by Beth | Mar 22, 2023 | Recruiting
When I was in college a gazillion years ago, I had a great friend named Beth Bratton. She and I were connected at the hip and 2 peas in a pod. Beth was Head Cheerleader at her huge Dallas high school, great GPA and cute, darling and precious. In my opinion, she was the total package.
When Beth started looking at colleges, her father told her that whatever money she received from scholarships, he would put that amount of money towards a new car. Beth immediately responded with “Game. ON!” She applied to every scholarship that she could get her hands on and had several formal interviews. She was rejected time after time after time.
She was super frustrated, because she had her eye on this hot car called the Chrysler LeBaron convertible. She was determined to be driving that car around Austin!
Finally, she had an interview with Wells Fargo. She just knew that she wouldn’t get the scholarship, because she hadn’t received any of the others. She just didn’t care anymore. She made peace with the fact that she wouldn’t get the car, and she walked into that interview and nailed it. The bank gave her a 50k scholarship, and she promptly purchased her dream car.
She and I drove all over Austin in that car, and in one particularly memorable trip, we drove to South Padre for spring break. (That is all I will say about that trip. 😊)
What does this have to do with hiring? Just about the time that you are ready to give up, your dream job or dream employee will show up. When you are so frustrated that you don’t care anymore, your ideal candidate walks in your door. When you are sick and tired of waiting, your wildest dreams come true.
It is called letting go. And it is the hardest part of your search.
What I tell my clients is when they are tired of working with me, their amazing employee will walk through their door, and all that hard work will have been worth it. And when they do, you will have more time to take off driving down the highway in your dream car.
POWER THOUGHT: Dream of yourself in a convertible with the top down and not a care in the world. Hold out until you get it.
by Beth | Jul 27, 2022 | Employee Hiring, Employee Retention, Interview Techniques, Recruiting
Do you know someone who could use help hiring the perfect candidate? Have you connected with a fellow business owner who is tired of sifting through resume after resume, wishing there was a better way? We’re here to help!
Here at A-list Interviews, we are passionate about helping business owners through the hiring process and ensuring that we find the candidate that will be the right fit for your company and culture. We are proud to say that 91% of employees hired based on our system are still employed with the company 12 months later. We would love to offer our support and a great strategy to achieve your hiring and retention goals.
Contact us today, or send us any business owners who could use help with hiring, interviewing, and retaining employees. At A-list Interviews, we look forward to helping you and your network hire the right employee.
by Beth | Feb 26, 2020 | Employee Hiring, Interview Process, Recruiting
My daughter Katy is in her second semester of her freshmen year at the University of Miami, and recently she decided to go through rush for a sorority. Each sorority had a sales pitch, goodie bags and t-shirts to offer, in addition to scholarship and job opportunities during and after college. After a full week of parties, get-togethers, meetings at all hours of the day and night, and inspiring speeches, she called me on the verge of tears. “Mom, I just wish I had some answers!”
It got me thinking – the same goes for candidates. You can offer people big salaries, benefits galore, pool tables and dry-cleaning services, but all of that is meaningless if they don’t get a solid, meaningful job offer. What candidates really want are answers. Timely, relevant, definitive answers. After all, they are making a decision that will affect their life significantly.
Case in point: Last week a candidate called me to say thank you. He said the A-list Interviews process was the most transparent and informative job-seeking process he had ever been through. “Just knowing when I would have an answer really reduced my stress, and I just wanted to say thank you for communicating with me clearly through a very difficult time.”
This voicemail came AFTER we chose a different candidate for the position he was seeking.
If you want to attract and retain great employees, start treating them well from the very instant they send you a resume. Communicate when they will have answers and meet those deadlines. Treating people like people goes a long way; it gives them positive feeling, and a sense they will be treated well as an employee too.
As for my kid? She pledged AD Phi and couldn’t be happier.
by Beth | Jan 29, 2020 | Employee Hiring, Recruiting, Selecting Good Candidates
A few weeks ago, I attended the Indeed.com Academy to become a better recruiter, and boy, did I learn a ton!
First the basics – there are two different types of recruiting; inbound and outbound. Inbound is when an employer places an ad on Indeed.com and the applications start coming in. Outbound is when an internal recruiter sifts through resumes, picks up the phone and calls the candidate to invite them to interview for a position.
