Reputation Management and Transparency in Staffing

Top 4 changes for the staffing industry in 2022

1. In the past, recruiters in the staffing world would essential “sling” resumes over to the hiring managers without putting much thought into whether or not a candidate would fit into their client’s company culture. Now, we are seeing a shift toward a more personal approach. Recruiters are becoming more like advisors or consultants, so they can form long-term relationships with both the client and candidates.
2. The staffing world has become more of a “reviews economy.” Google helps to solidify those relationships by showing feedback from candidates after being impacted by a recruiter.  
3. From automated messaging to interview scheduling, technology has made the recruiting process simpler, especially for those who aren’t tech-savvy.
4. Recruiters will become more successful as they build their own digital brand on social media and review sites, while also becoming more transparent.  

Additional resources

• Recruiting Trends for 2022
• What Is Recruitment Automation And How Can You Use It To Hire Smarter?
• The Case for Creating a Great Candidate Experience
• How to Elevate Your Employer Branding to Attract Top Talent
• The Importance of Talent Relationship Management
• How to Be a Staffing Leader

Transcript

Pete Newsome  00:02
Welcome, everyone and thank you for listening to the Hire Calling Podcast. I’m Pete Newsome, and this is your source for all things hiring, staffing and recruiting. Today I’m joined by Adam Conrad from Great Recruiters.

Pete Newsome  00:14
Adam is someone I have just gotten to know recently but have been very impressed with what he’s bringing to the staffing marketplace. I think Adam is bringing a solution that’s very much needed and is coming at just the absolute perfect time for what’s happening in our space.

Pete Newsome  00:31
So I won’t spoil that too much. I’ll let Adam talk about it. But just a quick on Adam, he has been in the staffing industry for 20 years, he’s risen through the ranks and has seen a lot and done a lot.

Pete Newsome  00:43
And so he’s someone who’s in just really a great position to help move the industry forward. So I’m thrilled to have him today. So Adam, welcome. Thanks for joining.

Adam Conrad  00:54
Hey, Pete, thanks for having me on man. It’s been great to getting to know you. And I appreciate the opportunity to chat with you today.

Pete Newsome  01:00
So we were going to record yesterday, but you had a basketball game to go to. And so of course I want to know what happened at the game. Let’s just get that out there first.

Adam Conrad  01:13
We can talk about the reputation of recruiters but I mean, you want to talk about the reputation of referees for middle school basketball. It’s not very good and for good reason.

Adam Conrad  01:23
But yeah, unfortunately, the Baker Bobcats fell short against the crosstown rival but you know, I’ve coached my son in every sport, I am not a basketball coach by any means.

Adam Conrad  01:35
And so it’s always nice to be somebody in the stand and, you know, listen to my wife feel like you need to talk a little bit quieter there.

Pete Newsome  01:44
Well, I’ll tell you, when I’ve coached my kids from the time they were at the YMCA playing soccer.

Adam Conrad  01:50
Yeah?

Pete Newsome  01:51
3 years old, and when my oldest son, who I’d coached in tackle football, got to high school, I had to put myself outside. I told my wife, I’m not used to being in the stands.

Pete Newsome  02:02
So I went down to the endzone, I said, “I can’t be near anyone else.” Last thing I wanted to start off badly. So it took a little while to make sure I could contain myself, you know, as just a fan.

Adam Conrad  02:14
You know, I’ve coached my son, he’s 13 now. I’ve been coaching baseball since he was four. And, you know, it’s the first year that I’m no longer his coach, I let him spread his wings, and he joined and he made his own decision.

Adam Conrad  02:30
And the first practice I tell you what, the first practice I dropped him off to I’m not going to lie, I definitely had a tear in my eye. It was a sad moment because, you know, it’s those driving to practices and being with the kids.

Adam Conrad  02:45
But it was a big dad moment of like my kids growing up.

Pete Newsome  02:49
Right?

Adam Conrad  02:50
I’m looking forward to watching them play. But at some point, they need a new voice. He’s been hearing mine for a long time.

Pete Newsome  02:57
Absolutely, well, I feel your pain. I have one more basketball season with my eighth grader.

Adam Conrad  03:04
Okay.

Pete Newsome  03:04
Coaching the middle school basketball team, and then I’m done and Im retiring. And that’s going to be emotional, to say the least. I don’t want to talk too much about it. 

Adam Conrad  03:13
Oh man, we just started, we don’t need to be weakened on this call, that’s for sure.

Pete Newsome  03:17
You and I can cry later off camera.

Adam Conrad  03:20
Off camera, that’s good.

Pete Newsome  03:22
But in the meantime, let’s focus on what we’re really here to talk about, which is what you’re doing in the industry. But talk a little bit about your background before we get into great recruiters.

Adam Conrad  03:32
Yeah, I mean, I started my recruiting career, I think when I was maybe 22 years old. I think like many people that find this industry, I fell into it. I mean, no one I think grows up unless you’re the son or daughter of a staffing owner that’s like, “I want to be a recruiter.”

Adam Conrad  03:49
Recruiting to me was like what, I think of an army recruiter. And it’s funny, I did a technical reference for a friend of mine. And the person who was doing the reference was a recruiter, and she spun the call around and was like, “Hey, I think you’d be great.”

