 Hey, good afternoon everybody Tom Stewart here. I am with Liz Trotter. This is smart business moves first First Wednesday of the month of new month of May, isn't it? I try I don't know what it is, but as you get older the days just go so much faster All right, it's not so much the days go faster. It's years And quarters and the months I'm like How are we already like a month a third of the way into our second quarter? How how is that? And we're really only 12 days away from being halfway through our second quarter It's nerve-wracking. It's nerve-wracking Tom. Hey, Denise Hope you're feeling better today. She had her infusion today, so And I'm not sharing anything outside of what she always shares around so Hope you're hope you're feeling better there now Over at the office and I had my new year's hat still setting in the war room, so I need to Bring that home and have that Ready to ready to go because I didn't know years would be here before we know it. Hey, Linda. Hey Linda It's true at well. Oh, what was that Linda's little background there? That was pretty or her profile picture Flower oh flower Lillian the Valley. Maybe it's really tiny hard to see. It looks like it might be pretty I hope it's a little you the Valley. They smell nice So how are we what are we talking about? What's what's been happy? What's been happy we have a surprise guest today surprise we have a We were we were laughing Dom we said we'll just kind of say that we're gonna have a surprise guest Yeah, we'll be surprised if we have a guest Sorry you're having so much trouble getting in Dom How are you guys doing? We're doing well We're doing well Liz was like you think he's like having technical problems. It's been a while. It's like he owns a software company He knows how to use a computer And then we thought that you're probably just went off to do your own Facebook live ours is too No, I use I use street yard all the time street yards good. Oh good Yeah But Liz you were asking me what was going on. There's been a couple of things going on and I was just kind of playing around Well nerd we're nerd out on some numbers here Dom just for for a moment. If you don't mind cuz We do the Joltz report, which is the job opening It's an acronym for something it's about the number of job openings in the country anyway, it came out it comes out this time each month and The job Yeah and What this is what this is telling us is there's more job openings now than there was the You know preceding months. I think December is still like the biggest record since they've been doing it but we're not really making a lot of traction and And This number here this rates this is like 7% of All of the jobs the ones that are taken and not taken added together divided or the openings divided by all the jobs It's like 7% Which is pretty high and if you go down here to like leisure and hospitality, which is kind of In the same general area that that we hire from You know accommodation food service again, that's like over 10% So that's kind of bad news for us. That's not getting any better. There's a ton of jobs out there There's about six million unemployed people right now that are in job market that don't have jobs And there's over 11 million open jobs. So there's like 1.9 jobs for every job seeker. That's not awesome So you think that's bad? Wait, it gets worse Every month ADP comes out with numbers and ADP is like one of the biggest if not the biggest payroll processor and Friday the Department of Labor will come out with their unemployment numbers But ADP usually comes out the the Wednesday the first Wednesday of every month and Normally the job ads are up month after month after month and this month small business This is less than 50 employees or 1 to 49 employees. We lost 120,000 jobs If you go back and if you look at larger employers And actually I got this from another source. I don't see it on their website, but I got the numbers here that Employers with 50 to 499 they added 46,000 jobs and large employers with 499 or you know over 499 employees 500 or more added 321,000 jobs Small business lost quite Larger businesses added three times as many as small business and what the interpretation of that is that wage inflation large companies Have more resources available to them. So a they're better at recruiting which ties into our discussion today But they're also better at offering better benefits and other stuff as well. So You know all these numbers on the on the jolts report are just like all businesses But if you really look at this this means that if you're running a house cleaning business, you're Really in a tough shape compared to everybody here some Depressed I'm kind of done for the day. So I'm gonna Um, I'll see you guys next week My job here is done But I mean, it's good timing. We have a great guest for this tom so that you can feel better now, right? You know, it's it's good that you're talking, you know numbers and data I was live the other day and we were talking about You know, how many applicants how many applications? Do you need to really get that one good hire for your business and your market? And and really utilizing that data to figure out how much money you should be spending on your recruiting budget, you know Because a lot of people don't really take that in consideration When you know factoring in what their recruiting budget should be and really knowing the numbers on how many applications Do you need to generate on a monthly basis to get that one or two hires that you may be looking at per month Or four or five whatever that number is for your business so So It's not hopeless. We're not going to give up We're going to manage our business and we're going to do the things that we need to do to be successful In spite of all of those headwinds. We're going to use numbers to do that. Is that what i'm hearing tom That's that's that's what I believe, you know We're going to we're going to use data to to drive it, right? Which is what we do when You know, I mean made central right that that's that's why I use it for my cleaning company I I use data to drive our cleaning company And then more more importantly too, we're going to use tools to drive our recruiting One of the things that you said there was that some of these bigger companies have the resources Here's what we know You know targets minimum wage now usually I think it's like what $15 an hour You know walmart is increasing their wages amazon as well But I see cleaning companies every day