Nick C

Editor's Notes

• #3: Hello everyone. My name is Nick Cromydas. I’m the founder and CEO of a next-generation recruiting company called Hunt Club. We power talent for some of the most innovative companies around the world, companies like Dollar Shave Club, Pinterest, G2, goPuff and much more. Most of our customers are companies that have raised hundreds of millions (some even billions) in capital to change or displace industries like convenience stores, how you buy razors, how you shop for software and services and much more. We also help large companies reimagine their future by landing the same entrepreneurial talent as startups. As you could probably guess – given that primer – the topic I want to talk to you today about is how to continue to win the best digital DNA and talent for your business as the world continues to change. My hope is by the time I’m done – you’ll have an understanding as to where the world is going from a talent perspective, a clear framework and a few strategies on how to make sure your company is equipped with the right people for the future.
• #4: But to understand the change happening – let’s first start with the past. In the 70’s and 80’s the world moved a lot slower. The average speed to receive a letter took 14 days. The fax machine was the preferred method in business communication. We had Post-It Notes arriving in the early 80s. As we moved through the 80s and into the 90s, we saw things like laser printers used more and more and we got a taste of the World Wide Web. Fast forward to today, the world and the pace of which it is moving, is incredibly different. We use email, social media, the internet, mobile phones in regular life and in business. The profile of talent has also changed.
• #5: Let’s use Tom for example. Tom’s parents were upper-middle class. Tom grew up walking 4 blocks to the corner store for anything his family needs. Tom left high school to pursue a college degree at the University of Illinois to study economics. His in-state tuition cost $4,000. His first-year salary was $23,278. He paid off his loans in 3-5 years. Tom took out $7500 in student loans to cover for his in-state tuition which cost $4,000 (in the 1980’s at UI) He graduated in four years and accepted a great job at Abbott Labs management training program –where he was recruited on campus through their program. His first year salary was $23,278. Tom moved to the Chicago area shortly after and was able to pay off his loans by 3-5 years At the 10-year mark at Abbott, Tom was making enough money to support a family of three He bought a house in his 10th year. He was approached 4 times in his career to switch jobs via a headhunter, but was loyal to Abbott and stayed He ended up getting a 5-10% increase in compensation every year for 35 years, and retired at age 60 as a vice president. Let’s run that back really quickly.
• #6: Tom was not alone. The average employee in this time worked for one employer for 20 or 25 years The average employee was only saddled with $10,000 student debt and paid it back in 3-5 years The average employee valued consistency, stability, and a steady paycheck Now let’s jump to today...
• #7: Susan's parents were also upper-middle class. Susan’s family ordered anything they ever needed via Amazon. She left high school to pursue a degree at U of I as well and graduated in 2009. Susan graduated in 4 years and couldn’t find a job. She applied to over 100+ companies online, and finally landed a marketing manager role at a technology startup in Chicago > She ended up reaching out to the hiring manager over 5+ times on LinkedIn before she finally was able to land a coffee meeting Her first-year salary is $34K. It’s been 10 years into Susan’s career now, and she still hasn’t been able to fully pay off her loans. She rents a condo in downtown Chicago. She has switched jobs now 5x in 10 years, her longest tenure being 2.5 years. She’s worked remotely in 2/5 jobs She is now a VP of Marketing working remotely for another technology startup making $160k a year. She’s been approached over 200+ times from headhunters online, via LinkedIn to switch jobs. She’s applied to 50+ new positions since landing her first job that have popped up on LinkedIn She aspires to start her own company one day after this next startup Let’s look at that again.
• #8: Susan is not alone. The average coworker will change careers 5-7 times during their working life times in their career. The average employee is saddled with $38,000 amount of student debt and will pay it back in a 10-15 year period The average employee values flexibility, transparency, and “no ceilings” Student borrowing - between 2000 and 2014 nearly has quadrupled - the total volume of outstanding federal student debt surpassed $1.1 trillion In this same time period, the number of student borrowers more than doubled to 42 million, and default rates among recent borrowers have risen to their highest levels in 20 years.
• #9: There are 4-5 key things to map on how the world has changed: Digital has changed the visibility and access to opportunity (highlight job switches and Headhunter outreach difference) Education costs have increased has changed dramatically (ROI for higher ed isn’t there anymore) Opportunity is different (people no longer want to stay and do one thing for their career) Digital tools, business models, and cultures have changed how the world operates (it’s changed why/how/when/what people work on) Cultural shift in bias for change and learning (over stability) A lot has changed in 30-40 years… and we can expect more to change as digital continues to take a foothold in every fabric of our lives from how we learn, buy, communicate to work.