Adam Conrad  04:03
I knew nothing about the industry. But I started and, you know, I had a three year stint there. And I think I saw from my experience, I saw probably the worst part of the industry, it was a high transaction, I was low value. I didn’t realize the power of those relationships.

Adam Conrad  04:21
And so I kind of left it, you know, disenchanted with the industry, and somebody I’d worked with, through another company said, “Hey, I heard you’re available, you know, do you want to recruit for us?” And I was like, “I don’t know, it’s not right for me.”

Adam Conrad  04:37
And I found an organization that I stayed with for nearly 17 years that really valued the relationship. And I think that’s where I really just got my passion for helping people and finding ways that I could drive value. So I grew up through that company from recruiting to recruiting management, was running operations.

Adam Conrad  04:56
I did all their technology integrations. I’ve always been a real early adopter of tech and you know through that long story short saw a real need to help other staffing firms out there and really left to start Great Recruiters to help the industry, quite honestly improve.

Pete Newsome  05:15
I commend you for that the industry is evolving rapidly. And there are some pretty big gaps out there that need to be filled. It’s funny, no one knows how they ended up in, no one intended to be in staffing. And that’s a given no one dressed up as a recruiter for Halloween is what I like to say.

Pete Newsome  05:35
And usually, this is not an indictment on you at all. So forgive me for saying this. But usually it involves bad GPAs and, degrees that you know, there’s not exactly a line out the door of people trying to hire you. But it does take a special person to stay in it that I have certainly learned over the years.

Pete Newsome  05:59
Because when people are your product, there are limitless things that can happen. And you really have to be in it for the right reasons and to believe in what you’re doing.

Pete Newsome  06:09
And so your story about your first job resonates and probably with anyone listening because there are some good players and some bad players in our space. No doubt about that.

Adam Conrad  06:19
Well, yeah, I mean, you look at it, I mean, recruiter burnout is around two, three years, they typically are out. And I think a lot of those are because they’re in that high transaction high churn type environments.

Adam Conrad  06:30
And to me, we’re dealing with people’s lives, like when I realized the value of the relationship and opportunity exists everywhere and build relationships or lives. These are some of the core values that we had, you know, for me, recruiting gets easier, it shouldn’t get tougher, and it shouldn’t stay the same.

Adam Conrad  06:47
As you’re building your relationships, tapping into those networks of people that trust you, that’s where the most successful recruiters live. I mean, they’re living on referrals, they’re living on their networking. You know, I’ve had candidates that I’d never placed Pete, that turned into clients because of the way that they were treated through the process.

Adam Conrad  07:06
And, you know, I got more thank you notes. And I mean, that kind of leads into what we’re doing a little bit with Great Recruiter’s.

Adam Conrad  07:11
But it’s really about creating experiences that are positive, we can’t control the job outcome. But we can certainly control our behavior and the way that we interact with people in the way we treat them. That is 100% on each individual.

Pete Newsome  07:26
That is perfectly stated. I really like the way you phrased that Adam because it’s something that I try to talk to our young recruiters about. It’s not about that specific interaction, the outcome of that specific interaction, it’s about the way you handle yourself, it’s about the time you invest in that individual for the long term.

Pete Newsome  07:47
And anyone who’s successful over a period of time, whether it’s staffing or any other industry that I’m aware of builds a reputation and relationships over time, you can’t just show up and be successful, certainly not in our space. And it’s a hard thing right now, specifically for this young generation.

Pete Newsome  08:07
And I start to sound old when I talk about this stuff. But it is where instant gratification is a fool’s errand to some degree. So you do have to think long term in how you interact.

Pete Newsome  08:22
And I would much rather one of our young recruiters have walk away with a positive experience where we didn’t win the business, but someone who’s gonna think of them fondly and speak well of them over time, because you and I both know, that’s what pays for itself many times over.

Adam Conrad  08:38
It’s a long term game. And I think when you look at this as a short term game, it becomes really tough, and that’s where burnout is, this is a long term game. And I love the fact that I really do think 2022 is the year of the recruiter.

Adam Conrad  08:54
I think early in my career sales always lead the organization, recruiters are kind of pushed to the side, you know, we’ll just get another recruiter. And I think that finally, people have realized that there is no recruiting industry without the recruiter. And you hit on something with the young recruiters, Pete that I always I kind of distilled it down to this.

Adam Conrad  09:16
If you’re a recruiter and you’re putting your agenda first, you’re not going to have a tremendous amount of success. And you’re definitely not going to build relationships because it’s about the job that I need to fill, and my opportunities. And it’s me, when you flip the script, though, and you make it about their agenda. That’s where you start really getting a lot of positive traction, and you’re building those relationships.

Adam Conrad  09:38
If it’s a good fit, the job will come, the placement will come. But if you approach the conversation, it’s about my agenda before yours. We’re really not being a very good service oriented industry. And I think there’s unfortunately a lot of people that are still doing it, but I see a lot more that are realizing the value of the longer term relationships and building that book business.

Pete Newsome  10:01
I like 2022 being the year of the recruiter.

Adam Conrad  10:05
It is.

