Transcript - Episode 000
Episode 000
Intro Music…
Hi there! Welcome to the Episode Zero of The Rebellious Recruiter, I'm Daava Mills. In this episode I'm going to go over why I'm releasing this podcast, who you likely are, what brought you here, who I am, and what types of subject matter I am going to share on a weekly basis.
Although first. You might want to know about why rebellious. I was raised in the church, and rebellion was bad. But I looked up the definition recently and rebellious means to defy convention. In business context we tend to rely on best practices. But when we do what other businesses are already doing, we do well and keep up with the competition. The secret is knowing what rules to break, what convention to defy, to become the rebel. When we do that, we can excel and break ahead to lead the pack.
So citing experiences of others in business, some of my own lessons I've learned, observations of leaders plowing the way for their companies, and showing some unlikely connections out there… my goal is to help you identify and question processes that don't work all that well, and tweak or recreate them until they do.
So pull up a seat, and let's chat.
Mid music fade in/fade out.
Soooo… Why am I releasing this podcast
Well, like half of the American Continent, I have something to say. But really, it's not about what I have to say, but what I want to share. I've spoken with tons of business owners, worked for some incredible people, and discovered that successful practices aren't always what the other guy is doing. In fact, they almost never are. The things that worked for me, were often a results of me trying to save my time in the day. I was in a position once where I easily got 60+ voicemails a day, not counting the calls I took, the calls I made, plus my non phone related job duties. In those voicemails I noticed that a lot of people were asking for the same information. Information I simply didn't have access to. So I put in my voicemails that requests for X type of information won't be responded to, I also stated I didn't return sales calls. That dropped my voicemails down to around 20 a day.
From there I noticed that there were similar questions people were asking, things I did have answers to. So, I bundled that information together, asked IT to put up a FAQ page on the recruiting part of the website, again changed my voicemail to include the FAQ page, and my calls dropped again to just a handful a day. By the way, that FAQ page? It became the second most visited page on our website, and we were getting over ten thousand visitors a month.
I could have easily spent a large portion of my day, answering calls, I was being paid to do that. But answering the same questions over and over is boring. So I flipped the script, and used technology in a way that benefitted my time on behalf of the company.
I want to talk to you about flipping your script, and figuring out where your are spinning your wheels, repeating yourself… Let's create processes that work for you, work for your business, work for your team. Most of these ideas you're not going to find in marketing or HR blogs, because they aren't fluffy and flashy best practices. Together we are going to defy best practices and create something that elevates your business, and protects your time.
it's time to talk about who you are…
You are successful in business, successful enough that you have a few employees. You are pulling your hair out over the concept of hiring. You could have any combination of Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers… and you might actually have a Silent Generation individual on your staff. You're hiring people and you're frustrated by the quality of resumes you see. You hate how applicants seem to oversell themselves and lie on their resumes. They talk great in the interview, but are lousy on the job. Kinda like a shooting star… bright across the night sky and fizzle out quickly thereafter. You've been toying around with a standardized interview, but in all reality, you know they suck… but you don't know what the other options are.
You're busy… yep, you're listening to this podcast to see where to put your time. But an hour a week is money… You want a podcast that can give you one or two ideas to implement, and if you decide this particular week isn't for you? Then fine, you've only spent about 15 minutes on the podcast, not 45 minutes, not an hour. After all, you're looking for tips that work, not entire overhauls to the system, ain't nobody got time for that.
Another thing about you… Your employees like to refer their friends, and now you are busting at the seams with people who are all alike. Same strengths, and the same weaknesses. The problems that need to be solved aren't, and you feel like you are spinning your wheels in other areas of the business that don't drive revenue.
Does that sound familiar? If it does, let's talk about what may have brought you here.
I think what brought you here is the unshakable belief that there has to be a better way to add to your staff, train them, develop them, and actually allow yourself to go on vacation knowing they have the place under control. There has to be a way to create conversations with talented people that uncover what their skills really are, so you know how to bring their skills into the betterment of your business. There has to be a way to find out when people over exaggerate their skills. And there has to be a way to honor what works… And here is the most important part, there has to be a way to identify when it no longer serves a purpose in your business, and replace it with a tool that does work.
