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How to Recruit Talent in This Competitive Landscape: Show Notes & Transcript

Post | Oct 29, 2024

Welcome back to Strategic Counsel by ForthRight Business! Looking for Marketing Smarts? You’re in the right place. After almost 4 years of helping to make you savvier marketers, we decided to broaden this podcast to include more business-oriented topics that will make you savvier business leaders.

In this episode, we’re talking about how to recruit talent in this competitive job market. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your other favorite podcast spots – follow and leave a 5-star review!

  • Episode Summary & Player
  • Show Notes
  • Strategic Counsel Summary
  • Transcript

How to Recruit Talent in This Competitive Landscape

Recruiting talent has never been more competitive – and candidates are expecting more than ever. How do you knock your recruiting out of the park? It comes down to developing recruiting profiles, recruiting where your candidates are, showcase a compelling culture, and optimizing your recruiting process from start through onboarding. Hear all the examples – good and bad – from our own careers in this extra fun episode. Here’s a small sample of what you will hear in this episode:

  • Why you should not look for the unicorn
  • Creating a company culture when recruiting
  • Developing psychographic recruiting profiles
  • How to partner with your community
  • How to establish relationships with universities
  • When to start the recruiting process

Check out the episode, show notes, and transcript below:

And as always, if you need help in building your Strategic Counsel, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at: ForthRight-People.com.

Show Notes

  • How to Recruit Talent in This Competitive Landscape
    • [0:00] Make sure to follow Strategic Counsel by ForthRight Business on your favorite podcast spot and leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts
    • [1:27] What leads to decreased performance?
    • [3:16] Opportunity + preparation = luck
    • [4:14] Understanding a psychographic recruiting profile
    • [7:24] Example of psychographic description in action
    • [10:13] How do you recruit for high empathetic nature?
    • [12:06] Going where your ideal candidate shows up.
    • [13:04] Where are they spending their time?
    • [15:19] How to effectively use paid social ads
    • [16:34] Shout your message to a very curated audience
    • [18:40] How to create an ongoing pipeline
    • [19:35] Priming on the long tail for university recruits
    • [21:01] Build with your community
    • [22:49] Establishing the culture of your organization
    • [23:43] Example profile
    • [24:40] Establish on a human level who you are
    • [25:39] How to attract the right people?
    • [27:20] Why you should not look for the unicorn
    • [28:51] Putting in the infrastructure to make this work
    • [30:01] How do I interview for aptitude vs. skill?
    • [31:45] The onboarding is the other place where we see it fall apart
    • [33:04] The role of testing and learning and re-evaluating in recruiting talent
    • [33:49] Utilizing 30, 60, and 90-day reviews for feedback
    • [35:10] Metrics to track for recruiting and retaining talent
    • [37:12] Don’t be afraid to showcase a very specific point-of-view
    • [38:07] Do your profiles!
    • [38:34] Learn more at ForthRight-People.com and connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn
    • [38:40] Make sure to follow Strategic Counsel by ForthRight Business on your favorite podcast spot and leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts

What is Strategic Counsel?

Welcome back to Strategic Counsel by ForthRight Business! Looking for Marketing Smarts? You’re in the right place. After almost 4 years of helping to make you savvier marketers, we decided to broaden this podcast to include more business-oriented topics that will make you savvier business leaders.

Thanks for listening Strategic Counsel. Get in touch here to become more strategic. 

Transcript

Please note: this transcript is not 100% accurate.

_

Welcome to the Strategic Counsel by Forthright Business Podcast. If you’re looking for honest, direct, and unconventional conversations on how to successfully lead and operate a business, you are in the right place. In our discussions, we push on the status quo and traditional modes of thinking to reveal a fresh perspective.

This unlocks opportunities for you, your team, and your business. Now, let’s get to it. Welcome to the strategic council podcast. I am Anne Candido and I am April Martini. And today we’re going to talk about a topic that is on all of your minds. Which is recruiting talent is competitive in landscape, but we’re gonna have a very honest conversation about this guys because We have talked to many of you and we know you’re struggling a lot Especially those of you who are maybe not in the sexiest industries or you’re very demanding emotionally or physically Positions that you’re trying to fill or maybe you don’t have the best pay or benefits.