Pete Newsome  10:05
I agree with you, I think it can be as much as anything right now. Because our industry, as I’m sure you’ve seen over your time, and it has become commoditized, when I started out of school in 1993. So now I’m really dating myself, I went to work for Aerotech.

Pete Newsome  10:22
And, there was trust inherently with people, if someone said they were going to do something, they did it if people were honest and open. And when I got back into recruiting and started 4corner, at the end of 2005, there was a pretty big degradation that had happened, in just a collective character.

Pete Newsome  10:42
And that sounds negative, but I saw that happen. And also the way staffing companies were treated as a commodity, because that didn’t exist back in 1993. And so I had to wrap my brain around that the first time I saw a BMS contract, I laughed at it and said, “Who would sign this?” This is the exact opposite of how recruiting should be done.

Pete Newsome  11:06
No interactions recruiting off of a resume or job description. It was the opposite of people working with people. And I think now with the great resignation, if we want to call it that, if what COVID has done, the fact that there are three and a half million more job openings right now in our country than there are job seekers, as elevated our industry to a significant degree.

Pete Newsome  11:34
And anyone who treats staffing as a commodity now as they have for the last 15 years, it’s not going to go well for them. So I’m not sure if your experience and perspective are the same. But I have some pretty strong opinions on that, that come out in these conversations.

Adam Conrad  11:50
Yeah, I mean, I look at this, as I look like early in my career, staffing, recruiting was the Wild West, right, everyone had their own rules. Nobody was sharing anything. I mean, I think as we were kind of prepping for this, you’re talking about how you’re promoting other firms.

Adam Conrad  12:05
I saw no collaboration, people thought they own their candidates, their database was their value, and then all of a sudden, you know, candidates are available to anybody. And so when you’re a commoditized industry as in some fashion we are. Experiences comes down to the only thing that I think really matters.

Adam Conrad  12:25
But I see our industry is evolving, we’re maturing, we’re bringing in technology, you know, we’ve had the, there was a lack of transparency. And so the BMS is starting to create transparency for cost control. I definitely think that where it is now and where it was, is has changed dramatically. And it’s gotten better people have found how to be successful.

Adam Conrad  12:46
And I think it’s not us and them anymore, that I see a lot. It’s a partnership, right for the end goal for the candidate for the client. So I see that definitely evolving. But there’s a lot that’s changed in 21 years, you know, from file folders with red, green, yellow, blue dots. Now, I started never still email, but I hear you know, still stories about the Rolodex.

Adam Conrad  13:08
But I mean, we’ve evolved, and I think we’re just an industry that is maturing, we’re becoming a little bit more tech savvy, we’re becoming a little bit more standardized. And I think that’s a good thing for everybody. I finally feel like our industry is legitimized, you know, now, right, we are.

Adam Conrad  13:27
And before it was anybody who had a business card, you know, anybody who had a job order to be considered a recruiter, and I think that barrier has risen. And the expectations that people have working with firms have increased. And I think that’s only going to help everybody from a quality control perspective and a transparency perspective.

Pete Newsome  13:50
I agree with that completely, and the timing of the situation that we’re in right now. So that evolution was happening in our industry, but I’m not sure our clients, collectively were ready for it or saw us as strategic versus that commodity.

Pete Newsome  14:07
And that’s why I believe the BMS model really came about and now anyone who is seeing it that way is going to struggle to hire so we have a chance right now as a recruiting industry, to be strategic to have higher level discussion, sea level discussions because hiring is going to make or break a lot of companies in the near future. So the time is really, excellent for us as an industry to elevate.

Adam Conrad  14:36
Certainly, and I always go back to two. And we talked about like how technology is having that influence because I think that technology does make industries more standardized process driven, a little more mature. But I looked at two industries that were impacted greatly by technology.

Adam Conrad  14:52
One was a travel agency, right travel agents don’t exist anymore. I can go online and use technology to book a ticket. It’s a high transaction, low risk, and it’s typically low value. So from a consumer standpoint, I have no problem booking a ticket online.

Adam Conrad  15:08
But if I’m going to take an excursion to Europe for two weeks, and I don’t know what I’m doing, I’m going to talk to somebody who knows that I’m not booking that online. And then I look at the real estate industry, and I look at realtors, the value of a realtor used to be their MLS listings, right, that was the value you went to them, they show up the sheet.

Adam Conrad  15:27
Now, just like jobs for candidates, we can find that anywhere we want. But technology didn’t replace the realtors, it actually improved the industry, it actually increased that industry. But their value changed, right? They became more advisors or consultants when you think about buying a house or getting a job.

Adam Conrad  15:45
These are big life changing events, that we want another trusted human being to help walk us through it, because we’re not doing it every day. And so that’s really where I see the industry for recruiters evolving is they need to be more advisors.

Adam Conrad  16:00
They need to be more consultative, they’re going to have longer term relationships with the recruiters. I mean, professional athletes have talent agents, why wouldn’t you know, an engineer? And I think I’m starting to see that.

Pete Newsome  16:11
And we’re in the perfect position to provide that service and that knowledge and expertise because our clients only see their own unique perspective. And sure, they could buy reports out there to talk about the industry, but that’s not real world necessarily.