• #10: Here is a path and tool-set to make sure you’re set up to win, attract and retain the best talent for the future. I want to offer a few ideas on how to think through whether or not your company is equipped and has the right DNA, capabilities and tools to win the right talent for the future. The framework we use at Hunt Club to understand whether or not a company can attract the right talent sustainably has 4 unique focus points: Can you Attract Digital Talent? (A focus on DNA, Culture, Leadership and Problem Set) External Brand (A focus on Authentic Employee Marketing and Thought Leadership) How to Land World-Class Talent (A focus on Recruiting Infrastructure, Tools and Processes and Rolling out the Red Carpet) You’re in, Now Keep them (A focus on Access, Transparency, and Opportunity–Build a Deliberate “Learning and Growth” Culture and Work Environment) Let’s unpack these a little more deeply.
• #11: Before you start trying to change or transform your business, industry or model, you need to make sure you’re actually set up properly to house the right type of talent. Digital talent looks, feels, and wants to work a certain way. And if your internal culture isn’t set up to house this talent, you’ll need to make dramatic changes. For startups – it’s checking the boxes on: Is the problem set interesting enough? Do we have enough capital to properly recruit and land great talent? Have we clearly defined ownership on whose job it is to own recruiting at our company? (trick question – it should be EVERYONE at the company) Recruiting is a business problem, so simply outsourcing or insourcing it internally to HR will not land the best folks in a competitive landscape > Every company now has access to venture capital For Large Companies – it’s checking the boxes on: Is innovation part of our DNA? IF you’re Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Facebook, Uber, or Amazon– you should have no problem landing the next generation of digital leaders Nearly everyone else needs to rethink their strategy and see if they can actually attract and retain digital talent Getting the right talent and building a culture that can keep pace with the changes in today's world should be top of mind for businesses. Established companies realize this, and many are making acquisitions not only for a product but for talent and culture.
• #12: I think Walmart’s acquisition of Jet.com is an excellent case study of this. Walmart as a retail behemoth hadn’t had a track record of landing the most innovative digital talent. So they acquired Jet.com and Marc Lore. And Marc went on a shopping spree to roll up Bonobos, Mod cloth, Moosejaw and many other digitally native brands to arm Walmart with the talent needed to compete for head to head w/ Amazon. Those acquisitions changed the perspective of Walmart to the digital world, and given the great new leaders in Marc, Andy Dunn, and some of the other most visible people in the tech community, they were able to go build a world-class digital and innovation arm. They acquired a culture, let it remain independent, and use it as a vehicle to access the talent needed to take them into the next generation. Walmart acquired and fostered the most critical thing for its future survival: the ability to recruit the next generation of talent and change the culture. It’s critical that you first assess whether or not your company has a chance to recruit the next generation or culture of digital leaders before diving into spending millions of dollars on people that will likely leave in a year or two.
• #13: Setup slide
• #14: I met an artificial intelligence framework company in Boston last week. They were further ahead than anyone I’ve ever seen in building out an incredible platform that others can use to create AI as a Service. It was a small team of 4 PHD’s, a few engineers and one designer. I asked 3-4 of my friends who run $300-500M+ venture funds on the East Coast if they ever heard of them, they all said “no”. My point is you could be creating the next big thing, but if people don’t know about it, or you haven’t made it commercially digestible, or you haven’t shared with the world that you’re “innovating” – you won’t be able to attract the best talent. We love to think about doing this in three ways: Create great – employee-focused – content on how your company is innovating In two short years, digital transformation spending in business will approach the $2 trillion mark, and as an example, companies like Procter and Gamble are spinning up their venture studios to redefine how technology can change their path forward. Hire someone to focus on employer branding if need be – but make sure there is an explicit focus Have your company share that content and spread the word for social proof Seems obvious, I know – but you need your most innovative employees/teammates sharing the word about how your company is tackling great problems – people trust people – turn your employee base into your greatest employee marketing channel Rinse and Repeat Consistency is key. Make sure you’re deliberate in continuing to share, post, and provide great content highlighting the many things you’re doing Example shown: Tony Fadell’s claim to fame is impressive: He’s often cited as “the father of the iPod and iPhone,” the products that many believe ignited Apple’s incredible growth trajectory and paved the way to its market dominance. For all his success at one of the world’s biggest and best companies, he felt like something was missing: work/life balance and the ability to spend more time watching his kids grow up. In 2010, he left Apple to found Nest Labs — a company that Google just acquired for $3.2 billion. While Fadell still works 60-70 hours per week, his role with Nest has given him the one thing he longed for: More time with his family.
