Hire Power Radio Show

Latest Episodes:

Fully Remote Culture with a Social Mission with Brian Roland of Abenity Aug 12, 2021

Show notes

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

Balancing Quality & Speed as You Hire to Scale with Brian Breth of Fair.com Aug 05, 2021

Show notes

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

Employees Value Purpose Over Money with Lorna Borenstein of Grokker Jul 29, 2021

Show notes

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

Breaking Bad Belief Systems- Innovation Mindset with Patrick Schwerdtfeger of Trend Mastery Inc. Jul 29, 2021

Show notes

As Entrepreneurs, we are constantly striving to get in front of the challenges we have. However we often seem to be in a constant state of fighting fires.

So now we are at a precipice where technology tools can alleviate this pain but we must first invest the time in training & understand how to best position ourselves and our teams to innovate successfully.

Let’s start to think about our human resources differently in a mind shift away from our desires to the personal & professional development of our employees. Thinking bigger attracts A-players! This fuels innovation.

Our guest today: Patrick Schwerdtfeger, Business Futurist and Keynote Speaker

Patrick specializes in technology trends including big data, artificial intelligence, Fintech and blockchain. He’s the author of “Pandemic, Inc.: 8 Forces Driving Business Failure or Fortune in the Post-COVID-19 Economy” as well as five other books, and has lectured at numerous academic institutions including Purdue and Stanford Universities.

Patrick is also a regular speaker for Bloomberg TV, founder of Trend Mastery Inc., and host of the Strategic Business Insights video blog (with over 28,000 subscribers and six million views on YouTube). Patrick has spoken about business trends, technology and digital marketing at hundreds of conferences all around the world.

Today we discuss:

How to think bigger to attract stronger talent

Challenge today?

Companies are not adopting technology fast enough
Companies always feel like they’re “behind” with respect to technology
How can companies leverage HR to accelerate technology adoption?
Jobs of the future: (1) communication skills & (2) creative problem solving
Thinking about your human resources differently
Stop thinking bottom up
NEW: How can companies attract top talent
NEW: Millennials are “lazy, apathetic, and entitled” but they CAN be inspired
NEW: Inspire your employees, customers, and competitors (good source)

Why is this important to the company?

Being innovative fuels growth

Rick’s Nuggets

Define your company’s purpose & cause
Utilize Talent from competitor - adjacent companies
Present Innovative technologies

How do we solve the problem?

#1: Identify staff who are excited to learn and use software more extensively
#2: Leverage enterprise software and get more training for your staff
#3: Understand that technology propagates SMB through enterprise software
#4: Break down tasks into (1) manual & (2) cognitive
#5: Break each category down into (1) manual & (2) cognitive
#6: Soft repetitive tasks by their level of complexity
#7: Understand that “Innovation = Budgeting Failure”
#8: Protecting high-gross margin products to FUND innovation
#9: FAIL as fast and as cheaply as possible (test new ideas cheaply)
NEW: think bigger about your business
NEW: not 10% bigger, but 10x bigger

Rick’s Nuggets

Train your people - Have an active training program that promotes learning, innovation, new technologies - good for retention
Elevate top-down thinking

Key Takeaways -Value:

#1: EVERYONE thinks they’re behind.
#2: think more strategically, and you’ll catch up quickly.

Guest Links:

Patrick's Book: Pandemic, Inc.: 8 Forces Driving Business Failure or Fortune in the Post-COVID-19 Economy (Amazon)

Patrick Schwerdtfeger: Patrick Schwerdtfeger Facebook Twitter

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Crop

Why Purpose & Understanding Drive People to Want To Work For Your Company with Casey Welch of Tallo Jul 15, 2021

Show notes

Listening is the most critical interview tool you have. Not listening to respond (which we all do) but listening to understand.

Think of the interview as an opportunity to gather evidence to support your decision and when you understand a person’s pain & desire first, you can accurately position your opportunity as the answer to their problems.

Why do you need to understand the person before you hire them? Isn’t it enough that you know that they have the skills that are needed?

Because not understanding the values of the individual is what ultimately results in bad hiring decisions.

Our guest today: Casey Welch, Co-Founder & CEO of Tallo.

A digital platform and app that connects 1.3 million+ students and professionals to opportunities offered by colleges, companies, and organizations. Since its inception, Tallo has pioneered early talent engagement, facilitating career discovery and guidance for a diverse talent pool.

