Transcript – Episode 004 – Recruiting is like Fishing

Episode 004
Recruiting is like fishing…

Obviously, recruiting is like fishing. But as any experienced fisher will tell you, fishing is more than having attractive bait. Sure, you can get lucky sometimes with just a worm, a stick, some string, and a bent safety pin. But with great tools at your disposal, why wouldn’t you use them? Could you create your own farm? When do you need a farmed fish compared to a wild caught fish?

Hi, I’m Daava Mills, the Rebellious Recruiter. I’ve been in the trenches of finding people for 20 years. I’ve recruited with an almost unlimited budget, and I’ve recruited on a shoestring. Today we are talking about the tools you need to recruit effectively.

Let’s chat.

(Intro Music)

Years ago I was hiking in White Salmon, Washington along a river, and came upon something I’ve never seen before, or since. A man-made pond full of catfish. Some smart catfish loving guy or gal caught a couple, maybe they bred them, or they caught a lot and stored them. The end result was a semi-private pond with fresh flowing water, underneath some shade. The person who did this probably had a hankering for fresh breaded, seasoned, and fried catfish. They probably even sold them to local restaurants. But whomever it was, they were smart. They created an environment where the catfish stayed, thrived, and were ready whenever.

I was reflecting on this recently, and I wondered why can’t recruiting be like that?

Let’s look at the fundamentals, it’s pretty simple.

·      One – what type of fish do you need?

·      Two – what type of environment do you find them in?

·      Three – what proven tools are out there to catch them?

·      Four – if you need them later, rather than sooner, what type of environment do you put them in so they are thriving and ready for you when you are ready for them?

And for a glossary for this episode:

·      Chum – Networking and employment page
·      Bait – Job Ad
·      Line – The interview
·      Rod – The structure to your interview
·      Reel – The continued steps in the process
·      Farm – List of qualified people
·      Fish food – Ongoing communication
·      Hatchery – Your training ground

Let’s start with something that I’ve found to be easier to recruit for.

The administrative professional.

Receptionists and Office Managers, and similar administrative positions are the ones I typically have gotten overwhelmed with resumes. They’re like the Sunnies of recruiting. Sunnies are notoriously easy to catch, if you know where they hang out. 

But you can also catch a lot of what you don’t want, just because they’re in the same area. The sorting through the catch is the hard part of this. But it’s also a great way to build your own private farm of whatever you accidentally catch.

Be sure to sort your catch into categories. And have someone, anyone, send out emails slash fish food, to let the person know how grateful you are that they applied, and what other positions are open. Invite them to apply for other positions, because you now have them in your farm. 

Side note: Why do people apply for positions when they are clearly not qualified? Because they are trying to get your attention. Your bait looks good, your environment, or farm, feels right.

What about those resumes that are a mess? You know, the crappies (get it?) I’ll be talking about what to do with crappy resumes in a future podcast. But the short version is, feel free to email people with interesting backgrounds that don’t fit the current position. A personal email to them will speak volumes, and most will happily be farmed into something for the future. 

Again, once you’ve sorted the results, you can delegate out regularly occurring communication to another team member for the easier to fill positions. Just double check their work before they hit send.

Okay, trout. I consider these like sales people. Some are harder to fish for than others, there’s lots of varieties, lots of ways to fish, classic rod and reel, fly fishing, you get the picture. Many types of trout are known for hanging out next to rocks (doing their day to day), and they bite on things that are shiny (because, well, sales people are often, always looking).

So have a shiny ad. Tell them what they can expect in terms of wage, give the average wage (if you want) in the ad. Make the environment fun. Some will get a taste of the environment and shake off the line. Tell them exactly what they will be doing. 

Part of keeping this person “hooked” is the ability to point them to your website, where you should have tons of information on the company. Bring them in for job shadows so they’ll get excited. Now, good sales people often aren’t very detail oriented, so you’ll need to guide them, and tell them where to hang out. This is important, because remember they are looking at other shiny objects. You need to keep dropping shiny objects in front of them to keep them interested.

If you need more of a brown trout, you’ll need to put more lures out in more fishing holes, aka more ads on more sites. Brown trout are harder to find, they stick to what they know, and as they get bigger, are harder to find. So as the sales person gets more experience, they will become less likely to bite at just anything, because they know how good they have it where they are. In my opinion, you should identify the qualities of a brown trout and find a baby one and farm it. Just consider yourself lucky when you get a big one.

Let’s talk about what I consider to be my personal purple squirrel of recruiting. The Cost Accountant, with a CPA. We’re going to liken this type of talent to that of a monster catfish. 

