If you are looking to hire new employees for your Construction Business and have had no luck with putting an advert on Indeed.com or a post on Linkedin asking your network to help you find someone, this post is for you.
You may have said to yourself over and over things like:
And you’d be right…
The statistics tell us that for every five people retiring only one new person is beginning their career in the industry. So rather than put”bums on seats” we need to think differently if we want to hire the best of the best in the industry.
So in the next 60 seconds, you are going to have a list of 25 new and alternative methods you can use to hire great employees.
And then, I’ll share a step-by-step process with you so that you will never have to worry about hiring problems ever again if you follow the steps.
Here are a list of ideas for you to mull over. The first idea is to “share your culture” on social media every day, however this means you need to share more than the last project you worked on.
The key is to share your core values, how you work with your customers and how much you appreciate your team of loyal employees. (I’ll dig into core values in a minute)
According to www.dictionary.com the verb culture comes from the Latin word CULTURA which means cultivation, agriculture, tillage and care.
Apply this into your business and for you to grow and thrive you need to build a culture where your employees feel that they are able to grow and become an important role in the growth of the company.
To do this there are a few steps you need to put in place which my clients were unaware of as important in hiring
You may think that choosing the correct market is the most important, however your core values are critical to hiring the best people, because
If your customers get a horrible experience they will find someone else to do business with in the future rather that do repeat business with you.
When your team live by your core values and are driven by a purpose to serve these customers as if they are family you can be certain your company will grow.
Hiring terrific people who people who believe what you believe is crucial
We call them 5-Star Employees
If you have ever watched the rowing events in the Olympics where 8 men are rowing in unison and gliding over the surface of the water, this is what your team of employees can and will look like
Because your 5-Star Employees
And while you may think there are very few of these “Unicorns” around, you should know that they are definitely out there but represent the top 15% of available talent in any industry.
So for every seven candidates you have applying for a job role, only one of them will be a 5 Star employees.
And to hire just one 5 star employee you require three candidates to interview meaning twenty one applications
Imagine for a moment you have a high-performance team that loved working with your company and created an ROI of three times their salary
Would your life change at all…?
Of course it would…
We have already spoken about 5-Star employees. These are definitely the seeds you want to plant in your business.
You may have to “prune” out some of the 2 Star and 3 Star employees though because your 5 Star employees thrive best when surrounded by people like them.
The hiring process we suggest is as follows
This is probably longer than you currently use however I want you to remember this key statement shared with me by a successful Millionaire friend
“Hire slow and fire fast”
Having a “Talent Pool” allows you to hire almost on demand because you have been consistently advertising and building a database of potential 5 star employees for when someone leaves you.
You need specific Job Descriptions for each silo in these talent pools so that you are building relationships with the best people all the time.
Whatever your business goals, you cannot scale your business to the next level without building a high performance team who share your core values, your purpose and have a fertile culture where they can grow and achieve their potential. If that sounds overwhelming and like too much work for the time you have available, we can help!
Our Breakthrough Coaching is the ultimate time-saving solution for ambitious and time-poor construction business owners. So if you would like our help for hiring the best people in your industry, get in touch!
Click HERE to arrange 25-minute Breakthrough Call TODAY
This week, I’m delight to have Michel Falcon, Founder and CEO of Brasa Peruvian Kitchen | Author of People-First Culture. We’ve based a number of previous episodes around the People First Culture theme and to speak to Michel himself about it is very exciting.
Partial Transcript:
Dave: I love that. Thank you very much for sharing that. and I completely agree with you. And in fact, talking about Apple, I just found a couple of weeks ago that you, go into one of their stores, and all the Apple, employees, working there, are required to do 40 minutes of customer, service sales training on a daily basis.
Michel: Doesn’t surprise me.
Dave: It’s just they’re professional and they look after people, they ask the right questions. I’m, certain that’s exactly what you do in your restaurants as well.
Michel: Well, think about it. If you wanted to be a healthy human being, you should have some sort of movement for 40 minutes a day. Walking, lifting weights, some sort of hit exercise or whatever. So if you want a healthy business, how can we not practice the same? It could be 30 minutes, it could be an hour, or whatever. As long as it’s something that’s habitual. You don’t just host one customer experience seminar for your employees and not do it every month, or in this case, every day in some capacity. some companies see it as something on their to do list. They cross it off and be like, all right, we’re done with this company culture stuff. It’s got to be ingrained into the DNA of the company. It really does. It can’t be hollow.
