by Beth | Nov 12, 2024 | Employee Hiring
A few weeks ago, I was invited to my friend Kaylyn’s house for dinner. She had just been able to move back into her house after a flood, and she wanted to show me her new kitchen/eating area.
I sat down on her new barstool at her new counter with a glass of great wine gleefully eating outstanding homemade guacamole and chips. She was on the other side of the counter cooking and drinking a glass of fine wine. She was talking about all the drama around this kitchen renovation, how hard it was, all the moving around, the Airbnb, and how she now LOVES to cook in her kitchen, when suddenly she said, “And I have a double oven. I am not sure why I got a double oven, but I am using it!”
I said nothing as my mouth was happily enjoying the fabulous food, but my first thought was, “I know why you have a double oven. Your four grown children are going to start bringing home significant others, which soon turns into marriage and grandchildren. In the blink of an eye, you will be regularly making meals for 10 plus people.”
By getting a double oven, Kaylyn was preparing for her future.
It’s the same process expanding your business. You have to build some of the infrastructure BEFORE you have an increase in sales, otherwise, you expand too fast and end up with a lot of disgruntled customers. We call this re-investing in our companies. It is taking a leap of faith that “if you build it, they will come”. To be clear, there is fear and uncertainty baked into expanding before you have the sales, but without expansion, you can’t grow.
Kind of like the double oven… if you want to have a big boom in your entertaining at your home, you must prepare for it by having more equipment, more dishes, more room, etc. So, get ready for this next wave of success by buying the double oven and hiring and training your new people.
Success has never tasted so sweet.
POWER THOUGHT: Buy the double oven. Hire your next person. Enjoy the fruits of your labor.
by Beth | Oct 16, 2024 | Employee Hiring
In case you aren’t familiar with the term “Ghosting”, let me educate you. “Ghosting” is when you cut off communication with someone for no apparent reason. You go on a date with someone, you have fun, and then you NEVER hear from them again. Or, in the hiring world, you have an interview with a company, it goes really well, and again, you NEVER hear from them again. EVER.
We are seeing record numbers of candidates who are ghosting us for interviews. We call them, talk to them on the phone, invite them to interview for a job they applied for, and they don’t show up for the interview. We are seeing this with all levels of hires, even the C-suite roles.
Spooky.
I stumbled upon this article talking about ghost jobs. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/careersandeducation/the-role-you-re-applying-for-might-be-a-ghost-job-here-s-what-that-means-and-how-to-avoid-them/ar-AA1rEo1s?ocid=BingNewsSerp
A ghost job is an ad for a position that doesn’t exist. It has either already been filled, or the ad was posted to satisfy requirements of some sort. For example, a position was filled internally, but the company was required by law to post it externally. So, when applicants send in a resume, they are applying for a job that doesn’t exist or that has already been filled. And the numbers of these ghost ads are scary: 3 in 10 job ads are “ghost” jobs.
How do applicants know if your job ad is a trick or a treat? Here are some tips:
- List your company name, website and address
- Have a dedicated person to talk to candidates
- List the real salary range
- Give your candidates a deadline as to when they will hear back from you, no matter the outcome, and meet that deadline.
- Show some grace to candidates. They are navigating a job search in very uncertain times.
In summary, if you want the best of the best to apply for your positions, you must evaluate your recruiting strategy from start to finish. And if you need help, I am standing by…with chocolate.
POWER THOUGHT: Is your position a trick or a treat?
by Beth | Sep 4, 2024 | Selecting Good Candidates
I have been conducting this impromptu, unofficial survey of how people like their margaritas. The answers have been so vast and have sparked some interesting debates! For example: 1) alcohol or non-alcohol 2) salt or no salt 3) lime or no lime 4) lime or strawberry (Is strawberry even a margarita?? one purist questioned) 5) frozen, on -the-rocks 6) mix or coin style.
If that isn’t enough, what are your tequila choices? White, gold, reposado, or anejo. What are your mix choices? Pre-mix? Just lime juice? How about orange flavor? Triple sec? Gran Gala? Grand Marnier? Any other secret ingredients? Quite literally, the combinations are endless.
As the consumer, you CAN leave the choices to someone else, and just order the house margarita… you may like it, or you may not. Or you can spend time, energy and money trying to figure out what you like and create your own special recipe.
Just. Like. Hiring.
You can take any ole resume that comes along with very mixed results. Or, you can spend the time, energy and effort to figure out what you want before you hire someone. This exercise is called the Ideal List, and it is the first step in the A-list Interviews Hiring Process. What type of person are you searching for? What attributes do you want? What values must this person have in order to fit in with your company culture? What skill sets will make them successful?
