Recruiting & Retention for Results
Making thoughtful, strategic hiring decisions is crucial for every contractor. In fact, hiring the wrong staff can cost businesses up to 30% of an employee’s first-year earnings!
This week, Drew Cameron shares valuable insights on how to avoid common recruiting mistakes, such as hiring unsuitable candidates or opting for quick hires. You’ll learn how to set clear goals, utilize different screening methods, and maintain a structured hiring process.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Audio Transcription (in beta, please be wary of typos)
On today’s show, we’re going to wrap up our series on air.
00:00:00:00 – 00:00:07:24
On today’s show, learn all about recruiting.
00:00:07:27 – 00:00:25:07
Now, today we have some very special content from our one and only Mr. Drew Cameron. We’ve launched a new course titled recruiting, Hiring and Retention, and it’s live now on the EGI member portal. Now, if you’re a member, you can log in and view the full course right this minute. If you’re not a member, that’s okay to go to my contract.
00:00:25:07 – 00:00:39:24
University.com/join and get a free ten day trial and watch this course. Absolutely for free. So let’s dive into a sample from the course right now.
00:00:39:26 – 00:01:04:25
Hi, welcome to Contract University. I am Drew Cameron with Flow Odyssey and I am going to be your instructor for this masterclass entitled Recruiting and Retention for results. And in this module we’re going to talk about recruiting mistakes recruiting mistakes that I want you to avoid. And so there are quite a few that are out there that I’ve encountered over the years and that have been written about in a lot of the recruiting materials that I’ve, that I’ve read and learned from over the years.
00:01:04:25 – 00:01:23:23
But these are most of the ones that I actually encounter. And some of them are pretty funny. So, making the wrong or easy hire from and again, these are not in any specific order per se. Okay. But probably the first five are probably the most damaging. But making the wrong or easy hire by hiring from within or hiring a relative.
00:01:23:29 – 00:01:41:04
Right. And so sometimes basically somebody gets their job by default just because I happen to be on the team. And, you know, the thought is, well, a good installer is going to make a good installation manager, a good technician, a good service manager, a good salesperson will make a good sales manager. You know, or, you know, my son Billy, he’s tried every other job in the company.
00:01:41:04 – 00:02:08:00
I might as well make him a salesperson since he’s the screwed up everywhere else he’s been. Right? So, never going to work out. Probably really well for you. So avoid making the easy hire, right? Every. Every time you have to make a hire. Everybody has to go through the vetting process for the role evenly. And those who are on the team are vetted a little bit harder than those who are not on the team, because, again, you know who you are.
00:02:08:07 – 00:02:25:08
You know who you’ve got, you know who they are and they have to be, you know, more qualified than the most qualified person coming in. You don’t just make the easy hire. Right. So you want the most qualified people in the roles on your team. And just because you have a job doesn’t mean you get to keep your job.
00:02:25:08 – 00:02:41:05
But you also have to basically, you know, you know, earn your job every day as well. So again, sometimes you have people on your team and you’re re recruiting these people. So you’re making the rehire, if you will, of a technician who’s been with you for ten years. That’s just because they’ve been with you for ten years doesn’t mean they get to keep that job.
00:02:41:05 – 00:03:03:09
Are they still worthy of that job? Are they learning? Are they growing? Are the evolving? Are they capable? Are theirs? Is their quality? Up? Theirs? Are callbacks down? Is there there are a number of performance up. Are the reviews good? So forth and so on. Right. So, number one, don’t make that easier. Don’t hire for technical experience, you know, exclusively and first probably personality is a better, is a better thing to go after.
00:03:03:11 – 00:03:22:29
And don’t hire someone like you. No one’s like you. You’re special. Your mom told you that you’re special. And if you’re hiring someone who’s like you or you think is like you, guess what? The day they’re not like you is the day you’ll probably start to, you know, ceremonially hire them in your mind anyway, because you’re going to realize that, you know, you were mystified.
00:03:22:29 – 00:03:46:23
And now all suddenly there’s disappointment in the back of your mind. You can’t figure out why, but you thought they were like you and thought like you. No one’s like you. No one will be like you. Maybe some alignment in tendencies is fine. Improper allocation of resources. This is not the time to be, you know, you know, contraction and scarcity with your time, money and the people that you’re going to involve in this process.
00:03:46:23 – 00:04:09:28
Make sure you allocate adequate time and time focused, money focused, as well as the people involved in the process. Random activities are going to get your random results. So you need a random, focus to process. And we’ll talk about that in another module. But now’s not the time to go ahead and, be scarce with your time, money and the people that you involve in this process.