Find Michel on Linkedin HERE
and buy a copy of his book, People First Culture on amazon HERE
As ever, get in touch with me on [email protected]
This week, I’m so please to have Mike McCormack back on the show, concentrating on Whole Person Assessments and they can be used before and during the hiring process to help you make the right decisions.
Partial Transcript:
Dave: Mike, you shared with me a story. It might be worthwhile tapping into this. It’s not just about, attracting and bringing in of, the employees, the five star employees, but it’s about also using, the profiles that you specifically use to elevate the individuals into leadership. That’s correct, isn’t it?
Mike: Yes. Depending on what level it’s kind of, opening Pandora’s box there. Dave, there are a lot of different assessments that can be used in different areas and for different purposes. How you started off our conversation is very, consistent with how most people think about assessments in that when they hear the word assessment, most people think about some type of four quadrant personality style tool. And the reality is, there’s a lot more types and kinds of assessments than that. And it really helps if you just take a step back and think about, okay, what am I trying to do with this tool? Before trying to select the tool and then understand what all the choices are that are available to you.
Dave: Great. Thank you, Mike. I appreciate that. So we’re going to dive into that.
Mike: Just now, think about the purpose. And for most business leaders, owners, managers, our end goal is to get the best people possible who can knock it out of the park. And the ones that are knocking it out of the park are usually not the ones who want to leave. So we want to find people who can do things well and want to stay. That’s the end game for all of us who are in business. So, like you alluded to earlier, there are literally thousands of different types of tools out there, and the vast majority of them fall into that bucket called personality style test. just to expand on that a little bit before we maybe drill down into some details, but other types of assessments include cognitive assessments, skills and abilities. What can they actually do? it might be manually, what can they do? It might be mentally. What can they do? There’s lots of different types of those assessments, and also, what kind of work are they interested in? So, getting back to your question, what we do is use information from all of those categories. in a client company, we will go in and assess their top performers and then show the owner, manager, leader, whoever we’re working with. We’ll show them what traits, characteristics, skills, interest, et cetera. Kind of the whole enchilada, if you will. We’ll show them what their top performers have in common and how it’s different from their middle or bottom performers.
Reach out to Mike either through the PeopleRight Website or on [email protected]
As ever, let us know your thoughts on [email protected]
If you own or manage a construction company and have tried again and again to hire new employees with little success this blog post will change all that for you.
You may have said to yourself over and over things like
And you’d be right…
In fact, when my team created a quiz to discover the Top 5 Construction Business Growth blockers of the 127 business owners to took the quiz
This accounts for 53% of the responses…
Without a doubt, there are significant shortages of Top Talent in almost every business sector (and not just construction). And, for this reason, we need to think differently about the hiring process.
The days of putting “bums on seats” are long gone if you want to grow your business and become more profitable.
Yet this phrase is still commonly used…
A recent report by the Chartered Institute Of Building (www.CIOB.org) clearly states on page one that
Clearly we have an issue in the industry if the talent pool is aging and the skillsets are not being passed on to the younger generation.
For this reason the hiring process tends to be reactionary when someone hands in their notice. And we often hire the wrong person because we are desperate.
According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (www.cipd.co.uk) the following statistics reported by HR Managers show that hiring the wrong person can and does lead to
So by the time you spend time (and money) and advertising the position, sifting through CVs, interviewing, hiring, and training the new recruit the total financial impact will be somewhere between
So let’s say you offer a salary of £50,000 a year to a contracts manager and it goes horribly wrong, your total financial outlay could exceed £150,000.
And for a CEO on £200,000, the company may experience a financial loss of around £3 Million if large customers or key directors are driven out and lost to competitors.
So how can we make sure this doesn’t happen…?
Einstein once said this…
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.”
With this in mind in this blog we are going to help you create a process to hire the best people for your company
In addition we invited nine separate experts on this subject to join us as guests on the Wealthy Wednesday Podcast to share their insights with you on everything related to hiring great employees.
The links are in the resources section at the bottom of this blog.
Recruiting top talent tends to be all about short-term solutions.
The focus is narrow: You need to fill in an opening, so your HR professionals try to deal with these empty positions as quickly as possible to keep the vacancies from straining teams and workloads.
Recruitment efforts usually include:
In short, recruiting is all about finding new people.
A talent acquisition strategy, however, is a more holistic approach to hiring the most talented employees. And when you formulate a clear strategy, your company will invest in:
This simple change in mindset to focus on a talent acquisition strategy for your business will promote long-term growth.