And so Maybe you’re not having as much success at it, but there’s probably Very, very good reasons for that. So we’re gonna get very honest about why that might be today. Yeah, and to put a fine point on one of the maybe symptoms that we’ve seen in a lot of companies is this whole idea of kind of throwing your hands up and just hiring a warm body, right?

And so we think that that compounds a lot of the trouble That we’re seeing within organizations because when you go and do that, I think there’s a, I checked it off my list, I found someone from, for the seat, you know, and we know it can be hard, but we said we’re going to be honest about this because what happens when you go and you settle for someone?

It really does affect then what’s going on with inside your company and I kind of look at it like a domino effect it’s like all of a sudden the performance starts to suffer and then people that were doing really well all of a sudden seem to be falling off and it may be because they’re feeling a little disgruntled that they’re having to pick up the slack or people are looking around like How in the world do we profess to be this and we’ve hired these people, right?

So that’s a lot of what we’re going to talk about today. And I think it’s not meant to be overly negative, but like Anne said, it’s what we’re seeing and what you’re asking us about. And we understand your guys struggle, so please don’t hear us in saying that we don’t get it. Yeah. We do get it. I mean, we know, I mean, you’re going through people quickly, it’s, like we said, very competitive market.

You gotta put people in those seats now. A lot of your businesses count on that. Yeah. So we get that. And that’s why, when we think about the whole concept of recruiting and talent, especially if you’re needing specific talent for specific roles, which you’re gonna talk about, It has to be an always on process guys.

You can’t just turn it on one day and expect the next day you’re going to get the ideal candidate. There’s a lot of things that you need to be thinking about in order to be able to put yourself in the best position, because we all know, you know, if we think we’re going to get that lucky candidate, it’s opportunity plus preparation is what equals luck.

So if you’re not focusing on the preparation part, when the opportunity hits, you’re going to totally. Miss it and that’s in business and that is specifically on talent acquisition. Yes, all of that. Yes All right. So where do we begin? All right Let’s go start at the very very beginning and that is on recruiting profiles you guys We have seen so many of you who are trying to hire and you don’t even know who you want to hire Yes, right and that’s kind of to April’s point about warm bodies is like, okay If I don’t know what to hire than anybody could be a candidate But what do we tell you guys about your business if you’re trying to be all things to everyone you’re not gonna be anything to Nobody, right?

So that’s the same with recruiting And when you, so when you’re trying to figure out who am I going to go after, you need to figure out who is the right person for this role and for this company that requires you to fill out an actual psychographic recruiting profile. Now, what do I mean by a psychographic recruiting profile?

Most of you guys will write your profiles out based on skills. This person must have three years of experience in this industry. This person must have an ability to use this process or use this computer program or whatever that may be. I’m not saying that those aren’t important. There’s probably some minimum amount of that that you’re going to need for your positions, but if you can really sit down and figure out what is the actual.

Psychographic nature of somebody. So psychographic means their attributes, their lifestyle, the way that they approach life, their passion areas, how, um, how you describe them as a person. When we’re talking about personal brand, it would be your personal brand characteristics, like all those things about like what a person is or who that person is at a human level.

We’ll open up your talent pool significantly. And a really good place to start, because I’m gonna think about the reactions we’re seeing or not seeing from all of you as you roll your eyes and say, oh come on, that sounds like a lot of work. The thing that you can do is look at your organization, pick a handful of people, actual people that sit in seats, and do this for them.

To take the pressure off. What you can do is say, okay, we have Adam in accounting, and we have Susie in production, and we have Jenny in HR, and those are the handful of people that we would say really represent or are our shining stars, right? And so, Write down how you would describe those people to Ann’s point.

This is not Well, you know, we really like Jenny because man is she good at a spreadsheet, right? Things that you’re You’re thinking about right? It was Jenny and finance because finance people are super good at spreadsheets. It’s almost astounding I mean, I watched this one of the finance guys do like build a whole spreadsheet like five spreadsheets from scratch and In like less than 60 seconds and it was like the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.

Well, I think I said Jenny was in HR, but now since I’m so bad at names, I’ve lost track of the people. I’m not going to go to the actual people’s names, but what I’m trying to say here is this goes back to what we talk about all the time when we get into things like character or personal brand or all of those things.

This is how you would describe all of those people as human beings. So why are they as people valuable to the organization? So write up your you know, list or your narrative about how you would describe these people. And then when you have a handful of them, that will help you get to the psychographic profile that Anne’s talking about, where you can start to pull out and up what are those characteristics, right?

