inquiry: rick@stridesearch.com

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

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Owning Your IP: Employment & Independent Contractor Agreements with Devin Miller of Miller IP Law

Thursday Feb 17, 2022

Thursday Feb 17, 2022

When time is of the essence and work needs to be executed, we often forego formalities and hop right into execution. Hiring a contractor or friend to help you with the work.

This was the case with my friend Pat (name changed) who paid a friend to build a proprietary software product for her company. A lot of problems came up in the process and the relationship was terminated. Pat wanted the IP to finish the product but there was no formal agreement in place and Pat did not own the IP.

Long story short, the relationship went south and it ended up in litigation. The end result was an additional 7 figure payout to obtain the rights to the code so the company could finish & release the product. A very costly encounter for Pat that would have been circumvented with a written agreement.

Today we discuss:

  • Why your IP needs to be protected before you hire
  • How to best protect it with anyone who touches your product

Challenge today?

  • Is your IP protected
    • Freelancing platform 
    • Software / product Development contractors
    • Website development
    • Video creation
    • Training manuals/courses

Why is this important to the company?

  • Becomes a problem when…
    • Changing the terms of the agreement (product development)
    • Not having rights to the video content you paid for

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Employment/ Co-Founder Agreements 
  • What happens when someone leaves
  • Who owns what? Messy & difficult
  • Without an operating agreement:
    • You don't own and may have a non exclusive right to the IP

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Get this in place BEFORE you pay anyone!!!
  • Components that protect you
  • Outline the role/position
    • Work for hire
    • Fiver not protected
    • CIAA 
  • Indicate when the relationship concludes
    • Indicate that their role is either an employee or an independent contractor
    • If they are employee, indicate the extent they can make decisions for the company or represent the company (or not), information they keep confidential, non-competes, etc.
    • If they are an independent contractor, indicate that they are not an employee of the company, do not represent or make decisions on behalf of the company, the company doesn’t pay their insurance or taxes, they are a separate legal entity, shorter term arrangement, you don’t exert control of the contractor, etc.
  • * Duty to assign the rights to you
    • Whether they are an employee or an independent contractor, make sure to include a clause indicating that they have a duty to assign any materials, work product, patents, trademarks, copyrights, and so forth that they created. If they are an employee this includes any work product created during their employment and using any information or assets of the company. If they are an independent contractor, this includes any work product and intellectual property created while the independent contractor is working on the project.
  • Exclusive rights 
    • To the extent that the employee or contractor maintains any rights to the intellectual property or other works, they give the business an exclusive license to the IP/works free of charge 

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Expectation Alignment 
  • Values Aligned (employee/founder) 
  • Clearly defined expectations 
    • timelines and deliverables
  • Formal Service Agreement

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today!  -Value:

  • Get agreements in place
  • Know what the agreements cover
  • Review/update the agreements periodically so make sure they still cover what you are doing

Guest Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/millerip/

Company: https://milleripl.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/miller-ip-law/

Host Links: 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-girard-07722/

Company: https://www.stridesearch.com/

Podcast: https://www.hirepowerradio.com

Authored:  "Healing Career Wounds"  https://amzn.to/3tGbtre

HireOS inquiry: rick@stridesearch.com

Show Sponsor:

Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

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What Really Matters in Employee Branding Today with Bryan Adams of Ph.Creative

Thursday Feb 10, 2022

Thursday Feb 10, 2022

Those of you who have listened to the show, know that I am no big fan of “employer branding” because I believe it is generic and unrealistic. Often selling an image of unicorns & rainbows topped off with free lunch.

To me, job advertisements feel like the car dealer who advertises a low price just to get you in the door only to sell you a lemon at the end of the day.

We all understand that every company has its challenges. So why not paint an accurate picture of what the company REALLY is once you start working there?

Simply sharing the good, bad & the ugly of your company is the first step to eliminating bad hires. It attracts the right people, repels those who don’t align with the company values and eliminates the surprises that cause people to question their decision to join your company.

Today we discuss:

  • Employer branding: why & when
  • How to brand in the most effective way

Challenge today?

  • Employer branding:
  • Marketing and branding are not the same thing
  • Purpose to employer brand strategy is different than consumer brand strategy
    • Talent was the commodity and technology was differentiator
    • That has switched
  • People leaving companies in droves
  • Not connecting with the right people
  • Differentiation and purpose
    • Career decision is transactional
    • Operating tactically 

Why is this important to the company?

  • C-suite are talking about employer branding
  • Approach without strategy causes more problems than it solves

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Employer branding is strictly a top of funnel activity
    • Convinced ourselves that EVERYONE need to be attracted to the brand
    • Does nothing to ensure that the right person is being hired
    • Top of funnel is a vanity metric

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Understand the organization
    • Gaps are?
    • Foundation of the culture
    • What the people strategy needs to align to
    • Culture you have rather than the culture you need
  • Strategy
    • Reputation (what & why)
      • Specific & tangible that aligns with the business
      • Career catalyst (career path) , culture (sense of belonging, great place to work)  & citizenship (impact you have on society, doing good)
    • Expectation (how)
    • Give & Get
      • What the organization wants & needs in return
      • Comfortable with what you have to give
    • Adds more value, more authentic enables greater appreciation
    • Uncover a clear proposition
    • Things that repel most people attract the right people!
    • Polarize your audience  
  • Experience 
    • Validate the claim & the experience
    • Navy seals- Hell week. It has a specific reason in the experience 
    • Employee experience is more important than candidate experience 
    • Know exactly where to spend your time & resource
  • Job Advertisement
    • Story right
    • Needs to be a true preview on what to expect
    • What keeps people 
    • “Dissuade people not to join” and you couldn't lie, what would you say?

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Only need to see one person to fill one role
    • Less candidate flow is the new badge of honor!

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today!  -Value:

  • Get specific - Be clear on the talent you need to grow your company and what it takes to really thrive. This helps define the reputation you need as an employer and  the proposition you have to offer to make it all worthwhile.

  • Show Vulnerability - Tell a refreshingly honest story of where you are, where you’re going, what’s missing and left to build .. show people a very real picture where they can add value and find purpose in their work.
  • Own the truth - Include the harsh realities and adversities of your employee experience - 99% of people may run for the hills, but the 1% of people who lean in will likely be the best candidates & employees for your company. Plus it’ll save you a ton of admin and distraction from a blizzard of unqualified candidates.
  • Finally word :- this strategic view of building and defining culture with a simple employer brand can never come too soon. Do it immediately. It’s easy, free and can make all the difference especially within a scrappy startup

Guest Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryanadams1/

Company: https://www.ph-creative.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ph.creative/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/phcreative

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Ph.Headquarters

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ph.creativelife/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/PhCreativeVideo

Host Links

 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-girard-07722/

Company: https://www.stridesearch.com/ Podcast: https://www.hirepowerradio.com

Authored: "Healing Career Wounds" https://amzn.to/3tGbtre

HireOS inquiry: rick@stridesearch.com Show

 

Sponsor: Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

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Hire Faster by Interviewing Deeper with Kison Patel of MAScience & DealRoom

Thursday Feb 03, 2022

Thursday Feb 03, 2022

As an entrepreneur, we all share one thing in common. Every single one of us has made a bad hire.

Let’s define what a bad hire is. A bad hire is what happens when our need to fill something quickly overrides our logic. The interview process gets rushed, red flags get overlooked, and… Just like that, you have hired a person who is nothing more than a seat filler. We all hope that the person will work out but we know deep down we just made a bad hire.

Here’s the truth: You can still hire quickly when you slow down your interview process. Less steps, more quality time. Going deep is the only way to uncover the fit of the individual into the culture of the organization.

Today we discuss:

  • Why we continually make bad hires & when to break the cycle
  • How to go deeper while moving faster

Kison’s Hiring Story:

  • Hired the first 5 people who responded to his craigslist ad
    • Flannel shirt, BO guy who sent video rants. 
    • Went through a year and a half of harassment. 

Challenge today?

  • Hiring across functions
    • Organic vs outside leaders 
    • Be proactive about letting people go
    • Talent you need with goals your trying to achieve
    • 1 of 8 hires was a bad hire in 2021
    • Development function & Marketing is really mature, low attrition

Why is this important to the company?

  • Learning
    • When to take a passive hiring approach
    • Knowing key roles, CFO, Demand Gen… get to know those people and courting 
    • Centralizing the hiring 

Rick’s Nuggets

  • My bad hire story
    • Friend no more - The relationship ending was on me!
      • Expectations Alignment document (write it down!)
  • Root of the issue: expectation alignment
  • Not sharing the same values
  • Process allows people to take you seriously
  • Interview: less questions, more depth

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Accountability
    • Shifted from founder hiring to leaders
    • Stepping back and optimizing leads
    • One person that didn't work out came through a search firm
  • Being systematic
    • Pragmatic in having a comprehensive scope
    • Do more passive recruiting
    • Test project 24 hours
  • Closing people
    • Ended to end in 10 days 
    • Keeping things compressed
    • *** Write the offer letter on the phone with the person

Rick’s Nuggets

For critical hires:

  • Create an expectations document (Positioning & Accountability)
    • Why (pain)
    • Desire (do we both want the same thing?- positioning)
      • “Positioning is the single largest influence on the buying decision.” -Geoffrey A. Moore, Crossing the Chasm
    • Impact (growth plan)
  • Outline & communicate your process
    • People check out with time & poor communication
    • Provide active feedback
  • Timing
    • Time + communication + feedback = Hire
    • Less time, more depth
    • Empower each person to be a decision maker

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today!  -Value:

  • Identify and build your company's core values
  • Utilize your referrals and be proactive with recruiting

Guest Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kisonpatel/
Company: https://www.mascience.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mascience/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/dealroominc?lang=en
Website: https://kisonpatel.com/

Host Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-girard-07722/
Company: https://www.stridesearch.com/
Podcast: https://www.hirepowerradio.com
Authored: "Healing Career Wounds" https://amzn.to/3tGbtre
HireOS inquiry: rick@stridesearch.com

Episode Sponsor: Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

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Organizational Growth Through Culture Prioritization with Justin Erdtsieck of Trencore & Brix

Friday Jan 28, 2022

Friday Jan 28, 2022

We hear a lot about culture today as being the most important aspect of growth. Yet product development & sales are too often prioritized over people.

Let’s break this down for a quick minute. Your company's success and/or failure is determined by your people and the relationship you have with their growth. What this means as an entrepreneur is that you are responsible for creating an environment where communication and failure is embraced and celebrated.

It is only when people feel safe & important that they take ownership of their role and allow themselves to thrive.

Guest Today: Justin Erdtsieck, President of Trencore & Brix

In 2016, Justin started to focus the business on hard work, perseverance, determination, resilience, compassion, and trust, and then began relaying these core values to his team through servant leadership.

Each individual employee knows they’re valued and respected and in turn, they care for the company and the final product.

As a result of this mindset shift,  Justin has grown the company from $10M in revenue to over $60M in just a few years. 

Today we discuss:

  • Why you must adopt the mindset shift from product to people
  • Justin’s mission to put culture at the forefront of the business & the results of that work

Challenge today?

  • Story:
    • Stagen: coaching
    • Culture was a shit show! 
    • Inspired by a tour of Zappos. Allowed everyone to create their own space
  • Bio - 
    • History of the company
    • Who we are as a company
    • People come in with understanding the purpose
    • Training

Why is this important to the company?