The hiring framework you need to install in your business has five separate sections:
We’ll dive into each one in a moment, but first ..?
When you think of Premier League Football Teams, American Football Teams or NBA Basketball Franchises, they have talent scouts who are looking for talent 365 days a year.
And so should you…
However, we call them 5-Star Employees because they…
Better still they do the work of several 2-Star and 3-Star employees, meaning you can cut your fixed cost overhead by “pruning” team members who are not performing
If you have ever watched the rowing events in the Olympics where 8 men are rowing in unison and gliding over the surface of the water, this is what your team of employees can and will look like
Because your 5-Star Employees
And while you may think there are very few of these “Unicorns” around, you should know that they are definitely out there but represent the top 15% of available talent in any industry.
So for every seven candidates you have applying for a job role, only one of them will be a 5 Star employees.
And to hire just one 5 star employee you require three candidates to interview meaning twenty one applications
Imagine for a moment you have a high-performance team that loved working with your company and created an ROI of three times their salary
Would your life change at all…?
Of course it would
Well on my Wealthy Wednesday Podcast my guests included the Owner and Vice President of The All-In Company who discuss in detail how to attract, hire and retain 5-Star Employees.
PODCAST – Danielle Mulvey – https://anchor.fm/wealthy-wednesday-drimmie/episodes/S3-Ep8-The-Definitive-5-Star-Employee-Recruiting–wit-Danielle-Mulvey-e1vl13u
PODCAST – Heenle Turner – https://anchor.fm/wealthy-wednesday-drimmie/episodes/S3-E2-5-Star-Employees-with-Heenle-Turner-e1tkekn/a-a96ldue
According to www.dictionary.com the verb culture comes from the Latin word CULTURA which means cultivation, agriculture, tillage and care.
Apply this into your business and for you to grow and thrive you need to build a culture where your employees feel that they are able to grow and become an important role in the growth of the company.
And in this blog I want to unlock the potential you have for growth by uncovering the four building blocks that will allow you to attract, hire and retain the best employees in your industry.
Instead of being the “Hunter” and I want you to become the “Farmer” and follow these for steps
So how do we go about doing this
If you have ever come across a book by Partick Lencioni called “The 5 Dysfunctions of A Team” you will know he discusses openly the challenges that cause a toxic culture
Each step from 1-5 compounds on the next one and your results suffer.
If you are experiencing any of these you should invite an external coach or consultant into your business as soon as possible. They will help you build a better culture and create a fertile environment where your top people can grow, thrive and achieve their potential.
And your business does the same as these people grow
First you need a Strategic plan which outlines the following
You may think that choosing the correct market is the most important, however your core values are critical to hiring the best people, because
However if your customers get a horrible experience they will find someone else to do business with in the future rather that do repeat business with you
When your team live by your core values and are driven by a purpose to serve these customers as if they are family you can be certain your company will grow
Talking of propose you might like to look at the TED Talk given by Simon Sinek which has over 60 Million views – on how great leaders inspire action
We have already spoken about 5-Star employees. These are definitely the seeds you want to plant in your business.
You may have to “prune” out some of the 2 Star and 3 Star employees though because your 5 Star employees thrive best when surrounded by people like them.
The hiring process we suggest is as follows
This is probably longer than you currently use however I want you to remember this kep statement shared with me by a successful Millionaire friend
“Hire slow and fire fast”
Having a “Talent Pool” allows you to hire almost on demand because you have been consistently advertising and building a database of potential 5 star employees for when someone leaves you.
You need specific Job Descriptions for each silo in these talent pools so that you are building relationships with the best people all the time.
You may want to listen to two recruitment specialists we invited to join us as guests on The Wealthy Wednesday podcast because they openly share their insights and experience
PODCAST – Emma Marriott
PODCAST – Tara O’Brien
Here are some ideas to help you build and develop your talent pools
Advertising
Job ads are one of the oldest forms of advertising. However, running job ads is not necessarily an old school approach
Online campaigns can place targeted ads on www.Google.co.uk, www.Bing.co.uk or other Internet Search Engines in the form of
Additional paid ads can be placed on www.Meta.com (Facebook) and www.Youtube.com as well.
And lets not forget the old school methods such as
The key to making this type of advertising work effectively is to make sure it delivers a compelling message based on the desires of the applicant.
The logo or features of your company are unlikely to attract them as I explained earlier.
Automation
Technology can generate and streamline your recruiting process. Here are the most frequently used ones.
In addition many employers post a job advert on www.Linkedin.com.