Pete Newsome  16:26
We have that position to earn the partnership, I think is what it is. And beyond just providing candidates and resumes, we can have those strategic discussions that are really going to be meaningful.

Pete Newsome  16:39
And when you’re talking to a C-level person and telling them that their future isn’t as bright as it could otherwise be because their comp structure is bad. You better be prepared to back that up. And we are prepared as an industry to back that up because it’s what we see and live with every day. So it is a really exciting time for us as a whole.

Adam Conrad  17:03
Yeah, definitely. I’m excited. I mean, I think we’re going to see big changes in the next three to five years. And obviously, we’ve seen tremendous changes just in the last two years, with everything going on in the world, and, you know, the work from home and all of that.

Adam Conrad  17:19
I think it was the perfect kind of storm to help push this industry to where I think it’s going to continue to just grow and flourish here in the years to come.

Pete Newsome  17:28
Yep, the silver lining out of a lot of bad. For sure.

Adam Conrad  17:31
Yeah, definitely.

Pete Newsome  17:32
You saw something in the industry that made you quit a very successful career to go start your own business, which is much easier said than done. So share that story, if you can, what was it that you saw, you know, what was the void or gap? Or what was it that led you to take that stab?

Adam Conrad  17:53
You know, I think the biggest thing for me was the overall reputation that our industry had and the reputation recruiters had. I mean, I’ve been called some things and from people I didn’t know but because I had the label of a recruiter, there were certain expectations they had of me as an individual that weren’t positive.

Adam Conrad  18:11
And so it just creates a lot of friction upfront. And so I had a program in place where we would capture feedback from our candidates, we believe first impressions are lasting impressions and really saw the opportunity to help this industry to help recruiters and staffing firms get real time insight from the people they’re working with because they didn’t have it.

Adam Conrad  18:32
And so, if you Googled who recruiters are five years ago, I think it was evil liar, scumbag. Not my words, so don’t cut that up, you know, and say, “Adam thinks this about recruiters.”

Pete Newsome  18:46
That’s going to be the clip, the only one we have.

Adam Conrad  18:52
Right. It’s changed a little bit. I mean, and so when you Google that and that’s what shows up, it kind of solidifies what that reputation is. My experience, from my first three years, would have agreed, my experience from the last 17 would disagree. I worked with a lot of great recruiters, and they just didn’t have vehicles to be able to capture that information.

Adam Conrad  19:16
And most importantly, share it with everyone because candidates want to work with great recruiters. They just do.

Adam Conrad  19:22
I mean, they want somebody who’s going to help be a career coach or consultant, help them get aligned to the best jobs, but if you don’t know where to find them, or you don’t know who somebody is, that’s what I wanted to solve. And really, that’s what we’ve been solving for the last four years.

Pete Newsome  19:36
Well, it’s impossible to know unless you are in the business so to speak, from the outside looking in who’s good, who’s not, and that one bad experience can set you off down a pathway you’re you’re unwilling to work with the recruiter ever again.

Pete Newsome  19:54
Whether it’s on the client side or the candidate side, which is extremely limiting, to say the least, if you take that approach. It’s really tough to separate, and I can look, as I’m sure you can in the markets you’ve been, and you can go down the line and just separate almost in the two buckets.

Pete Newsome  20:12
And there are degrees of this, of course.

Adam Conrad  20:14
Right.

Pete Newsome  20:15
You know, those who do things the right way and those who don’t. And if you’re on the unlucky end of that choice, because you don’t know who to go to, you’re going to form that opinion, that’s probably not going to be easy to change over time.

Adam Conrad  20:28
Right.

Pete Newsome  20:29
And that’s a really big void. So you saw that you saw that as a need. It’s clear anyone in the staffing industry would agree with you on that. But then you decided to do something about it.

Adam Conrad  20:42
I did I mean if you consider our consumer mindset, and our consumer behavior, reviews are everything. We make decisions where we eat, where we go, your Uber driver has a review on them. I mean, all of this, we are in this reviews economy.

Adam Conrad  20:58
And why is it so powerful is because as human beings, we want to know what other human beings think about something. But there wasn’t a vehicle to make that really easy. And so, you know, the first part is, helping you to collect that real time feedback from candidates on your recruiters, from customers on your clients, from the placements on where they’re working.

Adam Conrad  21:18
But the other piece of it is how we help you from a digital perspective, get that out there. You could be the greatest thing since sliced bread. But if it’s inside your own walls, and you don’t have an easy way to get that out there in a way that consumers or job seekers are ingesting and making decisions.

Adam Conrad  21:35
Really, that’s where great recruiters helps is to help you get that, good word out there and all the great work that you’re doing down to the recruiter level.

Pete Newsome  21:43
Earlier today I looked up, we’re going to Montana next week. We’ve been many times there’s not a lot of snow on the ground right now. So we’re looking at other options. And one of those is to go. Oh my gosh, I’m totally blank. Snowmobiling, not snowboarding, snowmobiling.

Adam Conrad  22:03
Yeah?

Pete Newsome  22:05
I immediately went to look at the reviews of the companies out there because I didn’t want to hear just from them. Of course, on their website, they’re going to tell you that they’re, wonderful.