  • 2016 - now- grew from $10M to $60M in revenue. 600 people
  • People want to stay- no one has quit in 4 years
  • Proactive communication has saved the company over $1M a year 

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Review Core Values
    • Weekly Standup 
    • Check In meetings in the field (fostering company health)
  • Culture 
    • Creating a purpose, helping everyone understand the why
    • Living by core values
    • Innovative on spreading the word on purpose, 
    • “A place where people feel safe & enjoy the experience we call work”
  • Hiring process
    • Eliminate the cancer
    • Starting people from the bottom and growing them
    • No formal interview process
  • Moved people up internally! 
    • Understand the culture
    • Teach  
      • Trial by fire first… didn't work
      • Stagen program for leadership 
      • Personal development is key
    • Motivated
    • Creating daily habits to hold people accountable

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today!  -Value:

  • Document your purpose so the people who work with you understand the “WHY”
  • Success comes when you stop worrying about how much money you are going to make
  • Treat people well, take care of yourself & create a good support syste

Guest Links:

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-erdtsieck-a20716105/

Company: https://trencoreandbrix.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/trencore-brix/

Host Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-girard-07722/

Company: https://www.stridesearch.com/

Podcast: https://www.hirepowerradio.com

Authored: "Healing Career Wounds" https://amzn.to/3tGbtre HireOS

inquiry: rick@stridesearch.com

 

Show Sponsor: Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

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The Hiring Yin & Yang: Job Postings vs Recruiting with Kelly Robinson of RedDot Media

Thursday Jan 20, 2022

Thursday Jan 20, 2022

Sourcing talented people is a HUGE challenge right now. Over 38 million people quit their jobs in 2021. And a lot of them are not coming back.

Then we have the divide over pandemic policies that has driven people away from corporate America. Making it more difficult to retain good people.

But sourcing is not the biggest challenge in today’s hiring landscape. Engagement is. It is important that we utilize every viable avenue (ie: boards, postings & direct recruiting) with the objective of just starting intentional conversations. By intentional, I mean, not selling. But understanding the desires of the person first… Because It's not about you. Intentional conversations lead to engagement. Engagement leads to the hire!

About the Guest: Kelly Robinson, CEO of RedDotMedia

Kelly founded Broadbean.com Inc 2001, which was acquired by CareerBuilder in 2014. Now he leads RedDot Media, a recruitment advertising agency with a particular skill in programmatic advertising campaigns. 

Kelly has spent the last 25 years in recruitment and recruitment technology, during which time he has grown, integrated, bought, and sold businesses in both the UK and US.  Kelly is the goto industry expert in all things job posting

Today we discuss:

  • The current job posting landscape
  • How to best utilize the tools available to maximize your hiring outcome

Challenge today?

  • Everyone is having a staffing crisis
    • Not about the job posting. 
    • It is about making a connection
    • 14k recruiter jobs got added Friday!
    • 100% more jobs available, 
  • 3 % of the workforce has just … quit in just one month!
    • Meaningful work!

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Structure is winning over $$
  • What no one is talking about
  • vaccination policy of the company

How do we solve the problem?

  • Posting
  • Depends on the position
  • Indeed
  • Ziprecruiter
  • Linkedin-sourcing/outreach
    • Sales people, marketing, recruiters
  • Dice, Angel list
  • Write a great ad
  • Nothing’s Free - It’s all paid
  • Algorithm distributes jobs equally 
  • PPC has gone away. Can't define what you pay per click
  • Need to spend at least $250 
    • Should translate to 10 applications 

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Active Reach Out!
  • 1 hour a week 
  • Discovery call-  where the magic happens
  • Buy in/opt out 
  • Referrals - HUGE VALUE

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today!  -Value:

  • Yesterdays ideas dont work today
  • Cant do things cheeper

Guest Links:

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellyjrobinson/

Company: https://reddotmedia.co/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/reddotmedia/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/reddotmedia.co

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kellyjrobinson

Host Links: 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-girard-07722/

Company: https://www.stridesearch.com/

Podcast: https://www.hirepowerradio.com

Authored:  "Healing Career Wounds"  https://amzn.to/3tGbtre

HireOS inquiry: rick@stridesearch.com

 

Show Sponsor: Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

 

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How to Hire Through the Plague of Lying, Ghosting & Absurd Demands with Rick Girard of Stride Search Inc.

Wednesday Jan 19, 2022

Wednesday Jan 19, 2022

We are neck-deep into a highly competitive job seeker’s market. What this means is that the feeding frenzy for talent has created a perfect storm for people to ask for a lot… and get it. The interview process has been plagued with bait and switch tactics, ridiculous compensation renegotiations (after the offer has been accepted), and outright ghosting once an offer is accepted.

The root of the issue is the transactional way your interview is being run. Evolving your phone screen into an in-depth “Discovery Call” is the first step to eliminate the huge time sink that results in a turned-down offer.

Today we are going to discuss the pivot that must take place in your hiring practice to align with what people really want. And it all starts with your first interaction.

Today we discuss:

  • The changes in candidate attitude and positioning 
  • How to eliminate the frustration & engage people at a more human level
    • Approach evolution
  • Here's what I am hearing from a lot of entrepreneurs
    • A lot of dishonesty 
    • People are being unreasonable when it comes to their demands

Challenge today?

  • People are lying on phone screens
  • Not showing up for interviews
  • people asking for ridiculous stuff
  • Problem: 
  • We still approach people with an “About us first” 
  • Educational approach with selling 
    • Needs to be done at the end of the phone screen
  • Practice of not negotiating 
    • Negotiating mitigated when people want it

Why is this important to the company?

  • Losing great talent 
  • It keeps you awake at night

Rick’s Nuggets

  • I believe that a lot of the challenges  are coming from two places:
    • Speed
      • Not taking the time to understand before selling
    • Need
      • Need to get this filled / off my plate

How do we solve the problem?

  • Your phone screen (aka: discovery call) sets the tone for the relationship
    • If your transactional, expect that from the relationship
    • If your adding value, expect that from the relationship
  • Adding value:
    • Seek to understand a person’s WHY (Career Wounds)
      • What's broken in their career that you can fix
    • What does this person want? (besides a job)
      • Environment in which they will thrive
    • Can they make an impact?
      • Past performance is a key indicator of future performance
    • Do they align with your opportunity?
      • Where do they fit, where they do NOT fit
      • How you solve their career wounds
      • Let them connect the dots for you

Host Links:

LinkedIn: https://lnkd.in/dEWWWEq
Company: https://lnkd.in/dG5aMUxY
Podcast: https://lnkd.in/gyG9YDuD
Authored: "Healing Career Wounds" https://amzn.to/3tGbtre
HireOS inquiry: rick@stridesearch.com

Show Sponsor: Criteria Corp: https://lnkd.in/g8YbdsH

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Juggling Fundraising While Building a Strong Team with Bruce Watanabe of PowerBuy

Thursday Jan 06, 2022

Thursday Jan 06, 2022

People will only do something when it is in their own best interest AND aligns with our values. 

This was a key takeaway for me from the book “What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There” by Marshall Goldsmith. 

We talk a lot about aligning with values when hiring on this show. And almost everyone recognizes the importance but it is so often missed. Why?

First, the disdain that most of us share for hiring. Very few entrepreneurs enjoy the process of interviewing & hiring. But it is the single most important activity that YOU can get good at that will make the biggest impact in your organization. 

Second, the path of least resistance is easy… But it is almost always the wrong path. We must remember that the purpose of the interview is to get to the TRUTH about the person no matter the source. And the truth you need to know is not in skills. It is in positioning and value alignment. 

Bruce Watanabe is a serial entrepreneur whom has co-founded a number of technology and Internet ventures including, PowerBuy, MassGenie, SIRE Mobile (SMS Solutions), and SETA International (Global Systems Integrator & Solution Provider). 

With over 20+ years of leadership experience ranging from start-ups to Fortune 10 companies, Bruce is proficient in corporate strategy, business development, sales, and channel development. He is actively building Powerset from the ashes of a pivot and is here to share his wisdom 

Today we discuss:

  • Why it is important to prioritize the thing you hate most (interviewing)
  • How to balance raising capital while building a stellar team.

Challenge today?

  • People are the most important aspect of a company
  • As an early stage startup
    • Balancing generating revenue while getting financing
    • Need capital to hire the right people 
    • Pivot the business to powerbyte
    • Lack of funding, resources
    • Have the grit to power through the pivot

Why is this important to the company?

  • Only a handful of people stayed
    • Believed in the vision- disrupting social commerce
    • CTO- grit / determination to power through 
  • Relaunched the company 
    • Second raise 
  • Balance the valuation 

Rick’s Nuggets

  • First recognize/admit that you have no idea how to hire (admit to your problem)
  • Prioritize getting good at Interviewing
    • Values
    • Process
    • Evidence 

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Bringing the right team in place
    • Referrals- all interconnected
    • Advisors- only way to hire people 
      • Vouch for someone
      • Advisors must be strong
  • Prefer a strong 
  • At the end of the day, you can buy talent, you can't buy grit
  • Would love to get good at interviewing but …
    • Really hard to gauge if someone 

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Take an active role in interviewing
    • Seek to understand- filters down through the organization.
    • Poke holes & dig deep
  • Understanding positioning
    • What does the person really want to do?
    • Desire = Passion
    • Does their desire align with my goal
      • Don't be just a paycheck
  • Everyone gets the same interview
    • Often the best person for the business is the least like you
    • Evidence supports strong decision making

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today!  -Value:

  • Make sure you know who you are getting into bed with- have a great team
  • Know who your co-founders are
    • If you are friends, be prepared to lose them. Rarely a happy ending
  • Don’t hire on a resume/linkedin profile

Host Links: 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-girard-07722/

Company: https://www.stridesearch.com/

Podcast: https://www.hirepowerradio.com

Authored:  "Healing Career Wounds"  https://amzn.to/3tGbtre

HireOS inquiry: rick@stridesearch.com

Guest Links

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/bruce-watanabe-5a661a4/

Company: https://linktr.ee/powerbuyapp

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ppowerbuy/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/powerbuyapp

Twitter: https://twitter.com/powerbuyapp

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/powerbuyapp/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDjcG5dHXE282FGzfaf2Jjw

Pinterest:https://www.pinterest.com/powerbuyapp/_saved/

TikToK: https://www.tiktok.com/@powerbuy.app?

 

Show Sponsor:

Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/



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The Danger in Skipping the Interview for Internal Referrals with Todd Ausherman of Notaroo

Tuesday Dec 28, 2021

Tuesday Dec 28, 2021

Most of us have a tendency to fast track anyone who comes through an internal referral. The rationalization is that we automatically trust the referral source so the person will be a great hire. Add time pressure to fill the role and we are ready to extend an offer before the interview takes place.

Yes there is an increased likelihood that the person will work out. But there is danger too.

Because a person is a referral, is the exact reason why they need to be impressed with your thoroughness in your interview process. This does not dissuade the A-players from joining you. It gives them the impression of excellence expected from everyone within the organization. 

Our guest today: Todd Ausherman, CEO of Notaroo

Todd is an attorney and entrepreneur with over a decade of experience in building high growth companies in the financial services space.  Having successfully exited multiple companies, while personally hiring hundreds of employees along the way, he is currently building Notaroo, a lending software platform for the mortgage industry. 

Todd is here to share his experience with hiring internal referrals.

Today we discuss:

  • Why it is critical to thoroughly vet internal referrals
  • How to ensure the the referral fits

Challenge today?

  • The internal hire from the company that acquired the company
  • Build from 19-250 people in 3 years
  • Went into default and took two people
  • Got a hero and a zero
  • The zero - had his own way
  • Created a lot of barriers
  • Nothing got done
  • First hire power bred discontent among his tribe
    • Led to a mutiny
    • Unreasonable belief in his ability
  • Project fell flat

Why is this important to the company?

  • The team of malcontents poisoned the culture
  • Ultimately the CEO unloaded a bad employee on him

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Must do diligence for everyone, especially referrals
    • Why is this person being referred to me?
    • Do they align with our values?