However on all these online resource sites you need to attract your ideal candidates based on their desires and not “pitch” your company at them.
Candidate Mining In Your Company Database
If your company has been around for a few years and is well known, you may have CV’s hidden away in cupboards or old filing cabinets. Can segment them Believe it or not there will be some amazing opportunities to hire employees in these dusty real or digital CV’s.
Because you now know the ideal candidates you are looking for you you will be able to spot them more easily
Market Presence
If you have an office, the local community will already know your name. My question is how could you expand on that by putting up signs to let the local community know that you are hiring.
Company vans. On the back could you add a job ad on the back?
And how about sharing your core values
Be creative. Be different. Be memorable.
Networking
If you are part of your local Chamber Of Commerce you will meet some fantastic like minded business owners who may help you. Have a look at www.BritishChambers.org.uk to find your local one
And www.BNI.com may also be a great networking group to join
Referrals
You already have hundreds of people you could reach out to in your personal network who may know the ideal candidates you are looking for.
Make a list of 20 personal contacts you know well and reach out to ask them.
Talent Manufacturing
Talent manufacturing happens when your team of employees do the recruiting for you because they love working in your company and want people like them to work there too.
Talent Scouts
Make a list of talent scouts and recruiters who specialise in your sector and interview them all until you find one or two who can deliver on their promises. This will save you time and money in the long run.
One of my favourite people is Tom Reber who runs The Contractor Fight in the USA. He’s quirky, honest and tells it the way it is. And here’s a list of alternative methods he and others have created to hire people.
Tom says the only reason you can’t hire people is you only hire when it’s needed. And I agree with him. Which is why we mentioned above the need for building your “Talent Pool”.
Basically what Tom is saying is for you to create a business that becomes a people magnet and you will attract people all year long
And because of the importance of this you may want to consider hiring a “Talent Manager” who’s sole focus is building your talent pool
What is Employee Engagement?
According to Gallup, employee engagement is the involvement and enthusiasm of employees in their work and workplace.
And when you place your focus on helping your team grow, learn and become engaged you quickly learn whether they are actively engaged with their work or simply putting in their time.
Why is Employee Engagement Important
Employees make decisions and take actions every day that can affect your workforce and organisation.
The way your company treats employees and how employees treat one another can positively affect their actions — or can place your organisation at risk.
In fact data show that only 15% of employees worldwide fall into the “engaged” category which shows the depth of the problem
And without employee engagement, there’s no team engagement, making it more difficult to improve business outcomes
However when Gallup did an analysis of positive employee engagement in businesses they discovered that there was a reduction in
| Absenteeism | 81% |
| Safety Incidents occurring (accidents) | 64% |
| Patient safety (death and falls) | 58% |
| Staff turnover for low turnover companies | 43% |
| Quality (defects) | 41% |
| Shrinkage (theft) | 28% |
| Staff turnover for high turnover companies | 18% |
And better yet on a positive note the following increases were pinpointed when employee engagement was high in an organisation
| Profitability increased | 23% |
| Sales productivity increased | 18% |
| Customer loyalty increased | 10% |
This last statistic is really important because it can lead to a high level of referrals and repeat business leading to further increase in profitability.
Month 1 of a new employee’s onboarding experience is crucial for setting the foundation for their success in the company.
Here are some of the key activities that should happen in month 1:
Orientation: Provide a detailed orientation about the company’s mission, values, and culture. This should include an introduction to the company’s history, organisational structure, policies, and procedures.
Introduction to the Team: Introduce the new employee to the team, including key stakeholders, managers, and colleagues. Encourage team members to reach out and welcome the new employee.
Mentor or Buddy: Assign a mentor or buddy to help the new employee navigate their first month. The mentor should be a seasoned employee who can answer questions, provide support, and offer guidance.
Role and Responsibilities: Provide a thorough introduction to the new employee’s role and responsibilities. Ensure they understand their job duties, goals, and performance expectations. Provide regular feedback and support as they adjust to their new role.
Safety Training: Conduct safety training and provide necessary protective equipment for job sites. Ensure the new employee understands the importance of safety and how to work safely in the company’s environment.
Training and Development: Provide additional training and development opportunities to help the new employee develop the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in their role. This can include job-specific training, as well as soft skills training, such as communication and teamwork.
Performance Goals: Set performance goals and expectations for the new employee’s role and establish a timeline for completing them. Regularly review progress towards these goals and provide feedback and support as necessary.