While this concept isn’t new, the research behind it is. If a recruiter calls a candidate who didn’t submit a resume for the job, it costs the employer significantly more money, more time and results in less success. A person who submits a resume of their own volition is infinitely better every time.
The question is why?
Here is the bottom line: there is a mental process that a candidate must go through in order to begin looking for a job. They must come to the realization that their current job isn’t going to work out, they must realize that things aren’t going to get any better, and, most importantly, that they must make a change to a different company. If your candidate hasn’t made that mental shift, your recruiting efforts cost more time, effort, and money.
Instead of focusing on outbound recruiting, focus your efforts on your inbound recruiting. Spend time to key word your ad properly, create your Ideal list and don’t forget to listen, listen, listen. In the long run, you’ll be glad that you did.
by Beth | Feb 28, 2019 | Leadership, Recruiting
About ten years ago, I had a chance to meet with a very successful venture capitalist to discuss my business. I had an idea that someone in the v.c. world might be a great referral partner for me, as great staff increases value in a company.
The kind gentleman who I connected and scheduled with thought that I had come to make a pitch for money, which I wasn’t interested in at the time. So, to be fair, our agendas weren’t in alignment from the beginning.
I walked into the office, and he had a speed chess timer set for 15:00 minutes. He started the timer rolling and waited for me to begin.
When I was about 3 minutes into my spiel, he stopped me and said, “Staffing professionals are all the same. They drop the same statistics and do not talk about how to solve the problem of hiring the wrong people.” With this statement, he rose. Our interaction was clearly over. I left at 6 ½ minutes.
That 6 ½ minutes changed my life.
I realized that my “pitch” was totally wrong even if my intention at the time was not about raising funds. It occurred to me that focusing on the fear around the issue of hiring did not inspire anyone, from venture capitalist to employer to my client. Everyone knows that the hiring process is broken; my repeating that fact helps no one.
Since then, I have changed my pitch completely to EXCLUDE any fear-based language, and to INCLUDE my story (the bad hiring mistake that made national news) and educational language. I talk about how I can help my potential clients find the right people so that they can grow their businesses and meet their missions.
If you are really struggling to find the right people, if you cannot seem to get the outcome that you want, change your messaging. Change the wording on your job advertisement. Describe the position differently. Talk about WHO you want, not what skills you want. In other words, transform your pitch.
And to the Venture Capitalist that I met so many years ago, thank you for the 6 ½ minutes of your time that completely change the trajectory of my business and my life. I am deeply indebted.
by Beth | Jan 31, 2019 | Employee Hiring, Recruiting
I have had several business owners and hiring managers ask me about why candidates are “ghosting” them for interviews. In case you are not familiar with the term, ghosting means “the practice of ending a personal relationship with someone by suddenly, and without explanation, withdrawing from all communication.”
Apparently, candidates are ghosting potential employers with increased frequency. The job seeker applies for a job and when the company calls them for an interview, the candidate either never responds or schedules the interview and then never shows up.
Several employers that I have discussed this issue with are really upset and rightly so, especially when the candidate schedules and does not show up for interviews.
If you are encountering this issue, here are a few suggestions:
- Most importantly, take a big deep breath. If a candidate does not up for an interview, you now have 30 minutes to an hour to get something else done that you may not have had time to accomplish in your day.
- The candidate did you a huge favor by not attending the interview. No call/so show behavior would have most likely appeared in their job performance if they had made it through the hiring process and began working for you. Be grateful – they just made your job easier by not having to fire them later.
- I am seeing ghosting from ALL levels of candidates from entry level to senior level and in all industries. It is not just you and your organization this is happening to, so do not take it personally.
- Remember: Employers are the ones that started ghosting when we quit responding to ALL candidate inquiries. A simple “thanks but no thanks” is all recruits want when they apply and are not chosen. As hiring professionals, it is hard to justify being too upset now that the tables have turned when non-responsiveness to candidates has become common place.
- Turn the opportunity into a positive learning experience. Remember that candidates also deserve your best customer service. Return messages, calls and emails in a timely fashion. Be courteous and do what you say you are going to do when you set expectations with your potential hires.
You cannot eliminate ALL ghosting from candidates, but you can do your part to create a great place to work. That means be a great “host” and quit being a “ghost”.
