Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Sam.
[00:00:30] Speaker B: Welcome to Balancing Acts, the show where we explore the strategies, challenges and breakthroughs that help business owners build profitable, resilient companies.
I'm Linda Hamilton, a CPA certified exit planning advisor and certified systemologist. A business isn't just about hard work. It's also about strategies for managed growth and profitability and building a business for the long term that supports your life, not the other way around.
And today we're joined by Kim diamond of K Diamond Consulting, and we're going to talk about the right hiring strategies and what approach you can use to build a business that you know, you're not thinking about just hiring as a seat filler. But the right recruitment strategy can really help you grow. And with that managed growth we just talked about.
Hi, Kim, and welcome.
[00:01:22] Speaker A: Thank you. Thanks, Linda. I appreciate it. Looking forward to our conversation today.
[00:01:27] Speaker B: So when you talked about when hiring isn't just about filling a role, which really most business owners seem to do right with their first few hires, at least that it's more about building a strong team. Can you elaborate on that and why it's important?
[00:01:43] Speaker A: Sure.
Oftentimes people just, it's more reactionary. I think that it's very important to adjust and prepare accordingly so you're not having to just fill a seat. And it does depend on the situation, of course, but I think that owners need to focus, shift their mindset to quality over quantity. Okay. So when you look for candidates, you want people who will contribute to your organization. You want people with passion and innovation.
Those types of people will collaborate better. They will integrate into your culture generally better creates more cohesive environment. It's just better engagement all around. So when you look at it from that perspective, you're not rushing that. You're not just filling the seat. Right. You're, you're really vetting for that quality.
And I think that if, if people think about that as they're putting together their recruiting practices, that they, they want to put that in the forefront so that way they aren't just filling seat.
So, you know. Yes, absolutely. There's plenty of aspects that we can keep going through on that one. You know, these things also help reduce turnover.
Those are very costly to organizations. It's very costly to continue to hire individuals and have gaps in your, in your openings.
So. Yes, absolutely. That's one of the things. There are several others that we can discuss. The talent development initiatives are a very key component to have in your program if you want individuals to grow and to be attracted to your organization. So, you know, we can keep going on that.
[00:03:17] Speaker B: And we're definitely going to unpack a lot of this. I will say, you know, often when people write roles, right job positions, they're not quite sure what that, you know, what that position should even look like. But when I often work with business owners in my accounting practice and I do a lot of teaching on using a one page business plan to really to grow a profitable business. Because so many gurus and consultants out there are talking about grow, grow, grow and the top line. But we're not talking about profitability and we're not talking about all the things that could go wrong. As you just said how expensive it is when people leave. So how can you use a strategic approach, let's say that it fuels growth in your business and helps impact your bottom line.
[00:04:06] Speaker A: Well, initially you want to put together a plan. You want to look at the strategy of the organization and how this, these activities, this talent acquisition activity aligns with that.
Because if you don't, then you will just flounder or you will always be in a reactionary mode. So you have to build out that strategy. You want to outline what that looks like from, like I said, from a growth perspective. Involve all the key stakeholders in that decision making process to get together and understand what that looks like. So I think the number one step is you've got to analyze and work through what that looks like.
So you are planning accordingly.
[00:04:46] Speaker B: And you must see a lot of mistakes, common mistakes around when business owners, when they, especially when they think of everything as transactional. Right. And not look at the bigger picture of their business. So what are some common mistakes you see leaders make?
[00:05:02] Speaker A: Well, I see that they're not, that they, they do not promote their brand appropriately, they don't spend the time and it doesn't have to necessarily be overly expensive.
But I think that they make mistakes by not making that brand friendly, transparent, communicative to candidates because if you don't, then you're not. When they go to look for you, they're not going to, you know, potentially you lose that attraction. I think that's one thing that they don't spend the time on. I also think that they don't really understand, they don't necessarily focus sometimes on the process in itself. The process that the candidate goes through really need to hone that because it's very important in this day. If they have a bad experience, then you will lose them, you know, midstream, potentially. So processes branding, just putting out really understanding what your culture looks like so that when you are looking for individuals, it's not just about skills and the technical side of things. It's the cultural fit, because that is a big thing right now. And if you miss the mark there, you'll be starting over.
So I would say that those are some key components that they need to start with.
[00:06:07] Speaker B: And so you mentioned quite a few things there that I wanted to unpack a little.
The first being, you know, branding. You hear that term a lot.
Why is that important from an employee perspective? When you're hiring for, for your team, as opposed to your brand in front of your customers? Can you just talk about that?
