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Valued Clients,

Well this would have gone out on time last Friday, but two jack-wagons felt like they needed to break into my car at lunch. So, I spent all Friday afternoon fixing a broken window instead of sending out a blog! Nothing was stolen so joke is on them, but it was a pain nonetheless! On the flip side, I did attend a wonderful wedding Saturday night where I got to rub elbows with the 1% of Houston on the dance floor. Ice, Ice Baby just really brings all the socioeconomic classes together.

So what is this month’s topic about? Dare to Be Bold: it is time to start taking some risks in the hiring process and deviating from the norm. Hopefully I am not coming off as “preachy”, but I just want to raise reasonable questions based on some of the observations I have made throughout the year.

One reason for this topic is that I had a wonderful conversation with my new top 5 favorite client, Wendy. Side note, if you think there is not a rankings system of favorite clients, you are kidding yourself. I enjoy working with all of you, but some appreciate my craziness more than others, so they get a bump. If you want that bump, responding to my day to day emails is always a good start!

Anyways, Wendy gave me hope that I have clients that are forward thinking and willing to be creative with the hiring process. She knows exactly what she wants from her candidates, and she was telling ME how she wants to find those people while utilizing eSkill. I was even getting good ideas on how to help the rest of you out when we sometimes do not have the content you need. The biggest takeaway though is she was willing to deviate from the perceived “norm” of hiring. Short background on Wendy: Tech related company. Very Smart. Will teach you something on every call.

She is only worried about one thing when deciding to hire someone; do they have some common sense, or emotional intelligence to use her words. If I went and told 90% of my clients “hey don’t worry about education, references, hard skills, soft skills, we just need to see if they have some common sense and no felonies” they would fall over dead. But she knows common sense is what separates performers from non performers, so that is her focus. Having a focus is very important because there are a lot of “tools” or “old school methodology” that will quickly clog up your hiring pipeline.

Wendy has kindly agreed to do a Q&A with me for November, so I will not take all of her thunder, but you will be doing yourself a disservice by not tuning into what she has to say.

The second reason for this topic is because time and time again, I constantly get a sense of hesitation to utilize other tools outside of skills testing. Aside from external forces like money, man-power, or job force, what is the hesitation? I have heard some of the craziest hiring processes and I just want to scream WHY. WHY are you doing this to yourself. Who said you need three phone interviews? Who anointed that Sales Manager as the supreme being at finding talent? One question I want everyone to consider: Do you know the benefit of every single sequence in your hiring process? “Benefit” will be defined differently by everyone, but if there is not a positive impact, then it needs to go.

So how are you going to be bold in 2020? How can you deviate from the “norm” and mold the hiring process to fit YOU and YOUR COMPANY? It could be as simple as removing one phone interview. What would your day to day look like if you could interview 100 people with one click of the button utilizing our Video capabilities? And just to be clear, I am not saying “hey come to eSkill and we can fix all of your problems in the hiring process.” Granted, we can fix most Heck, maybe doing away with skills testing improves your hiring process. Now THAT would be bold, and I might get fired for suggesting, but at least you are looking to maximize efficiency. And if that works for YOU, then I cannot be upset.

I am just a firm believer that there are always multiple ways to reach an end goal, and I would like everyone to start exploring those different paths instead of staying on the path of least resistance.

And if anyone knows a thing about being bold, you are listening to him right now. Sending out emails and “checking in” was not providing a benefit to my clients…so I stopped and did a blog. Sending a long list of questions to clients and asking them to do a Case Study was not successful…so I donated a gift basket for my clients Christmas party in exchange. Might be 2019, but bartering is still a thing, at least in my book. Which, that is a standing offer. Give me a little bit of your time, I will send you a gift basket. Not just any gift basket either, a personalized gift basket from the premier gift basket company in Houston. Gluten-Free? I got you covered. Need alcohol to get you through the winter? Say no more (except that might be a liability on eSkill, I will check before promising). Also, as a reminder, I am from Waco, and we may or may not have made a special “Waco Edition” basket for a client recently…

So class, the lesson today is do not be afraid to reassess. Yes, it’s a pain. Yes, it requires time commitment. And Yes, it might need lots of convincing for decision makers. But are you totally convinced that what you are doing now is the “right way”???

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