Speaker 1: Welcome to the Best Team Wins podcast with Adam Robinson. He's talking to today's industry leaders and entrepreneurs about the people side of their business.

Speaker 2: Hello and welcome to the Best Team Wins podcast where we feature entrepreneurs and business leaders whose exceptional approach to the people side of their business has led to incredible results. My name is Adam Robinson and for the next 25 minutes, I'll be your host as we talk about how to build your business through better hiring. Today on the program, we have someone very special on the show, Melissa Ryan, Hireology's very own Director of Talent, is here with me today to discuss high volume recruiting. So if you've been listening to this show for a while, you're out there trying to grow or run your business, you will inevitably, if you have not already, be facing a giant wall of open roles that you've got to fill. Melissa is in charge of making sure that that gets done here at Hireology. So we're going to talk about from her perspective what it's like to help a company grow exponentially on the people side of their business and I look forward to digging in. Melissa, welcome to the show. Thank you so much, Adam. I'm happy to be here. So at Hireology right now we're recruiting how many people? We have over 40 open roles. 40 open, 40 roles for a 150 person company. Right. So we're growing the business, you know, by almost a third in the next couple of months. That's nuts. How many of them are sales roles? We have 28 open sales roles. So, so the bulk of those are revenue focused roles.

Speaker 3: Correct. And we're trying to get this all done by when? March 19th is our target hiring date.

Speaker 2: okay you say that like wow uh as of the recording of this podcast that looks like two weeks to me two weeks from today so let's jump right in um what are we doing to make sure that that happens because uh it's like a month ago it was you working on the more manager and senior level roles that we had open and our uh full-time recruiter on staff jordan hester running everything else I see a lot of people around here now I didn't see last week so let's let's talk about what what you've done to help supplement what we

Speaker 3: need which is probably just raw horsepower yes so when Peter and Julie our CFO and COO came to me and said you know Melissa we've identified this need we are gonna open you know the 28 open sales roles you know I obviously understood the business impact that it would have if these roles went unfilled. Like what? I mean, lost revenue. So having, you know, an open seat, you're not, you know, not only are you losing revenue by not having somebody in that role, but if somebody, you know, is previously in that territory, I mean, there's lost quota coverage as well. So it can have a really big business impact and, you know, what we've identified here at Hireology is that for ramping salespeople, it can take anywhere from depending on the level you know two to six months and so you know I understand the urgency and wanting to get these people in the door as soon as possible. So what did we do? Yeah so I took obviously took a minute to process it you know in you know thankfully having the support of Peter you know knew that I didn't have to do it all alone so quickly you know reached out to a staff agency here in Chicago that I have a good relationship with and leverage them for currently three different resources. So we have someone here for sales recruiting so you know adding another horsepower to the process. We have one individual here helping us source passive candidates so you know with sales talent you know the best sales people are not looking for jobs and so having somebody solely focused on reaching out to these candidates within in the Chicago market and, you know, basically explaining why they should talk to us, give us five, 10 minutes on the phone. And then we have one person here helping us coordinate. So screening resumes, scheduling interviews, following up with candidates. So kind of someone at each point in the pipeline. And we also are working with, you know, one direct hire agency to help us just with, you know, additional funnel help as well.

Speaker 2: That's great. Melissa, that sounds like a sales process.

Speaker 3: Yes, it really, honestly, it truly is. And that's how I took a step back and looked at it. I worked with our business operations team to look back over the past six months, historically, how many applicants to candidates, to phone screens, to in-person interviews has it taken us to hire one person? And so that's helped me look at setting goals and metrics for our team today of what they need to focus on each and every day.

Speaker 2: That's great. All right, so we've got a team of support doing the heavy lifting here, which is awesome. There's a couple other things we've done. We had a sales open house last week that came out of nowhere, by the way. That was organized in about a day. Tell me about that.