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Culture first
    • Create a lot of events
    • Break down the communication barriers
    • Humanize himself as a leader
    • Open a channel for people to be heard, raise your hand
  • Spread out the balance of power
    • Minimize the possibility of a mutiny
    • Team leads responsible for smaller teams
  • Decentralized hiring control to the team leads
    • Process that multiple people decided on the hire
    • Recruiting - intro calls
    • Interview conducted in groups of 2- accountability partner
    • Leader final interview
      • Penguin question
      • Hired a person who didn't like penguins(company mascot), it didn't work out.
      • Knockout question: stick to it
  • Fire Fast
    • Eliminate the cancer as soon as you learn of it

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Values are what form your culture
  • Hiring process!
  • Knockout question!

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today!  - Value:

  • Sticking to your knockout question
  • Mindful of your key lieutenants and what their motivations are 
  • Confront the uncomfortable truth of seeing a person who is a performer but the agenda is self driven. Don't hide behind a person’s performance- cowardly

Host Links: 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-girard-07722/

Company: https://www.stridesearch.com/

Podcast: https://www.hirepowerradio.com

Authored:  "Healing Career Wounds"  https://amzn.to/3tGbtre

HireOS inquiry: rick@stridesearch.com

Guest Links:

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddausherman/

Company: :https://www.getnotaroo.com/

Show Sponsor:

Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

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The Reality of Recruiting for Your New Startup with Craig Conlee of Braid Theory

Thursday Dec 16, 2021

Thursday Dec 16, 2021

Finding the right people for your ground level startup is really hard! 

As every startup founder can attest, there is just no playbook to getting the right people to join your team. It is about just getting anyone with the right skills to join the team. Often resulting in an unsuccessful endeavor. 

So what’s missing?  …. Positioning & expectations alignment. 

Positioning is rooted in what the person you are considering, really DESIRES their professional growth. Are they a builder? A Improver? Or a maintainer?

Expectation alignment is how well the person aligns with your company values and what your expectations are for performance:

Step 1. Document your values and share them with each person. Allow them to lean in or bow out.

Step 2. Document how both parties view the responsibilities & performance standards.

Step 3. Then come to an agreement on how to keep each other accountable. 

Our guest today: Craig Conlee, Executive Advisor & Former Founder & CEO of Zealr

Craig Conlee has over 25 years of selling enterprise software for giants like IBM and HP with over $110M in total software sales. In 2015, Craig decided to startup a ML/AI B2B SaaS company to solve a problem he faced as a sales person. Craig graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a major in Political Science. As a student athlete, Craig is still the shortest rower in the 150 year history of CAL Crew. 

Craig Conlee grew up in Newport Beach, CA where he met his wife. Currently, he is living in Orange County with his family. 

Today we discuss:

  • Why alignment is so critical when hiring
  • How to align with people so they lean in to your opportunity

Challenge today?

Getting people that understand the work involved with a startup

  • Around location, mindset
    • Maybe a social thing?
    • A lot of people want to join a startup but want to be paid
    • Don’t understand equity
  • Right mindset, 
    • Easy to check out
    • Your not paying them
    • Let people join the team that don't fit the values
    • All equity based
    • Guilt for asking them to do work because you are asking a lot

Why is this important to the company?

  • Gravitate toward people who understand
  • A lot of education of the reality
  • You have to be very upfront as to where you are in the stage of my startup.
  • Which allowed me to clearly understand if they want to join or not. 

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Process in which you get to know people better
    • Repeatable & consistent way of interviewing
    • Every conversation was different
    • The good hires were just “lucky” 
    • Remove the luck from hiring
      • Worst gambler, yet a startup founder
  • Understanding what they want and what to expect
    • What they want
      • Avoid
      • Leading the witness
      • Selling rather than listening ***
    • Expectations
      • High risk of not succeeding
      • Equity as compensation
      • People getting offended by perceived value
      • Want a mix of cash & equity
      • Hire slow, fire really fast. Have knowledge base centralized for quick transition
  • Don't let yourself be held hostage
    • Avoid paying salary & equity balance- if they leave you have to start all over again
    • Balance keeping them from leaving
    • Conflict of interest in terms of valuation
    • Equity only
    • If it doesn't work out, it wasn't meant to be

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today!  - Value:

  • Have a sound, repeatable process of interview hiring
  • Hire slow, fire really fast.
  • Don't be held hostage!

Host Links: 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-girard-07722/

Company: https://www.stridesearch.com/

Podcast: https://www.hirepowerradio.com

Authored:  "Healing Career Wounds"  https://amzn.to/3tGbtre

HireOS inquiry: rick@stridesearch.com

Guest Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigconlee/

Twitter:https://twitter.com/velocitydata 

Show Sponsor:

Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

 

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Messaging to Personality Wins Positive Response with Greg Skloot of Crystal Knows

Thursday Dec 09, 2021

Thursday Dec 09, 2021

I sent out 63 inmails through linkedin a few weeks back and received only 2 responses.

My mistake… I did not tailor my message to the individual. Now, 8 months ago those same messages were getting on average a 52% response rate, so what happened?  

With all the noise fighting to get people's attention, It is easier than ever to get ignored. When the messaging you send seems way too common or anything at all like a templated message, you will fail.

Now, more than ever, the language you use when reaching out to prospective employees matters. And thoughtful messaging designed to align with a person's personality style is the most effective way to win-win a response!

Our guest today: Greg Skloot, Co-Founder & CEO of Crystal Knows.

Crystal is the app that tells you anyone’s personality. Using Artificial Intelligence, Crystal accurately identifies a person’s motivations, communication style, and other behavioral traits. 

Greg and his company have been featured in Inc, Fortune, CNN, Fast Company, MIT Technology Review, Wired, and the Guardian. He is the co-author of a book published by Wiley in 2019, Predicting Personality: Using AI to understand people and win more business. He was recognized by Forbes as 30 Under 30 in enterprise technology.

Today we discuss:

  • Why people are NOT responding to your outreach
  • How to get people to pay attention to you when you reach out to them

Challenge today?

  • Tough to get people top of the funnel
  • Cold writing, how to get someone to respond.
    • Information overload
    • Email not personalized
    • Does Not speak to who they are
    • Does Not communicate how they like to communicate
    • Passive- no incentive to take action if the email feels like a templated email.
  • Cold emails are really easy to disregard right now
  • The same role needs to be marketed differently for different people

Why is this important to the company?

  • More important now due to the tightness of the labor market
  • Difficult to get people into the top of the funnel

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Messaging from 6 months ago is really not working right now
    • Way too much noise
    • “What’s the opportunity?”

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Learn DISC
    • Dominance, Influence, Compliance, Steadiness
    • Free reading online
    • Integrating disc within your culture
    • Theory , knowledge & practice
    • Behavior & characteristics that are most important for a role
  • Know the Disc type of person you reaching out to
    • Expectations for the role
    • What the candidate's DISC profile is.
    • Personality fit percentage
    • Not supposed to be a disqualifier
  • Adjust your communication style
    • Communicate how the other person WANTS to be communicated with

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Hit someone with the PAIN first

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today!  - Value:

  • Use personality insights to break through the noise when emailing candidates cold
  • Adjust how you pitch a role based on the candidate’s personality
  • Consider integrating DISC into how your organization thinks about communication in hiring, team building and selling

Host Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-girard-07722/

Company: https://www.stridesearch.com/

Podcast: https://www.hirepowerradio.com

Authored:  "Healing Career Wounds"  https://amzn.to/3tGbtre

HireOS inquiry: rick@stridesearch.com

Guest Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregskloot/

Company: https://www.crystalknows.com/

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/crystal_knows/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/crystalknowsme/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregskloot

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crystalknowsme/?hl=en

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9BjRz6BlFNdQE1WRpFGIDQ/videos

----------

Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

 

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Following Hiring “Best Practices” Severely Impacts Your Ability to Hire with Rick Girard of Stride Search Inc.

Thursday Dec 02, 2021

Thursday Dec 02, 2021

We all have bought into the belief that following hiring best practices will ensure that we make the correct hiring decisions. Yet those best practices really do not produce consistent results. Why?

First, “best practices” are guidelines that trickle down from the big name-brand companies who all have the advantage of a much fatter wallet… And they are Transactional!

Second, what works for large companies does not work for startups. The truth is that you are needing to hire totally different people. Startup companies need “builders” to fuel company growth. And builders are not all about the $$money. They are about personal & professional growth. 

This requires that you approach these people in a way that is counterintuitive to “best practices” and centered upon answering the question, “what’s in it for me”.

For those of you who are new to the show or don’t know me yet:

  • Cut my teeth as an Executive Recruiter for Tech Startups in the Silicon Valley
  • Coached leaders, candidates & helped to build over 200 tech companies
  • Black belt in BJJ,  F1 aficionado & adrenaline junkie

Today we discuss:

  • Why it is critical to break away from hiring best practices
  • Process to create your Own “best practices” that crush your competitors

Challenge today?

Beliefs

  • There really is NO right way to hire
  • Hiring Fails are acceptable (50% success rate) 
    • Cost of doing business
  • Copy those who are already successful
    • Google today is much different than Google at your stage.
    • Evaluate for cultural fit… you evaluate for skills
  • People from name brand companies are great hires
    • They may be…. If they are builders
    • Most people that are willing to leave big companies are not high performers
    • High performers have “golden handcuffs” - best to rent
  • More candidates give me a greater chance of success
    • More candidates = time loss
    • Target 
    • 1-3 people per position into the Interview process

Focus

  • Top of funnel
    • Reliance on job boards 

Execution

  • Interview training

How do we solve the problem? 

What to believe

  • Strong hires come from someone in your network
  • Positioning before Skills
    • Positioning is in a person’s DNA
    • Builder, Improver, Maintainer
    • Only builders will help you grow the company

Focus on the interview, not the funnel

  • The Interview process is what wins hires, not the number of candidates
  • Current best practices are:
    • 10-15 minutes on a “screening call” 
      • Selling the company
      • Selling the job
      • Gather requirements
      • Schedule an interview
  • Importance of the Discovery call
    • Biggest time investment is to be made
    • Determines a person's positioning (builder, improver, maintainer)
    • Invaluable insight into a person’s pain, what they desire
    • Impact they have brought into their current organization (key indicator of a builder)

Make Interviewing your strongest talent

  • Solidify your process
    • Timing 
      • from first contact to offer acceptance
      • Timing of each interview (45-1 hour)
    • Rules
      • Interviews start and end on time!
      • No meandering
  • Steps - Discovery call, Interview (video, onsite) -number of interviewers
  • Content- pre determine & assign interview questions
    • Questions must be designed to surface evidence of value alignment
    • Not about asking questions but having conversations
  • Broadcast your process
    • Make it known that the interview is challenging
    • Hire for Value Alignment first!
    • Make it known that you foster growth for “builders”
  • No Evidence, no vote
    • Interviewers need to be trained!
      • Roleplaying 
      • Recording conversations
    • Bias has no merit
      • Either a “Hell Yes” or a no
      • Decision must be supported by evidence

Rick's Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-girard-07722/

Company: https://www.stridesearch.com/

Podcast: https://www.stridesearch.com/hire-power-radio

Authored:  Healing Career Wounds (Amazon)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B094TL14CD/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

HireOS inquiry: rick@stridesearch.com

 

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

 

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Emotional Intelligence First, Skills Second with Nada Lena Nasserdeen of Rise Up For You

Friday Nov 26, 2021

Friday Nov 26, 2021

Emotional Intelligence is defined as the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one's emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically.

Over the past year, EQ has become less important to companies because of the NEED for someone to fill the seat. This is just creating more problems, as less care is invested into uncovering the fit into the organization. 

We need to understand that high performers are taking their time to find the right opportunity. So this is your wake up call to SLOW down!

Now, more than ever, it is critical to cultivate our own emotional intelligence & implement intelligent hiring practices into your organization. 

Our guest today: Nada Nasserdeen, Founder of Rise Up For You

With over 10 years of experience as a college professor and former top executive for an education corporation, Nada understands the importance of fusing education, empowerment, and leadership together as she works with her clients and speaks to audiences worldwide. 

