How to Improve Your Hiring Methods and Employee Onboarding Strategies

Transcription:

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Thank you, Gia, so much for joining us on the show today.

Gia Ganesh:
Thank you so much, Jim, for having me again. I’m really excited to be able to share some more strategies that have worked for us.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure, sure. We got such great response and comments the last time that you joined us on the show, so thank you so much for that. So talk to us about why it’s important to have a strategy when hiring and onboarding new employees.

Gia Ganesh:
Absolutely. I’m going to split it into two because the strategies are slightly different. So hiring, obviously the reason why businesses are hiring is so as to fulfill a business need, right? So that, you want to be strategic about it so that you can cater it to the needs of the business, but also you have duty to make sure you’re not displacing people because you are not strategic enough.

Jim, you and I know that there’s so many layoffs going on today and it begs a question where businesses thinking ahead and thinking about what their strategy was when they brought so many people on board, where they have a roadmap and a vision in place, or did they just have a very short term view and that skewed their hiring practices, which again, led to terminations, et cetera? So the reason why we hire is very simple, but how to get these hiring done effectively is what I think you and I want to talk about today.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.

Gia Ganesh:
So one, first, we understand the organizational need in terms of where do we see the gaps in terms of skills and what kind of roles we need to build in order to fulfill those skill gaps. And then, of course, you and I know that hiring in this market is really, really competitive because of the lack of talent pool that’s available today.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. That’s right.

Gia Ganesh:
And people have multiple offers. Just like the housing market when a house goes on.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah, that’s right.

Gia Ganesh:
Multiple offers and the house is gone in a few hours.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.

Gia Ganesh:
It seems like the same is relevant for the hiring talent pool as well.
So once you know what the skill gaps are, you want to think about how can I fulfill these gaps? What is the timeline I want to fulfill these gaps? Here at Florence, we make sure that we have our roles targeted by month for almost an entire year. And of course, it doesn’t always meet that timeline, but at least from our recruiting and the talent people’s perspective, we know that these are the roles we are targeting. And of course, they’ll spill over into the next months, et cetera.

Once you know how many people you’re hiring, what kind of talent you’re hiring, you then want to think about, where do I want to get these candidates from? How do I want to build a diverse team? Many companies often forget about the diversity aspect and they resort to the same sourcing methodologies that they’ve always resorted to. It could be a platform like LinkedIn or Indeed, or could be an agency that helps them. But you want to think about how can I diversify my sourcing strategies so that I have a diverse talent pool that comes and joins?

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah, no question about it. I think a lot of people kind of do a ready, shoot, aim approach when hiring people that if you gather most small business owners, they’re not even sure, they’ve never even been given, in most cases, the necessary skills or training on how to conduct proper interviews. They just know that they need somebody for that particular slot and they run or post an ad. And then whoever comes in, they’ll say, “Okay, let’s see the best candidate. Bring them in,” not really sure maybe what to ask them even during the interviews. And then they just start filling those spots the best way and the quickest way, sometimes the fastest way they know how, and fast in hiring isn’t always a good practice. Right? That’s the importance of having a strategy.

Gia Ganesh:
Absolutely. Jim, absolutely. And I think you hit the nail on the head. You want to think about the candidate or the employee’s experience right from the get go.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.

Gia Ganesh:
And a big part of that is the interview process design. In fact, for us, we designed the interview process and make sure that we know how many people are going to interview a particular candidate for a role, what each person is going to be focused on. So Jim, you could be focused on understanding their technical skills. I could be focused on understanding are they aligned to our culture and our values?

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure.

Gia Ganesh:
Somebody else can be focused on their management abilities. So we design the process. We say, “Okay, here are the three people that will be involved in the process. These are what they are assessing people for, the candidate for.” And then making sure that you are mindful of representing the company in the right way, meaning example, especially off of late what I am seeing in the market is employees want to see a diverse team, even when they interview, because that represents the company. They want to know, hey, is the company diverse? Are they going to be okay with me being a diverse candidate? So is that represented in the people that I chat with in the company or not?

So there’s a lot of things that go into designing the interview and training people to interview well. What are the questions you can ask? What are questions that you can’t ask? How do we assess somebody for a certain level of skills? So there’s an intentionality about designing the interview process to hit the needs that you have as well.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.

Gia Ganesh:
And it doesn’t stop there.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah. Those are some great strategies. Are you recommending that the candidate that applies for the job comes in three different times or four different times with a different individual that focuses on a different area with that candidate, as you mentioned? Or could that be done all in the same interview?

