We are talking today about the importance of keeping your people informed about what hiring is taking place and allowing your people to become brand ambassadors!

The benefits of keeping your people informed are tremendous as employee referrals harness the highest ROI. Reduce time to hire (55%), Cost of Hire ($3k), improve the quality of hire by 88% and increase retention @45% (after two years).

This all starts with continually marketing internally first, then expanding outward!

Today’s Quote:

"Internal marketing is probably much more important than external marketing. That's even more true today than it's ever been." 

- Tom Stewart

Guest Bio:

Angelo Ponzi is the Founder & President of The Ponzi Group. He is a marketing and branding strategist that works with small to middle-market companies as their fractional Chief Marketing Officer in defining market opportunities, developing competitive profiles, audience personas, brand realignment, and strategies, to strategic, integrated marketing plans that help businesses compete in an ever-changing marketplace.  

He focuses on three strategic pillars for success: Insights, Brand, and Plan to develop effective and efficient programs for building enduring brands and sustainable business growth. 

Angelo is also the host of the radio show/Podcast, Business Growth Café.

Show Highlights: 

• Employment Marketing

What is Employment Marketing?

• Promotion of the company’s mission, values, products/services to its own employees

Why is it important?

• Improve employee engagement

Problem

What are the challenges facing today

• In most companies, this is non-existant

Who’s responsibility is it?

• C-suite & Marketing

Rick’s Input:

• Internal referrals are your strongest source of talent

Ingredients for good candidate Experience

• How to deploy an internal marketing program

Steps for executing a plan - Process

• Conduct an internal survey to better understand the level of knowledge  

Rick’s two cents

• Align recruiting & marketing

Key Takeaways:

• Incorporate information about the company, markets and brand into the on boarding process

Why is raising capital more celebrated than building a business that is actually profitable? It may be a smarter play to join an actual business rather than a "concept company".

A bootstrapped company should be more attractive to people but for some reason, it is not. Today we are out to prove that driving a good business does not require venture capital and You do not need VC money to attract and hire the right talent.   

Today’s Quote:

"Bootstrapping is a way to do something about the problems you have without letting someone else give you permission to do them." 

- Tom Preson-Werner, co-founder of Github

Guest Bio:

Meetul Shah CEO of DemandMatrix, Inc., is a tech entrepreneur, having successfully built 3 companies prior to starting Demand Matrix. His “entrepreneurial” vision and inspiration comes from his desire to create and bring products to the marketplace that can help solve problems he himself has faced in his career. The combination of his years as a successful entrepreneur combined with his tenure at Microsoft has given a strong shape to his business acumen and technical expertise.

Meetul has been featured in several major publications, like CIO, NYT, WSJ, Washington Post, Huffington Post, Venture Beat, and more.  

If you were to ask him to introduce himself in less than 5 seconds, he’d probably just say he’s an idea machine, health freak, and wine lover! He is deeply passionate about Sales and Marketing Productivity given his time working for and selling to enterprise companies like Microsoft, DocuSign, Google, Cisco. 

Show Highlights:

• Bootstraping! What is it?

What is Bootstrapping? 

• A bootstrap is a business launched by an entrepreneur with little or no outside cash or other support.

Why Bootstrap your company?

•  When you take the capital, you take more risks in hiring. You make bad hires under the pressure of VC money. 

Challenges faced while hiring 

• Viewed like you don't have money

Rick’s Input:

• VC money opens doors but it 

Solutions (what you learned):

As an Entrepreneur, where to Start?

• Understanding yourself, who you are

Structure your process to allow for successful hiring

• Hire a really good TA person

Rick's Process:

• Determine what the business needs, set performance metrics 

• predetermined questions

Key Takeaways:

• 1. Know yourself, and the values you care about 

People are your company’s most valuable asset. Yet the interview process is riddled with actions to support otherwise. 

Common Transactional Interview practices like pre-tests, hurdles, hoops, and ghosting do not attract people. In fact, they repel great people. The truth is, people will judge your company on how you make them feel! … not the offer you present to them.

Today’s Quote:

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” 

– Warren Buffett

Guest Bio:

Marie Norman is the Director of Talent Acquisition for Adobe. She leads the Corporate Functions team which includes Global Marketing, Finance, Employee Experience, Legal and Corporate Strategy. 

Marie brings diverse and innovative industry experience leading and building scalable talent acquisition teams and HR programs in the areas of Talent Attraction and Acquisition, Workforce Planning, Career Development and Coaching, Candidate Experience, Employment Branding, and Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging. 

Her passion lies in motivating, coaching and building successful recruiting teams, employment branded story-telling and delivering a unique, memorable and delightful Candidate Experience to all. She is also an Adjunct Professor with the College of Business at San Jose State University.

Show Highlights: 

• What is “Candidate Experience”

What is  “candidate experience”? 