Maybe you're looking for a secret formula. If you are, I've got bad news for you… Secret formulas don't exist. We aren't hunting vampires with silver bullets. We're dealing with real fallible people… Just like baking a cake, you might get the recipe perfect, but the wrong humidity or elevation and the cake will fall flat. Put into context, people's individual experiences can take a formula that worked elsewhere, and just not work for you. That's okay, and we will spend time exploring those nuances of your environment.
Who am I: Safe to say, I'm not a vampire hunter. But back in the day my family always made jokes about shrunken heads across my desk, because back in the day I was called a head hunter. I started recruiting in 1999… this was before most people had email addresses, or cell phones, or even knew what a website address was. They didn't know that the "at" sign in email was an "at sign." Back in the day it was something used by accountants meaning "at a rate of."
In 1999 recruiting was simpler. Post an ad in the newspaper, get 20-30 candidates who would walk into your business, polished, firm handshake, look you in the eye. You'd bring the top 5 or 6 in for an interview, and voila… you had a decent hire.
But I digress. I rode the wave of recruiting into online recruiting, then into corporate recruiting, then I got a seat at the table as an HR Manager, then an Operations Manager. One day I had an "aha" moment. I've hired people in candidate driven environments, in recessions, and through two generationally caused shifts in how we process applicants. I've recruited people when commission was on the line, as a part of an HR Team, hired people into my team as a leader, and then I moved into Operations and learned why some of my ideas didn't work. It's full circle baby.
I'm here to tell you that the best practices around recruiting, training and a lot of leadership practices being called Best Practices? Most simply aren't working. You know it, I know it. And yet recruiters out there spend an inordinate amount of time spinning wheels, training candidates how to get through closed doors, and often the wrong candidates are given the keys to the kingdom. And you as a business owner, you are feeling the brunt of it.
There's got to be another way, right? Yep… and this is the heart of the Rebellious Recruiter.
You wanna know about upcoming subject matter?
Most podcasts will be centered around what I call "micro-learning." Giving you bite sized pieces of information that you can take in within 15 minutes. Determine if it's a route you want to go, or file in the back of your head for a more relevant time.
There will be interviews with thought leaders, in longer non-Monday segments. Including my mentor, people I've worked with, and other subject matter experts in their own field to talk about mostly recruiting. Often times though recruiting turns into training and leadership development. And you can tell that we aren't going to shy away from that.
The subject matter will include things like:
The gift of a crappy resume
Trashing the behavior based interview
Terrible interview questions… Warning, I hate questions like "if you were a color, what color would you be" but I understand people are doing their best to figure out what makes a person tick… so these terrible interview question podcasts? They'll dive into your intent, change the question, and show you how to get into the candidates head using real subject matter, not fluffy speak that requires fairy dust to decipher.
We're also going to talk about using your values to recruit
And how your weaknesses as a company are your best recruiting tool, sounds strange, but it's true, your weakness it can be your best asset when hiring.
And we'll talk about normal recruiter stuff:
What makes an ideal phone screen
What is a visual interview
How to use follow up questions
All in all we'll be talking about how you can build your business through the people you are hiring, training and developing. Because it's more than getting a butt in the seat. Some days it's about entrusting part of your business to a complete stranger. We know in this swipe right culture, that finding the right employee is not a swipe. It's a commitment to your pocket book. It's a commitment to your family. And it's a commitment to their family.
I'm here to support you through this. I'm looking forward to getting to know you, and sharing some new ideas about what works. And more importantly why it works.
Thanks for listening to episode 000.
A quick reminder, I’ll be bringing you new information weekly with an occasional interview of a another thought leader. Be sure to subscribe wherever you are listening to this. Feel free to comment, rate, and review. Share this podcast with other leaders that may be building “out of this world teams.” You can email me at daava@millsgroupllc.com with your thoughts or questions. I may use your subject matter in upcoming shows.
Thank you for listening. I know you only have so many hours in the week, and I am grateful to spend this time with you. Until then, make it a great day! See you on the flip side.
Fade to out music.