[00:06:27] Speaker A: Well, that, that builds trust with the candidate. So, you know, in this day and age, we all know that there's lots of created accounts and fake job postings and all these various things that can now be created.
So if you want to get a strong brand out there, something that people can actually look to to get information about your organization, I think that that is very important to. Because people do, and not everyone does. But they've become more studious in actually looking up a company to see what they're all about, to see what they can glean from employees that are currently working there and how happy they are. They're going to use your glass doors, they're going to, they're going to go on LinkedIn. You know, they do various things. At least the more, you know, engaged ones or, you know, individuals that are really concerned about that. So having that out there and being, you know, open about your core values and again, sharing employee information, you know, employee examples. Okay. People look to that, especially when they're not sure about an organization. So it's very important.
I have lots of them that will be like, well, I've never seen this company before.
I don't know anything about it, or I couldn't get anything off of the, off of the website or the information that I looked for. And as a recruiter, then I'm really having to get them over that hump, you know what I'm saying? Like, to really feel confident that it's a true, legitimate, stable opportunity.
[00:07:53] Speaker B: And, you know, I want to talk a little bit about smaller businesses, you know, entrepreneurs who are just building their businesses. You know, they may not have many employees or they may be outsourcing some, you know, which is very common today to outsource task and roles. So you also mentioned culture. And, you know, sometimes I think of the word culture and I think, so what does that mean in my company? You know, does it mean I want to hire nice people? Yes.
You know, what is it, it's about how they learn or how, how I, you know, provide an environment for them to reach their potential. What, what does culture mean? Even to the smallest entrepreneurs who are just getting started, where it's very important that they build the right culture in the beginning so it doesn't go off the rails.
[00:08:40] Speaker A: Right, right. Well, I think that that's just sitting down and deciding what you feel that needs to be. I mean, it's going to be different for every organization. You know, what they're looking for from a cultural standpoint. Whether it's, it depends on the industry as well. I mean, you take a marketing position versus an accounting position. Right. I mean you've got to have different cultural dynamics there. You're going to have individuals and marketing maybe more creative in nature and more, you know, extroverted in nature where maybe an accounting person. It obviously is going to be a more detailed, technical in, not necessarily introverted. You don't have to be in accounting. Absolutely not. But that's what I'm just, you know, so you have to sit down and look at your organization and understand, in my opinion, and understand the different areas involved because there's also culture within culture. It's not just a one culture.
Stop. You know what I mean? It's like, okay, so now I've got this organization depending on how and if you're small, you know, it's different because you can really, you know, keep that within that umbrella. But the larger you get, then you have a different department. Well, that department's now creating its own culture, you know, and how they interact with each other. So it's very important, I think you sit down and just understand what you're looking for in order to, to create that and do that on the onset so that you can facilitate that as you grow.
[00:09:59] Speaker B: Thank you for sharing that. That's great information.
And let's, let's again, for small to medium sized businesses, where should they start in treating hiring as a growth strategy?
[00:10:14] Speaker A: Well, they should start with creating a process, you know, step. And it can be very small. If they're very small, it's small. Okay. Depending on how many people, it could be a one person that's hiring, handling all of it, or there are multiple individuals. But you need to set your process so you know how you're going to receive the resume, how you're going to respond to the candidate, the steps you're going to take to hire the candidate and onboard the candidate. So you want to get those steps outlined. They don't have to be granular in nature, but I think you need to start there. If you don't, then you potentially miss the mark and it'll just create more less organization for you in which will translate to what you're trying to do with the candidate. If they see that disorganization, then it's gonna set a little bit of a tone of uneasiness with them. So I recommend that.
And as short as the process is, just get it outlined.
[00:11:09] Speaker B: That's really great information too.
How can people find more about your company and services?
[00:11:17] Speaker A: Oh sure. Well, you can find me under kdiamondconsulting.com and that's k d y m o n d consulting dot com. You can email me at kimdiamondconsulting.com as well as you can find my profile on LinkedIn.
[00:11:32] Speaker B: Thank you for showing us really how hiring can be more than filling seats, that it's about building the kind of teams that actually drive growth for you and actually profitability. And that's a shift that every business owner should take to heart. Stay with us. When we come back, Kim and I are going to talk about navigating today's complex hiring landscape. So there's lot lots more to share. So stay with us.
[00:12:12] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:12:26] Speaker B: Welcome back to Balancing Acts. I'm your host Linda Hamilton, and we're talking with Kim diamond of Kim Diamond Consulting. If you love what you're watching, you can catch Balancing acts and every Now Media TV show live and on demand, anytime on NowMedia TV. Download the free Now Media app on Roku or Apple for instant access to our bilingual content in English and Spanish. And you can search NOW Media TV on Roku or your favorite podcast. Never miss a moment. From business news to lifestyle and culture, it's all streaming 24 7.
