You Have to Win over Your Employees. Even If They Don’t Work for You.

You Have to Win over Your Employees. Even If They Don’t Work for You. Episode 040 SuperPumped Business.

Ben Walters: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me today on the SuperPumped Podcast. I am excited that you are here. We are trying a little bit of a different format today. So we continue our series on winning the turnover battle, and if you can do that, you are going to unlock profits, you are going to make your company so much more viable, so much more fun for you, for your employees, for everybody involved, even your customers.

Ben Walters: these past few weeks we've been working on talking about how do you recruit people and all the costs associated with recruiting great employees. And there is a lot that goes into that. If you look at the dollar signs, that's the biggest driver of costs. But where I see a lot of companies fumble the ball is as they get near the end of what they would call the recruiting process, they stop wooing the people they want to get on board. And one of the things that I see a lot is while [00:01:00] you decide that this person is the person you wanna hire as a company, right? And so you're kind of at the end of this recruiting road for that applicant. They may be in the middle of their job search or their employment search or maybe even at the beginning.

Ben Walters: And so while you've found the one, they're sifting through many other potential suitors, and that's where I see a lot of companies mess this up is. They think that somehow because they've picked that employee, the employee has actually picked them. And when you're in this middle part between recruiting and onboarding, until you actually get them on board, you haven't done anything. So I see a lot of fumbling in this arrow right here between recruiting and onboarding. And so today I wanna talk about that.

Ben Walters: Last week I talked about how in dating you continue to put your best foot forward. You don't just assume that the person is gonna love you forever because you had a couple of good inquiry dates, right? That's not, that's silly. So [00:02:00] it's the same thing in this recruiting process. You want to continue to woo that person. Maya Angelou, brilliant, brilliant woman, talks about how people will never forget how you make them feel. And in the business context, how you make your employees feel and how you make your applicants feel is how they are gonna feel about your business.

Ben Walters: So, in other words, if they feel positive and good vibes and excited about your business, your application process. They're gonna feel good about your company versus all the other companies that are out there throwing recruiting pitches, and signing bonuses, and promising the moon, that kind of thing. How do we make people feel good?

Ben Walters: I've thought a lot about this, and I actually have something that doesn't cost you anything that's very simple. That's not only gonna make them feel good, [00:03:00] it's also gonna make you feel good in the process. If you are trying to recruit people, tell them when you get to the point of making an offer, okay?

Ben Walters: You found that Sally is the candidate you want, first and foremost, Sally's at the top of your job board, right? And you call Sally and you say, Hey, Sally, it's, it's Ben at SuperPumped Consulting and we would really like you to come on board, our team..

Ben Walters: At that point, Sally's still trying to sift through you versus everybody else. This is the step I want you to take. I want you, before that call, to go through why you picked Sally, because you had your reasons, right? Maybe Sally did a tremendous job at another company and spearheaded a project that you think is something you would like to see, or maybe you have a, a new innovation ,or a new kind of business wing, or, you know, business unit you're launching. And you know, Sally has [00:04:00] done that before, right? So that's the reason you chose Sally. So let Sally in on that exact thing. I would call that praising, kind of telling Sally why she's awesome, Sally.

Ben Walters: Here are three reasons why we picked you, the way you were able to launch that new product with X, Y, Z company that you either currently are at or were at. That is what we are looking for. That was magnificent. We are very impressed with you. Think how Sally feels right now, going back to this, how does Sally feel about your company when you say, boy, we really like that about you.

Ben Walters: Then you follow that up with a couple other things. We also like that you were with your current company for seven years. You weren't just hopping from job, to job, to job. We love that loyalty and we see a long-term future for you, Sally, here [00:05:00] in this company, in the same way that you were with x, y, Z company.

Ben Walters: If we can earn your trust, we would love to make this a long-term relationship with you too. So you're, you're putting out that second thing.

Ben Walters: Then another thing is if you've done your due diligence in this recruiting process, you have checked references. Don't just hire people without checking references. I know it's temptation to cut corners, right? Don't do that. Check the references 'cause you're gonna learn exactly what you need to know about Sally. And there's a whole thing. We'll, we'll do a, a different podcast series on on that aspect 'cause that's really drilling down. But man, is that important when you come out of those reference checks.

Ben Walters: Note things. Merle said, blank, blank, blank about Sally, or maybe one of the references said, oh, you have no idea how incredibly gritty Sally is. Sally was stuck on a mountainside for 31 days and managed to survive on berries and [00:06:00] fish she caught in the wild, or, or some story that wouldn't be on your, your resume or your cv. Right? And so you tell Sally, Wow, I talked to Merle, and Merle was sharing this story. That is incredible. You are an amazing person. Again, how are you making Sally feel? Sally is eating this up. Sally is loving it and it's genuine. These are genuinely the reasons you chose Sally, right?

Ben Walters: Can remember back in our, in our cleaning business, and we had a woman and she had applied and she had worked prior to going on, maternity leave and, and being a full-time mom. She had been the Dayton Daily News back in Dayton, Ohio, Carrier of the Year. In other words, she was delivering newspapers. And that really impressed our team because we thought to be the carrier of the year, you think about the mail we deliver, rain, snow, sleet, and shine. Well the newspaper's the same [00:07:00] thing, except you're getting up at two and three in the morning and you're having to assemble the papers. They don't tell you any of that, but there's a whole process to this. And then you've gotta go around and get 'em out, and it could be snowing, it could be miserable, you're tired, or maybe you had a function the night before, or something. So the fact that she was able to be the carrier of the year just blew us away.

Ben Walters: So when we went in and said, we would really like you to work for us. We were really impressed that you were Carrier of the Year. She was like, Oh, you noticed that? 'cause it was like buried at the bottom of her resume. We told her that, and we ended up getting her, and she was being heavily recruited by a number of companies and to think that a, a cleaning company, you would think that isn't maybe anyone's top choice to work. Right? But because we made her feel like we saw her, like we valued her, that was what helped get [00:08:00] her on our team.

Ben Walters: So before you get into all the logistics of that, when you find the right candidate, the first thing you wanna do is you want to double back to the reasons you want them on your team. You want to make them feel good. You want to validate them, affirm them, praise them for the work they've done for their body of work previously, and then you want to begin to, to say that those are the kinds of things that at your company at SuperPumped Consulting, or Service Master of the Queen City, or Salad Sage, or In n' Out Job, or On the Spot, or whatever that company is, that they have a home here. And that's how you start moving somebody from the recruiting process to actually onboard your team.

Ben Walters: A final caveat is this same thing, this finding things you love [00:09:00] and admire and respect about your people. Not only are you going to build this into your DNA in the recruiting process, I'm gonna talk next time about how you build this into your onboarding process. And finally, how you build that into your retention. And if you can continue this, over and over, lather, rinse, repeat, praise, affirm, woo, make them feel something, you will drive your turnover down. You will drive your retention up. And guess what? The profits will follow. 

Ben Walters: So thanks for joining me today. I hope you feel good about our time together, and I hope that feeling brings you back next time to the SuperPumped Business podcast.​

Ben Walters: Thanks for joining me today on the SuperPumped Business Podcast. If you enjoyed today's show, I have two quick next steps for you. First, subscribe or follow us on Apple [00:10:00] Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. And second, jump on over to superpumped.com to find out all the incredible ways we can help you launch your SuperPumped Business.

Ben Walters: Keep well and I'll see you next time.