Speaker 3: Yeah, so I've done this with previous companies. And what I found is that if you open your doors to candidates that may or may not be looking, they're able to come in and get just some perspective on your culture, see your office. And it's held after hours. So it's not taking any time out of their business day to just see what it's like to work at Hireology. And I feel truly passionate that we have one of the best cultures in Chicago. We have a really strong employment brand. And so if we can just get an hour of these people's time to come in and see for themselves what it's like to work here, then we can hopefully draw their interest and appeal to them as a potential employer.

Speaker 2: So what'd you do to set that up?

Speaker 3: Yeah, so we set it up about a week in advance. So obviously it was a really quick turnaround time. We had an aggressive target. However, what I found is that if you set the date like three weeks in advance, you end up with a lot more no-shows. So people are a CPS and then they don't show up. And so with a week's time, we leveraged not only our internal team to post the invitation onto their social media and to LinkedIn. We also were sending out, each of the recruiters were sending out at least 25 messages each day to passive candidates just saying, hey, we have this open house. Just come in and check us out. We also have great partnerships with Built in Chicago and ITA. And so we were able to leverage both of them to post out to their networks, post as an event. We saw a lot of response. In total, we had about 40 RSVPs and about 30, I want to say 30 attendees. That's great. So it was really great turnout.

Speaker 2: Good. And what did they do when they got in here?

Speaker 3: Yeah, so of course we had some cocktails, beer and wine, and then appetizers. So people love to eat and drink, so we had that here. But we organized just a quick presentation. Our VP of sales, Max Loewenbaum, presented on the things that salespeople want to hear about. So career progression, how can they grow, and then our core values, because that's so important to us as we continue to hire and scale. So just a brief presentation on those two items. And then we also had a panel. So we had four different members of our sales team at different levels than those that had been, you know, one person had just started and then ranging up to somebody that's been here for two and a half years, it's been promoted four different times. So we wanted to tell the story across, you know, all different levels and experiences of, you know, what their experience has been here at Hireology.

Speaker 2: That's great. So all in, so for listeners to get a sense for what it took to throw that together in a week, I mean, this is something that's, you know, no matter how big you are when you're looking to hire, This is a tool they can use. How much time did you put into this? Excluding the actual couple hours of the event.

Speaker 3: Yeah, I would say at least an hour a day dedicated to sourcing. And that was myself and Jordan and the temps as well.

Speaker 2: Sourcing, open house attendees.

Speaker 3: Yep, so reaching out to candidates on LinkedIn and other mediums just to say, hey, we're having this event, you should come. So about an hour a day, I would say, in total.

Speaker 2: OK, so about five hours. Yeah. OK. And how much did we invest financially in this?

Speaker 3: It was less than $1,000.

Speaker 2: That's food and beverage, pretty much.

Speaker 3: Yep, exactly. And so from a return on investment standpoint, I mean, my goal is to hire two to three people from that event. But truly, the impact, I think, that that event had is that on our employment brand, people we're able to see why higherology is different. And ultimately, we have 30 people that are raving fans that want to work here. That's great.

Speaker 2: Think we're going to get the hires?

Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so, yeah.

Speaker 2: That's great. Yeah, so for the listeners, if you think about your cost per hire, how much does it take you to get someone in the door in your business? If you add up all the money you spent on job boards last year and recruiters and all the cost inputs to getting your hires made and divide that by the number of hires you made. You get a cost per hire number that for most companies is between three and $5,000, somewhere in there. So if we hire three people for $1,000, that's pretty outstanding ROI. Very, very cool. You've got people coming in on Saturdays doing interviews. Tell me about that.

Speaker 3: Yeah, so the thought behind a Saturday interview day, we are a high-growth business, and the managers are really busy in meetings, back-to-back all day. And so to hire 28 people, the total number of interviews is around 300 interviews. And so for us to be able to carve out time outside of the business hours, Not only is it, for the hiring managers, less distraction. We actually have conference rooms available. It's just to be completely focused on interviews. I would say it's just a more efficient way to use our time. And also for candidates, it allows them to not have to take time off during the workday. They're typically more flexible in kind of what times they can come in. So, you know, to be able to crank out, you know, hopefully like 15 interviews in a day, versus scheduling, you know, that over the course of a week, it just is, you know, a lot more efficient.