So we've been talking about hiring in our first segment together and how rather than filling roles, using it as a strategy for growth. But now we're going to shift to the complex hiring landscape that we all find ourselves in and they're shifting workforce expectations, remote work talent shortages. I don't know if we still have silent quitting or whatever. Quiet quitting or whatever.
[00:13:30] Speaker A: Silent quitting.
[00:13:33] Speaker B: Silent quitting. But hiring is definitely complex and critically important to our success. So what are the biggest changes you've seen, Kim, in the hiring landscape over the past few years?
[00:13:44] Speaker A: Well, obviously we all went through the pandemic and that completely shifted quite a bit of the workforce mindset. Okay. So working remotely and hybrid working people became acclimated to doing that where they may not have been used to Doing it before.
So it made things different in some cases easier. You know, not everyone acclimates well to a remote environment, but a lot of people did and they were forced to, even though they may not have really preferred that they really had to. So I think what that's one of the keys is people need to understand that that's not probably going away anytime soon if it's capable of. People can have opportunities that are either hybrid or remote in nature. It really, they look at that, how it's helped with either work life balance or maybe some financial alleviations, whether they have child care or commuting costs, things of that nature. So I think that that's definitely one that we want to look at.
Company culture and values is another that people are focused more on, I think, than they were years back.
You know, most people were looking at opportunities from a financial perspective mainly, you know, how, how, how will I, you know, how, how will I make my money and how will I grow and make more money? And now I think they look more into the culture that's going on, the values that associated with that. Obviously, with everything that's going on now, it's made it very complex in nature, which is a challenge. But I think companies need to be very wise to that. That has become a layer of importance for the landscape now.
[00:15:20] Speaker B: Yeah. And I want to take a step back now looking at remote. So I have a remote team and we do try to get together for a retreat once a year, especially for the younger members of my team who have felt really the, you know, kind of disconnected from the personal interactions we had before the pandemic. But, you know, remote work and flexible scheduling, it changes how businesses attract talent. It also changes how you have to manage.
Right. It was kind of easier for me to be in the office and see what people are doing or if they were stuck or, you know, you could help them out. And now I have to find other ways to do that. So. Can you talk about that a little bit?
[00:16:02] Speaker A: Yes, it's. I think it's. I personally also think it's become a challenge. You know, I always enjoyed going to the office and engaging, you know, guess it has worked out for me in what I do for a living. But I think, you know, that those get togethers are great.
You know, like, like I mentioned earlier, not everyone's built for remote work or hybrid work. They really do need people engagement. You kind of have to gauge that when you're bringing people onto your team and then if they are that type of a person, Then you probably want to understand that there's probably going to need to be a little bit more engagement with that person, whether via probably a zoom or a phone call or a check in. So I think those are things you need to kind of weigh when you're bringing people into your, into your group, if that's how your organization is structured.
[00:16:51] Speaker B: You know, as you were talking about that, I was thinking that people apply for jobs and there's lots of remote jobs available, and so they're applying for those. And when it comes to business owners, we often use the phrase, you know, it's lonely at the top for those of us who are entrepreneurs, but it's lonely for employees working remotely as well. So loneliness, right. There's studies about loneliness now and how that affects everyone because we're just engaging with our computers.
So sometimes people might apply for a job thinking they'll do fine with remote work, but maybe it's not such a good fit for their personality, their life, their skills. How can you help your employees realize that? When you're hiring for a position, I.
[00:17:40] Speaker A: Think you want to understand, you know, you have to be obviously very cautious about questions that you ask people and what you learn about them.
But you probably want to understand their, their previous work environment. How did they work before? You know, were they in an office? And now this is a remote opportunity. Have they been remote for many years?
You know, so obviously they're more acclimated.
Those are questions that you just, you have to, you know, and then what is the dynamic outside? Like, you know, you have to understand remote work affects people personally. Right. They have a home that they're either working out of, so they have to make sure that they have space, space to do that in, you know, and then if they're not able to work from home, what kind of commute do they have? These are things that we need to, to weigh when we're talking to these individuals, get to know them better with how they like to work, how they're used to working, and then be able to watch for the signs if they're struggling.
[00:18:34] Speaker B: Yeah, that, that makes sense because I think it's still relatively new. Right. Working remotely, even though many of us have been doing, you know, online work for a long time. So.
[00:18:47] Speaker A: So.
