1771 – Candidate Experience with BestFirstNow’s Kolby Goodman

0:28Hey there, thoughtful listener. million in revenue. Just head to upmyinfluence.com and watch my free class on how to create endless high-ticket sales appointments. You can even chat with me live and I'll see and reply to your messages. Also, don't forget, the thoughtful entrepreneur is always looking for guests. Go to upmyinfluence.com and click on podcast. We'd love to have you.

0:58with us right now it's colby goodman colby you're a candidate experience and hiring consultant you're found on the web at colbygoodman.com to our friend that's listening just click on the show notes you're going to see a direct link to colby to your website so you get that spelling right colby it's great to have you thanks for having me on josh All right. So I'm so grateful you're here because a lot of folks are in leadership listening to this. And obviously, one of the biggest, I'd say, priorities or challenges is building and keeping a great team. That's kind of who we are, is our organizations and our culture.

1:38But tell me a bit about who you work with and what you do. So I work with business owners, business leaders who are struggling building that great team, who are either posting jobs and getting too many candidates, who are drowning in too many applications, who are not getting enough candidates, who are scratching and clawing for anybody to apply, but are mostly finding poor qualities in those applications. The people, disrighted people are not being attracted. They're not being driven to apply for those jobs. Or on the other side of the equation, if you're seeing high turnover, especially in people who are with you less than 12 months, that would tell me that there was a miscommunication, there was a misunderstanding, there was a mismatch at the hiring stage.

2:22And so I come in and help leaders and partner with them directly to really understand not simply what qualifications they want a candidate to have. We don't want them to simply check in the box, but ultimately, how can this next person help you solve your most important problems? Yeah. So what's going on in, you know, and obviously we've seen the headlines over the past few years. We're recording this at the very end of 2023. Where are we today, you know, in terms of like the environment for hiring and turnover? And man, we've just seen so many trends and, you know, the past number of years, I think have been really disruptive when we think about workforces.

3:04Give us a quick state of the union. And then my next question, you don't have to, don't look into the crystal ball yet. I just want to know where we are today and where we've come from. You know, I think obviously with 2020 and 2021, there was this kind of employee revolution, which I think is great. Everybody kind of took back some of the power. We reevaluated our lives and we went out there and we looked for better opportunities. 2022, 2023, companies realized that they have maybe overhired, overstretched themselves with the threat of a looming recession, which I think we're on quarter four of a threat of a looming recession at this point.

3:37Businesses are tightening their belts. They're being more strategic when it comes to hiring. But on the flip side of that, there are less roles, which means there are more candidates per role. And so there's so much more noise in the process. That combined with technology, between AI, one-click apply, apps on our phones that we can apply for 10 jobs in less than 10 minutes, businesses have to be more strategic when it comes to hiring or else they're going to burn out in the process and they're just going to accept whoever is next. and they're going to start a vicious and expensive cycle of hiring just whoever is lucky enough to be in front of them at that time of giving up.

4:17Yeah. All right. So before I get into like how you work and what you do, what do you think is, you know, you kind of alluded to this a little bit already, but you know, we're heading into 2024, any predictions or best guesses about what you think kind of this world is going to look like and where employers need to be? So I think what's going to ramp up next year is people who have quote unquote stable jobs are going to be more apt to look because they're going to be sick of companies taking them for granted. They want to go out. They're going to want to advocate for themselves. We're seeing strikes across entertainment, across automotive, across healthcare.

4:59And so I think workers are going to take back some of that power. which means for your listeners, active, proactive, impactful people are going to be looking for new great opportunities. But the problem, and I mean, the opportunity there is businesses are going to have to focus more on employer brand and candidate experience because they have choice. Having a job with you is no longer a privilege, right? You have the privilege to hire somebody. And so the thing that's going to shift, I think we're going to shift back into workers' power a little bit more next year, way more than we were this year.

5:36But also those who are not only marketing to their customers are going to succeed, but if you're effectively marketing and engaging with your potential candidates, those are where people are going to win in the process. Yeah. And so when we're thinking about being competitive to attract and retain the best talent, what are you seeing aside from just the salary, you know, commission service or whatever it is, right? What are those more intangibles or what are those things that you think that employees are looking for, particularly as we head into 2024? They're looking for an interesting challenge.