• #15: Reprofile who runs talent. Quick show of hands in the audience of who watches the show Billions? It’s a series run on Showtime. I think they’re in the third series. Billions is about billionaire Bobby Axelrod’s pursuit to stay on top of the the hyper competitive hedge fund world. In the show, his right hand and arguably most important employee / teammate is Wendy Rhodes, the woman show above in the photo. Wendy runs talent and people. She’s responsible for hiring, building, inspiring and motivating. Albeit Billions is a fictional show, I think they get a couple things really right about how to win in the future of talent: 1) Hire a talent partner whose DNA, Pedigree and experience makes them a partner to the business – similar to the hedge fund world, digital leaders are in low supply and high demand, make your talent leader a secret weapon for your company 2) Incentivize and compensate them as a partner – What’s shocking to me is the amount of money the world pays executive recruiters, but how misaligned the internal compensation structure is for recruiting teams. We need to move beyond recruiting being a cost center to an enabler. 3) Find Someone Who Understands the Business - Way to 4) Reprofile the Job – Some of the best executive search partners in the world come from industry, not spending a career in Human resources. Recruiting is the most important function for any company in 2020 and beyond. You can’t afford to not have a Rockstar in this function Hire, incentivize and empower a business leader, not a functional leader.
• #16: Once you’ve created the right brand presence, and set up a foundation where you can actually attract the right talent to work on the right problem – it’s time to get the right people into the process. Competition is stiff. Around 30,000 companies get funded every year, and not to mention the exorbitant salaries and generous benefits packages at the largest tech companies in the world. We think of attracting the right talent in two phases: Get them to listen Convert them from passive to active via a great process Getting them to listen to the noise in today’s world is really complex. There were 269 billion emails sent and received each day in 2017, and that figure is expected to grow to almost 320 billion daily emails in 2021, according to Statista. There are about 124.5 billion business emails sent and received each day, while there are about 111.1 billion consumer emails sent and received each day. THE NOISE IS REAL. Breaking through takes the right relationship, and the right “trust” is paramount. The way we’ve seen the most successful companies recruit great digital DNA and talent is through – you guessed it – referrals.
• #17: Setup - for next two slides. There’s two ways we think about it: Implement a referral process Roll-out a red carpet process for candidates
• #18: ASA - deck referral playbook
• #19: For most candidates who hear about a new job through a referral, 89% of them will take a job faster if they’re contacted directly by a recruiter. So not only is referral hiring and recruiting a way to cut down on the complexity of the process, but it’s also your ticket to reaching the best candidates from the get-go. The benefits to referral-based hiring include faster hiring and onboarding, and a higher likelihood that your new hire will stick around for the long-term. How does referral-recruiting work? There are two main ways to run a referral-based hiring program. The first way is to create an in-house referral program. It starts with turning your current employees into recruiters. Open positions get announced to them first, and they’re encouraged to spread the word within their network. Initially, depending on the size and state of your business, the inbound flow of candidates is going to be very small. You may have to ruthlessly tap into your own network, put yourself out there and tell people you are hiring. As you grow or participate in new networks to widen your talent funnel, your pool of candidates will expand. The second option is to use an external firm. This opens up access to new and extended networks, in addition to your own. The best (external) recruiters in the world have amazing networks that they've built, curated and nurtured for years. You can leverage the power of other links to form bridges into new networks to open a larger pool of candidates and streamline your hiring process. They call on that network when the right opportunity presents itself, for the right person, at the right time. When it's done this way - it works. Really well. Most companies forget it takes meaningful human intervention to truly help connect the dots. Why referral-recruiting works Candidates are in search of more flexibility, a better work-life balance, and transparency when it comes to their employers. Your job isn’t just to offer candidates a higher salary or more benefits but to educate them on why your workplace is a better fit. With referral-based recruiting, this part becomes easier and it can reduce your time to hire by almost 50%. As many as 46% of referred hires stay at a company for three years or more, compared to only 14% for job boards. But remember all the noise we talked about? People won’t listen unless it's from a trusted source. Leveraging referrals also comes down to knowing how to build and leverage good relationships - it’s the secret sauce to turn a passive candidate into a hire. How to do it: Venture-backed CEOs and large businesses are running full speed to attract talent and raise the capital needed to lure people away from their current jobs. The time and monetary costs of making the wrong hire can be crippling for a startup. It isn’t about putting someone in the seat just to fill it. And, it isn’t just about finding the candidate with the skill set you’re looking for and aligning on compensation. Winning someone over before they’re even considering the role is key. In the haste to build a team of rock stars, a CEO may forget that a potential candidate hasn’t gotten drunk off on the Kool-aid yet—they may not yet see the opportunity the same way as a founder. Winning candidates over isn’t done transactionally either. Here are some Hunt Club tips on how to court active or passive candidates for your startup from start to finish. You can prove you want what's best for them (rather than yourself.) The number one reason people change jobs is an opportunity, and the factors that influence this are compensation, work-life balance, and professional development. Spend your first interactions with a candidate by getting to know them. Ask them questions to understand what they want, what they need and where they are in the job hunt process. It should