by Beth | May 12, 2021 | Uncategorized
A few months ago, I started looking for a new home. The timing couldn’t have been worse. The real estate market in Colorado has been stupid lately, and I am not usually known for my patience.
Anyway, I encountered this house that had pink walls and a 3D mermaid sticking out of the wall (see photo). The place was dirty, not staged well, had a ½ eaten box of pop tarts in the basement closet, and a life-sized portrait of Mother Teresa with a kneeling rug where the dining room table should be. The office had blood red walls, and the floor-to-ceiling fireplace had been totally blocked by over-grown vines.
I turned to my realtor and said emphatically “Oh HELL no.”
My realtor, Heather Slump, disagreed with me. She said “It’s just paint and carpet, Beth. Easily fixable. Plus, the layout is perfect for you, and this place is very well-built.” She was right. She started talking to me about possibilities, and she created a picture of what this place could be, minus the mermaid. I got really excited!
Long story short, I moved in 2 weeks ago. I bought the place under asking price, and I was the only offer. This is the single best place I have EVER lived!
You can have the same experience with employees. You are never going to find great people if all you do is focus on the resume. If all you ever do is look at experience, degrees and University names, you can miss the magical merfolk that come along your desk. Make waves with your hiring process! Look outside the box!
Imagine the possibilities! You will be so glad you did!
And for the Mermaid house? Things are going along swimmingly.
You are invited to visit!
Power thought: You can have any employee that you want. Focus on the magic of your hiring process. Your mermaid/merman is right around the jetty.
by Beth | Apr 28, 2021 | Employee Retention, Lifestyle
Last week, I Interviewed a woman for a Senior level position, and immediately her child began to scream. Obviously flustered, the woman apologized profusely and said something to me that I will never forget:
She said, “You know, I don’t know how people do this. I can’t even ask my neighbor to come watch my child for 15 minutes while I have an interview. As matter of fact, I can’t even ask my own mother to come over to spend time with her grandchild!”
Then I asked her how she managed her childcare versus working at her current position, and she said, “Luckily, I have a very flexible boss who lets me work the hours that I need to in order to get the job done. I work from 8 PM to 2 AM and then when my child takes a nap.”
Wow.
Even as a parent, I don’t think the full impact of how hard it is to have small children and a job in the middle of a pandemic with absolutely ZERO childcare help until I spoke to this candidate. 4.3 million parents may have to leave the workforce due to the pandemic, according to this article:
If you have great employees who are parents, I strongly encourage you to reach out to them often. Ask them how things are going, then ask them how you can help. We know that employees who feel seen, heard and valued, stay at jobs longer, and my hunch is these people need to feel this now more than ever.
The bottom line:
turnover hurts the bottom line. If your employee is a good one, reaching out is the best way to keep them afloat. You need them as your employee, they need you as their employer, and it is also the right thing to do as a human being.
by Beth | Apr 14, 2021 | Adventures in Interviewing, Employee Hiring
Yesterday, I was interviewing with one of my favorite clients, and we were talking about general hiring practices. I said to him “When you talk to a client, you want to always say “yes”. You want to solve their problems, because that is how you get to do the work that you love. Also, that is how you make money, which gives you the opportunity to grow. “
My brilliant client turned to me and said “Exactly. When talking to clients, your default should be yes. But when you are hiring your default should be no.”
He is totally right.
Hiring is about rejection. Think about it. You receive 300 resumes for a job, and you will reject AT LEAST 299 of them, if not all 300. Then, you receive another 300, and the process starts again.
The reason that hiring is so hard for business leaders is because their default is set to yes. When a client comes to you for help, you WANT to say yes. It’s fun!
As hard as that can be for some people, the reality is, you just can’t do that in hiring.
Power thought:
Make a conscious effort when hiring to switch your default from yes to no.
by Beth | Mar 31, 2021 | Uncategorized
This past week, my daughter Katy, applied for a job as a Personal Care Aide. She would be going to a client’s home who has some sort of disability. As a future nurse, Katy wanted to get some practical real- world experience before she started her clinicals in the fall of 2021. Really smart on her part.
She applied online to a company with her resume and targeted cover letter. The woman emailed Katy within hours and asked her for a phone interview the following day. Here is how the conversation went:
Interviewer: Do you have a reliable car?
Katy: yes
Interviewer: Do you want part-time?
Katy: yes
Interviewer: Does this hourly rate work for you?
Katy: yes
Interviewer: Then you have the job! I will send you some paperwork to fill out, and we will call you for orientation after your background check comes back. Do you have any questions?
Katy called me to report after it was over, and she said, “You are probably appalled.” Uh, yes. Yes, I am.
What kind of an interview is THAT? And for taking care of someone with a disability in their HOME???
I am horrified.
When you hire out of desperation, you make mistakes 2/3 of the time. This company got lucky with Katy. She is smart, kind, and responsible. She will make a GREAT aide to her clients. And because the company gets lucky, they won’t dig deep to figure out a way to really interview people effectively. And thus, the cycle continues.
If you are looking for front line, hourly workers, I have a shorter interview process that is highly effective, and it can turn the tide from desperate to visionary in a very short period of time. Think about it and reach out if you want to discuss. Your future company will thank you for it.
Power thought: A “non-interview” is the road to big mistakes in hiring.
by Beth | Mar 17, 2021 | Employee Hiring, Selecting Good Candidates
I graduated from college before the internet. (I am totally dating myself here!) I put on my panty hose (barf), printed my short resume on good quality paper, and drove to company #1 to see if I could talk to someone about getting a job. Then, I drove to company #2 and did the same thing. If I went to 5 or 6 companies per day, it was a good day! In other words, I had to be strategic about applying for jobs.
In this day and age, you can apply for 100 jobs on a Sunday morning in your favorite p.j.’s and fuzzy bunny slippers. There is no strategy required on the candidate’s part.
Last week, one of my favorite people on the planet called to me to ask me “How do I stop waiters from applying to my high-level job?”
The short answer is “you can’t”.
Quit worrying about what you can’t control and start working on what you CAN control.
Write a job ad that gets folks excited about the opportunity that you are offering. Start with your mission statement. Talk about the required soft and hard skills. Keep the ad short and concise. And end your ad with an invitation to apply. “We look forward to hearing from you!”
Focus on your Ideal candidate and hold out until they show up. And they WILL show up. I promise.
Power thought:
“Do your work, then let it go.”
– The Tao Te Ching