Gia Ganesh:
Great, great question. It could be done and it all depends on the role and the industry. So for example, let’s say you’re interviewing to be a store manager. It makes sense for you to show up at the store one time, meet the two or three people that you may need to meet, and get it done within one sitting. Let’s talk about the technology sector, which is where I work. Here it’s standard for people to have about three to five interviews normally. And because we have the luxury of this thing that we are chatting through, the Zoom interface, so we can spread it out over more than a day. But it’s not unheard of when we were all back in a physical office building for a candidate to show up, go meet two or three people and get it done in one shot.

The thing to remember, Jim is that it’s a two-way street. It’s not just us interviewing candidates. We want to give the candidates an opportunity to interview us and also make a decision if they want to come and join us. And that is not going to be possible by just talking to one person.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.

Gia Ganesh:
That is why we try to expose them to as many people and the people they’ve worked with so they can make an informed position on their end, and that way the relationship is sustained longer, rather than saying, “Oh, I met Jim. Jim was great, but guess what? I don’t work with Jim. I work with John and somebody else.”

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure.

Gia Ganesh:
“I don’t enjoy my experience. I wish I had met John. I would’ve never started with this company.” So you want to make sure it’s a two-way street when you are hiring and you keep that in mind as well.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right. Gotcha. Gotcha. So let’s talk about onboarding strategies. Share some of your most effective onboarding strategies.

Gia Ganesh:
Absolutely, Jim. Let me preface this with a joke. I don’t know if you’ve heard of this joke, but does there’s this joke where you go, I think it’s at St. Peter’s Gate. This person goes and says, “Hey, I was promised to go to heaven, and this is the image of heaven that I was exposed to during the interview process.” And then this person shows up on day one and it’s not the picture of heaven that was painted.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure.

Gia Ganesh:
It was the opposite. It was not the golden gates and fairies.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right, right.

Gia Ganesh:
It was all other things. So that’s exactly what it is in onboarding. So your onboarding process should emulate what you represented in the hiring process. You show up and people should not be shocked that this is a completely different company than what was represented to me during hiring. So you want to be consistent with what you said during the hiring process. You say the truth and then you live the truth when they hire.
So onboarding, an important statistic to keep in mind is about one third of employees quit within the first 90 days of starting with a new job.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Really? Wow.

Gia Ganesh:
And that’s simply because onboarding is not well defined and designed. You want to make sure that you go out of your way to welcome the employee into the company, the culture of the company, and the team and the role that they play. And that takes a lot of time and effort and design. It’s not about the employee shows up on day one at 9:00 AM. I put them through a series of trainings. By five o’clock, they’re done and we say, “Oh, I’m done onboarding.” Person is now an employee. Well, unfortunately that’s the sad truth. That’s not the case.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That doesn’t work.

Gia Ganesh:
Onboarding takes time. Yeah, you can give them classes and training to how to do their job, but onboarding is about helping them become a part of the company, and that takes a little bit more time and effort. And that’s why here at Florence, we try to get through the essentials of what they need to understand about the industry and the product that we sell, but that’s done in about two weeks, but then the rest of the time is spent in helping them understand the company, the culture, why we even exist, what’s our mission. What’s so great about working with other departments? How do we even collaborate? Do we call people? Do we email people? Just helping them understand how the business works and how we operationalize the working environment for employees takes more time than that.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah. It’s very good point because I think all too often in hiring, I know that I’ve made this mistake as well as a small business owner, where I focus just on what the duties were of that new hire once they come on board. And I didn’t share with them the overall vision that we have as owners for the company, and what our mission is to our subscribers or our viewers across our platforms that we’ve got at JBF Business Media. And that’s a terrible mistake to make because you don’t want, after a couple of weeks, the employee saying, “Well, I know what I do, but what are we all doing here? What’s the purpose? What do we want to deliver to our subscribers or our viewers?” Or what have you. And that’s a mistake on my part as CEO of the company, that that person is asking two weeks later, “Hey, can you give me an overall vision of where we want to go and what’s our North Star?” As one hire asked me.

So I think you’re right. I think we assume in a lot of cases that people know there. We think that, well, they probably did their research. They probably know what Florence Healthcare is or what JBF Business Media is, and therefore that’s why they’re sitting there and they’re wanting to get the job, but that’s not necessarily the case. In fact, it’s often not the case. They’re looking to you to tell them and share with them, tell us first and foremost what the vision of the company is, and what’s the direction we’re headed and why are we going in that direction? What type of information and news and such do we want to deliver, in our case, to our subscribers? And because they want to know if they’re going to fit into that overall picture.

Gia Ganesh:
Yeah, exactly.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah. So it is a great point that you make. And I think as small business owners, we do have a tendency to jump over that because we’re so excited even to get this position filled, right?

Gia Ganesh:
Right. I guess.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
What’s the old adage? We hire too quick and we fire too slow.

Gia Ganesh:
It’s got to be the other way around. Right?