[00:18:49] Speaker B: How should leaders understand what candidates are looking for beyond salary?
[00:18:56] Speaker A: Well, today as a recruiter and speaking to candidates and screening candidates on a regular basis for many years now, as it has evolved, people actually are looking for more work, life balance.
That's what I hear when people say they are Leaving an organization, hopefully it's truthful information when you're talking to a candidate, but what they usually say is that I was work, you know, because now sometimes people have been forced into wearing multiple hats like we do. Right, Linda? But they're working for someone and that person's requesting that they work ex, you know, 70, 80 hours a week. They're not seeing their children anymore or, you know, what, what have you, or their spouses, your significant others.
And when they start looking at new opportunities, they will look at that. They aren't necessarily opposed to working over 40 hours, but they want to cut, they want to, you know, cut back. Now the younger generation, I call it, you know, they are more in tuned with work life balance. You kind of raised with the flexibility, the hybrid space. Right.
So, you know, those are things that you really need to deep dive into when you're, you know, walking through this with them. I think that that's, that's just very important.
[00:20:09] Speaker B: You know, and you talked about culture earlier when you mentioned.
So when you're hiring, it's important for you as the leader, the business owner or corporate person to know who you're hiring and, you know, if that's really what you want, that remote workforce and, and can you manage it. And because you have to make things, you have to make things work for your employees too. They can't do it on their own. They have to understand expectations and, you know, the tools you're going to give them to be part of a team, because you're still part of a team.
So companies are competing for top talent, right? Budgets are very tight, I think probably causing certainly for small business owners. We often see people operating on a shoestring right there and they're, you know, or they're wearing every hat themselves because they're afraid to hire. And that keeps you trapped. You can't really grow if you don't hire.
So how would you advise them to find good talent when budgets are tight?
[00:21:11] Speaker A: Well, there's many resources out there right now. Social media is one. Obviously people can, I think you need, like we mentioned before, branding. So you want to look at those Facebooks, you want to look at your Instagram, if you're into TikTok. Those are areas that have become very popular for people to find information and for you to display your organization. So those are things that are not expensive to do.
You know, you can look at local job boards and referral networks. You want to, again, you can build a website relatively inexpensively. You know, in the beginning, it doesn't have to be bells and whistles.
But if it's, if it creates a presence that someone can go and look at, again, not very expensive. You know, other ways, like I said, referrals, internal referrals are very, very generally very good resources. If you put in a program in place where people can help you with those referrals, you know, smaller companies are definitely take advantage of that.
But they're, you know, yes, you can use the. Indeed. And those are not very expensive either. But you know, again, depending on how much hiring you're doing can depend on whether that cost can creep up on you. So you want to be mindful of that. But there are resources out there that I utilize as an owner, as a business owner. And I don't spend an enormous amount to be able to have an applicant tracking system, to be able to have a screening program that's very inexpensive that captures everything that I say in my screening process. So there are lots of options out there for small businesses. I'm happy to talk to anyone about it because I've had to do that myself. I can't afford to spend, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars on systems like some larger corporations can do.
[00:22:51] Speaker B: Yeah. And as you know, because you are also a business owner, so you understand what your customers are thinking about and even larger businesses have budget constraints.
How can people find you online if they want to learn more about those tools you just talked about, you know, learn more about your company.
[00:23:11] Speaker A: Sure. It's www.kdiamondconsulting.com and that's K D Y M O n d k consulting.com or you can email me directly at kim kdiamondconsulting.com and also feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn.
[00:23:26] Speaker B: Thank you so much. I think you've given us a clear picture of just how much hiring has changed in the last few years. Especially, we have to, we can't ignore the shifts and we have to think about branding and culture and staying ahead of these things can make us more successful and at least help us hire people that are going to make our businesses successful. Because if we hire the wrong people, things don't always work out and it just sets you back and your customers even feel it. Stay with us. We're going to talk to Kim when we come back about building trust in the hiring process. And trust is everything today. So stay with us. We'll be right back.
Welcome back to Balancing Acts. I'm your host Linda Hamilton, and we're talking with Kim Dimon of K Dimon Consulting and we're talking about hiring and we're talking about culture, branding, all the things that are important for you to be able to hire employees as a growth strategy, not just a transactional approach. And this segment we're going to talk about trust. But before we do that, Kim, I'd love for you to share a bit about your entrepreneurial journey because you're also a business owner. And what inspired you to start your consulting firm?