• Candidate experience

Challenges facing today

• Managers can no longer play a passive role. 

Rick’s Input:

• Transactional Mindset

• Out of sight, out of mind

How people feel determines how they perform. The purpose of every interview is to get to the truth of who a person is by gathering evidence to support making an accurate decision. 

Ingredients for good candidate Experience

• How to give a good candidate experience

Process

• Easy submittal/application process

Rick’s two cents

• Communicate! 

Key Takeaways:

• CONCEDE that the Candidate Experience is a crucial part of your recruiting strategy

Today we are talking about building a high scale remote company.  Try this on for size, a 75-person company without an office! The advantages are different than you might think yet you really must be mindful of who you are hiring. 

 A remote workforce is a time to talent advantage not a save money advantage

Today’s Quote:

“Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.” — Stephen Covey

Guest Bio:

Ryan Malone is the CEO of SmartBug Media, which he founded to give clients amazing results and employees a lifetime of memories. Before SmartBug, Ryan ran marketing at several venture-backed and public companies. Ryan enjoys the gym, live music, people watching, and playing terrible guitar. He lives in Orange County with his wife and two amazing daughters.

Show Highlights:

• Challenges & benefits of a remote organization

Challenges:

Why??

Building a business is hard enough. Why make it more difficult by building a remote business? 

• Be part of the team and be part of the family

 Talent Strategy:

• Recruit ahead- create a waiting list. Always interviewing. 

 Building a Marketing culture: 

• People are bought in when they join

Benefits of building a remote workforce:

• The talent pool is vast

Interview process:

• Inbound resume flow (into ATS)

• Look for Clean work environment, evidence of value, perseverance, curiosity

Interview structure: 

• A 30-minute call with everyone on the team

Key Takeaways:

• Hire marketing & pr first

Going old school with the title, don't judge! 

STEM  (science, technology, engineering & mathematics) hiring today is brutal as there are just not enough people to support the demand. Without bringing policy into the conversation we are going to tackle the challenge of how to hire around the limitations.

Today’s Quote:

"To maintain their own competitiveness, workers need to attain and stay current on the qualifications needed to advance in a constantly evolving economy."  - Elaine Chao - Secretary of Transportation

Guest Bio:

An avid entrepreneur from University onward, Martin Herrington established a service industry business before graduation, partnered a real estate development company, and co-founded The Herrington Teddy Bear Company to move to the United States, creating a multinational sensation. As Chief Financial Officer and Managing General Partner, Martin was responsible for all aspects of the business including Sales, Production, HR, IT, and operations of the corporation before seeking additional challenges.  Mr. Herrington holds a very distinguished record of service in non-profit organizations in Canada and the U.S. with his most recent focus growing the Youth Motivation Task Force of Orange County. An entrepreneurial graduate of the prestigious Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary with a Bachelor of Commerce, Martin also advanced his education credentials into the Series 7 and Series 66 US Securities Licenses and held the Wealth Advisory Associate role with Morgan Stanley before becoming a Financial Advisor as part of his creation strategies. 

Martin is currently a founding partner and Vice-President with TEKCORUS Consulting, a Recruiting & RPO Agency based in Orange County, California specializing in recruiting high tech talent Recruitment Process Outsourcing Services. Martin has been a Toastmasters International member for many years, and speaks regularly at community events, business meetings, and consistently competes in Toastmasters International speaking contests. 

Show Highlights:

• What an H1 is

Problem:

What is an H1? 

• Long Term but not permanent work authorization / visa that is sponsored by employer. 

Benefits of Hiring an H1

• Already has an h1b- 

Things to be Aware?

• Beware of agents

Quirks of Engineers - Knowing the individual to prepare for the interview 

• Biggest challenge

• -Technically sound

How to sniff out the quirks, personality & culture fit

• Problem lies where 

Rick’s Input:

• Hire people who are already holding an H1b- Transfer

Steps to Hire H1’s

First step - Go over resumes

• Watch for duplication - some resumes look too “familiar” or even identical!

Second Step - initial phone call - screening for good communication skills - can be a challenge and if you cannot understand them, then your client or the team will likely not be able to either 

• Go over each job experience by asking what they did and what technologies were used - making sure that it matches the resume, dates, etc.

Third step - in-person or Skype interview

• Making sure the same person from phone call shows up for the in-person/Skype

Fourth step - get commitment for duration of contract; 

•  If necessary, contact Agency holding Visa to confirm  

Rick’s two cents

• Communicate! 

Key Takeaways:

• Be diligent in your communications

The usefulness or uselessness of AI & Employment branding in Recruiting. 

Today’s Quote: 

"This is what Steve Jobs understood: Brands are defined not by the best thing on the product but by the worst thing." 