6:14I think as human beings, we, yes, we need our needs fulfilled, right? And a decent salary will do that. And work-life balance will do that. And hybrid and remote work can do that. But what keep somebody there is the continual opportunity and drive to solve interesting problems, right? We're not looking for stress. Candidates are not looking for stress-free work. They're looking for the right stress. You stress is the technical scientific term, positive stress. And so if an employer can approach a candidate, he can even approach a current employee and have a conversation about here's where our pain points are as a business.

6:53Here are we are seeing missed opportunities. Here are where we're suffering. How can you help us solve these problems? It gives ownership to an employee. It gives them excitement and it gives them the passion to go out there and not just do a job and be a cog in the machine, but to be a positive contributor to an impactful solution. All right. So that said, let's talk about where and how we can find great team members. Are there platforms, systems that you like? Is it just as simple as putting up a we're hiring page or, you know, probably going to be a little bit more work than that? Yeah. You need to be proactively promoting your employee brand, not only about what you do sell and service, but what is the experience of the people working for you?

7:43How are your ideal candidates who may not be working for you today, but may you want them to work for you tomorrow? How are they perceiving your brand? And that can be done over social, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, et cetera, X, et cetera. But also, how are you empowering your employees to be apostles for you in the marketplace? Do they feel valued? Do they feel excited to work for you? And are they telling their expert friends and family that they should come work for you? So are you galvanizing your current set of employees to go out there and market for you too? So I think just as in traditional business, the tool itself, the platform, the technology is not as important as the message and who's delivering it.

8:30So making sure that you as an owner, as a leader, are proactively putting yourself out there to warm up good talent for future opportunities, but you're encouraging and incentivizing employees to go out there and help promote your brand to other potential new hires. Yeah. You know, you shared something I thought was kind of interesting because I've seen this before. I'm sure you, Kobe, in your time have come across employers who say something like, well, the problem is these kids today, no one wants to work. What's your observations around that? I won't spoil your post here. Yeah. And I think you saw that earlier.

9:13It's like, you know, the perception is nobody wants to work, but the reality is nobody wants to work for you. Right. And if you're a self-aware, self-learning, introspective leader, you're going to want to have hard conversations with yourself about what energy, what messaging, what attitudes am I putting out there that is not simply maybe not attracting the right people, but maybe it's actively pushing the right people away from you. And you may be doing that consciously or unconsciously, but something needs to change. Right. And so if you think nobody wants to work, I would argue firmly in the opposite.

9:50I would say, again, why does nobody want to work for you? What are you doing or not doing or being ambivalent about that is not allowing you to show up on the radar of your ideal employee? Yeah. Colby, share a bit about how you work with your clients. What does that engagement look like? Yeah. So when they identified a problem in their hiring process, I come in and say, okay, what do we need this next person? Not simply just to do for you. We don't want to create a laundry list, a never ending skills list that you want them to do or have. What problems do you need them to solve? Right? What are you experiencing?

10:30What are you missing out on? What are you suffering through that ideally the next person who is an expert in those things can come on and resolve for you? So developing an extremely clear understanding of not only who that person is, what skill sets, experience, and expertise they bring to the table, but how exactly you want them to apply that to your problems. And then from there, develop a job description and marketing for the opening that differentiates you from the rest of the pack. Because you're probably not the only person looking for a marketing manager in your industry. So you have to differentiate just like you would with your customers.

11:06And then I help them develop a candidate flow that helps bring in the right number of the right candidate. We don't want a thousand no's and maybes. We're gunning for about 20 to 30 yeses. And then from there, I help them in intake. So doing the initial pre-screener, providing evaluations and tests to make sure that this person can technically put their money where their mouth is. and then coaching decision makers on how to facilitate the interview so that it doesn't devolve into this unintentional interrogation, but so that it evolves into this connection of two human beings, a problem haver, which is the company, and a problem solver, which is the candidate, so that we can understand that this is a good match.