[00:25:08] Speaker A: Well, I was in the recruiting. I've been in the recruiting industry for 18 years. I've been through various structures. So I started an agency. I ended up in corporate for many years and then after being in corporate for a while and you know, the shifting and challenges that were going on, it just seemed like the right time for me to launch out on my own and reach out to my network and be able to provide this service to those individuals, you know, as a, as a single owner, be able to give them one on one attention, utilize my networking and so forth to help them attract top talent as well, as well as giving them advice and coaching them through the processes. So I enjoy that very much. I love sharing my knowledge and I also enjoy working with the candidates and helping them find that next opportunity and making that match.
So that has been my passion.
I've seen a lot over the years and I like imparting my knowledge on people, whether it's a business or a candidate. So that's what got me going.
[00:26:09] Speaker B: I think it's such a wonderful reason to start a business to be able to share your passion for helping others make a difference and build successful businesses. And I think that when you're in an agency and in a bigger corporation, big accounting firms, you know, we don't always get to feel the impact we have on directly on customers and clients that we do get in a small business. And I know a lot of our listeners, there's a lot of professionals and experts and small business owners of every type listening and so I think it's great to share how you started and the reason you started to build your business.
So we want to talk about trust and I know that your customers do trust you to help them make the right decisions in hiring.
Why would you say trust is such an essential ingredient in the hiring process? Both the employer and the employee, Right. It's two sided.
[00:27:04] Speaker A: Oh yes.
Well, it's fundamental in building confidence between and mutual respect between the employer and the candidate.
You know, in this, in these times right now, you know, people are very challenged with what's real, what's not, you know, are people. Is the information I'm reading, you know, truthful. So there, you know, we've already have that interjected already trying to get over that hump of, you know, can I trust them? You know, so you have to make sure that, you know, you're transparent in your communication styles and those types of things to build that foundational trust, candidate and employer. So this isn't one sided. Both individuals need to come to the table with, you know, their, what they, their expectations and, you know, the truth behind what they have to offer.
And then that builds trust.
[00:27:58] Speaker B: And what about transparency?
You know, what role does transparency play when you're communicating with candidates in particular?
[00:28:06] Speaker A: Well, right now, a lot.
So you know, transparency in your processes. So when you engage a candidate, you want your team, whoever's handling that for you to make sure that they share with the candidate the process, that transparency of the activities that are going to, how this will go. Why is the position open? How many interviews will they need to engage in? What's the time frame around this? You want to share with them benefits, you want to share with them compensation. I know people, you know, it's. Why waste your time? I mean, you know, you want to make sure that that's something everybody's, you know, in the same space on.
So those are transparent, those are upfront ones that start to build that foundation of trust. If you're sharing that information, if you try to be vague or you try to say, well, you know, it could be this, it could be that, you know, you're gonna, you're not starting off on the best foot when it comes to someone feeling confident about the opportunity, you know, and also you're not necessarily getting the proper answers from the candidate if you're not being transparent as well.
[00:29:07] Speaker B: Yeah, and that's, I am curious, you know, when it comes to transparency, we didn't talk about this beforehand, so tell me if you know, if it's a topic that needs a longer segment. But what about some of these behavioral assessments you hear so much about the Colbys and the predictive index and do they make the process feel less transparent to a candidate? Do they help the employer? What's your view of those types of things?
[00:29:36] Speaker A: I don't think there's a less transparency for the candidate. It depends on the organization's decision on how they share that information. Okay.
Not a lot of organizations that I have worked with personally don't necessarily share the results with the candidate. So the candidate really doesn't know exactly necessarily how that plays in to the process.
When I am recruiting, if I am working for an employer who says that they're going to take an assessment and that assessment is, will weigh heavily in the decision of, of that I let the candidate know that it is part of the decision making process. Sometimes it's just there for the organization to be able to see a little bit more about the candidates propensities, how, where they prefer to work, you know, their sociability factors. They don't necessarily use it as a knockout. So I always let the candidate know that as well. So the candidate's not. Because they'll get afraid instantly like oh my gosh, if I don't pass this assessment, am I going to be knocked out?
Sometimes you are. There are organizations that take that stance and there are others that don't. So you want to be able to be clear on that. When it comes to the assessment itself, organizations treat them differently as well. Some of them actually use that as a guide. If a person does not meet this particular personality profile, they may not be a good fit for the organization as we've seen historically. Okay. So they'll maybe use that against, you know, who's actually thrived and who has not based on that.
But I, I still think others of them end, end up just stamping it on people and saying okay, no, no, no, no, no, it's not that way. It's not that simple. We don't know what was happening to them when they took the assessment.
[00:31:09] Speaker B: Right. I think it's, are those assessments, are they legal in the hiring process?