Speaker 2: So, I'm sure people are thinking, how would people, on Saturday, you're, what did managers say when we said, hey, we need you on Saturday, and what are candidates saying when we're inviting them in on Saturday?

Speaker 3: Candidates are really appreciative of the flexibility.

Speaker 2: That's great, that's surprising to me. Yeah, I mean.

Speaker 3: Maybe it shouldn't be, but. Yeah, you know, some, you know, some candidates have things planned, they're not able to come. If that's the case, then we'll schedule them, you know, sooner, or, you know, the next week. You know, but they, you know, I guess, from my experience, they've appreciated being able to come in outside of the business hours, and they understand, you know, we communicate to them that this is not the expectation for them. So we, you know, truly are a company that focuses on work-life balance, and it is rare that we have to come in on a Saturday. It's probably my second time ever where I've had to dedicate that time to coming into the office, but we just explained that this isn't the expectation moving forward.

Speaker 2: Right. To what extent are you presenting that up front when we're doing interviews? How are we setting that expectation? What's the message? So, if I'm listening and I want to know how I communicate that when I'm talking to a potential

Speaker 3: applicant, what are we saying? Yeah. I just, you know, say, you know, we're hosting a Saturday, you know, interviews on this Saturday. You know, because we are going through such a high-volume hiring push and we have X number of open roles, you know, we are dedicating this time to provide a little more flexibility across the board.

Speaker 2: Okay. Yeah.

Speaker 3: Very cool. managers, I mean, they appreciate it as well. You know, they might not be excited to come in and do interviews on a Saturday, but they understand the importance of hiring and it's important to them as well that they get these

Speaker 2: spots filled. That's great. What else do you have going on in support of this

Speaker 3: mission? You know, we, I would say, are taking an approach of being very, I would like metrics driven, so setting targets each day, you know, that are focused on very specific roles and, you know, being aware of where our pipelines are at for the different positions. So if we know that our candidate traffic has been really light for our payroll account executive role, then, you know, we communicate each morning, you know, to have our sourcing help us with that specific role. So I think it just is all about open communication, having, like, an intentional, like, system of metrics and holding you know the team accountable to that it's interesting so

Speaker 2: it is truly a sales pipeline yeah that you're managing yeah absolutely I mean

Speaker 3: if you're not getting you know enough leads or candidates on the top end of your funnel you're not gonna hit your your hiring goals what role in all of

Speaker 2: this does the direct hire firm play? Is there a particular strategy you've got in place for them for specific roles? Walk us through your thinking on how you've organized their support. Yeah, so their support I

Speaker 3: directed specifically at the roles that are historically hardest to fill. So in Chicago sales hiring is really competitive and so to have you know an agency that's focused on sales recruiting in Chicago, you know, they have a network of candidates that, you know, I trust her to send us the best people and you know, if we're able to fill the hardest roles with that help, we can focus on, you know, the other high volume number of roles that we have open. Yeah,

Speaker 2: very good. Yeah, I mean, particularly for revenue generating roles, I know I've always, I mean, as someone in the hiring business, certainly had an aversion to paying fees for recruiting help. You know, that seems like a complete paradox that that we would need to do that. However, the math is pretty clear. There is a cost associated with unfilled roles. There is a payoff when sales start being generated that are months down the line, not years. And there's a certain dollar amount that it's worth to front load all of these hires. And anyone that comes and under the line with a fee structure, that's a pretty good investment to make.

Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it will pay for itself within the first three to six months.

Speaker 2: So for folks listening to this, what was the amount of lead time you had? You know, it sounds like we have had this thing up and running for a long time, but what was the lead time you had to pull this together?

Speaker 3: It was on a Thursday, I wish I could remember the exact day. It was the last week of February, so it was ultimately like three and a half weeks of a turnaround time.

Speaker 2: So it's, I mean, um, yeah, the last week of, I think, I think really, uh, this may be the beginning of the third week.

Speaker 3: Yeah.

Speaker 2: So, yeah, I wasn't, I'm saying is I think it's less time than you may remember it.

Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. Pretty good. Yeah. And obviously, I am all for what the message that I communicated to my team was that this is our opportunity to make a really big impact on the business. And so while the pressure is on and the stakes are higher, this is our time to shine. And so I think that if phrasing it to those that are going to be working harder than they've worked in a really long time, I think it's just an opportunity to, I don't know, to really show kind of what we're made of.

Speaker 2: Yeah, it's great. It's great, you know, it is, it is a huge value, real, very real tangible value to the business. Yeah. All eyes are definitely on it. What are some other approaches you have used, either here or in your prior, you know, prior lives, like Groupon Goods and some of these other, like, really high volume staffing programs that you've put together. What would you say are some rules of the road that can help our listeners ramp without blowing up their culture or process?

Speaker 3: Yeah, so I think it's important to, while we have a lot of roles open and we have a lot of positions to fill, We would never hire someone just to put a butt in the seat. That's just not how we do things here. We are really intentional with hiring to our core values. And I would never. There's a huge risk involved if you hire even just one person that you feel doesn't align with your core values. I mean, that can have a really negative impact on your culture and employment brand. So I would just caution against straying from your values.

Speaker 2: Cool, and in terms of do's and don'ts for working with vendors, for anyone who's not done that before, so when you pull the chain and get a bunch of help in the door, take us through what's worked and not worked for you. What have you done well and what would you do differently?

Speaker 3: Yeah, so with the direct hire agency that we're working with, I think it's just really critical that they understand, you know, obviously the opportunity and, you know, the role itself, but they also need to really understand our culture and our core values. You know, in order for us to hire the right person and for them to add value to us, you know, we just want to make sure that they're putting the right candidates in front of us. And so I spent, you know, over a few calls, time with, you know, the agency kind of talking through that With the attempts that we've brought to help us internally, each of them went through orientation just as a new hire did, so they can hear how I talk to new hires about our core values and how we basically integrate them into the business and just our culture as well. I think it's just important that they are able to talk about the company and the culture or just as any other employee would.

Speaker 2: All right, so it sounds like we're making the right investments of time to have these investments pay off.

Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's, you know, even though everyone, you know, is really busy, it's just important to pivot your schedule to really ensure, you know, that they are, you know, spreading the right message about your employment brand.

Speaker 2: And so as we wrap up here, a couple of things. I like to ask guests on the show, is there one particular book that or source of knowledge that you, it really made an impact on what you do or how you approach business or the professional, let's scratch that. Oh, let me ask this differently. We always like to ask guests on the show if there's a particular book that's been influential on the way that they approach business or life. For you, is there anything in your professional library that you would recommend to listeners that is applicable to what we've been talking about today?

Speaker 3: And I'm not just saying this because I'm on your podcast, but I, reading your book, I think really helped me.

Speaker 2: Shameless plug, thank you.

Speaker 3: You know, you're the one that really created core values and the intentional culture that we have here. And so that helps keep me focused and aligned to what team, my team is helping build.

Speaker 2: If you were to come back on this show in a year and tell us what 2018 look like and what was accomplished for your organization, what do you want to be telling us a year from now?

Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think specifically reflecting back on this episode, I would be able to say that we hit our hiring goal and because of that, we helped produce X amount of revenue. And I think that's the best story that a recruiting team can tell and that's what makes my eyes light up. But there's also a lot of other really exciting things in store for the people team this year where expanding our office space and there's a lot of other really cool initiatives we get to work on.

Speaker 2: All right, ladies and gentlemen, you've been learning from Melissa Ryan, director of talent here at Hireology. Melissa, thank you for being on the program.

Speaker 3: Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2: And that's a wrap for this week's episode of the best team wins podcast, where we're featuring entrepreneurs and business leaders whose exceptional approach to the people's side of their business has led to incredible results. My name is Adam Robinson, author of the book, the best team wins, which you can find online at www.thebestteamwins.com. Thanks for listening and we will see you next week.

Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Best Team Wins podcast with Adam Robinson. You can find out more information about Adam and his book, The Best Team Wins, Building Your Business Through Predictive Hiring at thebestteamwins.com. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you next week.