- Robert Scoble

Guest Bio:

MJ Shores is a Chief Marketing Strategist and technology trends analyst. With a rich and diverse professional background in public policy, business, and technology, she is sought out for her far-reaching, cross-industry and cultural insights. MJ has been a panelist and keynote speaker at industry and special interest events around the globe. She has been featured  in Business Week, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, MSNBC, China Post, and other media.  

MJ developed her expertise through a career that spans working as a policy analyst at a think tank, serving in leadership roles at top global business schools (e.g., Wharton School of Business, UCLA, University of Moscow – Russia), and leading marketing efforts at technology firms (e.g., SaaS software, digital streaming or OTT), and others. She is involved in the local business community, where she is an acting Senior Strategic Advisor for Executive Next Practices (ENP).

Show Highlights:

• The role AI plays in employment branding & hiring

Problem:

Challenges:

What is the relationship between AI & employment branding?

• Your brand is created by the experience people have with your brand. AI helps you determine the truth between your perspective and what the market thinks. 

Where is it working?

• Routine functions *** open up time for HR to engage with People ***

 Where does it now work?

• Tasks that require judgement

Rick’s Input:

• Administrative tasks

Solutions:

How to best use AI

Roadmap

• Spend $ on Training HR to identify and use technology. 

• ethics & morality of this step

Rick’s two cents

• AI cannot replace human interaction!

Key Takeaways:

• Brands are No Longer Owned by Companies (in an era of skepticism of companies and traditional marketing, the voice of potential candidates and the public are central to your brand)

The Battle between your Need to fill a role vs. hiring for cultural alignment. 

More thought needs to go into “Who” you are going to hire than “What” you are going to hire. Meaning proven performers with transferable skills, not shiny objects.

Today’s Quote:

“Acquiring the right talent is the most important key to growth. Hiring was - and still is - the most important thing we do.”

- Marc Bennioff, Founder, Chairman and co-CEO of Salesforce

Guest Bio: 

Ben Mones is the co-founder and CEO of Fama, an AI-based solution that identifies problematic behavior among potential hires and current employees by analyzing publicly available online information. He founded Fama in 2015 to address the needs of organizations everywhere that are grappling with the challenges of protecting their workplace culture and preventing harassment.

Prior to Fama, Ben held a number of executive roles at a variety of startups in the Bay Area, including Acceleprise, an independent accelerator focused on enterprise technology, where he served as Entreprenuer  in Residence as well as Lanetix, a leading provider of cloud-based customer relationship management platforms as director, revenue operations. He also spent two years at content analytics and insights company Chartbeat. Ben has been tapped as a guest lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management, UCLA Anderson School of Management and USC Marshall School of Business, and has also been featured in CNBC, Fast Company, Los Angeles Times, TechCrunch and the Wall Street Journal. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Vanderbilt University and is based in Venice, California.

 Show Highlights: 

• Why & How culture shapes your business

Problem:

Why is it important to invest in culture?

• Shaping the culture of your business.

Why does Ego make decisions over common sense?

Anybody with a legitimate amount of responsibility makes a difference. 

Rockstar engineers, leaders, need to fit into the organization, not the other way around

*** first-time founders Story: 

• They decided to bring in some rockstars. Someone to groom. 

Lesson Learned

• Hired but got rid of that person quickly.

Rick’s Input:

• Cultural alignment/values alignment increase productivity

• Rockstars 

Solutions:

What road map should leaders follow?

• Get to know yourselves first. What is important to your business to ensure your success, mission & values to drive success. Team-based decision

• Confirmation bias

Rick’s Framework

• Treat each Person as if they are your only person

Key Takeaways:

• Human behavior drives business outcomes

That's right people, today we are talking about our ABC’s!

The reality of the talent market. Creativity and Contact are the keys to winning talent. We are going to clue you in on where the gold nuggets are and why you are missing out on great people. 

Today’s Quote:

"Great vision without great people is irrelevant." - Jim Collins - Author: Good to Great, Built to Last

Guest Bio:

Lorraine Ladd is the Associate Director of Talent Acquisition for alliantgroup.

She is an experienced sales and Talent Acquisition executive with a demonstrated history of working in the staffing and recruiting industry. Strong professional skilled in Customer Acquisition, Sales, Executive Search, Customer Relationship and Executive Coaching. Lorraine started her career while in college in radio and was a successful radio morning show personality before deciding to go into the world of staffing and recruiting. 

Show Highlights:

• Why you should always be recruiting

Problem:

Bold Statement:  Recruiting is easier today than it ever has been!

Why is it important to be continuously recruiting?

Creative ways to recruit talent

• Not enough talent - Why?

The Truth:  where you are missing people … about responding to Ads

• There really is enough talent, people are just not tapping into it

Rick’s Input:

• Requirements are FLEXIBLE

Solutions:

Where to find good people now?