Her company, Rise Up For You has been featured and worked with brands such as CBS, Google Next 19, and various Fortune 500 companies as well as small businesses.

Nada has been awarded 40 under 40 professionals in Orange County, California, and Women of Influence for Entrepreneurship in 2021.

She is a #1 Best Selling Author on Amazon, Leadership and Career Confidence Coach, and 2x TEDx Motivational Speaker.

Today we discuss:

  • Emotional Intelligence and Why it needs to be front and center 
  • How to activate emotional intelligence into your hiring process

Challenge today?

  • Building technology at such a fast rate
  • Learning is not catching up
  • Result: Huge gap in human skills
  • Most values are human skills
  • Not looking as values as a benchmark to hire
  • Fostering the culture of human skills in the company so you can embrace 
  • Social skills are creating problems for the organization
  • Active values

Why is this important to the company?

  • Result 
  • Executives who implement Emotional intelligence in hiring
  • Practicing EI- when things opened up 87% of her team, others were at 12%
  • Sales increase of 325%

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Feeding frenzy from the company end 
  • NOW is the time to SLOW down.
    • Candidates are taking their time
    • Easy to manage the timeline through communication
    • Must progress through to conclusion

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Vales need to be activated around EQ
    • Take each value 1 by 1 and figure out how to activate it in the culture.
    • Steps to put values into action plan
    • Create a value campaign
    • Plan to execute the value
  • Coach, train and provide development on these skills
    • On going, not a 90 minute
    • Enough training to be able to trainer, you no longer need a consulting company
    • 6 month engagement
    • Skills don't grow overnight
  • Accurate company analysis
    • Gauge on where the company is as far as strengths and weaknesses
    • Can not make an impact unless you know the truth
      • Survey to uncover where the work needs to be done
    • Looking for evidence 

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Making the values a language
    • Decisions made by the north star
  • Emotional intelligence needs to be tied directly to your values

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today!  - Value:

  • Do an assessment - understand who and where your company is
  • Reevaluate the values and create a strategic map around implementation Ongoing training around soft skills to build the muscles within your team  

Guest Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadalena/

Company: https://www.riseupforyou.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/riseupforyou/about/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RiseUpForYou/

Twitter: :https://twitter.com/riseupforyou?lang=en

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/riseupforyou/?hl=en

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/RiseUpForYou/featured

FREEBIE: https://calendly.com/riseupforyou/freetraining

 

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

 

Rick’s Book - Healing Career Wounds: 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B094TL14CD/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

 

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How to Compete & Win-Win Against a Huge Salary with Michael Downing of MDSV Funds

Thursday Nov 18, 2021

Thursday Nov 18, 2021

How do you compete against a huge company like Amazon or even a really well funded startup? 

If you are competing checkbook to checkbook, you will lose… Every time! 

The only way to tilt the odds in your favor today is to really understand the career wounds of the person and to be able to connect the dots as to how your opportunity fulfills their desires. 

This requires you to listen. Stop selling and start understanding what is important to the individual. This will allow you to stand out from the competition and allow the person you need to hire to see value above and beyond the paycheck.

Our guest today: Michael Downing, Founding Partner of MDSV Fund 

Michael is a Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur, has co-founded 6 software companies over a 28 year career, 3 of his companies were acquired and one had an IPO in 2006.

For the last 3 years, Downing has focused on investing in promising early-stage tech companies via his venture capital fund MDSV. Michael has recruited, hired and managed hundreds of employees over the span of his career.

Today we discuss:

  • Why leading with the checkbook is a very bad idea
  • How to win talent by NOT leading with the money

Challenge today?

  • People are getting paid crazy numbers
  • People need to have a major passion of belief in the company
  • Now this is a requirement
  • Conviction & belief are the new requirement
  • wild/ disruptive concepts draw in talent
  • Without a big/bold vision you struggle- pirate ship opportunity- highly disruptive company

Why is this important to the company?

  • Key positions are being filled by people doing side hustles
    • Full Time at companies like facebook
  • Necessity for side hustles

Rick’s Nuggets

  • People are jumping ship because they no longer align with the company values
  • Too often big salaries = lot’s of problems (attrition, toxic culture, bad leadership, undefined work) 
  • If someone turns you down for a higher offer, you blew your hiring process. 
  • “Rent gold before buying silver” - Steve Newcomb

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Be new, bold, unique, disruptive concept- big vision
    • A new way to solve a problem, product in a totally different way
    • Investor pitch- ½ people say “that's crazy”- your onto something
    • Make believers in what you are doing
  • Build an advisory board first
    • Thoughtful about who the members are
    • Translates to 6-12 contacts that can be team members
    • Credibility
    • Positioning
    • Funding

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Have a interviewing process (you are being judged too)
    • People to take you seriously

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today!  - Value:

  1. Set Yourself Up For Hiring Success: It's got to be a Big, Bold, Kickass Vision
  2. Plant Your Roots Early: Your advisory board can be the single most valuable hiring resource in the earliest of days
  3. Don't Conform: Adapt Your Policies & Benefits to people's changing lifestyles

Guest Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeldowning/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michael.downing.7161953

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/michaeldowning

 

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

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The Need for Entrepreneurs to Ask for Help with Vincent Kimura of Smart Yields

Thursday Nov 11, 2021

Thursday Nov 11, 2021

Asking for help as an entrepreneur is often a difficult thing to do. But it is the one thing you MUST do if you want to succeed. 

I learned this from my friend, Lori Torres, the founder of Parcel Pending. Lori was able to grow the company from $0 to a $100M exit in six years … and the reason it was such a success is because she asked for help… a lot!

Asking for help gets people engaged. It allows them to gain insight into the business and is critical in getting over the business humps. It also sets the stage to hire outstanding people.

And guess what, people will do it because they want to help. 

Our guest today: Vincent Kimura, Co-Founder of Smart Yields. 

A Hawaii-based and globally recognized agriculture technology company that is revolutionizing the way small- and medium-scale farms operate.

Vincent was named the 2016 Clean Tech/Ag Entrepreneur by the Hawaii Venture Capital Association and a 2016 finalist in the Pacific Business News Business Leadership Awards. 

He was also named to the Pacific Business News 2016 40 Under 40 cohort, which recognizes outstanding young business professionals in Hawaii. He lives in Honolulu with his wife Lisa and their three children.

Vincent faces the daily challenges of start-up life and is here to share his learnings. 

Today we discuss:

  • Why it is important to ask for help 
  • How to get the help you need when hiring

Challenge today?

Asking for help to support your hiring process as a startup founder? 

  • Understanding how a person is positioned
  • How willing to take on risk
  • Introductions- changing the dynamics to leverage more mentorship
  • Passion for the mission of the company
  • Concerned about the perception from the outside
  • We end up hiring to fill a need vs. what the business needs

Why is this important to the company?

  • Wasn't able to grow in a natural way
  • Fully driven by the CEO
  • Passion might be there but 
  • Less emphasis on trying people out vs. All in
  • The team is the make or break

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Big difference between people who want to do the work and those who do the work for the paycheck.
  • Eliminate the Assumptions

Hey Subscribers!  Keep an eye out for our newsletter as we are giving away 10 signed copies of Healing Career Wounds! Simply complete the linked survey and your name will be entered in the drawing.  You'll also be able to download a free chapter of the book just for participating!

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Define what the business needs
    • Core values
    • The business strategy & model
    • What needs to be done & when
  • Understand the person's desire
    • Go Slow
    • Identify builders… and Improvers
      • Discovery call
      • Builders will tell you they need to build (bored with the work)
  • Eliminate the Assumptions
  • Hire what the business needs
    • Your ego, wants and assumptions
    • Start with contractors
    • Barter
  • Letting go
    • Stop doing everything yourself!

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Help someone else's business while they help you build yours
  • Expectations alignment document- will solidify a fit for your leadership team
  • Business needs - support to grow

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today!  - Value:

  •  Don’t wing it….
  •  Get help and plan it out…. Do your homework 

Guest Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincentkimura/

Company: https://smartyields.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/smartyields/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/smartyields

Twitter: https://twitter.com/smartyields

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smartyields/

 

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

Rick's book - Healing Career Wounds (Amazon)

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Hiring 101: A Lesson in Peer Learning with Darrian Mikell of Qualifi

Thursday Nov 04, 2021

Thursday Nov 04, 2021

The reason we do this show every week is to dispel the commonly held belief that “there is no right way to hire”. Most entrepreneurs & investors believe that you just have to find the right skills and “trust your gut”. Hoping that the person works out.  

The consequences of this thinking results in countless sleepless nights, missing project deadlines, unstable mental health, increased capital burn and ultimately company failure.  Which is NOT good for investors, leaders or the people who follow us. 

Here’s the truth... There is a right way to hire! It just requires that you learn from your peers who come on to share their hiring success. They all have developed a structure and a process that allows them to stand out from their competitors.   

Lead a person through an impressive process that allows you to gain evidence of impact and you will build an amazing team. 

Our guest today:  Darrian Mikell, Co-Founder & CEO of Qualifi, A SaaS platform that powers the fastest phone interview experience in the world and helps recruiting teams hire great candidates faster than ever before. 

Darrian graduated from Indiana Wesleyan University in 2013 with a Bachelor's Degree in Entrepreneurship and Finance. Darrian was a 2-sport athlete in both Basketball and Track & Field and was a national champion in the Long Jump. He is based in the Indianapolis area and is a dedicated husband and father of 3.

Darrian is building a ridiculously successful business because he already conquered his hiring challenges.

Today we discuss:

  • Why it is important to care about your interview structure 
  • Two Components you need to successfully hire and sleep better at night

Challenge today?

  • Candidates have options
  • Options are unlimited - a lot of remote options
  • Workforce has expanded from local to global competition

Why is this important to the company?

  • Not hiring the right people limits growth
  • Hiring the wrong people -
    • Wrong people take you down the wrong path
    • When people doesn't work out - back to the drawing board
    • Case study- grew to 73, hired over 100 people and is now 21 people.
      • $7mm wasted!
      • Major money waste
    • 25% hiring success rate
  • Wrong leaders, wrong investors

Rick’s Nuggets

  • You must stand out to draw people in

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Planning out hiring
    • Proactive to get someone in the seat on time
    • Gap analysis- Knowing the gaps on the team 
    • Problems that need to be solved
  • Structured approach to the hiring process
    • Pre-planning your process and mechanics
    • Use the Qualifi tool for screening
      • Phone interviews
      • Automated phone screen
        • Pre-recorded, audio-based questions
        • Every candidate gets same exact experience (makes the review process more consistent)
        • Time is a huge factor in recruitment and efficiency can be an advantage
          • First to candidate can be important factor
  • Pre-scripted live interviews
    • Assigned interview questions (round robin)
    • Each person takes notes throughout the interview
  • Real time feedback with the team to make a decision quickly

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Phone screen (discovery call) is the biggest missed opportunity
    • Opportunity to understand the person. 
    • Critical - positioning (what the person desires)
  • Interview- eliminate bias
    • Consistent plug n play- same questions for every person
    • Decisions made based on evidence, not opinion

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today!  -Value:

  • Proactively plan
    • Understand who you need to hire, when you need to hire them, and how long it will take
    • Plan your strategy and what each step looks like
    • Plan your interviews
  • Create an interview script and get agreement on it with your team before the interview starts. Be prepared to iterate.

Guest Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrianmikell/

Company: https://www.qualifi.hr/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/qualifihr/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/qualifihr

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DarrianMikell

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darrianmikell/

 

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

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Why Employees are REALLY Leaving Your Company with Leilani Quiray of bethechangeHR

Thursday Oct 28, 2021

Thursday Oct 28, 2021

We are in full swing of this “Great Resignation” and a record 4.3 million people quit their jobs in August. 

If you are one of the business leaders who have been losing people, please realize that it is not them, It is YOU! People are quitting because they no longer align themselves with your company values … especially the mandated policies in and around the pandemic. 