So is it, you know, they, they all do really well in the face of adversity. They bring lightness and levity when we’re having challenges. or we’re in tough moments as an organization, or they’re really awesome at bringing people along and they’re those type of people that are just magnetic and you want to be around them, right?

So those are all very human, psychographic things. That’s the profile you’re trying to get to. The thing is here is that not all Of these jobs are considered equal, even if they come from the same basis of a role description, if you will. So let me give you an example. So we have a client. And they do a lot of things, but a big part of their business is call centers for health facilities, right?

So for doctor’s offices. If you were gonna just take that role from a skill basis, you would say, I want somebody who has call center experience and maybe I want three years of experience, right? And hopefully it’s in health care. And hopefully it’s in health care, right? But, If you think about what it takes really for a someone to be very successful in that role, you’re not going to just be pulling somebody who does call center work for a retailer, for example, or it’s just not the same kind of quality of attributes that you need in order for somebody to be successful in this role because they’re dealing with very sensitive topics.

They’re dealing with people who are not feeling very well. They’re dealing with emergency, a lot of emergency situations. And they’re supposed to be representing the actual doctor’s office. And they’re supposed to be representing the actual doctor’s office. So there’s that, that parlay of brand. I mean, so there’s a lot of things to consider.

Now, the actual skill of working a call center. Can be taught. Yes, right, but you can’t teach somebody you need to be more empathetic You need to be more sensitive. You need to be able to have more passion in this area Those people you need to recruit because they’re naturally inclined for that. Yep. That is the psychographic profile We’re talking about and that is recruiting based on aptitude, right?

That is, these people exhibit the characteristics that are very hard to find that are going to be, help me be successful in my business when they fill that role, and then I’m going to teach them the skills. And it’s the right mix of those two. So I think that’s the other important thing to note here is, it’s not necessarily hard to go out and find, Empathetic people, but you’re almost looking for like the right cocktail The right right the right mixture, right?

It’s like yes It’s that and it’s also patience and it’s like and so when you get down to that psychographic profile It’s how those things mix together to bring that right person into the role. And so Getting really clear on that right mix Is where you really start to hit gold I think right so that mix might look like You I’m looking for maybe people who have a highly empathetic nature and you guys are gonna be like, well, how do I recruit for that?

You’ll recruit for them, and we’re going to get this in a second, in places that they would naturally show up. But, so you’re looking for people with a highly empathetic nature that maybe are computer inclined or have some process oriented skills. Not necessarily having to have been in a call center and thinking that that direct application is going to be beneficial.

But that there’s some level of technical ability or capability that leads you to believe that what they learned There is going to parlay into what they can do here from a technical standpoint So you’re not teaching somebody how to use a computer for example, right? But you’re starting from a place of like a higher order benefit.

That’s going to also give you your competitive advantage Yes for your business because these people are going to represent Transcribed you their client in a way that is going to build the business. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and I think that, you know, that point that you bring up next about going where they are, right?

Like it does take a level of proactivity on your part. Once you’ve identified who they are to then do the homework to figure out where they are. Right. So it’s like these two points really very much go hand in hand. And I think When we talk about pitfalls and things we’ve seen, we’ve seen clients get discouraged because they put together a really good profile, but then they think that they can use the traditional channels to go and find those people.

And I think that that is one of the things that gets really hard because it’s not an or it’s an and. And so you have to put that profile to work for you and you have to start thinking about, like Anne said, like, you know, highly empathetic people, where are they showing up? And what types of organizations are they involved in?

Or what kinds of schools do they go to? Or where are they in the community? Those types of things. You have to start going and seeking them out, because ultimately you want to draw them to you, but first you have to find them in order for that to start coming. Right. So if you’re just on a recruiting, Platform.

We won’t call out names, but you guys all know what I’m talking about. And you’re recruiting, um, and you’re recruiting for your role. And this we’ll just go back for a second to our client that we’ve been talking about. There is nowhere to put in there, I’m looking for a highly apathetic person. Right, exactly.

Right? Because algorithms don’t work like that. Algorithms don’t work like that. And so, what’s happening Also, people don’t build their resumes and things like that for those platforms. Because there’s nowhere to put that. There’s nowhere to put that. I mean, that’s something that you get As a result of actually understanding more about who they are as a person, and their backgrounds, and again, their psychographic profile of like how they live their life, what’s important to them.