If you are okay with taking big chances, pull a resume out of the pile and hire them. But if you are like most business-people I know, you need to find the right person the first time. That means, you have to do the work before you hire someone. You deserve an employee that is unique to you and your business.
And for your information, I am not a huge margarita fan. I like Anejo tequila with no lime, no salt, at room temperature. Ole!
POWER THOUGHT: Don’t take big risks with your hires. Or your margaritas.
by Beth | Jun 5, 2024 | Employee Hiring
When I bought my house three years ago, I decided that I wanted some new dishes to complement my regular white ones. I actually walked into Williams Sonoma and bought 8 blue dinner plates and 8 blue salad plates to go with my blue kitchen. I also bought 8 blue linen napkins to round out the place setting. I was in total bliss.
Every year at Christmas, I host my Vistage group for our Christmas meeting. I have one red and green table and one blue and silver table to accommodate about 16 people. I pulled out my trusty blue linen napkins and alas! I could only find 7.
I looked EVERYWHERE for that missing blue napkin. I thank my lucky stars that one person in our Vistage group couldn’t attend the meeting, so I only needed 7 blue napkins.
But still.
This spring, I cleaned every closet, every cabinet, every crevice, crook and cranny of my house, and I couldn’t find that damn thing anywhere. Finally, I started looking at the Williams Sonoma website to buy 8 more napkins, but my OCD kicked in when I realized I would still be short one napkin.
SIGH.
Then, one night, I was going to Boulder to have dinner with my good friends, Lisa and Michael. It was a hot night so I put on a sundress. I turned around to walk out of the bathroom, and there on the floor in the middle of the bathroom was the blue napkin.
WHAT??? My only guess is that thanks to good ole static cling, it was stuck to my dress.
This exact situation happens in hiring all the time. You search and search. You interview. You lament. You worry. You cling to hope. Until one day, your amazing employee drops in your lap. And then, you are so happy that you forget all the other horror.
You are so happy that you hired a great employee, and I am so happy that I have an even number of napkins. YAY!
POWER THOUGHT: Your napkin/employee isn’t lost. It just hasn’t dropped into your lap yet. Keep searching.
by Beth | Mar 27, 2024 | Employee Hiring
Ah, the broken hiring heart…
A few weeks back, a client of mine professed their undying love for a candidate, and another person on the interview team suggested that they might be setting themselves up for a broken hiring heart.
You know the one… that candidate that you get so excited about! They use all the right terms. They say your name in the interview. They did their research and asked great questions. You can’t WAIT to send them an offer letter!
Then, they ghost you. They turn you down. They do something egregious in the process. You try to call them…to convince them to work for you, but it NEVER works out.
You have a broken hiring heart, and it really is disheartening when this happens.
Here is how to heal that tender heart of yours:
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Take the next day off from interviewing. You really do need a day to be sad that this fleeting relationship didn’t work out. Be disappointed and feel the feels.
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Remind yourself of why you do what you do. Get re-connected to your purpose.
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Do some self-care: work out, drink water, walk outside, and sleep. You really will feel better in the morning.
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Go back to your ad. Does it still say what you need it to say?
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Finally, have heart: If they didn’t want to work with you now, they really won’t later when the going gets tough. You dodged a bullet.
Now, get out there and find “the one” that makes your heart sing! You got this!
POWER THOUGHT: Your heart was broken by a heartless candidate. It happens. Take heart! The “One” is on their way to you!
***Shout out to Jodie Reed for the idea!
by Beth | Mar 13, 2024 | Employee Hiring
A few weeks ago, I was meeting with my Indeed team and my A-list Interviews team over an ad that I had posted. It wasn’t getting much traction. And if you know me at all, you know that I review traction on ads as closely as my financial advisor looks at stock reports.
It can make or break my whole day.
Anyhoo, this particular ad was giving me heartburn, until one of my people said, “We need to figure out the Lateral Wiggle.”
Huh?
“Lateral wiggle.” In other words, what are the surrounding skill sets that can substitute for the ones you want? For example, Google sheets and Excel. Not quite the same but close. For my lenders, I have a bank that just hired a lender with no banking experience, but she came from many years with Enterprise. Lateral wiggle. For my Customer Service Reps, any experience with Starbucks, Chipotle, or Chick fil-A. They have the best customer service training programs that I have ever seen.
Approximately 50% of information on a resume is either exaggerated or an outright lie, so resumes are already suspect at best. When you are struggling to find the right fit, broaden your scope with lateral wiggle and a solid interview process, and wiggle your way into an amazing new employee!
POWER THOUGHT: Can’t find your great fit? Maybe it is time to wiggle.