seem obvious to many, but it's often overlooked: In the early conversations with a candidate, make it very clear about why it would be beneficial for them to join your business and how your organization can help their long-term professional goals. Specifically, tell them how your company could offer them a way to take their career to new levels, and even beyond the company. Knowing this right from the start can make them realize all the things they are missing. Clearly seeing an upward path and career development, and having the information upfront, can 100 percent speed up their decision to accept a role once it's offered. You communicate and are transparent. Encourage open communication and transparency from the start. If you can outline a firm process at the start of a search and stick with it, you will avoid wasting your time, and your client and candidate's time in the long-run. Spend a few hours and develop a rhythm of touchpoints for all parties. Also, let your candidates know what part of the process they’re in at each touchpoint. Having regular touch-points with candidates also keeps them engaged. So, always call or text when you say you will. Find natural ways to check-in without being pushy or overbearing. When someone is interviewing, reach out to the candidate to ensure they got what they needed and keep them updated on when they could expect to hear back. Let them know—and be honest—about where they stand in the process and always ask if there's anything you could be doing for them. With 89 percent of talent say being contacted by their recruiter can make them accept a job offer and faster, it pays off to develop your own communication rhythm and set a structure from the beginning You can provide value. Talent makes decisions based on information, interest and excitement. Your job as the gateway for talent at your company or a partner’s company is to provide candidates with as much information as humanly possible. Get to know your candidates by “giving first”. Whether it’s being generous with your time, energy, effort, information or opportunities, you’re giving back first. Once you have a candidate on the deck or cultivated a pool of talent, it'll go a long way if you embody a “give first” mentality in all of your conversations. Don't sell the company and job opportunity before probing to see if they check all the boxes. Instead, put yourself in their shoes and take a broader approach. Consider how you can be a resource for your candidates. Really get to know their professional goals, interests, and priorities. Find out what they want and if they’re getting what they need in their current gig. You want potential candidates to feel wanted and to start imagining what it would be like working there, and how joining your team could change their life short-term and longer, before you’ve even assessed if they’re wanted. This creates stronger relationships. You will provide incredible value, build trust and be surprised at how your relationship evolves (for more inspiration check out this blog post on how we hire amazing people in less time). Going into any conversation, always have a 360-degree view of the role so when the time is right you can communicate intelligently about the position you're working on. You should have a great read on what a person will be doing day-to-day, and what traits/skills are needed to be successful. Match the needs of the role of a candidate's skillset and interests. Getting this right will ensure a candidate feels understood and will be more receptive to talking with you to learn more a role. Think about how you can stay top of mind with them. Call when you say you will. Find natural ways to check-in without being pushing or obnoxious. Communicate frequently so you are also up to date on if the person is looking, what their current needs are and how it fits with the state of your business. Create a true experience and remove the transaction When you ask someone to join a startup, you’re also asking the person to join an unpredictable company and trade long hours for some form of a pay cut. Give them enough data points and information to counter that. When you bring the person in for an interview, have them meet the team and anyone they will be working with. Ensure that they know they have full support in their role and they know what success could look like. Have the person meet a number of people from your company, not just an immediate supervisor or team members. In this phase, be really clear about why it would be beneficial for them to join the team, and how your company can match their needs and long-term professional goals. Tell them how you can help them thrive and survive. How their gifts match your company environment. Explain the benefits. Talk to them first about opportunities for growth, followed by things like PTO and flex-schedules to reframe their perception of benefits. Knowing this right from the start can help them see all the things they may be missing. It also helps them see an upward path and career development helping speed up their decision to accept a role once offered. This elicits emotion and feelings, and anything you want your candidate to walk away with. Manage a breakup Sometimes it just doesn’t work out. Let’s say you brought the person in to meet the team. Whether it’s not a fit culturally or you both just want something different. Your goal should be to leave any unsuccessful candidate with a great interview experience. You want them to walk away saying great things about the experience. So be generous with feedback. If the person interviewed, or if the person turns out to be a better fit for another role at a different company, offer them an introduction. Tell them honestly what you liked about them and what skills they might want to develop further. Don’t just send a canned breakup email without sharing any perspective. This person spent hours with you and your team. They deserve respectful and meaningful feedback. Things like “Through the course of the search, we realized we needed someone with more PR expertise,” or “We need an operations leader who can see around the corner and who helped a company in our stage double in revenue.” Their experience with you will also play a big part in what they think and say about your business to others. The wining and dining doesn’t end once someone is hired. After the person is off and running, be sure to check in with them regularly to make sure they’re getting what they need or find out what they need to succeed, and as important, that their enthusiasm and eagerness to build something great together continues to grow. This is a key piece to building an exceptional candidate experience process.