And you can get those, that, that aspect of people by going to where those types of people are, which is what April just said. And so it’s really important to kind of understand like where are they receiving their information, where are they spending their time, so those psychographic profiles help you to understand that.

So for example, if you’re looking for a millennial or a Gen Z or age person, you’re probably not going to find them on Facebook. You’re right. Right? And so if you’re doing your advertising for your ads on that social platform, and you’re wanting to recruit those people in, you’re probably not going to find them.

You’re probably going to find them on Instagram. You might find some young professionals on LinkedIn, but you’re probably not going to find them on Facebook. So it’s really important to kind of think about where are they? Going to be consuming information where are they going to be looking and exploring job opportunities and some of it is not in a direct Recruiting a channel if you will now what I will say is social for a lot of our clients is working very very well Yeah But it’s a very intentionally curated to represent a cultural presence that you have which we’re gonna get to in a second and In a way that screams I am the company for you.

Yes You From the photography to the copy to what you’re offering, it screams, I am the company for you. I am talking to you, person, who fits this profile, and I want you to come work for me because I am going to be the best fit for you. Now, all that being said, there are some things that you need to navigate because when you start to recruit on these platforms, there’s certain rules that need to be considered.

You heard? A really good social media manager agency knows how to navigate those roles in a way that is going to still be conducive to your search. And guess what? They use the psychographic profiles to do that because they’re looking for the, what’s next to those people in order to capture their attention.

So I’m not going to say any more about that because it gets into a lot of specifics, which are very much attributed to your company and all those sorts of things. So if you are interested in that, hit us up, we’ll talk more about that. But what I am saying is social ads, paid social ads are working, just to be very, very clear, in a certain context and making sure that it’s in a channel that is where your target is actually going to be paying attention.

Yes, and we aren’t just talking about digital targeting either, or going just, going to the basics. Right, so that was just one aspect. Yes. That’s an alternative to using, Those sites. Those that shall not be named sites. Yes. But the other piece of this is physically going and finding these people, right? And this can also be a little bit grayer and a little bit tougher, right?

So some of the low hanging, really easy places, you know, Anne was talking about, you know, the generations you may be looking for. If you can go to schools, even high schools, colleges, trade schools, all of those things, that’s a really good way to start to build the pipeline, yes, but also those schools, those institutions, especially the colleges and trade schools, their whole goal for success is to get those students placed into jobs, right?

So by you going and building that relationship, you’re Paying into what success looks like for them and then that gives you an opportunity in a platform to do what Ann said, shout that message, that very curated message to the right people in those places and ask those institutions for help as well in doing so.

And so you start to build a relationship with them so that you’re top of mind and they also really understand who you are. What you’re looking for in your candidates so they can help with that psychographic recruiting, right? Because if you’re able to talk about it that way, it’s like, yeah, yeah. Okay.

You know, we need pipe fitters. I don’t know. As an example, I knew nothing about pipe fitters, by the way. But yeah, I don’t know where that came from. Well, I saw pipeline on the paper and somehow. I don’t know. It’s not bad. Who knows. Anyway, we’re just going to follow it. I get where you went there. Okay.

We’re going to, we’re going to follow it, right? So you need pipefitters for your organization, right? But what you have found is that actually the ones that do really well for you are the ones that feel like it’s a calling for them and so they, their work ethic is a really big part of, you know, them doing the job well and they feel really accountable and so they So what does that look like?

They’re the ones that always show up on time, right? And they have this inherent ability to speak to the client and educate them about what they need, right? And their pipe fitting needs. I don’t know. See, this is where it falls apart. But anyway, you get where I’m going with this whole thing. I should have picked something.

What kind of pipe fitting needs do you have? Well, okay, anyway, hopefully I’m not going to get dinged for not knowing anything about pipetting. Um, anyway. I hope our construction clients don’t listen. Yeah. Yeah. So you see the point about where we’re going though, right? Like you’re looking for a type of person and so when you make those relationships proactively, and okay, schools and those institutions are easier, right?

There’s also community events and, you know, there’s all kinds of other places and it does take a little longer as it gets a little grayer to go and seek those out. But when you do the homework to do that, it becomes that ongoing pipeline. Wow. This is usually your job on the show. Yeah, it really is.