Under Casey’s leadership, Tallo serves as a virtual ecosystem leveling the playing field for all students and job seekers, regardless of traditional geographic and economic barriers. Casey is a leading expert on Generation Z in higher education and the workforce, and his insights have been featured in Forbes, FastCompany, ZDNet, and SHRM.

Today we discuss:

The importance of proper positioning when hiring
How to build understanding into your interview process

Challenge today? (Reactive hiring and approach to talent)

People want to find careers that are purposeful
- After more than a year of grinding stress, workers are increasingly looking to find new jobs. In fact, according to research by Monster, 95% of workers are thinking about finding a new job, and 92% would consider switching industries for a new position.
- Gen Z agrees with this overall sentiment. According to Tallo’s recent survey of over 1000+ Gen Z individuals, 69% of Gen Z said over the past year it's become more important to find a job that is personally fulfilling.
Products that will help people, change peoples lives
- Gen Z wants a career that brings them purpose and meaning, not just a job. They also want to make a social impact with their career, not just work the 9-5. Tallo data found that one of the three most important factors for Gen Z when thinking about their future work environment includes making an impact socially and economically (47%)
- In order to attract members of Gen Z, employers need to show prospective new employees will bring a positive change from a social and economic standpoint. This is an opposite mindset from their predecessors Millennials, who focused more on company name recognition
Finding the workforce that is going to stay
- The top three most important factors for Gen Z when thinking about their current or future work environment include:
  - Having a fair and ethical boss (72%)
  - The ability to be heard (61%)
  - Making an impact socially and economically (47%)
- Hybrid work environments are key: 63% of Gen Z is interested in working in a hybrid setting, while 27% want to work in the office full time and 8% want to work remotely full time.
Pandemic changed people's views
- More than one out of every three Gen Zers reported in a Tallo survey that they are reconsidering their career choice due to certain industries being negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Culture & environment are far more important
- The three biggest factors that motivate Gen Z to take a job include salary (78%) interest in work (70%) and work life balance (58%).
- Addressing social issues + diversity equity and inclusion in the workplace is vital. Tallo data found that Gen Z listed the following as the most important DEI initiatives they look for in an employer:
  - Women in leadership (59%)
  - Training and discussions (58%)
  - People of color in leadership positions (53%)

Why is this important to the company?

Understanding what the modern employees wants and needs are, and then meeting those needs is critical to improve retention and reduce turnover.
People are leaving their companies faster than the employers can fill, which is why there’s a high demand for jobs but no supply of experienced candidates. In order to fill these positions, employers must begin a double-pronged approach of employee retention and employee outreach – and focus their efforts on Gen Z.
When asked about future workplace settings, only 8% of Gen Z want to be fully remote. 63% want hybrid and 27% would want to be in the office full time

Rick’s Nuggets

Understanding leads to truth
Every person has a different set of values
Evidence eliminates
- Assumptions
- Bias

How do we solve the problem? (Creating a proactive approach and system to hiring)

Mindshift
- Away from transactional relationship (Two people can want to get married, doesn’t mean they want to get married to each other)
- Care more about experience and about people
Using tools for measurement
- Purpose & Meaning - what they like and want to do
- Skills - What they CAN do
- A focus on reskilling, upskilling and learning & development (L&D) opportunities:
  - Employers need to provide all their employees with new and innovative ways to reskill and upskill – especially when it comes to soft skills.
  - 74% of Gen Z think soft skills (such as critical thinking, analysis, problem solving, leadership, and communication) are more critical for success in our current economy.
Some different L&D opportunities employers can explore include:
- Technical (science, technology, engineering, software development, and design);
- Leadership (communication, management, and critical thinking);
- Learning new languages; and
- Agile (collaboration, user experience, experimentation, and continuous learning).

Rick’s Nuggets

Mindset : who are you really?
- Blind conversations are the most fruitful & eliminate bias
- Interview questions that surface value alignment
Behavioral Interview that is tied to values!

Key Takeaways -Value:

Employers must place a heightened focus on recruiting the next generation of leaders into the workplace: Gen Z
The most important factors to drives people to come work for you include considering a hybrid work environment, addressing and emphasizing the important of diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace and providing a means for employees to reskill + upskill
Employers must fully understand what today’s modern employee wants – from salary to benefits to work environment – and meet those expectations

Guest Links:

Casey Welch: LinkedIn

Company: Tallo Facebook Twitter Instagram

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Crop

The Right Formula for Proactive Recruiting with Eric Dahan of Open Influence Jul 08, 2021

Show notes

Do you have a target list of the people you desire to hire?