[00:31:16] Speaker A: Yeah, they're legal. I mean, you know, like I said, I think it's, I think it's very important to be transparent on how it's used.
Right.
[00:31:23] Speaker B: That makes, that makes perfect sense because otherwise you would get the reputation of not being trustworthy or hiding something about your decision making process.
Can you share an example of how building trust early in the process led to a long term hire?
[00:31:44] Speaker A: This last year I engaged with an individual that I was referred to that was building, you know, in growing his organization through acquisitions. So he'd been many years in business, so very familiar with this. But he was growing and he and I connected and he, he knew he needed HR support but he really didn't understand to what degree or what level. And so we walked through the pain points and the processes and the things that were happening in his organization and it took time because initially, you know, it was like, well, I'm not sure. And meanwhile this person's also trying to get these organizations that he's Bringing into the, into the fold, up and going. And so, you know, I just continue to stay in communication with him. We walk through it. It took a couple of months for him to actually, for him with our conversations to come to the conclusion that he truly needed an HR business partner, someone who could add value to the organization, could be part of the growth strategy. And he ended up moving forward with that person. And to this point, she has been extremely instrumental in moving things forward in the organization as he's made these additional acquisitions.
[00:32:48] Speaker B: Well, that's a great story. And I think is, is one of the steps towards being able to scale a business and grow is to be able to have the right team in place for business owners. What practical steps can they take to ensure trust is embedded in their recruiting process and their hiring process?
[00:33:06] Speaker A: Well, set clear expectations for everyone that's, you know, from the company side to the candidate side. Like I said, I can't stress enough to outline your processes, be able to share those steps of the process with everyone involved. That way everybody understands the movement, that the activity that's going to happen.
I think if you get that set, you know, and you communicate that regularly and you have that open communication and dialogue with your stakeholders and the candidates that you will, you will, you know, you will ensure trust is, is developed. Okay?
You want to be, always be respectful to everyone's experience in this process. Okay. You know, the candidate.
I have worked with organizations, and I hate to say it, that will just not show up to it to an interview and not communicate that. And that's not good practice. If you can't make an interview for whatever reason, knowing that you're a business owner, things happen. It can happen. It's just a simple, hey, I can't make the meeting. Can we reschedule?
But not doing anything and letting the candidate sit there is not good business practice. So being respectful of the candidate, just as you would expect the candidate to be respectful of you if they didn't show up, how would the employer react? Two way street there.
Be honest about the role and make sure that you've outlined it properly. And if they have any questions, you're able to address the questions about the position.
[00:34:33] Speaker B: I think not showing up is just, you know, it's just respect. So not showing up breaches the respect right from the beginning. So how can you trust what the ongoing relationship would be?
But things do happen and I think sometimes we might forget. And even if something goes wrong, I would imagine reaching out afterwards and saying something went wrong so they, so that they know it wasn't just, you're not just standing them up.
You know, it's hard to run a business. There's so many things you have.
[00:35:01] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:35:02] Speaker B: And yeah, but you want to treat people well so that, you know, you don't come across as an untrustworthy person to work for because what does that say in social media when they put that out there?
[00:35:15] Speaker A: Right. Well, that's, I mean, and I, as a recruiter, I understand things happen. So I'm the first person to say, I'm sure something has happened, let's see what's going on and so on. I think that that's.
But I think that if you don't, you just need to understand that that's not going to vet you good quality candidates. If that word gets out, it's, you know what I mean, you're going to lose your credibility.
[00:35:37] Speaker B: Right. And every. Everything is public these days, so.
[00:35:40] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. So you need to be careful because it can get, it can easily be posted anywhere.
[00:35:46] Speaker B: Right. Right.
So how can people learn more about your company and your services?
[00:35:53] Speaker A: Well, they can find me at www.kdiamondconsulting.com and again, that's k d y m o n d dot com and you can also email me at kimdiamondconsulting.com or you can look for me on LinkedIn and feel free to reach out and connect.
[00:36:11] Speaker B: Thank you so much.
That was such a powerful reminder. Kim of the Trust is one of the core principles from for good hiring. And it's going to only benefit you when there's trust between the employer and first candidate and then a hire. So thank you for breaking down how businesses can turn recruiting into a true partnership when they hire people that will help them manage their own growth. Stay with us. We'll be right back and we're going to talk about tactical execution and strategic planning.
Welcome back to Balancing Acts. I'm your host, Linda Hamilton, and we're talking to Kim diamond of K Diamond Consulting. And if you love what you're watching, you can catch Balancing Acts and every other Now Media TV show live and on demand 24. 7.
