1677 – Where We Are Today with Recruit Gyan’s Neha Naik

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0:58with us right now it's neya naik neya you are the founder and ceo of recruit yon and did i say that right i think i you did slightly okay all right you said it perfectly recruit yon is on the web at recruit yon.com uh to our friend that's listening to this really simple you just kind of click around your podcast app you'll find where we've got a show notes pull up um pull up Naya's website, just so you can kind of follow Naya's website. So you can kind of follow along, but Naya, it's so great to have you. So excited to be here, Josh. Thank you so much for having me. And thank you to all the listeners tuning in.

1:34Yes. All right. Give us an overview with what you do with Recruit Gyan. So I'm actually founder and CEO of Recruit Gyan, as Josh said, and Gyan actually means knowledge in Sanskrit. And I wanted to, you know, incorporate some of my Sanskrit roots as I'm from the Indian origin culturally. So I started this business about eight years ago and I've scaled my team to about 50. And we primarily work with companies who are looking to scale, right? Our niche is tech startups. So if you think of pre-C to series E, but then lately, we've also been working with enterprise companies and also working with people who are looking to transition because unfortunately, as we all know, there's been a bunch of layoffs this year.

2:15And so also working with candidates who are looking for that next step in their career, or they're like, hey, I've done this for like 10 years, I'm looking for a change and want to do something different. We also partner with them and help them find the next best opportunities out there. What types of roles do you find yourself most commonly or you and your team most commonly working with? Yeah. So if you think of like, I like to say that the tech trilogy, right. So like product engineering and then data. So anything within like engineering, then product management, product design, UI, UX, and then data.

2:49So data science, data analytics, data infrastructure, everything that's in that kind of realm, I would say are kind of where we typically get our foot in the door with companies. But then also what happens, Josh, is once we build a rapport and they like our work, they're like, oh, hey, we have this finance role position. Or, hey, someone's going on maternity leave in our customer service department. Can you help? Right? And so we kind of then spiderweb out into other business units within the organization. So you'd mentioned at the beginning of the year there were some pretty high-profile rounds of layoffs that, you know, kind of had a little bit of a ripple effect, I'd say.

3:24But where are we today? So we're recording this, you know, it's the beginning of August right now. You know, when this publishes in September, you know, things might change a little bit. But what, you know, kind of what are you observing kind of middle of 2023? So let me actually backtrack and tell you why the layoffs are happening. Yeah, yeah, yeah, wonderful. A little bit of a misconception. So when COVID happened, a lot of companies stacked up because, you know, these technologically out there companies were trying to develop products for people because they were working from home, right? And so there was this huge scale up because there was a push to get products and services out, especially for remote technologies that would help people with their day-to-day as COVID hit.

4:05So now that that's done with, basically, COVID's almost gone. I don't want to say fully gone, but almost gone. Knock on wood, don't come back. But because of that, now the tech companies are like, okay, we don't need a big of a team, right? Like we've pushed our major product initiatives and we can kind of scale back. So part of the reasons that the layoff has happened is that, right? I would say that's 50 to 60%. The other part of it is obviously with the impending recession. Technically we're not in a recession, but I know there was a lot of warning signs and the bank shutting off and all that craziness that happened in Q1.

4:38You know, companies are just trying to be really careful, right? And so they are focusing on profit first and then kind of like, you know, I feel like a couple of years ago it was investing to grow the company and now it's like go moving from the investment piece to the profit piece, right? And so of course the layoffs are also happening because they're shutting down programs that they don't think are really needed right now in the times that we're in. So that being said, to answer your original question, where are we today? I think definitely we're going to continue to unfortunately see some, you know, layoffs happening in Q3 and Q4.

5:08I'm not a fortune teller, so I can't, you know, people always ask me like, oh, you're in recruitment. Tell me when we can like, you know, have that confidence that we won't lose our job, right? Nobody really knows. All we can do is say in somewhat confidence or high probability and all that. I do think that things will turn around starting Q2, Q3 of next year. So you may still see people transitioning. A lot of people are using the layoffs to actually start their own businesses. So we've definitely seen an increase in the gig economy, right? Where it was like, okay, I really want to start this business, but I never had the time, but this layoff is a perfect kind of segue into doing that.

5:42So a lot of people are, you know, starting their own businesses and trying to get funding for their startups. But that's always like an interesting evolution, right? So I would say that, unfortunately, I think this year is still going to be a blah, blah, blah here. But hopefully next year, after the holidays, we start to see things turn around for the better. Yeah. If I wanted to be, let's say I'm a tech company and I want to create in your world, kind of what would be just a really, really, you know, just how can I be a really attractive place to work so that I could get the absolute best team members?

6:23Is it just about paying a lot more money or are there other things that are, you know, if not, you know, just as valuable, if not more? Yeah, good question. And I say a lot of startup founders make hiring a triage situation, not a pre like pre thought, right? It's almost like an afterthought, like, oh my gosh, we need someone in right now, right away. Right. So first of all, don't do that. And then secondly, you also want to think about not just attracting talent, but retaining the talent, right? Because yes, like you can have people join, but if they leave you every six to eight weeks, like you are burning your engine on rehiring, re-interviewing, re-onboarding, retraining.

6:57Like it's like, it's kind of like sales. It's always cheaper to keep your current customer happy than to acquire new customer. And at the same thing goes for recruitment. So that being said, the way to make sure that you're attracting the best employees is I like to say, like, I have my three pillars. So the first pillar is the first impression system, which is whatever you're putting out there that's online, make sure you create a presence, right? And I don't mean get on like the newest and the coolest trends, pick one social media platform, whether it's LinkedIn, whether it's Facebook, wherever your audience sits, wherever your ideal candidates will live, pick that plan platform and be active, be out there, talk about your values, your mission, your vision for your business as you scale, right?