It is easy to plan the roles you need to hire but the “who” is what matters most. A very simple hack is to just create a spreadsheet and every time you hear of someone good, add them to your list.

Now here is the important part… reach out and seek to understand. Simply reaching out and listening to their desires is all it takes to attract a well positioned player for your company.

Our guest today: Eric Dahan, Co-Founder & CEO of Open Influence

A premiere influencer marketing company with clients that include Disney, Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Under Armour, among others. The company is also a leader in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence within the ad industry thanks to its predictive analytics tools and entire influencer taxonomy, which contains over 10B data points. Eric is a Forbes 30 Under 30 recipient and Inc. 30 Under 30 honoree.

Eric has hired over 100 people for Open Influence and has a strong proactive program in place.

Today we discuss:

Why you should always be interviewing
How to run a proactive hiring campaign

Challenge today? (Reactive hiring and approach to talent)

Cascade risk of people getting burned out and demoralized
Takes time to train new people
An ounce of prevention
Avoiding the “oh shit” moments

Why is this important to the company?

From a p&l standpoint, building a more lucrative business
Retaining the best and brightest that they have worked so hard to to build up
Attracting, building, training and elevating the best people

Rick’s Nuggets

People are harder than ever to attract
Building a passive talent pipeline allows you to constantly raise productivity

How do we solve the problem? (Creating a proactive approach and system to hiring)

Planning
- This is the structure
- Getting the team to buy in
  - The why
- Accomplish more by delegating
Create a strong feeder of young candidates
- In network referrals
- Inbound, through website
- Industry niche focused
- Building relationships with professors in college
Elevate and create a management layer
- Empower managers to
- Giving a bit more time to go out and find people
Budget for strong hires
- Role creation for strong talent
- Elevating from within
Hired HR director to help with recruiting and building out better processes
- A lot of time saved with onboarding
- Point person for planning & vetting

Rick’s Nuggets

Dedicate 1 hour a week to talent development (first 20)
Adopt a policy of opportunistic relationship building
- ie: hackathons, hosting events
Understand the person’s pain & desire
Start interviewing 2 months prior the role becoming available
Value alignment is key!
- Judge on values, not skills

Key Takeaways -Value:

Think about the ideal structure and what is going to make you scale. What is the break point? How do you make sure you bring it to life?
Think of hiring as something that you will always have to do
To really scale, make hiring continuous

Guest Links:

Eric Dahan: LinkedIn

Company: Open Influence Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Crop

How Collaborative Negotiation Attracts Talent with Beerud Sheth of Gupshup Jul 01, 2021

Show notes

Knowing at least one attribute that is shared by everyone in the organization is critical to nail down before you start hiring. This one thing becomes the cornerstone of your corporate values which shapes the company culture, attracts the right people and fuels growth.

Ask yourself, what is the one trait that is critical to the organization? Write it down, start talking about it and encourage it to grow. Allow it to be the compass by which you will evaluate the right fit.

Our guest today: Beerud Sheth, Co-Founder & CEO of Gupshup

Gupshup is the global leader in cloud messaging and conversational experiences. He previously founded and led Elance (now Upwork, a publicly listed company), the pioneer of online freelancing and the gig economy.

Beerud has built world class organizations and hired hundreds of talented people throughout his career.

Today we discuss:

Minimizing the difficulty in hiring the right people
How to identify your one thing to enable you to make the right hiring decision

Challenge today in finding & hiring the strongest people?

Putting the jigsaw puzzle together
The right set of people
Hyper growth
- don't rush into the hire
- Make due with what you have, be opportunistic
Collaborative Negotiation

Why is this important to the company?

Very jr, part time roles were able to demonstrate grit & hunger and have evolved to very senior roles in the organization
People who get stuff done

Rick’s Nuggets

It starts with leadership!
- What is your most crucial attribute
- Define it
- Live it

How do we solve the problem?