Company Culture and Values: Reinforce the company’s culture and values by sharing real-world examples and providing opportunities for the new employee to participate in team-building activities.
By following these activities in month 1 of the onboarding process, the new employee will feel welcome, prepared, and equipped to succeed in their role.
They will also have a strong foundation for building relationships with their colleagues and contributing to the company’s success.
The career pathway is crucial for both you and your new employee. All you need to do is ask them what they want to achieve in the business
What career progression are they after
If they want your job and are genuinely interested in learning how, then mentor them to do so
As business owner you should be thrilled you will one day be able to delegate away the role you are in to focus on more strategic work
Others may want less of a role and that’s fantastic too. Help them achieve what they are after, care for them and they will stay for a long time
When you have your employees tuned in to the work of growing the company as if it’s their own magic happens
Your business takes on a life of it’s own and you as the business owner begin to experience something unusual
Free time…
And the opportunity to use that time for strategic thinking for the growth of your business
However before that we suggest you delegate the role of a “Systems Champion” to one of your team and have them create step by step processes for each element of your business – working with the department heads to create videos that anyone can easily follow to successfully complete a task
Now that you have systems in place and a team of amazing 5 Star Employees who know how to use them, your entire business is destined for growth and profitability.
You’re probably wondering if all this stuff works…
Well the good news is it does.
In particular, you may wish to listen to my friend Harlan Hammack who helped an Electrical Contractor in Atlanta USA grow from $700,000 in revenue in 2019 to over $5.2 Million in 2022 with significantly higher profit margins.
Harlan spills the beans on how he and Michael the Owner made it happen when he was a recent guest on my Wealthy Wednesday Podcast.
PODCAST – Harlan Hammack – https://anchor.fm/wealthy-wednesday-drimmie/episodes/S3-E4-Core-Values–Growing-a-Construction-Company-from-700K-to-5M-in-3-years–with-Harlan-Hammack-e1u968r/a-a98uepi
In our third podcast series called “People First Culture” we have some amazing guests who shared their experience and insights. You can click on the links here
Listen to these podcasts several times and you will learn how to attract, hire and retain the best people in your industry
ANDREW – you can find the links on spotify here – https://anchor.fm/wealthy-wednesday-drimmie/episodes/S3-Ep8-The-Definitive-5-Star-Employee-Recruiting–wit-Danielle-Mulvey-e1vl13u
In this blog post, we discussed briefly the entire hiring process. There is so much more we could not cover. However you have enough here to make a start.
But whatever your business goals, you cannot scale your business to the next level without building a high performance team who share your core values, your purpose and have a fertile culture where they can grow and achieve their potential. If that sounds overwhelming and like too much work for the time you have available, we can help!
Our Breakthrough Coaching is the ultimate time-saving solution for ambitious and time-poor construction business owners. So if you would like our help for hiring the best people in your industry, get in touch!
]]>This week, I have the pleasure of talking to Danielle Mulvey of the All In Company.
Partial Transcript:
Danielle: So what’s interesting and Mike Michalowicz and I (Mike is the author of Profit First.) we’re business partners, and sort of partners in crime and things. he’ll do his keynote on Profit First, and then I’ll follow behind him doing the workshop, actually teaching how to implement Profit First. And his books, have been sort of an evolution of the entrepreneur as their business grows and scales and such. And the next book that is coming out, is called All In how to Get Your Employees to Act Like Owners. And that is an evolution, really, from profit first, and seeing businesses become profitable, scale their business, but then sort of start struggling with their profitability at the point of, about ten employees and a million dollars or more in real revenue, then what happens is their biggest expense is payroll. And, that big expense, if it’s not efficient, if it’s loaded with one, two and three star employees, is starting to put a drain on the business and start to negatively impact the profitability of the business, because one, two and three star employees their average hom or worth. But the funny thing is, it takes two or three one, two, or three star employees to do the job of one five star employee. But you pay the five star employee the same that you pay a one, two or three star employee. So that is where you just start this spiral down in terms of losing some ground on profitability when your business has one, two and three star employees. The other thing about kind of that tipping point of ten or more employees, a million dollars or more in real revenue is that that business is scaling. That business started out with maybe, you know, two or three employees. And the interesting thing is, is maybe some of those employees that started with you, they were five stars when you were doing $300,000 a year. But as you grow the business, and as you get into new markets or require a new level of sophistication that five star employee who may be someone who started with you and was great, hasn’t necessarily scaled with your operations of the business. So that person could become a one, two or three star employee as your business grows. And now they’re sort of a liability, in terms of your profitability instead of an asset. And so it’s really important for owners to continually be evaluating their employees. We like to use the five star employee rating system to keep levelling up the organization as it grows. And it’s okay if someone isn’t necessarily a fit for the organization after it reaches a certain point. I know for me, I was the bookkeeper I was the bookkeeper in our construction materials supply firm in 2010 when we started the company. That position quickly outgrew my skills and abilities, after about two years and such, so I moved on. I didn’t hang on to doing that role, if that makes sense. And that happens in business. and so it’s really important that as your companies grow as they scale, you’ve got the right people in the right role. Or as Jim Collins would say, on the right bus, in the right seat, and going in the right direction.