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Kim, we have a great conversation about Trust and about culture and branding and just how hiring is not, not to look at it as a transactional process because it is what can help you grow your business. The right hiring, the right people filling, you know, the, the seats on the bus, so to speak. Right.
Are what, are, what can really make a difference to a business owner. Trying to not be a one person shop or even trying to, you know, grow and expand a little bit more, a little bit at a time. So I know great leaders, you know, if you are, because you're also a leader, they don't just hire for today, but they want to build a team for tomorrow. You want to be looking forward.
So what's the difference between tactical hiring and strategic workforce planning?
[00:38:48] Speaker A: Well, tactical usually is immediate needs, specific vacancies.
It's either, you know, looking at short term shortage of staffing gaps, it's more reactive environment, less emphasis on the long term potential or future goals of the, of the organization. So it's, you know, again, it's, it's usually, like I said, it's usually an urgent need. Some, some organizations have seasonal situations where they have to become a little bit more tactical at that point. So it's not, you know, it's not a terrible thing. It's, it's just, it's a different approach versus a strategic approach.
[00:39:29] Speaker B: So, you know, small businesses are often very tactical. You know, there's urgencies that kind of staff up. Maybe, you know, they get a new job and they don't have the capacity for it or somebody quits or somebody sick. And you know, so that, there's often that, you know, that image of being on a hamster wheel is very apt for small, small businesses. Right. Because that is that in firefighting. So why is strategic planning when you're hiring as important for a small or medium business as it is for a very large company?
[00:40:04] Speaker A: Well, it's important just to be prepared. Yes. You could be like you said, a small organization. So you want to, you want to lay out, you know, your workforce map and understand where you may have ebbs and flows. And you need to really understand who is in the seat at the current time. Is that person a potential person that might be leaving the organization for whatever reason? Okay. So you always want to be a little bit like one step ahead, even in a small organization. So you want to build a pipeline to the best of your ability. Pipelines, you know, we always want to build a pipeline, but pipelines are sometimes challenging in this environment because people have so many options. So you can build the pipeline, but Will the person be there when you're really ready to potentially reach out to them? But that doesn't mean you don't do it because if you don't do it, then you have nothing.
So you want to be able to have some of those backlog resources or identified candidates that you could reach out to in the event someone, something happened to them and they left the organization unexpectedly. But then if you're looking at, and then you also look at the growth aspect, where do you want to go with the company and what's that going to mean from a position perspective is that are you going to need structure, you know, like a high level role? Because those take longer to fill. You know that depending on the role that you're also filling can take longer. So you need to sit down and just map it out. I mean, you might be small, but just, you know, the smaller, the easier.
But, but it still is something you shouldn't overlook doing.
[00:41:31] Speaker B: You know, the, when you're thinking about that tactical thing, one of the things that holds a lot of smaller businesses back is I'll just do it myself. I don't have time to train someone. Right. We talked about process in hiring, but there's process behind every part of your business, right? So you know, there are steps you could take if you want to get more, more strategic and maybe get ready. How far in advance should you start to think about the fact that you want to hire for new positions before you actually do that?
[00:42:10] Speaker A: Know about the timeline? I suppose it depends on the, the business situation, but the sooner the better. So if you are built a business plan and you have, you have a strategy for growth, you know, if you have a strategy for growth, you want to probably start understanding what that's going to look like in the future. So you can, as you are moving along and you see things happening because all of a sudden you may need to scale up and that it may be detrimental that you're not ready.
So you know, that's, it's really just understanding the, the trajectory of the business and where you want it to go as to, as to what your timeline looks like. But I always recommend the sooner the better.
You know, if you're very small, immediately it's just you and two other people. Well, you know, maybe not. But you know, what's it going to look like six months? What's your goal for it to look like six months from now? What's it to look like a year from now? You know, and because you can get caught off guard and it doesn't matter what size organization you are, they can still get caught off guard, not ready to scale.
[00:43:10] Speaker B: Well, you might bring in, you know, a large project and suddenly you feel like exactly yourself or your small team can't. So you know, the being prepared. One of the tools I use, I'm a certified systemologist. So, you know, people think it's hard to document how you do things, but you can do it yourself. You can just record yourself doing tasks so you can start to get ready. Because when you hire, when, let's say you get on new projects and you're planning on growing, what if that's an operational person you need, you not just have to find the candidate, but then you're going to have to train them and get them up to speed as well.
And that does take time. So do you work with people on maybe setting up systems for training their, their, their candidates or do you recommend they, they actually do that beforehand?