Right now, there are much better options in the form of growth and career satisfaction. Which is why people are taking their time in locating the opportunity that they really want. 

So, if you want to stop the attrition and be able to hire strong people, get solid on your values and focus on what each individual is desiring in terms of their personal career growth. 

Today we are discussing exactly what you need to do to become an employer of choice to start winning great people!

Our guest today:  Leilani Quiray, Founder & CEO of Be The Change HR

A conscious company and social enterprise, providing  HR support for small-to-medium sized businesses in any facet of HR from pre-hire to post-term and everything else that happens in between. Her and her team also teach free job readiness courses and provide free coaching to individuals who’ve been trafficked, homeless and veterans in transition.  Her team is not only HR Pros, they are Life Changers. 

Today we discuss:

  • What people really want today from their careers in this great resignation
  • The elements you need implemented in your company to successfully hire the strongest people

Challenge today?

  • Why employees REALLY are choosing new employers?
  • How to become the employer of choice today?
  • People think they know what people want, but they don't know
    • Money 
    • Benefits 
    • Perks 
    • Unrealistic vision (modeling google)
    • What the owner wants (I like X so they’ll like X)
  • What is it that people REALLY want?
    • “Experts stress that people are leaving their jobs as workers across the country are demanding higher pay, better employment conditions and critical support in their daily lives.”

Why is this important to the company?

  • Companies need humans
  • ethics/moral duty to have a healthy workforce
  •  ROI
    • More engagement = more profitable of a company

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Flexibility: Personal freedom is a real issue!
    • Attrition is happening due to continued company vaccine policies
    • Both for and against
    • “Don't want to be micromanaged” 
  • What does not matter … as much
    • Compensation
    • Benefits & Perks

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Ask your people
    • Needs are different
    • Use buckets core values & data on why people choose companies/stay at companies
    • Survey your people unanimously 
    • Use data to make decisions
    • Communicate back - low morale and distrust if you do not
  • Job requirements reasonable? (also think DEI and diverse hires)
    • Education and where (Harvard?) - biggest hurdle
    • Opens the hiring pool to disadvantaged candidates
  • Compensation Analysis
    • Market Value
      • Free tools BLS
    • By demographics too
  • Employer branding
    • What do you look like publicly?
    • Core values shine?
    • How awesome you are should show!
    • Evil Glassdoor (aka the Yelp for employers)
      • Get ahead of the bad reviews by getting good ones
      • Damage control and a look at ones own org if you already have bads ones
        • Take a look at who you are hiring
  • Core Value Work
    • Do you have them?
    • Assess them
      • Tool?
    • Book?
    • Live them
    • Weave them into everything
      • We ask “are we living our core values?”
      • Language within the company and how decisions are made

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Are your values real?
  • Job requirements need to be eliminated and replaced with performance metrics
    • Form of conscious bias
    • Performance Metrics = Accountability
  • Interview for core value alignment
    • Value alignment is the only true measure to ensure performance and tenure
    • No reason to move when you provide everything a person desires

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today!  -Value:

  • Do Pulse Check Surveys!
  • Rethink your recruiting strategy: job requirements, your online presence, comp analysis
  • LIVE your core values!

Guest Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leilaniquiray/

Company: https://bethechangehr.org/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bethechangehr/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bethechangehumanresources/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/bethechangehr

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bethechangehr/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqsQa5CXid2I0xQwiVyE2nw/featured

 

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

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The Hidden Pools of Sales Talent with Chris Beall of ConnectAndSell

Thursday Oct 21, 2021

Thursday Oct 21, 2021

While everyone is chasing the same people, ie: those who work for competitors or the 3-7 year up-and-comers, there is a huge pool of talent that are on the sidelines waiting for a well positioned opportunity to present itself. 

I’d like to challenge you to think about the concept that outstanding talent comes from the most unlikely places. 

Last week we heard the story of a top sales performer at Swag.com who had no sales experience at all. But the Desire alignment was through the roof and now this person is absolutely thriving in their organization. The creativity & outside the box thinking is what sets the stage for success! 

Today is all about hiring outstanding sales people in an environment that is ridiculously competitive. 

Our guest today:  Chris Beall, CEO of ConnectAndSell

For 30 years Chris Beall has led software start-ups as a founder or early-stage developer. He believes the most powerful part of a software system is the human being, and that the value key is to let the computer do what it does well — go fast without getting bored — in order to free up human potential. 

Chris and his team provide a SaaS solution for sales teams to talk to more prospects, and hosts a podcast, Market Dominance Guys.

Today we discuss:

  • Why you are looking in the WRONG places for sales talent
  • How to adapt your hiring model to uncover high performing sales people

Challenge today in hiring sales people?

  • Can't find people
    • Everyone is chasing the same (wrong) people
  • Get bid up (too expensive) 
  • Takes forever to train 
  • They bounce
  • Not interested in the job
  • Huge untapped pool of talent (over 40)

Why is this important to the company?

  • Adopting a 2 tier model you 
  • Flow rate of meetings is a bottleneck of almost every company
    • Always invest in the bottleneck

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Value alignment within the organization is more important than ever before
    • Connecting the dots between values & desire avoids bidding wars
    • Creating value above and beyond the paycheck
  • People do not leave when they are in alignment

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Change your model 
    • Make SDR as a real professional job
    • Look at different age demographics
  • Identify people who come from the industry you sell to 
    • Huge untapped pool of talent (over 40)
  • Interview like you mean it
    • Test people. Have them do some work
    • Have 10 conversations
      • Good voice
        • Can you make people laugh
        • Modulating your voice
        • Listen to the conversation
      • Coachable
      • Length of time you keep people on a call

Rick’s Nuggets

  • “Walk me through the process how you closed your last deal”
  • Scripts are king!
  • Align your interview process with your company values
  • To properly assess people you need to be able to evaluate them for alignment

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today!  - Value:

  • Take the SDR role seriously and not just as a stepping stone. (your company’s bottleneck
  • Embrace real management for sales- pay attention to process
  • The only thing a SDR needs to do is sell a meeting… not the product.

Guest Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-beall-7859a4/#

Company: https://connectandsell.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/chris8649

Blog: http://blog.connectandsell.com/

Podcast: https://www.marketdominanceguys.com/

 

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

 

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Hiring Your First 10 People with Jeremy Parker of Swag.com

Thursday Oct 14, 2021

Thursday Oct 14, 2021

Growing your company from 2 to 10 people is the most critical time in your company's life cycle. The reason for this is every single hire that is made can make or break the company. 

Every founder I meet has a story of “we hired a person that we thought was going to be a rockstar and it turned out to be a disaster”. 

So where do things go wrong when a bad hire is made?  

The interview was run from a position of need;  where we focus on selling the opportunity. So excited to get this new rockstar on board that we totally forget to take the time to understand if the person aligns with the values of the organization.

The good news is there is a solution to avoid these sometimes deadly mistakes and it just requires structure and developing your listening muscle. 

Our guest today:  Jeremy Parker, Co-Founder and CEO of Swag.com

Swag.com is the best place for companies to buy and distribute quality swag that people will actually want to keep. We work with 5,000+ companies including Facebook, Google, Amazon, Netflix, Spotify and Tik Tok.

Jeremy was named to Crain's NY 40 under 40 (Class of 2020) and Swag is #218 on the Inc 500 (2020) and #368 (2021)- Fastest growing private companies

Today we discuss:

  • The importance of the first 10 hires
  • Process to avoid making the wrong hire

Challenge today?

  • Hiring for the resume
  • People who have done it in the past
  • Not about the skills but the culture
  • One bad hire can destroy a business

Why is this important to the company?

Story:  First 2 years just the founders. Then scaled quickly to 14 people

  • Who you hire in the early days is super important.  Need to be the right fit, for the right time.  They could be a great person and extremely talented but if they are not the right fit for the time it can go sideways.  
  • Up to 70 people now and everyone is ability is important, skills not as important, as culture

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Stop micromanaging
    • Guide & teach & trust that people will get it
    • Allow people who are hiring to do the job
  • Right mentality & Right focus (embracing failure)
    • Failure is ok
    • Embrace it!
  • 4 rounds of interviews
    • First meet with Department Head.  If that goes well, meet with someone who is currently in that same position in the company, to make sure they feel this person can do the job well. 
    • If that goes well, meet with the COO,
    • if that goes well, meet with CEO.
    • If the candidate gets through all rounds and everyone feels they could be a good fit, we get at least two reference checks.  Someone who they worked under and someone who they worked alongside.  

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Evaluate everyone around your values

Key Takeaways -Value:

  • Being ok with failure! Nothing can go wrong when you are ok with it. Failure will get you where you need to go.

Guest Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyianparker/

Company: https://swag.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/swag.com/

Twitter:https://twitter.com/promotewithswag?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/promotewithswag/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swagdotcom/?fbclid=IwAR1TnFCOQ8kv-chtsiP5wKexliw55YISu2rESPCLGUu86tEynikmspBy9xc

 

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Corp

 

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How to Thrive in Hiring Through the “Great Resignation ” with Rick Girard of Stride Search Inc.

Thursday Oct 07, 2021

Thursday Oct 07, 2021

4 Million Americans quit their jobs in July of 2021 , according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. What this means is that you have a tremendous opportunity to upgrade your talent base in your organization. 

The pandemic has magnified people’s career wounds in a way that every business will be impacted. 

While many reasons are given as to the cause of this mass exodus, the root of the fall out is that the people leaving are no longer in alignment with the company’s values. 

Value alignment is now more critical than ever to attract and hire people. Because when people align with the actual company values, they find meaning & discover their purpose. 

And their purpose is far more important to them than your profits.

Today is a special episode due to the massive number of requests from our audience about this little problem called the great resignation

We discuss:

  • Why it is critical to own your company values
  • How to prosper in Hiring - TODAY!

Challenge today?

  • My people are getting poached!
  • We have come to a point where people want meaning & purpose in their lives.
  • Perks, compensation & benefits no longer matter
  • People are questioning their “why”
  • Imbalance
  • Stress & heartache
  • More flexibility is not the real issue
  • Inc Article https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/great-resignation-work-meaning-esther-perel.html
  • Demonstrating meaning & the company cares about them as “human beings”

Why is this important to the company?

  • Who’s leaving?
    • Mid- career employees have the highest resignation rates! (30-45)
  • You are positioned to heal a person's career wounds. 
  • When you align with values and provide a solution to heal, both parties WIN
    • People are expecting win-win relationships with their employers
  • The Great Opportunity!
    • Easiest time in history to engage A-Players!
    • Raise the performance bar in your organization

4 Steps to Win-Win Talent in this Great Resignation

Get solid on your Values

  • Key to attracting top performers
  • Who you are
  • how you lead
  • how people act 

Understand your Recruiting Process

  • Recruiting is how you identify people & get people to talk to you.
  • Just because you recruited someone great, doesn't mean you should hire them
  • Or that they will even accept your job offer
  • What is working today
  • Target and Contact & Reconnect
  • Do not sell, listen

Understand your Hiring Process

  • Start with an in depth Discovery call (phone screen)
  • Does this person’s desires align with the company  (correctly positioned)
  • Not skills
  • Vision for the environment in which they will excel
  • Timed & structured Interview
  • Values alignment first
  • Skills second (working session)
  • Nurture a proactive flow  - allow the person to have a voice in what happens next
  • What would you like to do next?

Heal the Career Wound

  • Growth, Content of work, Management
  • Value Alignment
  • Progression, learning, flexibility
  • If you cannot provide a path to the individual, don't hire
  • Someone else will thrive in the role
  • You will be just a paycheck (if the person joins) 

Key Takeaways -Value:

  • The “Great Resignation” is real and you need to be capitalizing on the opportunity that has been presented to us!
  • Get tight on the company values… They are the key to a successful hire
  • Don't confuse a recruiting process as a hiring process. They are two separate activities. 