Find Danielle on Linkedin HERE
and on the website discussed: https://theallincompany.com/neversettle/ where you can also download the How to Hire 5 Star Employees Guide.
Get in touch with us at [email protected]
This week, I welcome to the show Tara O’Brien, Recruitment Strategist!
Partial Transcript:
Dave: I’m loving this, by the way. This is absolutely brilliant. And thank, you very much for sharing because what I’d like to ask now is how would you I’ve got my own thoughts about how to do this. How would you build that platform? Because M, if you think about in business, we’ve got, when we sell anything, if somebody wants to buy a Tesla, if they want to buy an iPhone, if they want to buy whatever they want to buy, we all go through three stages. We go through awareness, consideration, and decision stage. So aware that we have a requirement for something, we then go out and consider something and we’ll investigate. And then decision is based about okay, price, et cetera. So what would be the first steps to a company or organization? building a platform to attract their ideal clients, would you say?
Tara: Yeah. And the recruitment or the candidate journey, as we call it, tends to go through exactly the same cycle as that. But we tend to call it awareness, consideration, and application are the first three stages in the candidate journey. And it’s a difficult question to give a definite answer to, because it really depends on the organization and whether they’re an organization that’s known in the area that they’re based in, or if they have a brand name that people are aware of. But ultimately it’s about building that employee brand, that brand that people talk about when they’re down the pub and say, oh, I work for this company, they’re a great organization to work for, this is what happens. I don’t know, I get to work from home three days a week, or I get to go early on Friday afternoons, or whatever it is that they’re talking about. And bearing in mind that most people don’t leave an organization for financial reasons, obviously some do. and of course at the moment, there’s a little bit more of that because of the financial current situation, where it’s difficult for people to, cost of living is going up. but generally speaking, people leave because of their manager or because of the organization. And it’s usually linked in with fairness somewhere along the line. They rarely leave just because of money. So if you’ve got somebody talking about an organization, the organization they work for being I don’t know, really inclusive, really caring, really wanting M to look after their employees and nurture them, they’re going to tell other people that. And that’s how you start to spread your brand message. there’s other ways you can spread your brand message. so tools like LinkedIn, if you’re recruiting for people in the professional sector, LinkedIn tends to be a great tool. Getting people to follow your social media pages. LinkedIn obviously, but the Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, whatever the platforms are on, that you’re on at the moment. But also then putting out content that’s going to be relevant to them. Where companies go wrong with these type of pages is they start to put out information about why they’re brilliant. Nobody cares about that. You’ve got to focus on what’s in it for the candidate. So you’ve got to put yourself in the candidate’s shoes and think, what’s in it for me from the candidate’s perspective. So saying, we’re an organization, we’ve got offices in, blah, blah, nobody cares. What they care about is how you’re going to make them feel and what you’re going to do to make them feel like they’re the right employee for your organization. And so that content that you need to put out to really, build that, ah, brand needs to be all about what you’re going to give to the candidates, not who you are.
You can find Tara on Linkedin here, and on her Website here.
As ever, please get in touch on [email protected]
This week, I’m so pleased to welcome Clayton Drotsky to the show, all the way from South Africa.
Partial Transcript:
Dave: So, how many years have you spent working within call centers there?
Clayton: 18 years.
Dave: 18 years. You must have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly when you’ve been working there.
Clayton: Oh, yes, definitely. I’ve had people who are leaders who may have got all their leadership qualities from watching The Sopranos. I’ve had leaders like the one I’ve just explained, who have been unbelievable. And that’s why leaders have such a massive impact. You add value, and you can inspire people to do and be better every single day, and you shouldn’t do yourself an injustice. Having a great leader like I had had a massive impact on the rest of my career, but I could have been unlucky, and I could have had a really bad leader, and I could have had a negative impact on my life. So when you look at a toxic call center, it’s because well, my feeling, at least, is because the people who are in the leadership roles are there for the wrong reasons. they’re there to make money, which is obviously what everyone wants to do, but they forget that the people that are in the call center, if they enjoy what they do and they find satisfaction in what they do, they’ll look forward to doing it, they’ll enjoy doing it, and they’ll accelerate it, too naturally. But that’s what you want. You want that feeling.