Adam Conrad  22:14
Just like your website and every other staffing firms website.

Pete Newsome  22:18
Of course!

Adam Conrad  22:19
Tell people are great we are. Why wouldn’t you?

Pete Newsome  22:21
Well, right, no one’s doing that. But I wanted to hear from others, because that is so much more relevant and impactful to me as a consumer and in our recruiting space.

Pete Newsome  22:35
You’re 100% correct. That’s hard to come by, because everyone on LinkedIn is going to portray themselves as really good at what they do. But we know that’s not the case.

Pete Newsome  22:43
So you saw that you decided to fill that gap. So talk about what Great Recruiters if you could, from what it does for the individual recruiters themselves if you wouldn’t mind.

Adam Conrad  22:54
Yeah, definitely. I mean, essentially, what we’re doing is enabling recruiters and staffing firms to be proactive on that feedback. I mean, we look at those other review sites that are out there, they don’t represent our industry. It’s what it’s like to work inside an organization not work with a staffing firm.

Adam Conrad  23:11
And so your experience starts with the behaviors that your individuals are driving, and that’s your recruiters. They’re your biggest marketing channel. They’re talking to more people about your organization than any other marketing, right? I mean, they’re just talking to candidates every day.

Adam Conrad  23:26
And you only place a small percentage of those candidates, but you leave an impression with 100% of them. And my belief is that although you can’t control the outcome of the job and the placement, you can certainly control the behavior that you have and the experience you create.

Adam Conrad  23:40
And so with Great Recruiters, we enable those recruiters and staffing firms to collect real time feedback from the people that they’re working with. Help you be able to take action on that, like you said, if you have a bad experience, sometimes it happens. We’re not perfect, nothing in this world is perfect.

Adam Conrad  23:58
But if you don’t know you created a poor experience for somebody, you have no opportunity to resolve it. And so we help you to resolve it. And then we help you to be able to measure it, measure your team, gamify it. Everyone has their submittals interviews, placements, everybody has their metrics. We’re like any staffing firm has those in place today.

Adam Conrad  24:16
What we’re measuring is what’s the leaderboard looks like from an experience standpoint, because that’s your brand. You know, as a business owner, you want to make sure that people representing your company are driving your great brand. And we also want to help those recruiters be able to promote those reviews.

Adam Conrad  24:31
So through Great Recruiters, we have the capture, act on measure and promote real time feedback from your candidates, your clients on your sales team on your recruiters. There’s a bunch more that we’re doing as well.

Adam Conrad  24:42
Around processes and getting feedback from your place talent on your end clients and getting feedback from the end clients in a place talent but all of it is about creating real time feedback and transparency of the experience that’s being created.

Pete Newsome  24:58
Everyone talks about surveys and the value you gain from that. And when we’ve participated in those over the years, either internally or externally. It’s very time consuming to set up, it can be cumbersome to deal with the feedback and to know how to disseminate it.

Pete Newsome  25:18
It’s just not an easy process, although the impact of getting that direct feedback is extremely powerful. So on those times, we’ve done it. The takeaway is great, there’s no question about it.

Adam Conrad  25:33
Yeah.

Pete Newsome  25:34
But a lot of time can go by before you do it again because it is time consuming, it’s not easy. And what it sounds like you’ve done is make that easy, among other things. But that’s what we all know is necessary and important.

Pete Newsome  25:51
You’ve given the recruiting industry a path, to not let the grass grow in between the time but ended and to get the real time feedback, which is much better than doing it every six months or a year or longer right? So not a good way to look at it Great Recruiters and what it offers.

Adam Conrad  26:08
Yeah, I think it’s, it’s real time feedback. I mean, look, you don’t want to wait until the end of the year to find out somebody had a bad experience in March. You want to know in March, the day after two days after that somebody had a bad experience that you can take action on. So surveys are great to collect big information pieces and see trends and all of that.

Adam Conrad  26:25
But as it relates to experience management, that is not the vehicle that I would want to take even every six months or every 90 days, you’re leaving a lot of time out there for things to fester. The other thing is, is when you’re getting real time feedback, people want a voice.

Adam Conrad  26:41
Why are there so many negative reviews about recruiters out there about staffing firms? It’s because there hasn’t been a simple vehicle, a meaningful vehicle for them to take control of that. And that’s exactly what we’ve created.

Adam Conrad  26:52
So, you know, we’re going to reduce those negative online reviews because as a human being, we’re 90% more apt to provide a negative review online than we are positive.

Adam Conrad  27:03
And why is that? We want to get something off our chest, something’s bugging us, and we need to get it off our chest. And if you don’t ask me, then I’m going to find a way for me to vent. And that’s not what anybody wants, right? I want to make sure that information is coming internally, so we can resolve those issues before they become problems.

Adam Conrad  27:20
But also, if you’re not asking, you’re missing out on a ton of positive, you talked about the recruiter earlier, getting gratification out of what they do. You know, when I manage recruiters, I do the same thing as a lot of managers. So you got a placement, you got to add a boy and a girl. What’s next? What’s the next placement?