11:54And then finally, working with leaders to say, out of the five people that we talked to, who do you think is going to be able to have the most and longest impact. And then working with the Zootmakers to develop an offer that no only provides a fair value for value, a fair salary for impact, but also reiterates to them the future that you want them to have in your organization so that you have a quick, immediate yes to come on board and start on that first day. Yeah. So who should be reaching out? What might someone be saying right now that might be a good indication that they probably just need to grab some time with you.

12:34Like if you're saying this, we need to chat because I probably have some ideas for you. I don't know if you'd be a good fit together, but certainly there's an opportunity for you to maybe inspire some activity. Yeah, if you are experiencing frequent turnover in your team, if people are staying for less than a year, that would be sign number one because you're wasting a ton of time, a ton of money and a ton of energy trying to get somebody on board who's just going to be a zero in less than 12 months. Or if you have a job posting out there that is most likely not performing, you're getting drips and drops of candidates who are just maybe okay.

13:15And you're fearing that you're simply just going to pick somebody so that you can stop the madness, right? You shouldn't settle for a hire. This is arguably the most important investment monetarily and with your energy into your business. And if you settle for something, you're ultimately going to have a massive headache and heartache in the future. So let's take some time today to be strategic so that tomorrow you can be extremely happy, satisfied, and excited knowing that your savior, your next employee is coming in the door to help you build your business, scale, serve your customers, and have an impact on your life at work, but also your life outside of it.

13:58Yeah. And what do you typically chat about in a discovery call? Like, what questions do you ask? And I guess, what is usually that outcome of that first conversation you might have with a potential client? I want to understand what has the process been before, right? Usually with the people I work with, it has simply been to either put up a hiring sign in the window, so to speak, whether that window is LinkedIn or Indeed or Glassdoor, going with a recruiter who has maybe a big network, but is only going to kind of take what you give them in order to find that person. Or maybe it's been a referral.

14:33Maybe it's been cousins, uncles, neighbors, girlfriend kind of thing and figure out why isn't that getting you the right people? What questions aren't you asking that you need to? What clarity are you lacking that you have to have in order to have this avatar of this ideal candidate. And then from there, helping them figure out, okay, what are the steps needed to attract them to you in the first place? Right. And then I want that person to walk away from that with an understanding of, okay, I hear the direct two or three steps I need to make in strategy change, messaging change, and also look at how they build a team.

15:09I want them to shift away from, I'm looking for people with the right skills into, I'm looking for the right experts to solve the right problems. Now, your website, colbygoodman.com. And by the way, you also, oh, you are a very well-known or very established speaker. What do you speak on? So speak on exactly these topics. It's speaking to leaders about how do they evolve their teams from staff members to problem solvers? How do you revamp a hiring process so that you can develop a constant pipeline of ideal candidates. And lastly, helping those who are maybe doing their first hires ever, working with new managers to get over the nerves and the fears about being in the other side of the table when it comes to the interview so that they can have a confident conversation, they can build human connection, but they all can make the right business decision for themselves and for their companies.

16:09All right, colbygoodman.com. When someone goes there, what would you recommend they do? You can go and watch my video, give you an overview about my expertise and how I can help. And then if you want to scroll through the bottom and if you want to book a 30-minute call, I'm would happy to take some time of the year to kind of learn some more about your problems. See if we can bring some solutions and see if an expert like myself is needed to help you turn around maybe some poor hiring luck and develop a repeatable and scalable hiring strategy. Yeah. Again, your website, ColbyGoodman.com, right on the front page there.

16:44It says book a call. Plus, there's some other great resources that you've got listed up. By the way, I'll point out you're also a pretty good LinkedIn follow. So I recommend to our friends listening, go to Colby's website, but then click on that LinkedIn profile. Make sure you give Colby a follow here. You tend to share some pretty good stuff. So Colby Goodman, again, thought leader, keynote speaker, hiring expert. Again, in your words, the candidate experience and hiring consultant, your website, colbygoodman.com. Colby, thank you so much for joining us. Awesome. Thanks so much, man. I appreciate you having me on.

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