Find Highly flexible people

Goal oriented
Sense of humor; not take themselves too seriously
Missionaries, not mercenaries
How they negotiate is key

Right people, right seat

Give broad opportunities
*collaborative negotiation is key
Constructive conflict resolution
Teamwork is all about negotiation

Empower them within the role

Expand the scope of the opportunity
Personalities aside
Flexibility, teamwork, focus on the big picture

Rick’s Nuggets

Referral network
Content
Evaluate people for Value Alignment
- Do they live your value??

Key Takeaways -Value:

Business requires flexibility
Collaborative Negotiation enables flexible execution and innovation
Flexible teams win

Guest Links:

Beerud Sheth: LinkedIn

Company: Gupshup Facebook Twitter

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Crop

4 Steps to Hiring Full-time Offshore Talent with Eris Verne of Alfinder Jun 25, 2021

Show notes

Are you considering hiring a team of experts offshore?

We all know that this option can give you a lot more bang for your buck. But does it really? The communication challenges, cultural differences and time variations may prove too much to manage for some entrepreneurs.

It’s important to consider this as an option only when the organization has the tools & structure to support successful communication of expectations. When aligned with company values, these hires can bring the added diversity that is needed to fuel innovation.

Our guest today: Eris Verne, Founder of AIfinder.

Eris started programming at the age of 14. While in college he started an algorithm based company which solved the problem of internet filtering called APKN. The company was acquired two years later.

After the exit of APKN, Eris discovered a flaw within a multidisciplinary field which intersects marketing, data, and behavioral analysis. So he founded Alfinder to be the most flexible behavioral data analysis solution, enabling industry leaders to predict market behaviors and learn audiences. He currently leads a team of 11 talented offshore employees who have been extraordinary since day one.

Today we discuss:

Why to hire offshore talent
How to effectively acquire the right teams for your company

Challenge today?

Big risk to hire local
- Costs
- Commitments, legal issues
Locating people for technical roles very difficult
Taking a big gamble
Problems faced:
- Knowing what to do with the offshore team
- Cultural alignment
Quality
- Need a technical person to manage

Why is this important to the company?

Frees your time to hand off work
Offshore are in their own habitat - only need one person here to project manage
Must be a technical founder!

Rick’s Nuggets

Communication is the biggest hurdle
Contracting makes sense

How do we hire offshore talent effectively?

First Determine what you need
- It’s best to find a technical person to assist you with this
- Do not hire individuals! Hire through an agency
Identify an agency
- They might not be technical people themselves so make sure they understand your needs.
- Agencies usually have a way of tracking their candidates, ask as many questions as needed to understand the details of how the do so
- The agency you choose should be ok with you changing, adding and removing candidates from your team regularly
- Don’t fall into the trap of letting them handle your team and get your own project manager
Interview & Hire
- Feel free to set up your interview as you would normally
- Understand candidates backgrounds and challenge them with technical questions
- Make sure there is NOT a language barrier or move on
- Do not spend days on hiring and going through 5 interviews with a candidate
- Hire Fast, Fire Faster!
Set everything straight
- Try not to share internal news with them
- And don’t expect them to learn a new technology while working for you
- After you find fit candidates for your needs, try to work with them on a technical level only
- Monitor their everyday work
- Set the bar as you would normally

Key Takeaways -Value:

If you’re not a technical founder make sure you to have a technical person on your team
Focus on the people who benefit from your software/solution rather than the people who are making it
Hire Fast, Fire Faster

Guest Links:

Eris Verne: LinkedIn

Company: Alfinder Facebook Instagram

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Crop

The Benefits of Hybrid Hiring for Today’s Workforce with Nick Iovacchini of Kettlespace Jun 17, 2021

Show notes

People do not want to go into the office on a daily basis anymore!

In fact, the last search we completed had an overwhelming number of people that would only be interested in a hybrid or fully remote work situation. Quality of life has become far more important to people than the paycheck.

We have all had to pivot in the past year but we really should embrace & capitalize on the opportunity that has been presented to us. That opportunity is the ability to raise the bar of talent within your company that is outside your geographical locale.

Our guest today: Nick Iovacchini, Co-Founder & CEO of Kettlespace.

Nick Iovacchini is a serial founder with a proven track record of building successful ventures across a wide range of industries. Companies founded by Nick have grossed $70MM+ in revenue, sold 10MM+ consumer products, and provided hospitality to 1MM+ patrons. Nick is currently a co-founder of KettleSpace, a company enabling smart hybrid work solutions with software, workspaces, and expertise. In his role as CEO at KettleSpace, Nick oversees product, operations, and growth.