Adam Conrad  27:40
What we hear from recruiters are there more empowered, they feel better about their jobs, they feel better about their companies because they’re getting real time reviews from the people that they’re trying to help. When I read reviews of like, “Hey, Pete, I know you didn’t place me but the experience you created for me was outstanding. You’re the best recruiter I’ve ever worked with.”

Adam Conrad  28:02
When you get that feedback, as a recruiter, you kind of lift up a little bit, you know, you’re going to pick up that phone again.

Adam Conrad  28:09
And that’s what some clients have called it is like a recruiter empowerment platform. Because we’re helping to get that real time feedback that they’re just not getting from their internal management, because it’s impossible, you can’t be on every call.

Pete Newsome  28:23
And you don’t know you said it perfectly, you don’t know unless you ask. And you need a mechanism by which to do that. And I don’t think it’s feasible to do that over the phone. Because people aren’t going to be as open as they can in writing.

Pete Newsome  28:40
The online reviews that you mentioned, I think are just awful as a business owner, there’s no win. Because if you get, as you said, the vast majority of the folks you interact with who are happy aren’t going to go out of their way to do that. And you feel a little silly asking them to do that as well.

Pete Newsome  29:02
It seems self serving, and then you get the negative ones. There’s no upside to arguing with someone online because it’s just not going to come across well, we know that too. So it’s a very vulnerable place to be because I want the feedback.

Pete Newsome  29:19
But that’s not how I want it because I can’t really do anything about it. Not to mention, it’s anonymous, which I can’t hit a target that I can’t see that’s for sure. When you ask someone individually to give their feedback in writing to make it quick and easy for them, It’s really powerful.

Pete Newsome  29:39
I get excited thinking about what you’re saying because I know how useful it is because no one wants to do a bad job. No one intends to create a poor customer experience. I’ll just tell you a quick story that I had.

Pete Newsome  29:54
One of the surveys that we did, through clearly rated which 4 Corner Resources participates in every year. Two years ago, a client who I’ve done business with across two companies, for almost a decade now gave us the lowest review we’ve ever had numbers.

Pete Newsome  30:15
And she was upset about something. I had no idea, It wasn’t a huge deal. But it was something that bothered her. And that was her outlet to communicate it to us, I would have preferred it to be not done in that manner, which affected our score.

Pete Newsome  30:34
So I called her right away, we had the conversation, and we were able to take what was otherwise going to be a bad situation, had we not asked into a good one, and we’re better for it. And so if you only do that once a year, in admittedly, that’s what us and a lot of other companies typically will do.

Pete Newsome  30:55
Well, I let that year linger. And you may not ever get that feedback. And that’s awful, no one wants that.

Adam Conrad  31:03
Yeah, I’m not going to take anything away asking for feedback is number one. So if you’re not doing it all, and you ask it a year, at least, that’s better than not asking at all.

Adam Conrad  31:12
I think that, you know, if you’re going to ask for feedback, if you just want a positive story, then ask everybody, you successfully placed that on their first day how happy they are, and ask them to give you a rating, right?

Adam Conrad  31:25
I mean, there you go, we all feel good. Look at how awesome we are, as a company, we’re doing awesome, except you’re only looking at about maybe two to 5% of the real picture, you haven’t given them a chance to be on there.

Adam Conrad  31:36
So you know, if you’re going to really, truly open yourself up for you know, improving the quality of your services, really opening yourself up to wanting to truly do what everybody says on their website, then you can’t be selective. You can’t cherry pick who you’re going to ask you can’t edit your list.

Adam Conrad  31:54
And I’m not going to ask that person because they know they had a bad experience. Like, you’ve got to be out there and say, “We’re going to ask everybody that we submitted, we’re going to ask everybody that we pre screened, or we’re going to ask everybody that interviewed a client.”

Adam Conrad  32:07
Let me tell you she was chapped.

Adam Conrad  32:07
Whatever that is, you can’t cherry pick because you’re missing out on insightful information that you might not know really exists. Like you said in that case, how long did that issue fester? Who did she tell? You know, we like to share bad news, right? We like to share.

Adam Conrad  32:29
Well, hey.

Pete Newsome  32:31
So thank goodness, we were able to make that call. Incidentally, this is our business with them has increased since then, we were better not for the bad experience, but for addressing it and fixing it. And what you’re offering the market is something that I think is such an important void, too, otherwise would be a void out there.

Pete Newsome  32:58
Which is all of the candidates we don’t place, which is, as you’ve said, the vast majority. When we train our recruiters, it’s a hard message at times. But for folks who are new to the industry is, assume every person you call is going to be the candidate you place.

Pete Newsome  33:17
But also know that they’re not right like you, pick up that call. So there’s only one person is going to get the job if there’s one opening. So if you speak with 100 candidates, that means 99 are not going to end up there. But what is going to be the lasting impression from that conversation?

Pete Newsome  33:38
That’s what matters, because you’ve taken the time to call them, you’ve taken the time to engage, and if you’re doing it right, you’ve taken the time to find out what they want.

Pete Newsome  33:47
If we’re really doing our job well, as a recruiter, as a recruiter, you’re going to rule out most of the candidates you speak with, right? That’s the goal because you’re trying to find the perfect one who’s going to get hired.