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.

Gia Ganesh:
Hire slow and fire fast.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s exactly right. If somebody’s not working out on right now, they’re probably not going to be working out in two months from now. So you owe it to the rest of the team to make that tough call. But at the end of the day, it’s also, it’s probably a result of hiring too quickly and not addressing some of your needs as well as the candidates needs to make sure that this is going to be a good marriage if you’re bringing them into the family, so.
Great. So can you talk a little bit more about, from your perspective, what keeps new hires engaged and loyal?

Gia Ganesh:
I think the key goes back to helping them see what’s in it for them. Everybody as humans, we have that mentality of what’s in it for me. Why me? What am I getting out of this whole thing? So if we can help them see that whatever goals they have in mind are achieved through this job, let’s say even simple things like what you just mentioned, you as a CEO going and sharing, “Hey Gia, as a new hire, this is our vision. This is how the company came into existence. This is why we exist. This is our vision. This is how we plan to get there, and this is your role in helping us get there.” So people want to feel like they’re a part of a team, a part of a mission. We have that social instincts. We want to be part of something.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure.

Gia Ganesh:
So helping them, firstly, understand how they’re going to help the company get there is one important thing. Secondly, what are their personal motivators in joining this company? That’s something you want to uncover during the hiring process. For most of us, it could be just paying our bills, but it’s also a little bit beyond that. For some people it could be like, “I want to give back to society,” and maybe there’s a way your role or your company allows that to happen. It could be simple things like I want to have flexible work life balance, which maybe your company offers by allowing people to take Fridays off or things like that. So it just depends. And you want to uncover that in the hiring process, what their personal motivators are, and then helping bridge the gap in terms of how can your company or the role at your company help them get what they want.

Second thing is designing a delightful onboarding experience. That is key to helping employees say no to another company that reaches out. They’re like, “Hey, I’m sorry. I really landed at this wonderful place. I don’t think I’m going to get the same thing out of your job. I have a great salary, but I have a great team and a great culture that keeps me engaged. We have fun while we do meaningful work that helps other business owners. And I think I cannot get that with your role.” You want to make it hard for them to leave. And it’s not just physical and tangible benefits, but it’s also the intangibles, helping them have connections.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.

Gia Ganesh:
Maybe they need student loans that need to be filled. Maybe you have a way to help them. There’s just many ways to help build that bridge and help them get what they want in their own lives, with the roles that you have open at the company.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure. Sometimes it’s just as simple as the C-suite leadership of that company coming in and asking them, “Talk to me. So it’s been a month. So it’s been two months, it’s been three months. Let’s go get a cup of coffee.” Maybe it’s even better if it’s outside the office or what have you, and go to a Starbucks and say, so what do you think of the first couple of months or the first couple of weeks or whatever works for you, just taking that time and taking that interest in that associate and in that new hire goes a very, very long way with that individual to say, “Wow, the president of the company, the vice president, or the general manager, what have you took me to for coffee and asked me my opinion of not just the company, but also wanted to know how I was doing in my new role.”

Is there anything that maybe you can do for that individual? And they didn’t want to ask you, they didn’t want to know the direction to go in. It’s amazing as to what you can find out on just having that cup of coffee with a new hire, right?

Gia Ganesh:
Yeah. We actually do that, Jim. As part of our onboarding process, we have check-ins at 30, 60, and 90 day marks to ensure we have that connection. “Hey, what’s working well for you? What’s not working? What can we help you with?”

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah, sure.

Gia Ganesh:
There are gaps, we want to address it early on.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.

Gia Ganesh:
Not wait until they’ve supposedly onboarded and then realize that we lost them to somebody else. So we connect that gaps. And exactly what you said, we make sure the leadership of the company is meeting with employees.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.

Gia Ganesh:
We make sure we have every leader meet with employees either individually or as a group as well and say, “Hey, please welcome. This is who I am. Please reach out to me. Let me know how I can help you grow your career.” It’s just having those connections sometimes help. “I can expose you to my network if there’s something you need help with,” et cetera.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s Right. That’s right. It’s all about getting the best people you can, and today it’s all about keeping those people because turnover can cost a business in so many areas.

Gia Ganesh:
Absolutely.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
It’s just something that has to be addressed. And I want to thank you so much for coming on today and talking about this, because this is a very hot topic. I’m sure it’s going to be for the foreseeable future as this economy seems to be going through some changes and there’s a plethora of jobs out there, but small businesses are definitely struggling with, as I said, getting great candidates in and then holding onto them. So Gia Ganesh, vice president of people and culture, I love that title, I think that’s a great title, for Florence Healthcare. I want to thank you so much for joining us once again on the show. Very much appreciate it.

Gia Ganesh:
Thank you, Jim.