[00:44:04] Speaker A: Well, I think what you can look at also is, yes, training is something that, you know, depending on what the level of training is. You know, there's lots of, I agree with you. You can sit down and, or you can document, like you said, you can record the processes that you do. And that's a great idea actually, Linda, to have someone just, just record what you're doing daily so that you can go back and write that down and understand what that looks like as you create the SOP or whatever. So it, when it comes to the training part, I don't necessarily train people. I might, I would, you know, consult a company on what they might need to put into place and help them, you know, make those, those connections. There's lots of learning and development options for people to, to bring into their organization. You know, I think it's great to have someone like myself to consult with when you have, when you step into a new business, you can just, you know, reach out and say, I'm getting ready to do this. Can I reach out to you things or someone like yourself, you know what I mean? Reach out about accounting. So if you're small and you're not sure, don't try to take it all on yourself. I mean, that, it, it, it will just drown you. You'll just be, you know, spinning out of control. You know, think about the resources that you can afford. Think about the people you want to reach out to and then set those people in place so that you have them to, to reach out to and that you're not trying to find them when you're in need.
[00:45:25] Speaker B: That's great. Advice, Great advice.
Let's talk about what are some early warning signs that say a company is hiring more reactively instead of strategically. And you know that can backfire, right?
[00:45:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
More companies work on reactionary hiring than proactive hiring. And it's no one's fault, it's just the nature of beast, so to speak. But when you can see the warning signs that company is hiring reactively is emergency hires. It's like all of a sudden it's a fire drill. We need, you know, 100 people or whatever. We need, you know, five people depending on the size of the organization, you know, working through quick fixes and not really looking at the, evaluating the candidate for future growth. It's a know, it's like I just got to fill the seat. I just have to fill the seat. You start to see that, or you start to see them, you know, have high turnover rates, there's a problem there. That's where they're being reactionary because they're just not thinking it through. They're just, I just need someone, you know, that you know, and that's, that will hurt you. I mean, it ultimately costs more money. There's no doubt, you know, and you also want to have an internal, like I said, an internal process. If you can have a team that can work in this, you know, and I know it's harder for small and medium sized businesses. That's why we're here as consultants and, and fractional support. But if you can have one or two people dedicated to your team that can help you with the processes and help alleviate you having to, you know, spend an enormous money on outsourcing. Nothing wrong with it, but some people just don't have it. Okay. So you want to be able to see who you can tap in your environment that can help, actually help with it. So you as the sole business owner are not trying to manage all of it because again, there's so many things that can go, go wrong when it comes to hiring and employees when you don't have the right processes in place. I mean it's, it's a legal risk of, of even, even more.
[00:47:34] Speaker B: Okay, I think that's so important that you showed that. So, so, you know, you mentioned fractional helper recruiting. But if a business owner wanted to start a plan today, so they know, you know, maybe they're working on a business plan or they have plans to double their growth, what's the first step you'd recommend to them to start that plan?
[00:47:55] Speaker A: Well, create their, you know, assess first off, assess where they Are if they have any employees at the moment. Okay. Depending on the size of the organization, usually, you know, you assess what you currently have, you look where you might have some critical shortages, you identify the talent pool. So again, it can be very different. Depends on where your organization is located. Depends on that can really drive the talent pool. If you're a very remote business, then your talent pool is going to be very, potentially very small. And it's very small depending on the position itself. So you really want to analyze your workforce, your needs as you grow and what does that look like? Where am I going to get those resources? Where am I going to find that talent? So you want to get ahead of that and, you know, create that, you know, assess, like I said, assess your gaps, assess your current individuals, depending on your size and scope, and then, then plan accordingly. You know, if you see potential gaps in the future, get ahead of it. You know, if you see it's all about assessing your workforce and staying on top. It's not a one time assessment anyway. You need to do this as a process and a practice. But initially you, you want to look at that and understand where your needs are going to be in the future and start planning. Because again, your candidate pool can be completely different depending on where you're located.
[00:49:14] Speaker B: And depending on, you know, that will leave us at the end of our time together. Thank you so much for showing us why thinking ahead with talent planning is as important as hiring today.
[00:49:26] Speaker A: How can people find you online www.KdiamondConsulting.com or you can email me at KimDiamondConsulting.com or please feel free to reach out on LinkedIn and connect with me and send me a message.
[00:49:41] Speaker B: Come back for another episode of Balancing Acts next week where we'll share more on challenges, breakthroughs and opportunities to help you grow a profitable, resilient business. Thanks for joining us.
[00:49:52] Speaker A: Thanks, Linda.