• Unexpected places to recruit talent

Rick’s Answer

• You are missing the people closest to you

• Applicants, former applicants, former employees

• Requires different positioning

Key Takeaways:

• Always be Recruiting

Engagement! 

Well, not the type of engagement you might be thinking of. 

Engagement in the business sense. Employee engagement is the one critical element that leads to the success of your business!  Which I believe starts from the first point of contact with your organization… yes before someone is hired! 

Today’s Quote:

“Not what you say, not what you do but how you make people feel.” - Maya Angelou

Guest Bio:

Steve Higginbotham is the Branch Manager of Volt Workforce Solutions. As an executive business partner and inclusive leader, Steve brings two decades’ of experience leading organizational transformations with leading companies. Changing the way Staffing Companies engage with their customers is vital. Having a deep connection with your business and an inclusive approach will continue to add value through a Total Talent Management partnership. Steve has expertise in Technical Recruiting, Business Development, Technology Consulting and Human Capital Solutions. He continues to deliver immense value to companies and business leaders through his strategic partnerships. Steve believes in a customer service approach for business success.

Steve has experience leading multiple types of organizations from Fortune 100, mid-market, private equity, & VC backed start-ups. In addition, Steve has developed 15 different divisions within eight different businesses while managing large business units & increasing enterprise accounts. His track record includes leading, coaching, mentoring and developing people into highly successful business leaders.

Steve has spent his career aligning business professionals with career opportunities. The value that he brings to companies identify with their strengths and opportunities for growth. Steve's experience coaching individuals helps improve communication. He has also conducted numerous presentations to board members and C-Level professionals with highly respected clients and industry associations.

A people oriented leader who drives business collaborative to maximize team performance while mentoring & coaching individuals through aligned approaches to achieve desired results. 

Show Highlights: 

• What Engagement is, what it isn’t

What is engagement and why is it important? Engagement

• How you communicate with your company

Hiring managers - I want to hire the best talent, retain top talent

• What happens in the middle from what you want vs what you are getting

The company gave 3 hours of training, no orientation, on the job training.

• Employees responsibility - Who owns engagement??

Problem

3 sides of the engagement - Who’s responsibility is it these days 

• If a person is not engaged correctly, they are going to bounce quickly… first 30 days. 

People leave quickly or they stay and are just there because of the paycheck

Belief in mission, vision values. 

Outlining issues that you cannot control

• Employee: losing engagement with the job… nothing more that is being contributed

Rick’s Thoughts

• Engagement starts with your job posting, email or phone call

Human Contact is the key

• 1:75 people call back. 

Steps to maximize engagement

• Sources are not recruiters… 

• Poor career planning. No mentoring, support or growth

 Once they start:

• Not scaling back on your onboarding process

Train your recruiters

• What information to gather

• Create a hiring bonus for people who were passed over because of a resume but are actually good

Pick up the phone and call people!

Key Takeaways:

• Differentiate yourself from the standard hiring process

Remember in engagement – how you make the candidate feel is more important – please be genuine in your approach, efforts and ensure timely and responsive feedback – always

Offers do not get turned down because of the MONEY… They are turned down because you failed to Understand who the person is and then demonstrate a mutual alignment of career & personal goals to your organization.

The Truth is People turn you down because of the lack of care!

 Today’s Quote:

"Truth is, I'll never know all there is to know about you just as you will never know all there is to know about me. Humans are by nature too complicated to be understood fully. So, we can choose either to approach our fellow human beings with suspicion or to approach them with an open mind, a dash of optimism and a great deal of candor." - Tom Hanks

Guest Bio: 

Dr. Deena C. Brown is the founder and CEO of DC Brown International, a leadership and growth company created to pioneer innovative strategies that transform organizations into culturally diverse ecosystems.

Dr. Brown’s trademark C3 Blueprint for Success provides a strategic roadmap for organizational leaders to communicate and connect across a multi-generational workforce. Dr. Brown’s body of work includes identifying and remediating leadership gaps that are barriers to innovation and growth.

After identifying a significant deficit of women in key leadership roles, Dr. Brown founded The Leadhershift Movement. The Leadhershift Movement is designed to help women shift the way they think about themselves as women and how they develop and respond as leaders. The Leadhershift Movement provides a safe-space for professional women to get clear about their Why, confident about the What, and consistent about the How.

Show Highlights:

• Our approach

Approach to talent

What is the problem?

• Ignoring the root of hiring. The human factor, the relationship capital

Why Offers are really Accepted or Turned Down

• We lie

Rick’s Input

Our approach is Selfish

• We have become conditioned to believe that the company is the PRIZE

Solutions

• Being aware

 What have we done about this?

• Training

The 3 C’s

• Clarity in Vision, Mission, and Organizational Values that paint a clear picture for potential hires.

Rick’s Contribution

• Engagement starts before the hire is made

• Too much focus on the money & perks

 Key Takeaways:

• Care about the Human relationship