You’re doing okay though. I’m giving you, you have a B plus right now. Okay. I’m getting graded here guys. Thanks. It’s just the pipetting thing is kind of, it fell apart for a second. A little bit out of left field, but you know. Anyway, so the whole point is, right, that if it’s an always on and you do the homework and then you put it to work, it does become sort of this machine and the really awesome thing that happens is it starts to draw the right people to you because Other people, other groups, other organizations start to be able to speak on your behalf because they also have the clarity of not just the skills or the years of experience or the job title of what you’re looking for, but who are those people?

Yeah. And I think there’s two different ways of looking at this because it’s the short tail and the long tail. Like a lot of people go to those digital sites because they promise immediate results. And usually when you need somebody, you want them tomorrow. Yeah. And this is why it’s. Yeah. Yesterday, probably.

Yes. Because you’ve been thinking about it for a long time. Which is why it’s so important that this is an always on thing. Because in order to deliver the short tail, you need to have been priming the long tail. So whatever that looks like for you. So another example, um, and I did this when I was at P& G.

I was on the University of Dayton recruiting team. Right? Right? That is one element that is the actually at the short tail of like when you’re trying to finally find the candidates The long tail is we sponsored a project with the senior design team Yeah, right and so that we got in there and we got to know some of these students personally and we could start hand picking Yep Who we might want in order to come in and fill our pipeline and they get the chance to interview you And they get the chance to interview us too But everybody loves P& G and they always wanted to work at P& G.

But that being the case, we also got I think that’s a falsehood, but okay. You could do a study on that. I’m sure it’s gonna come back in my favor. But then we also get to know the deans. And so then the deans are always constantly looking and be like, Hey, um, we have, uh, some several candidates we think are be ideal fits for you.

Here’s our top performers. We’re going to give you the first opportunity to interview them. Yep. Right. So adapt to. Yeah. So, I mean, it’s, it’s always a constant state of relationship building that helps you to fill whatever. Yeah. Position level that you’re looking for so to April’s point like going into the community is a big one Not only is that helping you ingratiate yourself and building reputation of your company in general to your community But it’s also getting the word out.

So if the person you meet will call her I don’t know Beth Beth maybe is the one who’s engaging you and she sees You know that you are hiring and she may not be looking for her job But her sister might be or her husband or her brother or whoever else is so she knows who you are now And she knows who you are now, so she starts to develop that maybe affinity or maybe that association of recognition that then becomes an endorsement through the back door.

So that’s where we’re talking about kind of continuing to, to maintain a constant presence that represents who you are as a company, which moves us actually really nicely into the next point about culture. Yeah. And so she mentioned, yeah, this is one of the tough ones for people because it has specific Or some connotations to it that sometimes get people feeling a little icky.

Well, I feel like there’s sort of the misnomer of what does this actually mean, right? Yeah. So like, the one I always love is when every organization thinks that culture equals fun. Yeah, and I’m like First of all, we are at work Not that i’m opposed to fun or I want to be like, you know the downer for all of that But then also well, what does fun mean to your organization and it gets paid off on a really surface level way right, so like an agency it was When we used to have the big, massive offices, it was ping pong tables and a keg and, you know, a really cool coffee machine and all the ways to try to get us to stay there for a million hours and, you know, those types of things.

And that’s not actually what we’re talking about when we talk about culture, right? So if you think about those profiles of people you’re trying to hire, this goes hand in hand for that, right? Because. Those people, like I said at the very beginning, the assignment was to go seek out the people that best represent the organization.

And yes, at that point, we were talking about developing recruiting profiles, but you’re also establishing the culture of your organization through that, right? And so when you think about that, you have to think a little harder than just fun, right? It’s like, Truly, what are we? Are we an organization that feels like the people that do really well here are called at a deeper level to work for this organization?

Um, that often happens in healthcare, right? Really tough industry, but people that join there really feel like that is their calling to do that work, right? Or it’s something like, you know, yeah, we are a really hardworking, diligent culture, but we have to be that way because the nature of our job is finance.

Yeah. Right? But as part of that, we really feel like the types of people we hire are the ones that are always looking to learn new things. And so we’re the type of organization you want to come to when you’re looking for new thinking or outside the box thinking or what’s going on in the finance world right now, right?