Pete Newsome  33:59
But the bigger picture goal, I think is to figure out when to call that person next. Where you can place them if it’s not right for that job. And we don’t spend a whole lot of time and thought on that, generally.

Adam Conrad  34:13
We don’t, but that’s where I say so I was an early adopter I was one of the first customers of both scents in here fish. And it’s been amazing to see the path that both of those companies have taken, and both are very successful.

Adam Conrad  34:24
But what I loved about it was helping to use technology to automate some of those interactions. We use it as nurturing, you talk to those 99 candidates, how many are doing relationship calls, and maybe out of the 99, there are 20 that are great. But that number as your career goes on gets bigger and bigger and bigger. How do you manage that?

Adam Conrad  34:46
That’s where I think technology is really helping to foster the relationships not automate the entire process, but make that experience better, so they’re top of mind.

Adam Conrad  34:56
You know from a Great Recruiters perspective, as we have integrations with some ATS out there, we’re writing that data back. Then you’re using an engagement platform to help by individual nurture, right?

Adam Conrad  35:13
I want to find the top dotnet developers, well, what pool should I get? Should I go fishing?

Adam Conrad  35:18
Well, let’s start with the people who have already had a great experience with me, said they had a great experience. And let me go tap into that network first before I start, you know, going out to the ocean. And that’s really where I think the power of it also exists. Because you’re getting perspective from everyone that’s interacted with your brand.

Pete Newsome  35:39
Everyone who runs a staffing organization, every business owner, director manager craves that kind of information and feedback, and you said it so well earlier. Yes, of course, the person you place is going to be happy, the client is going to be happy with that outcome, we’re all happy, and It’s great.

Adam Conrad  35:57
Yeah.

Pete Newsome  35:58
But what about everything that didn’t end up that way? Because that’s your future, right? It’s great, to know about your present. But the future is really what we should be focusing on. So that data and feedback and, of course, having it in real time makes it infinitely better, it’s just a beautiful thing. So I think, what you’re offering is very much needed.

Adam Conrad  36:22
Yeah, I think then at the end of the year, go send out the survey and go earn that award. I mean, that’s what you want is you want to be recognized and have that award as well. So I don’t think it’s, for some, it’s a one or the other or for others, it’s both are extremely valuable.

Adam Conrad  36:39
You know, when you’re doing the end of year type survey, it’s a lot more detailed, it’s a lot more involved, which is awesome. What we want to do is get quick review type feedback, quick information, be able to let you take action, put a spotlight on areas where you might need some improvement, so you can correct these things in real time.

Adam Conrad  36:58
I think that’s really the big value and then giving your recruiters you know, every recruiter has a public profile. So imagine every candidate being called by so many recruiters out there, how do you cut through the noise? How do you cut through the noise of I haven’t heard of your organization?

Adam Conrad  37:14
Well, as recruiters are sharing these profiles, the challenge is finding the talent, the talents out there, the challenge is getting talent to want to call you back. And so part of the reason is, I don’t know who you are, and I don’t know if I should trust you.

Adam Conrad  37:28
So when you can share with them, say, “Hey, look, Pete, you and I haven’t worked together. But I’ve helped a lot of folks like you in the industry. In fact, don’t take my word for it, check out what people think about work with me, all I’m asking for is an opportunity for a conversation, because I may be able to help you out.”

Adam Conrad  37:43
When you see that and somebody has a 4.8 rating, and they have 100 plus reviews. And they’re reading things from two days ago that another candidate with the same type of job title read, like, you’re going to increase your callbacks, and you’re going to increase trust, and you’re increasing trust in this digital world because you’re creating that transparency in a way that the consumer ingests information.

Pete Newsome  38:05
So let me ask you a little bit about that. And I’m watching the time because I know you have a hard stop.

Adam Conrad  38:10
All good.

Pete Newsome  38:11
I don’t want to get past it, I want to make sure we talk about what we have as an organization and many others like us, we have these great plans at times. And we say we’re going in this call, I’m going to say “This is an absolute no brainer. Of course, we want this data, of course, we should be doing this.”

Pete Newsome  38:30
But then we have to execute it. So tell us how easy or difficult that is to make sure this actually happens. Because everyone’s gonna say, yep, makes sense. Well, how do we actually do it? How do we facilitate it?

Adam Conrad  38:45
Yeah, no, I mean, it’s because I’ve been involved with implementing a lot of technology myself, I know, there’s a lot of heavy lifting, there’s a lot of work. And we always go back to simple and so my main pillar, when I look at our product, it has to be simple, it has to be meaningful. So we get our clients up and running within 48 hours, It’s a turn key operation.

Adam Conrad  39:06
So once we have your teams loaded up, the review is already set, there are certain things that you can continue to customize and configure. But as far as setting it up, if you said, “We’re ready to go, we could have reviews getting sent out on Monday, and you can start getting feedback.”

Adam Conrad  39:25
It was made to be that simple, we didn’t want huge barriers for entry, and you can’t create work for your recruiters, your team, everybody’s too busy. And so we’ve done everything we can to make this as turn key as possible, to make it simple.