Today we discuss:

Why the hybrid model is here to stay
How to run an effective hybrid hiring model

Challenge today?

Gen Z- values freedom
People enjoying the upside to working from home
40% of workers will quit if they have to go back
Operationalize hybrid & gather the right data to know if it is working

Why is this important to the company?

Value talent- talent concern
Power dynamics between worker and boss have changed
- Worker is in a stronger position of negotiation
- Apple revolt-
Global shakeup

Rick’s Nuggets

Target the strongest people -nation wide

How do we solve the problem?

Gather task force of people
- HR, c suite,
- Look at new paradigm
- Employee input
Establish KPI’s, Objectives & Steps to take (# days in the office)
- Success Metrics -- Engagement & Productivity Measurements
- General “Direction” for Hybrid - 50/50 vs 3 days a week vs. self-select all remote, all in-office, hybrid
- Set timelines
- Plan for Change Management / Communications
Operationalize
- Tooling
- Decisions / policies
- Implementation
- Data Collection /
- Monitor and iterate

Rick’s Nuggets

Target hiring: cross industry/competitors
- Personal contact information
Performance metrics for each role- 90, 180 days
Run HireOS

Key Takeaways -Value:

According to McKinsey 90% of companies plan to be hybrid, but nearly 70% don’t have a plan or the tooling yet to implement it -- need to move towards solutions
The key is accepting the fact that this environment will be changing, need to adopt a test/learn approach -- plan for adaptation
Whether you are early or late to the hybrid party, at the end of the day this is what the talent wants and over time the majority of the workforce will demand -- early adopters will have advantages to retaining and attracting top talent

Links

Nick Iovacchini: LinkedIn

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How to Cultivate Relationships to Build a Strong Pipeline of Talent with Kate DeWald of OnCue Jun 10, 2021

Show notes

You don’t need to see 50 or even 10 candidates to make a hire. You only need to see 1.

Why do we feel like we need to see a lot of people to “compare & contrast” before making a decision? Because we have been conditioned to window shop to ensure we are getting the best “deal”. But this is a transactional mindset which causes us to hire too fast with zero evidence to support the decision. Resulting in bad hires!

Let’s change your perspective...

Start by flipping your funnel. Focus on the channels that produce the strongest hiring results. Referral Network, Warm Recruits, and then supplement with applicants.

Relationships, not money, are what drive people in today’s hiring landscape.

Our guest today: Kate DeWald, Founder & CEO of OnCue.

Kate DeWald is CEO and founder of Oncue, the leading software and booking service for the moving industry. Launched in 2018, Oncue helps moving companies increase their revenue by as much as 400%, year over year, by automating many of their manual processes and enabling them to devote more time towards business growth and longevity. Prior to leading Oncue, Kate served in go-to-market roles to drive growth at industry-leading SaaS companies, including SuccessFactors and ServiceMax.

Today we discuss:

Why hiring is a long term play
How to gain access to high quality people

Challenge today?

Filling the top of the funnel with high quality people
- Leadership roles
- Funnel: either too many (unqualified) or too few
Making sure the candidate experience is stellar

Why is this important to the company?

Time wasting
Want to find the people that are going to be best in the business
Find the people that are aligned on mission, vision and values

Rick’s Nuggets

Reactive hiring results in “oh shit” hires

How do we solve the problem?

Funnel: linkedin recruiting, cold outreach, recruiter
- Hire expert/subject matter expertise recruiting
Write content: be authentic and write about what it’s truly like to work at your company
Unbias interview process- doesn’t matter where the candidate comes from
- Training leaders
- Reviewing questions prior to the interview
Play the long game - interview and connect with people before you have the roles available, help out others where you can, it’s about creating long lasting relationships with people

Rick’s Nuggets

Referrals first: “Who have you worked with that was a strong performer in the organization?”
Recruits: cross industry performers, competitors-

Key Takeaways -Value:

Spend more time than you think you need on recruiting
Be authentic in your hiring process- if you’re a startup, own it- being transparent with the candidate about what the role is really will set them up for success
Think about Key ways you can add value - how can you add value to your candidates in the process? Make sure they have a great experience regardless of the outcome

Guest Links:

Kate DeWald: LinkedIn

Company: Facebook Twitter

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Crop

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