Rick's Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-girard-07722/

Company: https://www.stridesearch.com/

Podcast: https://www.stridesearch.com/hire-power-radio

Book: Healing Career Wounds -  https://www.amazon.com/Healing-Career-Wounds-Ridiculously-Successful/dp/173580360X

 

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

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Time Kills Hires with Andrew Bartlow of Series B Consulting

Thursday Sep 30, 2021

Thursday Sep 30, 2021

Time and People are the most precious asset your company has on the road to success or failure. 

As leaders, It is our responsibility to protect the time of our team to ensure that projects are delivered on time. It is also our responsibility to put processes in place that ensure that the strongest people are in the right seat!

Shouldn't each step of the interview process have a purpose and save time for everyone involved?  

Yet Interviewing is the single point of failure in almost every company. 

Too long. 

Too short. 

No clear direction.

Or riddled with boobytraps that repel strong people from even engaging with your company! 

Our guest today:  Andrew Bartlow, Founder & Managing Partner of Series B Consulting.

Which helps businesses to articulate their people strategy and accelerate their growth while navigating rapid change. He also founded the People Leader Accelerator, which is the foremost development program for HR leaders at startups.

Andrew Bartlow has 25 years of Human Resources and Talent Management experience at organizations across a wide spectrum of sizes, maturity stages, and industries. He is the co-author of “Scaling for Success: People Priorities for High Growth Organizations,” 

Andrew has worked with clients like MasterClass and many others to help them overcome obstacles in a hyper-growth phase. 

Today we discuss:

  • Why your timing kills hires
  • How to Time out your process in the most effective manner

Challenge today?

Filling roles with good people with less of an internal organization tax

Too many interviews, too much time - I’m out

  • Over emphasis on consensus, 10-12 people over multiple rounds
  • Giant time drag on a company  
  • People fall out 
  • Offer to close rate 60% is not good!

Why is this important to the company?

  • Time - interview time takes away from productivity
  • Rapid growth is usually essential. Time burns cash runway, employee time and goodwill, and competitors keep coming. 
  • Efficiency matters - particularly at the early growth stages
  • Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. Should be able to make rapid hire / no-hire decisions, and fair/reasonable separation decisions without months of agony. 
  • “Hire slow and fire fast?” I’d suggest looking for a goldilocks zone on both. Take the time necessary, but not one minute more than what is net value-adding to do both. 

Rick’s Nuggets

  • All that is needed is:
    • Discovery Call
    • Value Alignment Interviews 
    • Working Session (skills)
  • 10 business days max

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Start by clearly defining the roles that you want to fill
    • Source candidates in a scalable way
    • Expand the pool
    • Employer branding
    • @ Series A should get beyond friends & family network
  • Hire a dedicated recruiter
    • Need a screen / filter before the manager sees the candidate
    • Passive candidate magnet
    • Check for compensation expectations & role interest; initial assessment of required skills, knowledge, and experiences
    • Goal is that ZERO candidates make it to the hiring manager who have out-of-bounds pay or role expectations, and all of those candidates moving forward have experiences that reasonably match the role  
  • Manager vetting before meeting the team
    • One and done interview process ~30 minutes 1on1 via video
    • Confirm that the candidate is interested in the role and the comp budgeted - preclose the candidate
    • Ask for references here!
    • A candidate shouldn’t come meet with a team until / unless the hiring manager is a strong advocate to hire them. Don’t waste the broader team’s time.
    • Work Product Sample (optional - often good for technical roles, but rarely for G&A)
      • Give a real problem - don’t spend a lot of time coming up with hypotheticals, too many variations which will change
      • Faster / easier / more accurate to work on a real problem. Just get an NDA.
      • Related alternatives - Can review Github rather than request a project. Can conduct a live shared-screen working session. Can ask for examples of prior work that demonstrates a good fit for the role.
      • LOTS of candidates drop out at the project stage. Don’t let this become a barrier!
    • Team Screen
      • One and done over video, with multiple people involved
      • Cultural (watermelon @ Gusto) interviews have a risk of being counterproductive. To be effective it should be structured, interviews have good training, and the traits assessed should be really clear AND ALIGNED with the future needs of the org. Danger of holding onto the past - what got you here, won’t get you there.
    •  Decision
      • After the team screen, there should be a hire / no-hire decision. Lots of organizations get hung up comparing candidates, not sure what they are looking for. You need to fill jobs with good people and KEEP MOVING. A hiring manager / hiring team which isn’t sure what they are looking for is the single largest waste of time and energy in the company-building process.
      • Can have a calibration meeting. Maybe the recruiter supports it, but really, the hiring manager should own the decision and have the most energy around moving forward.
    • Offer & Candidate Closing

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Reverse engineer the time to hire and set timelines for each stage
    • Set process before you define roles
    • Train your people on “how you hire”
    • Gain commitment from interviewers for excellence

Key Takeaways -Value:

  • Streamline your process. Fill jobs with less time from the team. May or may not fill the role in fewer days, but can reduce total hours committed by the group from 100+ to closer to 10. Yes, this requires a bit more ownership and potentially a little more time (per candidate) from the HM, but should dramatically reduce the overall time by the team.

Guest Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bartlow/

Company: https://www.seriesbconsulting.com/

Speak On Podcasts: https://speakonpodcasts.com/andrew-bartlow/

People Leader Accelerator: https://www.peopleleaderaccelerator.com/

 

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

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How to Stop Sucking at Hiring Sales People with Joseph Fung of Uvaro

Thursday Sep 23, 2021

Thursday Sep 23, 2021

Hire slow, fire fast is a motto we have all heard as startup founders. It makes logical sense but what really happens is quite the opposite. As entrepreneurs we shift into panic mode when we have a need and move quickly to fill the role. Completely missing all the evidence that this person will be a bad hire.

Once the person is in the seat, the dread of having to refill a role often leads to concessions made to the detriment of the business. 

Hiring Slow means investing the time to really make sure the person will be a strong hire. Therefore there should be no need to fire fast. Especially if you really understand who the person is and gain evidence of the value they add to the company. 

Think of each person you hire as being worth $2 million dollars to the company. Changes your perspective, right?

A lot more care and a higher talent bar would be prioritized over just “filling the seat”. 

Our guest today: Joseph Fung, Founder & CEO of Uvaro

A tech sales career accelerator, and of Kiite, a sales enablement platform purpose-built to provide sales teams with the information they need when they need it.  Joseph’s a repeat Founder & CEO, and with multiple successful exits, and speaks frequently on the topics of sales leadership, diversity, and corporate social responsibility.

Joseph is an expert in sales, startups and building scalable culture. 

Today we discuss:

  • Our mentality around hiring sales people
  • How to effectively attract & hire high performers 

Challenge today?

  • Hiring for software skills rather than problem solving skills
  • No internal training- want someone who already doing what you need done
  • Rely on stereotypes and gut
    • Need people who can speak to a bigger variety of customers

Why is this important to the company?

  • Fix the problem, you can triple the production of 1st year sales reps
    • 8 months to ramp, average sales rep only achieves 60% of quota
    • Ramp in ⅓ time and drive production to 80% - Training
  • Churn & burn kills morale 
  • Cash costs are immense on the back end

How do we solve the problem and hire the strongest people every time? 

  • Throw out your job description
    • Translate ideal customer to sales job description
    • Ideal Customer Profile- go granular
  • Choosing what & who to hire
    • Invest in Revops & sales enablement
    • 50:1 ratio Rep to SE is a start => move to 20:1
  •  Mindset
    • Treating the organization with respect
    • Thinking is you solve the problem by hiring more people
  • Interview
    • Culture fit interview - “Is this someone I want to have a beer with?” not
    • Turn it into a behavioral interview - what behaviors demonstrate values alignment

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Performance metrics are most critical component today for job descriptions today
    • Accountability up front
  • Understanding a person’s positioning
    • Transactional Sale VS. Enterprise/Solutions Sale
    • Resources available 
    • Builder, Improver, Maintainer
  • Uncovering the impact that has been made in their current/former position
    • Save time, increase revenue 

Key Takeaways -Value:

  • Throw out your job description . Copying others is just propagating bad habits
  • Stop asking people to sell like the founders - it won’t work
  • Re-think your culture fit interviews...write behavioral questions 

Guest Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephfung/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/josephfung

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/josephfung/

Company: https://uvaro.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/school/uvarolife/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/uvarolife

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uvaro.life

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uvaro.life/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/uvaro

 

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

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Hiring for Talent Optimization with Mike Zani of The Predictive Index

Thursday Sep 16, 2021

Thursday Sep 16, 2021

“There is work that needs to be done and I just need someone good to do the work”

*** sigh ***

This is what we tell ourselves when we decide to hire someone. But it is so much deeper than just getting a butt in the seat! 

Growth is the most important factor here. So, we must start with the end in mind to avoid making HUGE hiring mistakes! 

Yes, we need to get the work done but will this person really help your company grow? And more importantly, can your company provide the growth that the person you want to hire desperately desires?

Our guest today: Mike Zani, CEO of The Predictive Index.

Mike Zani, the Wall Street Journal best selling author of The Science of Dream Teams, is CEO of The Predictive Index, the leader in talent optimization. Prior to The Predictive Index, Mike served as president of LEDCO, a manufacturer of rugged computer peripherals. It was at LEDCO where Mike, a customer of The Predictive Index, developed his passion for the company’s vital management tools. 

An avid sailor, Mike began his career in marketing and sales with Vanguard Sailboats and was a coach for the 1996 U.S. Olympic Sailing Team. He holds a B.S. from Brown University and an MBA from Harvard.

Today we discuss:

Hiring for Talent optimization

  • What is talent optimization
  • How to hire for it

Challenge today?

How to you hire well within the context of time & risk

  • What risk are you willing to take on bad hires?
  • Systems in place to support the risk
    • 30, 60, 90 day check ins to support 
  • Do you just want t body in a seat
  • Persona 
  • A talent optimized system allows you to train & develop
  • Need to develop the programs to support

Why is this important to the company?

  • We are 30 years behind sport in bringing analytics for hiring
  • What is sport doing now?
    • TA is the single most important function in the organization
    • Need to take a maniacal approach to hiring.
    • Fantasy league hiring takes more time than hiring to companies
  • Data drives success
  • Performance measurement

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Getting the right person the the bus is FAR more important than getting work done
    • If the work is that important, hire a contractor
  • The mistake made is the optimism of the founder
    • Assumptions
    • Hire on their potential (assumed), bias (assumed) & need (get it off my plate)
    • Zero time is taken to understand what the other person desires, other than a paycheck
  • Consider this: The cost for every bad hire is $2M

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Top of funnel strategy
    • Clear mission
    • Hiring brand that attracts talent
    • Palpable culture - Strong enough that it disqualifies people
    • Great referral strategy - cash after 6 months,
  • Bottom of funnel strategy
    • Hiring systems
    • Strong assessments -behavioral , cognitive, analytics
    • Hiring process, structured interviewing
    • Training- especially on cultural interview aspects
    • interviewer grading, scoring, developing
    • Remove people who are bad interviewers
  • Post hire Strategy
    • Benchmarks 
    • Performance systems - 30,60,90 day
  • Hire for buoyancy!

Rick’s Nuggets

Mid Funnel Strategy

  • The Interview
    • Structured & timed
    • Values aligned
    •  Challenging
    • Does the interview produce evidence to support the decision
      • Is the evidence supported by the assessment?

Key Takeaways -Value:

  • Need a post-hire system! 
  • Can take more risk 
  • Need to have a feedback loop to add/subtract people from the interviewing process.

Guest Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikezani/ 

Company: https://www.predictiveindex.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/predictiveindex?lang=en

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/predictiveindex/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepredictiveindex/?hl=en

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCexehrVsBrP9SiNeBm4pY7Q

 

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

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How to Terminate an Employee with Dignity - Lori Torres of Parcel Pending

Thursday Sep 09, 2021

Thursday Sep 09, 2021

The first time I was fired was when I was 16 years old and working at Numero Uno Pizza. It happened really strangely, I went in to pick up my paycheck and the manager let me know that this paycheck would be my last one as I was no longer employed there. 