in some of these markets that are paying 18 19 $20 an hour if not more And they're still struggling to get people Hey dom I hate to break it to you But in some markets targets the minimum wage is now up to $24 an hour whoo Hey, here's the thing tom. I I know some cleaning companies that are paying people that You know them they're out there, you know But I think it's also about you know the the tools that we're using to to to bring that recruiting process in because a lot of us are just Posting the jobs and think that people are just funneling through our doors. No those great opportunities are everywhere now We's got to all do a better job at it but you know, I Heard of an informed person a number of months ago say buckle up You know within the next couple of years if not sooner You know $15 our minimum wage isn't even going to cut it. We're going to be talking about $25 an hour minimum wage and I think with everything that's going on in the economy and inflation and everything else that We very well might be sitting here before the end of the year Not to say that everybody's going to be there, but it's not going to be a holy cow. Can you believe that it's going to be? Yeah, sure. That's that's that's the way it is now. Yep. Yeah I agree No, I don't want to agree, but it definitely looks like it's going that way, right? so All right, so dom here we are today and we know what the struggles are that we're dealing with today and so What are some of the things we can do today without getting like so stressed out Because I see a lot of people right now that are just Like tom said, you know, he's just depressed and they're and they're weary. They're tired Of this they feel like they I was talking with someone just today that said I'm just gonna have to go back to Indeed and start paying $3,000 a month. Oh or hiring again. That's just feels like it's my only option. Yeah So so one of the things the first thing I would do Because I I do think that everyone needs to spend some level of money on recruiting, right? The days of just it being free. I think those days are over So once you're past the idea that, you know, you're gonna now have to have a recruiting budget I would then really start to figure out. Okay. What does that budget need to be? Let's not just throw a random dollar at at the wall and go there You know on facebook and indeed both of these Applications have where when you put the money behind it, it tells you Roughly how many applications you may receive in that given time frame. It actually tells you that right? Yeah So if if you know your data and again, you can you know, business owners can go back and figure this out You know based on just let's just look at the first quarter of this year How many people did you? You know interview compared to how many people did you hire and how many applications actually came in? So if you look up that quarter one data You know how much how many applications you may need So I would utilize those tools to factor how much budget you need to have for your facebook and you're in the event So how do people figure out how much they need to spend so let's just pretend Yeah, um that for that if I get in 30 applications I can expect that that's going to turn into eight interviews And that that's going to turn into one hire. All right, so I know that I need 30 applications To get one hire How do I know what I could afford though? I know what I I feel like I know what I need to spend if I need Right if I need three hires, then I know that I need 90 applicants. Yeah, absolutely So, you know, and then what you're going to do is you're going to Utilize those platforms to see what it's telling you for your market because every single market is different, right? Yeah, what it's telling you for your market on how much you need to spend to get that number of applications in in your funnel um, but I would say You know, Liz. Yeah, you can't afford not to spend it You know, like I I wish I could say, you know, what that budget is one percent or two percent whatever it is But you know, when I'm throwing money at indeed and I'm like, hey, I need to get 500 applications this month to fill Some of these roles. Yeah, I'm not about to go back and figure out. Okay I afford that extra hundred dollars a month or two. No, we got to do it We got to push to do it and get those applications. Yeah, that's the least of my words Yeah And again, that's where the numbers can help you because if you know What the opportunity cost is of these open technician positions It's you know, you can ratchet the numbers up to a pretty high number on your recruiting side You're still, you know spending good money because yeah, there's resistance going to cost you a ton um I guess is it is it all about the spend though and how much of it gets into the finer points of You mentioned the platforms can be different from community to community, but um The you know, the the the wage we were talking about, you know, what target g was 24 dollars an hour um, you know the value proposition and just the quality of the ad I guess would Would would would have have a bearing on your outcomes as well, I would say Yeah, so I I 100 percent agree. Um, you know I I think you know a lot of people even when I'm talking to business owners and you know, they're struggling with recruiting Everyone aims to have a really amazing cleaning company and a good culture, right? It looks like we lost list Um Everyone aims to do that, right? Everyone wants I think most business owners want to have a good work environment for their employees But we don't really share that a lot, you know, we don't put that information We have to figure out ways to be able to translate that more in our job ads So when people do see that on indeed or facebook or whatever platform you're recruiting on you're like, oh man I can see myself working there You know, I can see myself in this team in the mix going there every single day in and out And showing up to work, right? You have to be able to translate that into your job ad And you know sometimes, you know as business owners, I used to do this myself You'd go on, you know Google and search some of these job ads and you copy, you know, you copy what you see there But you've got to make that job ad your own and it has to match what you're doing in your company So I have a hundred percent agree, Tom that that part is extremely important And you know what, you know, what are you offering to that application that applicant very