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Blog: 7 Tips to Find The Best Talent

business community employess leader leadership Mar 28, 2023



7 Tips to Hire The BEST Talent

I am going to let you in on a little secret. Your “Now Hiring” Ads suck.

From the Desk of Klark Brown (No AI was used in the creation of this article)



In this blog, I hope to share tips to help you not only get MORE responses to your ads but the best talent in your market. 


You must think like a MARKETER when hiring

This is a critical mindset shift that you need to take immediately. The days of people looking for better jobs are sinking away.
Unfortunately, many are looking for something that doesn’t look like a job at all.

You won’t find anyone more confused and frustrated than us with the perceived work ethos today….but to get what we need, we must accept it and adapt in some way. 

 

Try these tips: 

 Ask yourself if YOU would work for you?

We can all agree that more and more people want freedom and independence. Who can blame them? I know I do.
But if that isn’t a reality for someone, they need to find a job or career that can get them closer to their goals.

When you post an ad on Indeed, LinkedIn, or elsewhere, does if say anything about your company?

If they look your company up online (and they will), what will they find?
This is where a good website, online reviews, and other community involvement might pay huge dividends. 


When they look your company up….what will they find? Are the owners and employees attached to social media channels? If yes, what are their profiles and feeds like? If you have staff attached to your social channels, you can be certain that their opinions and personal posts will likely be traceable.

My company had a social media policy requiring specific content to be “attached”. This visibility also applies to clients (future and present) as well as referral partners. This is a deeper topic for another time, but be aware.

Just ask yourself, if you were to apply with your company, would you work for yourself?

  • Can see anything about your culture?
  • Does it look like a good place to work?
  • Does it feel like I can grow here?

Dig into your visible reputation and be critical. 

 Don’t post a heavy job description.

 

Whether by invitation or otherwise, I review many ads people post for new talent.
I will say this, for the restoration space, the score is pretty low.

I will start by acknowledging a few things. 

  • You may not be a professional copywriter. 
  • You are busy doing 4, 913 other things. 
  • You are short-handed NOW and hiring from desperation
  • You may not have ever been professionally trained in the skill of talent acquisition. Yes. It is a skill. 

 

An ad is placed on your desired platform. You simply share a snapshot of the job description. We call this a word wall.
Is your impression that a talented woman or man will stumble across this and read it line by line? If they do, what will they think?
Put yourself in their shoes.

A job description might say things like:

  • Must be able to lift 50-100 lbs
  • Able to do demolition
  • Nights and weekends
  • On Call
  • Good math skills
  • Communicate with customers after a fire or a flood. 
  • Etc

 

Let me be a devil's advocate for a moment.

  • Must be able to lift XX lbs. What are we lifting? 
  • Able to do demolition.  What is demolition? Construction?
  • Nights and Weekends? Which ones? How often? What about my life?
  • Good math skills? I hate math. Not for me. 
  • Communicate with customers after a fire or flood? I don’t know anything about fire or flood. What would I say?

 

Do you see where I am going? This is what we call too much information, too soon.
While all these will be required, for sure. But what you might have just done is remove any possible superstars because they self-removed themselves before you ever even met them.

Another way to approach this is thinking of building intrigue and desire. Marketing.
You are competing with A LOT of people all stealing their attention and possibly creating better stories they see themselves in.

While making it clear what the expectations are, it might be more strategic to cover a little more of that on an initial phone call or better yet, in the first interview.

Consider your ad as telling the world or your community that you are doing amazing things and you need amazing people to truly do that and help more.

You are in a very unique industry where you are paid to help people. For the right person, that’s a  dream come true. But while the career seems rewarding, what about the people they are going to do it with? 

Rewire how you write your initial ad. It’s a tagline. Get attention. Draw people in. Don’t post a job description that looks like a whole lot of NO FUN. 

Check out this blog by HubStop on writing a job description: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/write-job-ad-copy

 Hire for character, not talent (presumed)

I see this one as often as almost anything. You are looking for someone with experience. Or at least some form of construction experience. 

Experienced people that are no longer working for someone might be a red flag. Is it possible there is a reason they are unemployed?
Because in today’s market, it is easy to find a new job.

Of course, they could have been working with an awful company or poor management and leadership. If that is the case, then this is an opportunity for a deeper conversation. 

One more consideration is if we both agree that the majority of the people in our space do bad work, we are going to have a lot of work “un-training” someone to remove the bad habits and re-train the right way.
We can agree that is a very tall task. You have to ask yourself if you have time or if anyone on your team can take that project on. 

Hiring for construction experience doesn’t always bring in the right people.
Disaster Recovery or property damage restoration is not construction. It is much different.

Unless you are hiring for a framer, drywall finisher, or painter, you might consider hiring someone with no or very little experience. 

I like to coach people on hiring for CHARACTER and not general skill.

The old saying is I can teach you how to do something, I cannot teach you to be someone.

You need a team member that will fit.

  • Fit your culture
  • Fit in the plan for your mission
  • Fit with your other staff
  • Fit with your customer's expectations.

We have all hired bad people. We needed “a body”. But that usually has overall negative effects.

Hiring a bad person wastes your time. Upsets customers. Disrupts your culture with other staff.
And the worst, if not quickly removed, you actually run off your good-performing team.
I see it happen DAILY. 