00:04:10:01 – 00:04:35:18
You’re building your team. Because as we said in the first module in the overview, your team, your people are only going to be as effective as the people that you bring on to the team. And so you’ve got to make sure that the right people get onto the team, so that I have an opportunity to skill up the way you need them, the skill up in alignment with the rest of the culture, the lack of infrastructure support you have, a lack of infrastructure, support for the team.
00:04:35:18 – 00:04:56:24
It could be leads, it could be management, it could be technical support. It could be leadership. But you have to have the infrastructure or support for the team. You know, when you bring somebody on the team, you don’t just bring somebody on the team, hire them and then say, sit in front of these videos for the next three days watching you know, eight hours of content, most of which they won’t absorb anyway.
00:04:56:26 – 00:05:10:21
So you got to make sure that you have the right infrastructure of support for your team so that when someone joins the team, you know, they get the, you know, the leadership and the guidance and support and the resources that they need to do their job and do their job well, get you the results that you want, right?
00:05:10:21 – 00:05:34:08
I mean, that’s why we’re bringing people on the team as I said here in the overview module, right? We’re bringing all the right people on the team to get the results. That’s the end game. We really don’t want the people. We want the results of the people. Right? And we want to bring the right people in and give them a livelihood and a career and make an impact in their lives, too, so they can make an impact in our and our company and the rest of our team’s lives, but also in the lives of our consumers as well as the the community.
00:05:34:11 – 00:05:54:20
So you have no or wrong goals and expectations not documented. You’ve got to have goals and expectations written down and documented and tracked and communicated to the people so they know that they are being measured, how they’re being measured, how score is being kept and how you’re evaluating them. You’ve got to communicate that. You’ve got to have a tracking system and accountability in place.
00:05:54:22 – 00:06:15:10
If you don’t have a tracking system and you’re basically just saying, you know, hey, here’s some leads, go run them and you anecdotally think that they’re not closing because you have no sales and install boards, not full. That doesn’t tell me anything. You know, as we as we say in the financial bootcamp here, De Gea in God we trust all there’s must provide data.
00:06:15:13 – 00:06:28:24
No management follow up or coaching. So management you know the people who are in the role of supervisor manager meaning the leaders if you will. They have to follow up with the people. You got to stay on top of your people. You’ve got to check in with the human beings and also check in with them in their role capacity.
00:06:28:24 – 00:06:44:12
Right. There’s a human being who has an identity first, but then they’re given a role. Right? And so there’s these two there’s two parts to this person who’s on my team. I got to check in with the human first to check in with their role. Okay. And then I got to coach them. Maybe I’ve got a coach them a little bit in their their personal side.
00:06:44:14 – 00:07:06:03
And maybe I’ve got a coach some a little bit in their professional side. But that’s what you’ve got to do as a leader of in the organization, as a manager, as a supervisor. Is tap into your people. You manage processes, you lead and coach people. You don’t accept mediocrity, okay? And you don’t keep anybody employed longer than you should just like I said earlier, just because someone has a job doesn’t mean they keep their job.
00:07:06:06 – 00:07:27:07
They have to earn their job every day, every day. And if you if you breach the zero tolerance policies, you’re going, there’s the there’s no coming back from a breach of a zero tolerance policy. You breach core values. You’re going those are hiring and de hiring, guidelines, if you will. And so I’m not going to accept somebody else’s level of mediocrity okay.
00:07:27:07 – 00:07:51:11
That’s below my, standard of excellence. Why would I why should I? You get what you teach. You get what you tolerate. And if you tolerate it, you basically it will endure. And if it endures, in essence, you’re basically endorsing it. You’re saying it’s okay because you’re allowing it to happen under your watch. You’re tacit and complicit in the execution of the mediocrity for lack of performance.
00:07:51:11 – 00:08:09:21
And why would you accept that and then complain about it when it happens? Right. And so hire slowly, de hire quickly when you need to make sure you’re always in alignment with the letter of the law. Hiring under the gun and not ongoing, right? You basically turn off the recruiting engines and you turn them on when you need to.
00:08:09:21 – 00:08:30:04
And you you don’t have a plan. You’re not managing to, you know, to the budget. You know, when you need to hire badly, you will probably hire badly. Okay. Hiring should be something where you’re ahead of the curve. You’re you’re you maybe have more people than you need on your team. Because again, you should be able to grow and, work, if you will.
00:08:30:07 – 00:08:50:02
I would basically force your hand and say to you to get the people, probably before you actually have the the sales calls and service calls, the maintenance calls, whatever other type of work that you do. And the reason I would say to hire that person, is as, are you going to lose somebody? I mean, most companies have turnover somewhere between 10 and 30%.