Adam Conrad  39:40
I had a very seasoned individual who is self proclaimed not to be tech savvy. We gave him his admin login and two days later, we had our training and he had already gone in and set most of this stuff up. He’s like “Adam, this is amazing. If I can do it, anybody can.”

Adam Conrad  39:59
So that’s just the core of our product, it just works. We want you focused on the feedback, we want you focused on being able to share and promote that information, we want you to focus on calling back the referrals that you get through that review process. We want you focused on the important stuff, not having to do a lot of heavy lifting to get the feedback itself.

Pete Newsome  40:22
I knew that from my own experience of hearing your talk and understanding the product. It’s automated and easy to use, which for a staffing company doesn’t have a lot of overlay staff generally, to manage those things. You’re making it as simple as possible for us to use.

Adam Conrad  40:40
Yeah, I mean, it’s like a gym membership. Just like anything, you can’t buy a gym membership and expect results. You got to go to the gym, you have to participate, you have to know. We’ve made it really easy to walk in there with your membership and start working out, that’s the deal.

Pete Newsome  40:55
Perfect. So the new year’s resolution go to the gym, we need to do that.

Pete Newsome  41:01
Last thing, because again, I don’t keep you on for an hour and you don’t have it. So I may have to get you back to talk in more depth.

Adam Conrad  41:07
Sure.

Pete Newsome  41:08
Mention if you can, how the individual recruiters who need to build their own brand in this day and age, that is a big thing. Social media, LinkedIn in particular, how can individual recruiters benefit from this as well?

Pete Newsome  41:23
I agree with you 100%, that, while 4 corner Resource by my company brand is one thing. It’s the individuals who matter and the peep the individual recruiters the name is almost meaningless, right? But I want my recruiters to stand alone. So people want to work with them and refer others to them.

Adam Conrad  41:45
People work with people, people follow people, as I’m a recruiter, candidates are coming with me. I mean, that’s where the experience is. That’s where the relationship is. And so for me for a recruiter, you know, you’re competing, number one, you’re competing with an industry reputation.

Adam Conrad  42:00
So how do you make sure that you know, you’re standing out from the crowd that creams rise in the top that you’re collecting that information to show people? This is great for new recruiters as well because new recruiters that don’t have a lot of experience don’t have a lot to tap into. But if they can at least commit to creating good experiences and a great experience for those that they’re working with, and start creating that digital kind of brand.

Adam Conrad  42:23
That’s really helpful as you’re leading in and talking to people. So I love what you said, I mean, people want to like your brand, I see the reviews, you have great reviews and everything. But like, who do I talk to? When you can reach out and say, “I’m Pete, here’s, here’s what people think about working with me. You can see people love working with our company.”

Adam Conrad  42:45
We just want to create that transparency and that trust. So recruiters benefit from this one by getting the kudos that they’re not getting internally, they’re just not they’re not getting as often. And it’s a tough business, not to have people acknowledge the great work that they’re doing

Adam Conrad  43:00
Two, It’s helping them to get better. I hear from recruiters all the time, like, I didn’t know I was doing this, but I started seeing a theme. So I’m being able to take course correction. It didn’t take a manager, it didn’t take training, it took an individual just to have that insight that they can make that course correction on the fly.

Adam Conrad  43:18
It’s helping them to build that digital reputation. And then ultimately, people refer people to those that they trust. And so our review process, if it’s positive, we say “Who else can we help?” And so we get about 13 to 15% of the reviews that come back, have an additional referral.

Adam Conrad  43:35
And we know referrals are key lifeblood for recruiter success. So those are all the ways that we’re helping the individual recruiters and all of that obviously rolls up easily for the organization, to have very good insight into how their team’s performing and how they’re driving the brand out there.

Pete Newsome  43:52
What you’re bringing to the industry is much needed. And it’s making us all better, and it will make good experiences better. So I’m really excited to see where you go because I know it’s gonna be great and I’m a big fan.

Pete Newsome  44:05
If someone wants to hear more, because we’re going to cut off pretty quickly here. What can they do? Is there a demo available?

Adam Conrad  44:14

Certainly, I mean, you can visit our website, we have online resources that you can gather a little bit more information. You can feel free to reach out to me directly, at adam@greatrecruiters.com.

Adam Conrad  44:25
You could submit a demo request or you could submit a request for a video demo on the website. But those are the best ways or connect with me on LinkedIn. You know AdamConrad@greatrecruiters just connect with me. I’m happy to share you know if you want to just talk industry stuff, I’m happy to do that as well. I love what we’re doing. So lots of easy ways to connect with us.

Pete Newsome  44:47
Perfect and we’ll have all of Adam’s contact information and Great Recruiter’s contact info in the show notes, so we’ll do that as well. Adam, thank you so much. I’m watching the clock.

Adam Conrad  45:00
It’s all good man. I got a few minutes late. It’s no big deal. This has been a great conversation and I’ve definitely enjoyed talking to you about this.

Pete Newsome  45:08
Yeah, thank you so much. And if you have any feedback for me at hirecalling@4cornerresources.com, always looking forward to hearing new ideas and suggestions. So thank you for listening. Adam, happy holidays and happy New Year. Thank you so much, and I look forward to talking again very soon.

Adam Conrad  45:23
Thanks, Pete same to you, take care.