Dave: So this is really, really fascinating to me because this podcast series was actually, inspired by a gentleman called, Michelle Falcon. It’s a great book, actually. It’s called People First culture. I really strongly recommend it. People First Culture build a lasting company by shifting your focus from profits to people. So what you’re really saying is that’s exactly, without even knowing about that book, basically that’s what you’ve been doing for the last 18 years, correct?
Clayton: Yes. Yeah, exactly. And lucky that it happened to me, that I was able to understand what good leadership looked like and was able to implement it myself.
Dave: Well, I just find that that’s fantastic. so when you look at toxic companies, what you mentioned obviously, about leaders that are just solely focused on, the money side of things. And obviously The Sopranos, that’s their training guide. But, what else? Talk about toxicity. Talk about some of the lessons that you’ve learned. And that when you walk into a company now in your current role, that you can immediately spot what toxic elements are there.
Clayton: I’ve been to some companies where people compare busyness. They’ll, make some of the remarks. Like they might make a remark when they come back from lunch, just come back from lunch, probably have 120 emails. Again, why would you say that? Why are we comparing busyness? Why are we putting our boundaries do we not want people to ask us things because we don’t know how to do it? Is that why we pretending to be busy? Or why is busyness such an important thing to us to compete in? And that, I must admit, I’ve heard often, and that’s kind of a sign for me, that the people are not there as a team. They’re working individually. And when you start comparing busyness, there could be boundaries up. they are afraid of taking on challenges. They don’t celebrate the victories of others. and it almost rolls into what a fixed mindset looks like.
Find Clayton here on Linkedin
or get him at https://growthcrew.co.uk/
Get in touch with Dave on [email protected]
Partial Transcript:
Paula: Everybody gets out of bed because the doctor gets to get out of bed to watch TV. They get out of bed to make a difference, to be that game changer serve. they want to feel amazing, they want to feel fulfilled. But yet most employees are trained to get out of bed to fill a nine to five slot. So don’t matter if you’re on Facebook, don’t matter if it’s on LinkedIn. It’s between nine and five. Right? I’ve got to fill my time. Whereas if we flip it and go, Right, I tell you what, do your daily target today, and as soon as you finish, get yourself off home. If you finish at 01:00, get yourself off my bank the time. If you finish by 10:00, get yourself a phone. and teach these employees to be sharper, not to fill the time, but to actually how do I actually do my job in a high quality return? Hit my targets, let the business grow, and then by going, take a rest day, just like a footballer would do, if that makes sense.
Dave: Absolutely. But I think that’s a lovely way of putting it, actually. And it’s just, reflecting on that just now, if we can inspire people, particularly post COVID and what have you, or post lockdown, I should say. But in terms of, performance, if we can excel in a shorter period of time, then the employees of the team are allowed to take time off. That’s just such a wonderful way to help them go and spend more time with their family, but cram in as much work as possible that can optimize the performance of a company.
Paula: Yeah, it’s an operating they’re like, you know, like, I see this 95 or fill the 95 strategy and they don’t hit the targets. And I go, Why are you here, then? How do you feel if you don’t hit the targets? Where’s your fulfillment? Where do you feel special? And they go, we don’t. We just come here and do the job, paul and then they go and I’ll go, okay, and how would you feel if we did it the other way, where you felt brilliant, you felt fulfilled and you learned, I’ll take your daily target in the shortest piece of time, just like an athlete would do. So you same bolt has trained his body to hit that 100 meters target in the quickest time possible. Turn them much of the money as possible. And I’m thinking everybody is an athlete, whether you’re a business, whether you’re an employee, whether you are a footballer, everyone’s an athlete. So why are we not training our, body to return or be stronger or be sharper to return these returns for whatever business or your family or your friends, and play this level of fairly messing about and fannying about getting straight to the point.