7:36That's important. The second thing you want to do is make sure you have a website, even if it's like a simple one page or two page website. You know, one of the things I want to say is for startups specifically, we don't necessarily have the competitive edge in terms of visibility, like the enterprise companies, right? We've all heard of the big names, but startups is like, what's that? What do y 'all do? So we are in the Google generation. I always tell, you know, even my six-year-old is like, what's that? And the first thing he does is Google things, right? So when you approach candidates, they're going to look you up.

8:04And so you want to have some type of a social footprint out there where they can go and say, oh, this is what they do. They've been on this podcast or they're building this product and they're trying to help the economy this way or whatever that looks like. The second pillar of my methodology is the compass leadership system, right? So again, make sure that your leadership is transparent with people coming in, in terms of the funds you have, what the runway looks like, what equity they're going to get. It's really important for leaders to be really honest in startups because you are literally building the foundation of your business.

8:33And if you have a shaky foundation, your house is not going to stay around for a while. So it's really important to have a really solid foundation. So that's where the leadership comes in. And then finally, the cohesive culture method, right? Which is the type of culture you're building. So are you motivating employees to, you know, beyond just the nine to five? Are you, you know, telling them to do something professionally so that they can learn and upskill themselves, right? Are you putting on like, you know, what are those called all hands on deck? Are you doing company offsites? What kind of benefits do you have?

9:04So doing a competitive analysis in terms of companies like you at your stage, and the types of benefits they're offering, and how can you differentiate yourselves from them, right? Because I don't think competition is a bad thing. I think there's enough, enough of things to grow up for everybody. I definitely live in the abundance mindset. But if you want to attract the type of caliber of candidates coming into your company, then you definitely want to make sure that your benefits and your compensation is aligned, right? Because if you're paying them way less than what the market value is, you're not going to get the type of caliber of candidates that you want.

9:38And then you're just going to be frustrated and be stuck in a catch-22 loop. So I would say those are the three most important things that you want to look at. How about, Neha, being able to allow remote work versus, no, you're going to have to be in the office 40 hours a week. What are you seeing on that dynamic right now? Yeah, so I definitely am seeing clients and companies transition from remote to either fully in-person or hybrid, where it's like a couple of days remote, a couple of days hybrid, right? To be completely honest, I do think that if you move drastically without any transition period to in-person, you will lose people.

10:19You are going to have turnover because, again, people prefer that flexibility. If COVID's taught us anything, people have fallen in love with the flexibility to be able to work from anywhere at any time, right? And so what I always like to tell my hiring managers and a lot of startups are doing this is looking at output based on milestone as opposed to the hourly. So instead of saying like, hey, I need you to be in office from nine to five, you can say, hey, I would love for you to be in office like one or two days a week. And you can kind of decide what business hours work for you, but you are going to be kind of rated on or your performance is going to be measured on the quality of output.

10:54So whether in office five days a week and you're, whatever you're submitting in or your deadlines aren't met, or it's like really crappy quality, then, you know, that's on you. But if you're just here one or two days a week and you're getting stuff done, you know, early morning, late at night, whatever that looks like for you or on weekends, then that's what you're going to measure on. And that's, I think we're going to start seeing a trend towards measuring on less like, oh, are you working 40 hours or 45 hours and more about what are you actually getting done in those times? Right. Because we all have different types of, you know, we are all optimized at different times.

11:29Right. So I'm a morning person. My husband's an evening person, night person. And I think like when I have some problem that I'm trying to solve or like a client email, usually I answer those emails like at 630 or 7 a.m. because my brain's like, okay, on it. Like I know what I'm saying, but that's technically not business hours, but I'm still doing business, right? And so even if I schedule them out to go out later, I write them out early in the morning because I know that's when I'm like, okay, like my sharpest, my brain is actually working, right? Around three or 4 p.m. I'm like, oh, okay, I need some coffee.

12:02I feel sluggish. I'm ready to be done with the day and play with my kids and stuff like that. So again, I think starting that initiative of judging people and your employees or kind of measuring them on their output and the quality of output as opposed to the hours that they're putting in, I think is going to be the key here. Yeah. All right. Neha, your website, recruitbeyond.com. Who needs to be getting it on that website really quick, grabbing some time ASAP? So if you're hiring and are struggling with hiring, if you're a candidate and can't find a job, and if you want to start your own recruiting agency or if you're a company who are laying off people and need help with transitioning your employees to the next stage, we offer services there too.

12:47So if it's any four of you, you need to jump on a call with me right away. Excellent. All right. Again, the website, recruitgyan.com. That's G-Y-A-N. When you go there, there's a big yellow button, orange button that says get started or free consultation. You can click on that, schedule a call, and get connected. And I would imagine that you've had conversations, maybe they're not sure if they're ready or maybe they have questions. Like you can have that kind of conversation too, which I highly recommend. Like just bringing in smart people, have smart conversations. Don't try to make all these decisions yourself.

13:29Bring in people that know, not just what's going on in the industry, but what your competitors are doing. Like, you know, so that's, I'm always a fan of just having those conversations, getting those, start those relationships going because, you know, when you're ready, it's nice to already know best practices or kind of, you know, lay that groundwork. Yes, I agree. And my, I always like to say that my calls are value driven. My calls are value first. I don't sell you on anything. I sell you on yourself. Like, so it's really about me, like, you know, just increasing your confidence. So my calls aren't like, and there's more.

14:05And if you sign up today, you get like, it's none of those. It's really about the value that I bring to you. And if you decide to work with me, then I talk about those options as well. All right. Neha Naik, again, founder and CEO of Recruit Gion, found on the web at recruitgion.com. Neha, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, Josh, for having me. And thank you to all the listeners.

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