• #20: In the war for talent, your brand is represented by your external communication patterns and your thoughtfulness in each and every interaction. If you’re in the business of talent (hint: every single person in business is in the business of hiring great people), you must be mindful of this. The “white-glove” experience means going the extra distance for talent, clients, or teammates. Here’s how you can begin to build your own “white-glove” experience to ensure you’re representing your company or client as thoughtfully as possible: Rule #1: Drop the Ego I don’t care how much money you’ve raised, how innovative your company is, what your market reputation is, or what your market cap has grown by. Humility is the key to landing amazing people. Yes — humility. By no means does that mean you shouldn’t be excited about the trajectory of your company. Sing it from the rooftops. But when it comes to expectations for courting talent, roll out the red carpet and let them know you care more about them than yourself. Remember, every interaction is an opportunity to create an ambassador, whether they ultimately work for your company or not. Rule #2: Know the Role This one seems obvious, but you’d be shocked at how many recruiters (both internal and external) don’t take the time to truly understand the position they’re working on. It’s impossible to get a complete view as a consultant or internal recruiter, but if you’re the first line of defense and you can’t communicate intelligently about the position you’re working on: shame on you. Rule #3: Get Smart (on Talent and Client) Please take five minutes to understand who the other person on the hangout or phone is. LinkedIn makes this seamless. I’d also recommend Charlie App for quick downloads. Rule #4: Set the Schedule — and Stick With It Outline a firm process at the beginning of a search and stick with it. Let the talent know what part of the process they’re in at each touchpoint. Every company and hiring manager may have a unique process, but that doesn’t mean you can’t set a structure from the get-go. Rule #5: Be Transparent at Every Phase You don’t have to show all your cards as you work with talent from start to finish, but certainly let them know what phase of the process they’re in, how many people are in process, and the expectations and timeline for a decision. Let them know if there are macro issues impacting the business. Let them know the risks of the decision. Rule #6: Ask, “What Else Can I Provide?” Talent makes decisions based on information, interest, and excitement. Your #1 job as the gateway for talent at your company or a partner’s company is to provide talent with as much information as humanly possible. Rule #7: “Resist Gravity" at All Costs Talent management has a high volume of interactions. “Gravity” is the tendency to focus on the one to two candidates with the highest probability of getting the role… But what about the 10-20 other people you talked to about the position? Resist the gravity and communicate to each person as if they were about to refer 10 people your way (hint: they may). Rule #8: Say “Thank You” to Everyone If talent is investing time to learn and experience your company through a process, that’s a huge investment on their behalf. Remember to thank them for listening and investing the time. Rule #9: Follow Up (Remember the time others didn’t get back to you? Yeah, it sucked) This has happened to everyone. I won’t elaborate. It feels terrible and helps no one, especially your brand as an employer. Rule #10: Break Up, with Honesty Give very direct feedback as to what happened and why that particular talent was not a fit for a role. The hard conversations make us all better, and if it’s not a fit, neither party would likely be successful together on a role. The transparency of the internet and the rate at which information can now travel has changed talent’s expectations on they are recruited, and how business leaders communicate and interact with them. If you’re not building airtight processes around interviewing, hiring processes, communication, and feedback, you’re missing out on a valuable opportunity to let people know how awesome you and your company are, and you won’t get their attention in the first place.
• #21: This requires a focus on access, transparency, and opportunity. It means building a deliberate “learning and growth” culture and work environment. Let’s dive into how to do it.
• #22: Marc Andreesen’s quote. Digital trans spending: https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS44440318 venture funds plowed $137 billion into start-ups last year, more than triple 2012 levels: https://www.barrons.com/articles/big-corporations-are-rushing-into-venture-capital-that-may-not-be-a-good-thing-51582936617