Monster catfish hang out deep in murky waters. You put a little raw chicken liver or hot dog on your line, drop it in, and wait. Hopefully, you’ve picked the right fishing hole, it’s hard to tell sometimes. You need to make sure you have the right kind of fishing pole, the right thickness of fishing line. When it bites, you use a ton of muscle and a strong reel to pull that baby up. Although, chicken liver is pretty enticing, you might pull up a bass or something, don’t get upset, that’s part of fishing, sometimes you catch something else. 

So why are accountants, and cost accountants with CPA’s so hard to find? First, let’s look at the skills required for an accountant to be of merit. The first skill is they are protecting assets, so they are risk adverse, hence the murky waters. They aren’t hanging around in the sun waiting for a net to pick them up and take them home, so they typically aren’t seeking out new opportunities directly. They’ve conditioned themselves to lay low, meaning they need to be sought out. This helps them avoid personal risk. 

Many times monster catfish are caught by trained fisherman (aka, third party recruiters). These business people revel going into murky waters, feeling around, and grabbing one by force. Personally, it seems quite violent to me, but when going after this type of candidate, I’ve learned I’ve learned it’s okay to be more aggressive than not. They’ve spent years on this particular type of candidate, they know the haunts, they know the rumored haunts. This is what they are paid to do. 

But not everyone has the money to hire a third-party recruiter.

Another way that these types of candidates look for work, is they’ll contact small CPA firms in the area. Call your firm, ask if anyone has inquired if they know of a great company looking. Your CPA firm is a great intermediary, as they will give realistic information to a job seeker. The best CFO I’ve ever worked with, came to us through this method. 

What if you need to find one yourself? What tools do you need? It can be simple to get ones attention. Many states have lists of email addresses of CPA’s you can purchase, so you can cold email them with information. But catching it means your tools need to be in place. This type of risk adverse candidate sizes up what they are applying to, so give them the tools in the email to size you up, links to industry articles, your glass door reviews, or local business awards. If you do this, consider having your CEO/COO or CFO write the email from the standpoint of how they will interact with this person. Having a C-Suite person or owner write the email, speaks volumes.

If they are interested, they’ll start reading the information you provide, or they’ll shoot back a questions or two. If they like what they hear, they’ll spider out. They’ll read Glassdoor and Kununu reviews. They may check out your leaders on LinkedIn. Remember, they are avoiding personal risk. And the benefit to you is, if you hire this person, they will help you avoid risk too. They will help you the information you need to know when a risky move is worth is, and when it’s not. And generally speaking, they are loyal. You will be their new murky waters to hang out in. 

Obviously, these methods work for more than accountants. Whenever you have a position where you require a risk adverse person, think of them like a catfish. You need a catfish strategy. 

·      One: make the information readily available beyond posting a job ad

·      Two: have patience

·      Three: Answer any and all questions, unless an NDA is required

Now there is a lot of rod and reel analogies that I could go into, we could talk about strategies to catch trout hiding behind rocks near rapids, and I’ll let you fill in the blank on what your openings consist of. 

Just remember what I spoke about at the start of the podcast:

One – what type of fish do you need?

–       easy to catch
–       requires some skill to attract the right person
–       requires some cunning and experience and patience

Two – what type of environment do you find them in?

–       Do you need to post on craigslist or call a professional office for leads
–       Each of these requires a different strategy, or a combo strategy
–       Employ what works for the position

 Three – what proven tools are out there to catch them?

–       No matter what you need information on your website. Another upcoming podcast will teach you how to build out your website beyond a simple employment page, but for now, have something people can easily find and read
–       And no matter what, you need to be chumming the water through networking events and free job fairs, you need to take advantage of telling everyone about how great you are
–       Be aware of your web presence on employer ranking sites, and be engaged on the comments
–       Be prepared to engage, answer questions, and don’t consider questions out of bounds or off limits (unless an NDA is required)

Four – if you need them later, rather than sooner, what type of environment do you put them in so they are thriving and ready for you when you are ready for them?

–       Consider delegating passive communication for not yet qualified candidates. 
–       Be sure to delegate to person who is enthusiastic about your company, and doesn’t mind routine tasks.
–       Double check your delegate’s work to ensure they understand 100% of qualification nuances. I can’t stress that enough. 

This information should get you started on identifying candidates in a new way. And help you know what to expect. If you want more information, I am just a message away, and I am glad to help. 

As always, I’ll be bringing you new information weekly. Be sure to subscribe wherever you are listening to this. Feel free to comment, rate, and review what you hear. Share this podcast with other leaders that may be building “out of this world teams.” You can email me with your thoughts or questions. I may use your subject matter in upcoming shows. 

It’s great to meet you and thank you for listening. I know you only have so many hours in the week, and I am grateful to spend this time with you. Until then, make it a great day! See you on the flip side.