So the culture of what you’re bringing matches with those types of people you’re looking for, and it’s much more meaningful than Fun or those throw away things that you get, but then on the other side of that, you do have to pay that off for people like, okay, you know, if we’re one of those diligent organizations, you also probably have to manage.

I’m just going to guess people who are going to overwork, right? So you’re going to have to manage that for your organization. So anyway, the culture piece, I think, is the thing that. People feel icky about or maybe they feel like they don’t know how to do it or it feels contrived or all of those things you have to really do the homework again like you do with those profiles to establish on the human level who are you.

Yeah, I think that’s really well said. I mean, at the basis of culture is choices about what you’re going to represent, what you’re going to represent, and what you’re not going to represent. So it’s a point of view. And the more clear you can make the point of view, the easier it’s going to be for the people.

who are going to be successful there to find you. So when you’re trying to be too broad, and you’re trying to say, and we’re fine, and we do this, and we do that, and, you know, and you’re trying to create this arbitrary, maybe artificial presence, it starts to kind of feel very diluted. People will look at that and be like, I don’t even know what that means, or I don’t know what that, Feels like to be there.

Yeah. I don’t get a feeling about it at all. I don’t get a feeling about it at all. But it, when you start to kind of create a clear point of view about who you are as a company that starts to attract the right people. I mean, it was similar to when I was on the dating sites, right? Yeah. It’s like when I was like, analogy, hey, and I’m, you know, I mean, of course I was like, like I, and I have this job and, and I am successful here and I do this and I do that and everything.

The amount of, like, just randoms that kind of came up, I’m like, how did I attract that? And so I was very specific, like, and here’s what I’m looking for, and so here’s how I’m going to represent myself. Then I started to get more people that were more in tune to what my psychographic profile is for my partner, right?

So it’s the same thing here, it’s very similar to a dating analogy, it’s like who do you want to date is kind of very similar to who do you want to recruit. But I think April’s point is right on, is that it just needs to be authentically you. So, for example, Ray Dali is another one we talk about a lot, from Bridgewater, I mean everybody knows he, if he didn’t invent radical candor, he definitely popularized the whole concept of it.

And that you wouldn’t say that that’s like a warm, fuzzy attribute, right? But he’s very clear about that. That’s what we practice. If you don’t practice that, you don’t fit here. It’s a really fabulous way of kind of self selecting these talent candidates can self select themselves in. But he’s also very clear about what the expectations of this organization is because he’s looking for the right fit.

Right. And so this is what you have to kind of like really set your mindset too. It’s like, again, going back to the profiles, how is our culture going to support those profiles? And make sure they’re consistent, because another mistake people make, and this is a funny one that we see all the time, alright, I’ll say a specific example, and you can tell me I’m stereotyping, but when companies are looking for younger candidates, Gen Zers, Millennials, and then they insist on you coming into the office five days a week, you guys, That is gonna be a very hard person to find and this is the thing it’s like I know a lot of people kind of orient Themselves to this it’s like well if I get to hire one person I’m gonna look for the unicorn Yeah, well good luck finding the unicorn because that is gonna take a very long time and make late to a lot of frustration You have to make sure that what you’re asking for in the profile that you’ve established matches Yeah, yeah, what is gonna be a good fit for your company?

Yeah, so be honest with yourself. I’m like You If you’re not Google, don’t pretend like you are Google and pretend like, Oh, we’re going to have slides in the building. You can ride bikes across campus. I mean, if you’re not that, you’re not that. Alright, and guess what guys, if you’re not that, and you’re trying to hire that in, those people are not going to stay very long, and we’re going to get to retention in a part two of this.

So just be very honest, and then as a result, don’t judge other people based on their mentality, because what happens then is these people come in, these young guys come in, Or girls and then they leave right away and then we say, Oh, they’re so fickle. They don’t even want to stay. They just job, job all around.

It can’t possibly be the fact that I promised them this was going to be this kind of environment. And then I changed and I basically bait and switched, right? I’m not saying all you guys are doing that, but we’re seeing it at a very high tick rate that you’re putting in. You’re portraying who you are in order to pull in talent that you think would be great.

But then when they get there. It all falls apart because it’s not what you promised it was going to be. And by the way, those people are not going to be highly successful in your organization. Because they’re not set up for success by you. Right, exactly. From the very beginning. I mean, that’s, yeah. And I think that’s the authenticity that we were talking about.