Get in touch with Paula at The Influential Minds Website or on Linkedin
As ever, reach out to us on [email protected]
]]>
Partial Transcript:
Harlan: There are a lot of places that I’ve, I’ve worked that the culture was toxic. And and mainly because you had people set up, to where they were competing, or they felt they were competing against their colleagues, competing for raises, competing for recognition, whatever it happened to be. Those people, they keep knowledge to themselves. They don’t share, they don’t help. If they see somebody struggling, you know, they they point the finger at them. Look, they’re struggling, but I’m not. So they can keep that spotlight on them. That’s very toxic. I work for one company that was the exact opposite. We had people it was a big project, big software implementation project. And when somebody got done with their work, they went around all the cubicles, knocking on the cubicles, asking, what can I do to help you? How can I help? And they would do almost anything right to try to get things done, because that was the way that their company was set up, is that we live or die as a team. We survive, we grow, we thrive as a team. And so everything was focused on teamwork. And if somebody was struggling and you didn’t at least offer to help, you had a conversation, right? You took a little walk outside the building, to have a conversation about that, because that was what was so important. And that’s what I try to get in with my clients, is that you want to try to build a team that isn’t out for individual recognition. They’re trying to do whatever it is they can to make the company as successful as possible. Because if the company grows, everybody grows, everybody benefits, right? So with the business leaders, the business owners, I try to teach them, take care of your employees. If you take care of your employees, your employees will take care of your customers, your customers will take care of your business, and your business will ultimately take care of you. And that’s really what you want to do, is try to get that thriving kind of, culture going in your business.
Dave: Wise words. Just fantastic, actually. I really appreciate that and a couple of things going on in here. So if a business owner comes to you and you go in and you spot some deficiencies in culture. What would be the first area that you might work on? So if you take a, company through a process, until I’m using the consultative language here, but taking a company through a process of changing culture. What would be the kind of ABC of success that you would take people through?
Harlan: What I try to do is start with, the core values, right? Everybody has, a, set of core values. Whether you acknowledge it or not, every decision you make is based on your personal core values. Well, same thing in business. You set up the core values of the business. What are we in business for? What are we trying to accomplish? Why are we doing what we do? I help the company set up their core values and then teach everybody in the company, these are our core values. So every decision the employees make are based on those core values. If they aren’t making them on the core values, who knows what they’re using as their foundation, right, for their decisions? one client that I’m working with, Michael we’re doing that. We put his core values in place slowly teaching everybody. At every Monday morning meeting, they go through the core values again to let people know, this is exactly what this means to us.
Find Harlan on LINKEDIN and at https://www.ib4e-coaching.com/
Get in touch on [email protected]
Join me in conversation with Emma Marriott (Emma Marriott Consulting, and recruitment expert) as we discuss good hires, bad hires, company culture, and more!
Partial Transcript:
Dave: What you’re sharing here is absolutely fascinating, because when when I think about, recruitment consultants, many don’t have the the experience you’ve got. Many do it in a very poor way. But your experience of actually growing a business all the way up to managing director, dealing with the internal clients, ie. Your own teams as well as the external clients, I find it absolutely fascinating because that must be part of what you’ve done, part of your experience in learning how to create a culture of growth, for example. And right here today, particularly in post pandemic situation, I think it’s really, really relevant because I’m hearing time after time after time, oh, I can’t find people, there’s nobody in my sector, there’s nobody good enough, et cetera, et cetera. Is that just like a time old record?
Emma: No, I think we’re in quite a unique situation, actually, just now. in the 20 odd years I worked in recruitment consultancy World, there was definitely trends where you would go up and down following the curve of a recession. Unfortunately, my stand out time would be 2006 seven was an actual boom time, where there was more job of mortal vacancies than there was people similar to now. But you could see that that was just a good, wealthy, strong economy. Then also went to 2007. The world seemed to fall apart till 2008 nine, where we get more of a balance of quite a number of jobs. One recovery point, good number of people. But then also we got that branding because there was a lot, an awful lot of people not entering construction, you know, in the 2007 time. They don’t see it as a career of choice. And then it comes to 2015, and you can’t find the people you’re actually looking for because they’ve never entered the marker at that point in time. So we get the difficulties of the push pool. But now I think we’ve not got a particularly buoyant economy at the moment, for a whole host of reasons, but yet we’ve still got a massive dearth of job roles are open that we can’t fill. And, yes, the employment rate is high. I think there’s been information out today that wage increases have been at a record level than they have ever before. But there is definitely the candidates and employees in the market are probably have more demands and more expectations than they ever have before. And I think we are not necessarily as employers going out to find the right people, where they’re hanging out and giving them the type of culture platform environments where people will thrive.
Reach out to Emma at:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmamarriott/
and find me on [email protected]