No warning and no explanation.

Bewildered, I simply walked out the door, walked across the street and was hired by their competitor. 

The way in which the whole experience went down, left me feeling embarrassed & resentful. 

Never again did I eat at that restaurant because of the way they made me feel. 

Our guest today: Lori Torres, Founder & Former 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.

Lori worked to build a world class organization and is going to share her wisdom.

Today we discuss:

  • Making the difficult decision to part ways 
  • How to fire a person in a way that leaves everyone feeling good about themselves

Challenge today?

  • When is the right time to make a change and terminate someone?
  • Can you afford to do it, do you have the bandwidth
  • Taking the time to really understand 
  • Have an intervention- performance improvement plan, use to be successful
  • Articulate to really improve the person's performance
  • Everything possible to make sure they are successful
  • Accountability tool &  

Why is this important to the company?

  • Benefits: often find someone better
  • Help the person you are terminating to the world,
  • Embrace the people management side of the business
  • Termination is part of the evolution of the company
  • Change needs to happen,
  • This is the game we are playing, these are the rules, here’s how we move forward
  • What you need at $3mil is different at $10M  

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Be proactive in your hiring
  • Hiring for growth first - start with the end in mind
  • “people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” - Maya Angelou

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Identify performance issues first
    • Candid open, specific conversation
    • Time frame to meet the expectations
    • Check in: not meeting expectations, 
  • Provide a performance improvement plan
    • Whatree performance is now, when they are not meeting expectations, when we are going to convenience to review
  • Termination
    • Reason for termination:
    • Labor attorney- worth the money to handle things properly
    • Quick conversation : next step, it is not working
    • Part ways with dignity! 
    • Severance with a legal document release of liability & non-disparagement 
    • Walk them out the door and wish them well
    • Offer help to help them move forward
  • Sample Termination
    • Rick gets Fired!

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Really take seriously the performance metrics that were set for your people in the job description
  • Evidence to support the hire first!

Key Takeaways -Value:

  • Really spend the time to hire correct people. It's like dating, Interview a lot
  • When the person is not performing, invest the time to 
  • Have non-confrontational conversations with people

Guest Links:

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/loritorres/

Company: https://www.parcelpending.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ParcelPending

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/parcelpending

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/parcelpending/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFj7yh4kDC7Jx5CDUYnar7A

 

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

 

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Why You Need to Interview Like Amazon Now! with Rick Girard of Stride Search Inc.

Thursday Sep 02, 2021

Thursday Sep 02, 2021

Answer: Linking Corporate Values into Your Interview Questions eliminates bias

I posed the question to a room of over 400 corporate executives and the results shocked me when I first asked it. Now when I ask the question, the results just make me …. Sad.

“Please raise your hand if you have had any formal interview training at any time in your career, other than what not to say in an interview”.  Three hands were raised. 3 out of over 400 people! 

And we wonder why hiring is “hard”. Guess what, It is not so hard for companies like Amazon who, from the beginning, have structured and trained their people HOW to effectively interview people. This is why they have always been a talent magnet, and not because they pay well. 

3 out of 400 people! This was a major a-ha moment for me and it should be one for you! 

Imagine the impact your company will have on this planet when you and your people get really good at hiring.

Today we discuss:

  • The importance of linking values to interviewing
  • How to set up and execute a values driven interview

Challenge today?

  • Talk about bias elimination 
    • cannot happen until interview questions are designed to extract evidence
    • The content of the interview cannot be left up to chance
    • The fate of each interviewee is determined in the first 15 minutes at most. Sometimes in the first 5 minutes….. All based on bias 
  • 51% chance that your decision is wrong
    • Unchallenging, unimpressive interviews only attract people who are there for the paycheck
    • Talented people (A-players, change makers & high performers) do NOT want to work for yahoos! 
    • Informal, unstructured & unprepared interviews make you look like a yahoo.
    • Offer turn downs are at an all time high

Why is this important to the company?

  • One word: AMAZON
    • Leadership principles (company values) are what drives decision making 
    • Customer Obsession
    • Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers.
    • Hire and Develop the Best
    • Leaders raise the performance bar with every hire and promotion. They recognize exceptional talent, and willingly move them throughout the organization. Leaders develop leaders and take seriously their role in coaching others. We work on behalf of our people to invent mechanisms for development like Career Choice.
    • https://www.amazon.jobs/en/principles
  • Talent is drawn toward excellence

How do we implement values driven interviewing? 

  • Clearly write down your company values
    • Founders- this is you & your values 
    • As you ad people, reassess at least bi annual- especially before hiring ANYONE  
  • Develop Values
    • Clear definition of what the values means to the company
    • What attributes characterize each value
    • Measurables (how does a person live the value in their day to day life?
    • Sample exercise

Value #1 Dignity

Definition: Treating yourself and others with respect & courtesy

Attributes:

CEO

Co-founder

Dept Head

acceptance

Self-respect

self-confidence

Non judgemental

equality

Respect for others

Self esteem- elevation

decency

Stands tall

empowered

  

Treat as equals

 

Measurables:

*** Empowering others

*** Respect for others

*** Non-Judgemental

  • Build interview Question Library
    • Behavioral questions designed to bring evidence of how people “show up”
    • "Tell me about a time...." or “Describe a time when….” or “Outline a time where….” or  "Give me an example of..." 
    • Questions must be Indirect & not obvious to the interviewee 
    • Evidence to support Attributes 
    • Support / follow up question flow

Value #1 Dignity 

Attributes: 

*** Empowering others 

*** Respect for others 

*** Non-Judgmental 

  • Tell me about a time you helped elevate the performance of one of your teammates (Empowering Others) 
    • How did you learn of the issue? 
    • What were the events that led to this performance being important to you? 
    • How much time do you dedicate to the cause? 
    • How do you feel you could make more of a difference? 
    • What makes this important to you?  
    • What was the outcome? 
  • Give me an example of a time you stood up for a person you didn't know (Respect) 
    • What steps did you take? 
    • How did this affect the other person? 
    • What made this action important to you? 
  • Describe a really uncomfortable work situation that needed to be addressed that was personal to the other person? (Non-Judgmental) 
    • What were you asked to do? 
    • How did it make you feel? 
  • Reinforcement & Training
    • Live your values
    • Make it a language by which decisions are made (like Amazon)
    • Teach everyone who interviews, how to extract evidence
    • Capture data - training & compliance purposes 

Key Takeaways -Value:

  • Invest the time to build out your corporate values - the Payoff will be HUGE 
  • Take the next step and connect them to your interviewing
  • Train your people! Part of their job is to other high performers so give them the tools to do so

Rick's Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-girard-07722/

Company: https://www.stridesearch.com/

Podcast: https://www.stridesearch.com/hire-power-radio

Book:https://www.amazon.com/Healing-Career-Wounds-Ridiculously-Successful/dp/173580360X

 

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

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How to Effectively Make Your First Departmental Hire with Liam Rose of Catalina Seven Ventures

Thursday Aug 26, 2021

Thursday Aug 26, 2021

You are at the point in your business where the company is ready to hire the first person to head up a department (i.e.: sales, marketing, engineering). You are excited and terrified at the same time. You’re thinking “I have to get this right”... and you are right, you do!

How do you evaluate a person with an area of expertise that you are NOT familiar with? 

The answer, my friends, is being prepared, digging deep and really listening! Step outside of your first impression and be aware of your tendency of confirmation bias. 

Shift your focus on gathering concrete evidence and the outcome will be the correct decision every time. 

Our guest today: Liam Rose, Founder of Catalina Seven Ventures.

Liam is the founder of Catalina Seven Ventures, a Southern California consumer software startup. Before forming C7V, he managed the sales team for an Orange County-based entertainment startup. As a result of his own challenges trying to juggle health, academic obligations, and personal relationships while attending the University of Richmond, Liam created a new approach to life scheduling built to enable better balance. During his time at the Robins School of Business, he was selected as a 2019 Innovator Under 25.

Catalina Seven Ventures' first product, HORUS Life Schedule, is now available for Beta testing on iOS and Android (access available through the company website)." 

Today we discuss:

  • How to effectively make your first departmental hire

Challenge today?

Hiring the first person within a department

  • How do you make that hire
  • How do we know if the person is good
  • What's the barometer 
  • First tech person, marketing, HR or finance person

How do you know if the person is the best person do the job at the current stage

  • Culture & environment fit
  • Metrics & deliverables
  • How well they can make the connections between metrics and the outcome

Why is this important to the company?

  • They will be the departmental cultural lead
  • Top quality people hiring more top quality people
  • The greatest impression people get is from the interview process itself
  • Set the tone on how you are going to manage the person based on the interview process itself
  • Improved interview process results in a higher level of talent 
    • Demonstrates the ability to understand the individual
    • Ignorance of the process

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Every hire is critical at every stage of your start up!

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Signaling - feel a unique attraction to our company 
    • Job Advertisement
    • Distributed via word of mouth/referrals first 
    • The step beyond who we are. Bold- unapologetically ourselves
  • Demonstration of understanding 
    • Interview process
    • Realistic expectations
      • Show that people can succeed
      • Difficult but not impossible
    • Show professional empathy
      • What is going to make you most happy? 
      • What does the individual want?
      • Communication preference, invest in every core operation of the company
    • Calling the Hotline
      • Advisor de-risk
      • Outside influence to identify the obvious 

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Prepare yourself by adopting process, engage in interview training & experience 
    • Process: must have a flow and timing- Start on time, end on time
      • Discovery call (45 minutes)
      • Interview #1 Cultural (60 minutes) 
        • Deeply tied to corporate values/principles/culture
      • Interview #2 Working Session - judge skills (60 minutes - ½ day) 
        • Live example of how we work together, problem solve, communicate 
  • Interview Training
    • Behavioral interviews produce EVIDENCE to uncover the TRUTH
    • Assign interview questions to the individual interviewers
    • Prepare the candidate for what to expect
  • Experience (not yours, theirs)
    • A-players are attracted to excellence
    • Leave everyone feeling good about their time investment 

Key Takeaways -Value:

  • Their language, not your language 
  • Gets you the people you want rather than the people you can get
  • Use experience to de risk: everyone in your network. What you should avoid with absolute certainty

Guest Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liamwrose/

Company: http://catalina7ventures.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/c7vinc

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/catalina7ventures/

 

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

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The Great Resignation & Struggle Learning with Sam Caucci of 1Huddle

Thursday Aug 19, 2021

Thursday Aug 19, 2021

The key to retention is growth. With looming fears of “the great resignation” company’s are unsure as to how to structure the organization. Forcing a state of flux that is not healthy for the business. 

The poles tell us that at least 40% of people will quit if forced to go back into the office full time. Will your company have a mass exodus? If you have not put your people first…. Most likely.
Companies who have been fostering personal & professional growth through leadership will experience far less separation because they have put their people in front of the transaction. 

Our guest today: Sam Caucci , Founder & CEO of 1Huddle

A workforce tech company that upskills, trains, and motivates employees through science-backed, quick-burst mobile games. 

Sam founded 1Huddle on the belief that every worker deserves access to the job training, support, and coaching needed to win on the job. Put simply, 1Huddle is making training more fun, effective, and accessible for the entire workforce.

Sam is also the author of the #1 bestseller, Not Our Job: How College has Destroyed a Generation of Workers and How to Fix it. Sam is an expert in workforce engagement and development. 

Today we discuss:

  • Why struggle based learning is the key to retention
  • How to build learning into your culture

Challenge today?

  • Training
  • Do unto others as it was done to you
  • Struggle is important to learning
  • Leverage technology to increase outcomes

Why is this important to the company?