And also, like, the diligence to get this work right. Because I don’t know that I always think, you know, we said it a little tongue in cheek, I don’t think it’s ill intentioned. I think it’s more like, I didn’t think through that all the way. About how that was going to go and I didn’t put the infrastructure in place to really get us there and I think too often People get excited when this starts all working together and this misses where it happens of like and how is that gonna translate once they get?

Here. Well, yeah, and that’s the importance of really looking at your process from nuts to bolts So we spent a lot of time With the important upfront piece of that, which is the profile, making sure it’s psychographically oriented. But then that needs to be cascaded throughout the whole entire process. So then what sometimes happens where you guys fall apart is you’ll recruit these people in, and then they’ll get in, and then you’ll ask them, Oh, you don’t have three years of experience in this?

But you didn’t, I mean, so that wasn’t part of the prerequisite. That wasn’t part of the prerequisite, right? So you have to make sure that you’re interviewing according to what you’re trying to recruit for. And if you’re wondering, well, how do I interview for aptitude versus skill? We have a whole episode on that.

You can look into that. But that is the important thing about kinda getting to that stage. But then what’s also important is making sure you’re showing up. In a way that’s consistent with what you are proclaiming the company represents. So for example, if you’re portraying, A, we’re like a buttoned up, you know, uh, company and, you know, we’re always on time and this and that and the other.

But then when you’re interviewing, you’re late to the interview. Or if you’re preaching, Do what I say, not what I do. Yeah, do what I say, not what I do. Yeah, exactly. Or, or I have an excuse for that. There’s always an excuse for that. But then also the other part of that is like, You know, another one that we see is the follow ups can lag, right?

But we’ll profess as a company that we are, have like optimum customer service. So you’ve got to remember that people are a lot more discriminant than they used to be. They’re, especially in a competitive environment, they don’t have to choose you. They’re looking actually for reasons not to choose you.

So don’t give them any reasons not to choose you. Make it an easy yes by being consistent. And people don’t stay in jobs for too long. Decades and they don’t say that either. So they right they get comfortable in this turnover process, right? Like I think that used to be a huge barrier and anymore I think people are like i’ll give it a shot and if it doesn’t work out i’ll move to the next thing and you have To be thinking about that.

Yeah, we’re gonna definitely talk about in their retention because that’s a whole mindset shift I think people just need to start to Really be okay with and plan for it accordingly And not just be like well throw my hands up that’s fine, and i’m not gonna train develop do any of those crazy things because That also leads to a quicker exit for all these people.

That being said, to finish this, um, this process piece from the interview, all the way to accepting the offer, to onboarding is the other place where we see it fall apart a lot, you guys. You have to make sure you show up in a way that shows respect and value for your new people that are coming in. It can be simple things as making sure their computer is ready on the day they start, making sure if they’re in the office that their name is on the door, it’s making sure that they have an onboarding plan that you’re like, are you going to meet with this person?

You’re going to do this training and it’s all kind of set up so they feel like they’re a valued part of the organization from day one. Otherwise, I have seen it happen. Like these people show up, these new candidates, everybody’s very excited about them. They bring in a coffee cart and donuts and they celebrate them.

But the. Poor person doesn’t even have a computer yet. It’s like button it up. This should be like an SOP, a standard operating procedure that is You can replicate it across the board whenever you have somebody new. There shouldn’t be reinventing the wheel every time. Well, and I can’t tell you how many times an agency was like, Well, you know, it’s a creative process.

It’s baptism by fire. It’s, you know, all these things. And I’m like, Maybe that’s why you had so high turnover. Right? That’s where it all originated. Touche. But I mean I do think it’s all of that and I think intentionality is what we’ve been talking about throughout all of this from setting the groundwork and doing your homework and getting it right and then you know it’s no surprise to hear this come out of my mouth but testing and learning and re evaluating and so We just made the joke about the high turnover But you should be tracking this like any other process like an said standard operating procedure any other process Any other function in your organization?

This should be no different. And so you should be constantly looking at you know, is there Sort of a time frame that we run through is it 18 months and all of a sudden all these people are out the door or is it you know, we Well, you should be asking for feedback. I don’t think people are doing this either, but you know, you should be asking, okay, you give people 30, 60, 90 day reviews.