Hire for the character. Examples may be: 

  • Intelligent, not smart. Staff that can problem solve, retain information, and see further down the road and not only what is directly in front of them. 
  • Personable. People easily understand that being a good person means getting along with others, even when that is not simple. 
  • Empathetic. Understands their job is not being a tech as much as helping people. Helping customers in hard times. Understanding that this is their first situation and they need support. 
  • Leadership. 
  • Accountable

 

If you write and copy simply stating that you are looking for great people that possess these characteristics (or want to develop them) then you are certainly interested in a future with them.

Write your ads with outcome-focused language (what we will do, how we can, why we should). Paint a picture.

Realize that as of this blog publishing (Spring 2023), talent on the team is as important as customers. Because you cannot serve more customers without a strong team unless you plan to stay small and do everything yourself.

Lastly, let it be obvious to your clientele, that you are hiring incredible humans, not just robots that are punching a clock and making them feel like they have better things to do.

We see that enough ourselves, right?

 

 Coach up or Coach OUT

 

It may come as no surprise to you that there are scores of articles written that ask 1000’s of business leaders what they did wrong, it was keeping the wrong people too long.

C’mon, you have done this. I know I have.

It’s a very difficult ledge to walk when you want to help people from your heart and see the potential in others.

But that approach HAS TO be used with eyes wide open. If you have a “tough” employee, make sure they know the condition and agreement of your leadership. It has to be met and rewarded with progress.

Keeping people too long hurts the culture, increases your liability, and delays the ability to find the right people that will make a huge impact in your business. 

 

 Build a Talent Acquisition Framework. 

 

At Restoration Advisers, we help scores of small to medium restoration firms become absolute professionals at the sequence and system of what most Fortune 500 companies will say is the leader's most important job……Find and Grow the Right Talent. 


There is so much more than placing an ad, and hoping someone shows up and hires whoever can form a sentence. That solves a very short-term need but ultimately might cause more work than the task you hired them for.


Pro Tip: If you had the actual number and cost of bringing a new employee aboard, you might strongly reconsider how you hire and who you allow into the organization.


We help with everything from placing the ad copy, spreading a viral message across your community that you are growing, and creating a process in interviews to make sure you are quickly identifying if this person is the person you need. Sometimes we interview great people but might be putting them in the wrong seats.
That will be a short trip for them, you, and your time. They will be quickly frustrated and look elsewhere. All your training investment is thrown down the trash. 

You may look into reading the book WHO by Geoff Smart 

 

 Make this your superpower.

 

You are no stranger to seeking the right education to ensure you are becoming the most successful you can be.

You travel to classes, trade shows, workshops, and courses.

We only suggest you make an agreement that skills like talent acquisition are among the most important you will build to grow a business as you dreamed.

Balance your education and bring others aboard to have them help you make your dream and theirs come true.

Don’t brush this off. It might be the one thing that is truly holding you back.

I know it feels like creating leads is the most critical (and it is important) but you are hunting and not farming.

I call this replicating a lot of today’s and hoping tomorrow arrives.

Bring the right people aboard. Grow them into exactly what you need them to be and grow. If they are not interested in going where you are…then that just confirms the fact that you are not hiring the right way from the beginning.

But rest assured, you are not alone. This is the rat race 98% of entrepreneurs get caught in.

Be the 2% and not a statistic used on the blogs of others. 

 

 Success is contagious and the best magnet

 

I am going to assume you put this all as a priority and develop your skills, start attracting all-stars, and see growth.
Guess what happens next?

If your marketing starts to include more content around your team, employees, benefits, and general success….people will be drawn in.

Whether it’s other business owners, people at your church, or community circles….it will become obvious that your business is doing something great.

When you are always hiring, turnover is high, presenting as desperate and worse, negative about your growth….you might not get as much support from those that are in the perfect position to help you.

Let me explain.
One of the biggest opportunities for finding the right talent is through warm referrals. Others recommend people they know and trust to be a part of your exciting team.

If you are not in a place that seems like a good environment, people are very reluctant to put their name or reputation on sending people they know, like, or even love to you. The back side of that is not something that people want to deal with. 


So you need to become a sunbeam of energy and make your company become THE PLACE to work and grow with.

Do you have examples of anyone else on the team advancing? Or is it just the owner?

Maybe you have people winning. But how will anyone else know? Remember we are in a time where people want to see and hear. Credibility and assumptions were exploited and ruined in prior generations. 

Conclusion

Becoming a Jedi Master at bringing in talent is not impossible for you or anyone but you have to have the right personality and goals aligned with the betterment of others.

If you are looking to be the best solopreneur, then you won’t see success in convincing others to go down the path with you.

In recruiting, be relational, not transactional. Make it abundantly clear that this will be the start of what you hope is a long-term partnership.
Make it clear that you want to see them live all their dreams.

Do you ask what the dreams are of your team? No, then how do you know they are making them come true? 

Don’t post ads that scare people away.
Make them light, amusing, or even encouraging.

Look around for the most successful business that is closely related to yours and do your homework, to see what their process looks like.

See a strong example of a service business that seems to be doing better than average? Ask if you can buy them lunch and ask what is working and what isn’t.

Reach out to us at Restoration Advisers and let us help you build a plan to make bringing new great team players simple.

Building a business means many things and this is one of the MOST important ones.
Fail at this and you will continue to be an employee and not a CEO. 

I will close with these 2 things. 

  1. I think the very best candidates that want an opportunity are looking for YOU. Make sure they can find you. 
  2. If Chic-Fil-A can staff 2,909 locations with high-achieving and above-average staff, who often have no prior experience (at lower pay), why can’t you?

 

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