00:08:50:05 – 00:09:09:05
You’re also going to hopefully have growth, and you’re going to have growth of ten to hopefully 40% or more. And those two factors have to be worked into your plan. And so hiring under the gun not a good recipe for success. So you have a plan. You keep the machine rolling. You’re always looking for people. You’re upgrading the talent pool, culling the herd.
00:09:09:07 – 00:09:27:13
You know, weeding the garden a little bit when you need to, you know, getting your next hire so that you can grow into them. In essence, if you think about it, you’re breaking the machine, right? You’re basically saying, I’m going to have another, let’s say another salesperson, for example. And I don’t have necessarily enough leads to feed that salesperson or all my salespeople equally.
00:09:27:13 – 00:09:49:23
Guess what? I’m going to be forced to find a way to make that happen, right? Otherwise, if I wait till I do the marketing and get the marketing going to where it’s consistent and I think, okay, now I need a salesperson, guess what? I’ll probably overwhelm the team while I’m waiting to get the new salesperson hired and then onboarded and trained and skilled up and even worthy, of execution.
00:09:49:23 – 00:10:10:27
Right. And so my my, my hand is forced because I have mouths to feed. I’ve always found that to be a better way of going about doing this is to hire in advance before the need arises, because that way I’m in control. And then lastly here, what I call is you’re too dependent on an, single information source.
00:10:11:04 – 00:10:30:26
I call them resume. Resume. They call resumes, but I call them resumes. Right? There’s no resume. No resume review shortcuts. Right. You can’t go online and read reviews. Rewrote resumes. Excuse me, and reviewed resumes and figured that you’re going to get what is advertised. I understand this person probably hired somebody to, you know, build their pack of lies, if you will.
00:10:30:26 – 00:10:49:18
And I say that with tongue in cheek, but you get the idea. This is, you know, them packaging, positioning themselves to the best of their ability to sell themselves to a potential employer. Of course it’s going to look good. It’s probably going to sound good. It’s going to look professional. I would hope that they did. You know, they put some effort into that.
00:10:49:20 – 00:11:09:04
But past performance doesn’t dictate future success. Number one. Number two is there are no really bad resumes out there. I mean, I think if you put the time and effort into putting one together, I do see bad resume. But that being said, I think the best in class candidates and even the top 25% of the candidates, I think, put together good resumes and they look good.
00:11:09:09 – 00:11:30:18
But then when you sit down with them, they can’t back it up with documented success and stories of achievement and experience and results and education and things that are ongoing, you know, ongoing dealing, right? How problem solving, you know, idea creation, so forth and so on. And so the resume isn’t the only way. The application isn’t the only source that you should be looking at either.
00:11:30:24 – 00:11:48:23
And you shouldn’t be only dependent on the interview either were a singular interview. Right? You’re going to break this person down over time a little bit, because they’ll get a little bit softer and a little bit more open with you. The more time they spend with you. It’s no different than a sales call. Right? Okay. Customer gets, you know, a little bit more comfortable with you longer.
00:11:48:23 – 00:12:09:05
You’re on on the visit with them and talking with them. And so having multiple interviews with people and having multiple people in your team interview somebody, and screen them and having multiple levels of screening, which we’ll talk about in another module, can be very helpful. So it’ll be dependent on the interview, the application, the resume, the personality profiles, the assessments, you know, whatever.
00:12:09:07 – 00:12:31:14
You know, you take it all in. Those are all data points. Okay. You’re looking for the trend, right? So single interview can be a great mistake. You got to have structure. You got to structure to your process. Right. You don’t want the candidate candidate just interviewing you. And you’re doing all the talking and you’re trying to sell the company, and you’re trying to sell the job and joining your team that’s in there at some point.
00:12:31:14 – 00:13:10:24
And we’ll talk about it having its place in this point in time in the module. But again, if you find it, you’re talking most of the time, then that’s not an interview. And really it should be just a conversation where they’re talking about 80% of the time, at least on the initial interview. And, you know, the the interview only, helps you to evaluate the person’s chemistry and fit and their ability to communicate effectively what they’ve done and hopefully them connecting it to what they can do for you and the team and the company and and the customers and good candidates sometimes sound bad and sometimes vice versa, especially if you’re doing phone
00:13:10:24 – 00:13:32:28
interviews and video interviews first. Some people aren’t really good, especially on the phone, not seeing somebody. So, you know, if you see good qualifications on a, on a resume and an application, but they don’t maybe sound necessarily, you know, great over the phone on occasion, you may, you know, bring a candidate in and you’ll understand that when we go through the scoring process, in another module.
00:13:33:05 – 00:13:57:22
But, you know, like I said, don’t put all the weight on any one, validating tool here in the process because, again, you may miss a diamond in the rough. So, come back and we’ll get into a next module talking about the next set of mistakes you’re looking to avoid.