You should be asking them to review you. How was the first 30 days? What went well? What maybe didn’t go so well? What could we do different? Was there any disconnect between the hiring process and you getting here? You can get that information really easily from people. And I think that’s what you’re looking for, because what you want to do is be fixing the breakdowns and We promise if you do all this work and you do it right the way we just talked about, it will make the whole process of recruiting people so much more seamless and easy.

And you will get to the point where people are coming to you to work here. But even the very best companies and the ones that have worked with us, maybe that have ironed all this out and have a good system, still have places that they can be better. And I think that is a really big differentiator. And so I think tracking the process.

Being aware, knowing even the little things can make a big difference, all of that kind of stuff, and always be thinking through the lens of how do I keep my very best people, how do I keep those people that fit that profile, how do I make sure our culture is on its very best day every day. Those are the types of things and the veins through which you should be thinking, so that once you do this work, it pays off for you and continues to do so.

Yeah, I think that’s very important. I can’t emphasize enough the tracking. Yeah. Yeah. That is something that we don’t see a lot and we don’t understand why. It’s a numbers game. How many people are coming in? How many people are progressing the interviews? How many people are getting through the interviews?

How long does it take to get them into their seat? Quote unquote. How long are they staying? I mean, this should be tracked for every individual in your company and it can actually a lot of times be done through Just some sort of like database process. I mean, this doesn’t have to be a lot of hard work But it’ll let you know so much.

Where is it breaking down? Yep And sometimes it’s who is making a breakdown, right? I mean, do you have the right qualified interviewers? Are they assessing the people appropriately? I mean, figure out where your bottlenecks are and, and then Is it as simple as the computers aren’t being set up on day one?

Yeah, I mean, so, understand, just, yeah, look for data, look for data. It’s there, you just, you know. Yeah. Right? So as we promised, there’ll be a, uh, a two, if anybody wants to stay around, for, um, retaining talent, because that’s another important part of this whole saga. But just to summarize what we talked about here and hit the key points.

If you didn’t hear anything from this whole entire 30 plus minutes, we hope you heard, Hey, I need to go and I need to develop my recruiting profiles of my candidates and make sure they are psychographically oriented, not just skills based and really think about what our ancillary roles industries or community oriented organizations, places I can go that will have these people that I’m looking for in big numbers, right?

Or even like adequate numbers. Because if I can find a couple of them, then I can go find more people like them and they’re going to help me do that. So develop those profiles. Recruit where your candidates are. It’s what we just said. Don’t just Get to know them enough to know where they are. Yeah, all that, and develop the right outreach to do that, and have it be always on.

Because, like we said, it can’t be something that just turns on. overnight, and then you’re going to hope that you’re going to get all these candidates that you think are going to be perfect for your roles. And then showcase your intentional culture, your compelling culture. Again, this is however you define it to be, but don’t be afraid of making it a very specific point of view.

Everybody thinks that’s going to alienate people, I’m actually wanting to. Yes. And it is going to because you want that to happen. You want the people to self select out. You only want to bring in candidates that are going to be high quality leads for you. Yeah. Remember that Ray Dalio example. Exactly. So don’t be afraid of being very specific there.

You will find your people if you’re very specific and put out a beacon that says, Hey, I’m for you. And then finally optimize your recruiting process from start through onboarding. So make sure there’s no leaky buckets there. Make sure there’s no breakdowns and continue to reflect upon that. Get your data, set it up however you need to go do that so that you can continue to reflect upon that, optimize it, test and learn, as April said, and make it a very efficient process that delivers from that very first moment all the way through the time when they get there.

Alright, so, with that, we encourage you to take at least one powerful insight. Hopefully, it’s at least doing your profiles, okay? Hint, hint. Yes, hint, hint. If we weren’t very overt. Hint, hint. Yeah, do your profiles. Do your profiles. I hope you sleep and that’s what you hear. I hear my voice say, do your profiles.

Oh, that might be scary. I know. Then people may not come back. I don’t know. I’m like, it could be one of those things that just kind of sticks in your ear like, you know. What’s it called? Subliminal? Subliminal message. Subliminal message. Do my profiles. Do my profiles. All of that is because strategic counsel is only that.

It’s only effective if you actually put into action. So. Go do that. Did we spark something with this episode that you want to talk about further? Reach out to us through our website, ForthRight-People.com. We can help you customize what you have heard to move your business. And make sure to Follow or Subscribe to Strategic counsel on your favorite podcast platform!