  • Middle management job function is more important than ever
  • How do we arm them to be better coaches to the front line
  • 55% of workers are Millennials & GenZ
    • They like structure
    • Coaching up and development 
  • Struggle based learning 
    • Game based learning 45% faster!
    • “Make it Stick” -Peter Brown
  • "It's the Manager” Only 15% or workers are engaged (before pandemic)- Gallop
    • #1 driver to engagement is having a coach 

How do we solve the problem? 

Struggle based learning

  • Content Audit
  • What do you have now?
    • Gaps - Where are the business problems?
    • Finding content: buy vs. build
  • Selecting Technology (learning management system)
    • Accessibility, Outcomes &
    • Authoring
    • What kind of staff is required to manage it
    • Wrap learning in a game format
    • Mobile first
  • 52 week calendar (never ending game)
    • Continual development
    • Up-skilling (stop siloing workers)
    • Reskill & re-onboard

Key Takeaways -Value:

  • Workforce technology is making it easy to more effectively onboard every worker from frontline to full time
  • Effective skill building and retention requires struggle
  • Managers need better tools and strategies to onboard, develop and engage workers.

Guest Links:

Sam Caucci:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samcaucci/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/samcaucci

Company:

1Huddle: https://1huddle.co/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/1huddle

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/1huddle/ 

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/1huddle/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/SalesHuddleAcademy

Author of the #1 bestseller: Not Our Job: How College has Destroyed a Generation of Workers and How to Fix it (Amazon)

 

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Crop: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

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Fully Remote Culture with a Social Mission with Brian Roland of Abenity

Thursday Aug 12, 2021

Thursday Aug 12, 2021

We can all agree that running a remote business has become very challenging from both a cultural and productivity perspective. If anything the past year and a half has taught us, it is that paying attention to the needs of our people is really hard. Especially when they are remote. 

So how do we progress through this challenge and continue to grow?....Take on a social mission. 

We have all heard the term “givers gain”. When your culture merges with cause, it propagates purpose. And, a shared purpose attracts value-aligned people and elevates company performance.  

Our guest today: Brian Roland, Founder & Chairman of Abenity

Brian is a social entrepreneur and Founder of Abenity, the 6x Inc. 5000 company that’s powering corporate perks for top brands like U.S. Bank and Mastercard.

Abenity recently exceeded $1 million dollars of total giving!

Brian lives in Scottsdale, Arizona with his family and enjoys roasting coffee, flying drones, and helping impact-driven entrepreneurs establish a social mission of their own. He has built a fully remote, purpose driven organization that absolutely crushes it!

Today we discuss:

  • Why cause brings purpose to your company
  • How to build a social mission

Why don't we build cause into our companies from the beginning?

  • Launched into remote work with a false positive
  • Shared purpose needs to be outside your brand
  • Fighting for is more powerful than fighting against
  • People become lost on an island without purpose
  • People need something bigger than their day to day routine to stay healthy
  • Hybrid is dangerous… either all remote or onsite….
    • Can create a resentment culture

Why is this important to the company?

  • Process of navigating back from fully remote work
  • Still very uncertainty
  • Doing what is best for your work routine will breed resentment with my employees
  • What mix is correct? 
    • Potential pitfalls in onsite, remote, hybrid
  • Culture is what needs to be fought for above everything else

Rick’s Nuggets

  • The more structure you have in your company early on, the easier it is to attract the Strongest/value-aligned people to the company. 
  • High performers are attracted to excellence, not ego. 
    • Excellence is structure

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Impact plan
  • Define your giving model
    • Put profits towards a cause
    • Give from savings - what you save in rent
    • Flat fee, percentage, 1 for 1 
  • Create a social mission statement
    • Use this template to build a Social Mission Statement:

Here's a template that you may find useful for your social mission statement:

 [your belief statement here], 

and that's why we [summary of your impact plan here]. 

With this commitment, we're communicating a powerful message, [your purpose statement here, why you care about your cause].

Here's our Social Mission statement at Abenity:

Perks are about people and that's why we sponsor children living in extreme poverty with the programs we deliver. 

With this commitment, we're communicating a powerful message,

that whether you're an employee at a Fortune 500 Company, or an orphan in the developing world, you are valuable, what you do matters, and you can make a difference.

  • Share your impact story
    • Publish an impact report (https://prks.co/Impact) 
    • Market the social mission
    • Brand differentiation
    • Everywhere you are comfortable
  • Setting up accountability
    • Who are you inviting in?
    • Invite the team to hold everyone (including you) accountable 
    • Board, investors, cpa, and/or staff 
  • Identify blockers
    • Anything that is holding back
    • Debt
    • Growth commitments
    • Must overcome before you can embark on the mission 
    • “Once we achieve this as a team, then we start our mission of giving” 
  • Do what you said you would do!

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Define the values that align with your cause
  • Understand that 

Key Takeaways -Value:

  • Just show up
  • Download the Impact Report to start your Social Mission

Guest Links:

To download the 5-Step Impact Plan, text “Impact” to (615) 802-6853

For more on creating a 5-Step Impact Plan, read “5 Steps to Maximize Your Business Impact” https://www.brianroland.com/single-post/5-steps-to-maximize-your-business-impact 

For some inspiration, check out Abenity’s Impact Report to see how they’ve funded over a million dollars of direct giving at https://prks.co/Impact

To set a perks program for your group, visit Abenity.com and use code “HirePower150” to save $150 off your first month’s services.

Brian Roland: LinkedIn 

Company: Abenity  Twitter  Facebook  YouTube

 

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Crop

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Balancing Quality & Speed as You Hire to Scale with Brian Breth of Fair.com

Thursday Aug 05, 2021

Thursday Aug 05, 2021

It is time to change our mindset on how to really attract and hire the strongest people. The answer is not having the  greatest recruiters or tools. It is not about having strong “employer branding” or compensation plans. The answer is really simple... It is about gathering the evidence in the interview to support the decision without assumptions & bias. 

Leadership drives hiring , not recruiting or HR. 

Mic drop moment: There are two critical components to your people function. Recruiting & Hiring. Recruiting is run by, well, recruiters and Hiring is run by hiring managers, executives & founders. 

To land the strongest people for your organization both functions must have structure, synergy and adequate training to be successful. 

Our guest today: Brian Breth, Riot games alumni & former VP of Talent Acquisition at Fair

Brian is a talent acquisition leader and US Marine Corps veteran with 20 years of experience forging, adapting, and applying best practices to complex business challenges in recruiting. He has a proven track record as an entrepreneurial leader whose ability to align teams, enact change, and build sustainable frameworks enables businesses to attract top talent and become more efficient, productive, and competitive.

Specialties: Global talent acquisition strategy and operations, leadership coaching and development, team-building and communication, process development and implementation, networking.

Brian was responsible for scaling Rubicon Project from 200 to almost 800 people in two years.

Today we discuss:

  • Why Quality is more important when you scale
  • How to scale without sacrificing quality

Challenge today?

  • Scaling quickly without sacrificing quality
  • Mindset
    • Lets get people as fast as we can
    • Competing for talent
    • Finding the best people
    • Not clear into what the values are then translating it to others
  • Managing the expectations of investors
    • Growth at whatever cost is dangerous

Why is this important to the company?

  • A startups evolution 
  • Culture is the most important element for founders
    • Desire for culture conflicts with the investors desires for rapid growth
    • To become a competitor you NEED the best people

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Understanding what you are up against today
  • Flip the funnel upside down
  • Work referrals at scale

How do we solve the problem? 

  • Acquisition 
    • Understand that hiring people needs to be understood by leadership
    • A commitment from leadership
    • Cannot just set it & forget it
    • Just as important as your new product pipeline
    • Alignment at the executive level as to where and how they want to compete for talent
    • Realistic on what you can pay
    • Value prop - speaking to what is important to the person from a more intrinsic value.  What’s important to me?
    • Build out the people function 
  •  Retention
    • Invest internally to retain them
    • Value - a future to live into
    • People leave because they no longer see a future for themselves
    • Develop leader to provide the future for each team member

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Understand each individual’s pain, desire & impact
  • Invest in the discovery call!
    • 45 minutes saves hours in the long run
    • Crucial checkpoint

Key Takeaways -Value:

  • Founders look at what you are investing in your people function
  • What you invest in talent acquisition you should be investing into leadership training to get them really good at hiring

Guest Links:

Brian Breth: LinkedIn 

Website: Riot Games   Fair   TechRecruit Conference 

 

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Crop

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Employees Value Purpose Over Money with Lorna Borenstein of Grokker

Thursday Jul 29, 2021

Thursday Jul 29, 2021

Have you ever thought to yourself “If we only could have paid a bit more money, we would have landed the A-player we really needed to hire”?

If so, you would be wrong. 

We often assume that money is the main reason for the turn down but in reality, it is our inability to demonstrate how our opportunity brings purpose to the individual. It is no longer a time where good people will sacrifice career satisfaction for a paycheck. 

The balance of power has shifted and the mindset has changed. One thing we have learned from the pandemic is that purpose trumps the paycheck for almost everyone worth hiring.  

Our guest today: Lorna Borenstein, Founder & CEO of Grokker.

The social health and wellbeing network that helps employees at global enterprises to move more, sleep better, eat more healthily and reduce financial stress. Her new book, It’s Personal: The Business Case for Caring, thoughtfully examines the Human Connection Movement™ in the workplace, which is fueled by a growing desire among employees to feel more connected to one another and as a result, better connected to their jobs. 

Lorna’s expertise has been featured in top tier publications including Bloomberg, Fortune, and Entrepreneur. As a sought after speaker and panel moderator at leading industry conferences, Lorna presents on the current state of workplace wellbeing and engagement. 

Lorna is a member of Forbes Human Resources Council and a frequent contributing author.

Today we discuss:

  • The importance of Purpose as today’s main currency
  • How to unearth purpose in the hiring process & beyond 

Challenge today?

  • Insides match your outside
  • Create a high performance culture
  • Connect mission vision & culture
  • To drive results to not move away from humans but toward it
    • Cost of not caring is the failure of your business
  • Creating a safe place to be (psychological safety) 

Why is this important to the company?

  • To keep your people you need to treat them with empathy
  • Silent revolution (they will just walk out)
  • People do not want to feel alone (feel like they are part of the tribe)
  • Companies on the fortune best places outperform the s&p 500 by 2:1
  • 40% of employees report that managers have not asked them how they are doing through the pandemic
  • Appreciation & interest as a person translates to a 7x increase in innovation 
  • 61% of employees will take a lower salary for better benefits
  • Empathy is the new company sexy

Rick’s Nuggets

  • If your understanding the person then you are transactional, and deserve to lose 
    • Selling, pitching, focusing on compensation
  • Understand a person’s career wounds first
    • “What’s happening in your current role that has you open to hearing about something potentially stronger?” 

How do we solve the problem? 

  • State your commitment
    • I'm committed to you and here's what I am going to do 
    • Living values inside & outside the office
    • People need to feel safe and valued (psychological safety) 
  • Link their needs what you are going to deliver
    • Listen & accommodate  
    • Coping accommodation -  digging into tactical solutions
    • Create personal/ family time
    • Survey on policies and adjust  
  • Provide tools
    • Digital tools to support healthy lifestyle
    • On demand on phones
    • Incentives for programs 

Rick’s Nuggets

  • Structure first!
    • Build your interview process around your company VALUES
  • Take advantage of the “discovery call” to build trust
    • Understand everyone’s pain, desire, & impact
    • Ensures people will show up for your interview

Key Takeaways -Value:

  • 3 tiered stratification model 
    • What did you sacrifice that may have damaged your culture
    • What is your competition doing?
    • Transformational thinking

Guest Links:

Lorna's Book: It’s Personal: The Business Case for Caring, thoughtfully examines the Human Connection Movement™

Lorna Borenstein: LinkedIn   Twitter

Company: Grokker  Facebook  Twitter  Instagram  YouTube

 

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Crop 

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