similar to a lead? That's what we look at in our business And you know, we've been experimenting with with ads as well and one of the things that that that i'm seeing that can make a big difference is explain what makes you different And it doesn't even necessarily have to be anything earth-shattering awesome, but You know, there's a lot of jobs out there Well, let let us tell you a story about us and why you might want to work for us And not everybody's gonna want to work for us. That's fine, too but There's a ton of people out there and if it's just kind of a A generic, you know ad. Hey, we're looking for house cleaners Nobody's gonna click on that Tell a story about something that's unique about your organization And and and why you're worthy of taking a closer look You know, another thing I'll add to that too, Tom is I think We have to look at this recruiting game as marketing Right, you know, how would you approach your clients that are that are looking to do business with your cleaning company? And I say that to say because you know, I'll see things on Indeed or you know on these job boards and people will have You know emojis in their In facebook, I think emojis are acceptable for sure But like they'll have them like in the name of their job ad on indeed and some will have um Like different like different unique names and that's good, right that that's good because because obviously it shows creativity But depending on your market, you have to figure out is that actually going to translate to the people that you're trying to target? Right because again, we're looking at this the same way as Leads are your people that are that you're trying to bring into your company Do it does emojis attract them on indeed does saying, you know instead of it, you know, maybe it's not cleaning technician Maybe it's you know, like I have a job at I think I put like cleaning rock star or something like that You know because I want to be creative. So we try those different things to see if it works You know you want to catch somebody's eye, you know, they're doing this on their phone You want you know, you want it to be a thumb stopper? Yeah, but then again if they stop and say boy, that's stupid and keep going that doesn't help me much Yeah, that's true. That's true. That's true. I mean who is are you talking? Okay Because like yeah, who are we marketing to are we marketing to 20 to 30 year olds or we're marketing to 35 to 45 year olds? It really depends on which market we're trying to go after and I think your job ad needs to to relate that That's what I'm saying, you know, you go in indeed and look there's still a surprising number of ads there that are just all about The requirements, you know, we have a job and if you're going to work here, you have to do this and you have to be that these are the requirements and I mean, it's kind of on the other end of the spectrum from marketing and it's I don't think that hunts in 2022 Yeah, like like one of the things like a good way to kind of relate that to Because I always like to relate it to the you know the leads and the clients We don't put in our marketing. Hey our credit card is required to do business with us even though it is right And we don't put that in there because you talk about that after the lead comes in We'll talk about that when we we start talking about the money We'll start talking about that credit card and that america express that we need, but we're not going to put that in the ad No, absolutely There's a there's a time and applies and there's other things that are involved as well But we'll have that discussion after we get your credit card exactly Exactly Exactly. Yeah, I love that. I love that stuff. So I I love comparing the applications to Leads and clients because it just starts to make so much sense Well as we can't hear you you can't hear you listen You know why because my cat rubs against my microphone and then you can't hear me She doesn't want me to be heard. I guess. All right. I have a question though down um So you were talking about how indeed and facebook both will sort of tell you how many Applicants you can expect from a certain dollar spend, right? So would you say that it's accurate? That if you if for example if indeed is saying for this amount of money You should be able to get 200 applicants if you're only getting 100 would you say that it would be um A smart move then or a smart assumption that you need to change your ad there's a problem with your ad Yes, yes Okay, and so if they are saying you'll you'll get approximately 200 and you are getting 200 Then is my ad Typically going to be okay Would that make sense? Yes, I agree in that sense of you know thinking in that that way I would say that We should always be kind of revolving our ad and making it a little bit better, you know um Like sometimes like for for my company we might do You know sometimes the ad might say solo cleaner, you know, and then sometimes it might say you know the cleaning technician because Some people are typing that in right Um, so I would definitely do some level of a and b testing to see which one's working for you But the key is we have to review that data Right, we have to go back and review. Hey when I posted this one, I got 300 applications in a week Right, what do you do different there? Sometimes we can get about that because we're usually in this recruiting most business owners We're so reactive like every day. I'm talking to people that just don't have Any type of system in place for recruiting Every day I pretty much talk to the same people the same 65 people every day And they tend to watch smart business moves. So they all have systems But one thing they do have in common is even though they're Doing a lot of these things, right? Um, they I think that sometimes they are um They get complacent. It's like, okay. This thing worked. Look, I got 30 applicants, right? I had 30 applications yesterday And now they will not stop doing that thing whatever it was Because it worked they got it got 30 applications You know, that was a fluke sometimes you get to have a fluke and if you haven't gotten 30 applications again in two weeks I'm sorry, but That that's not working right until people get stuck also on one piece of data And it's not about just one piece of data on one day you have to have You have to have more you have to be looking at it over time You have to be wet ready to change with The the tide as things change too agree Absolutely. I'm looking for those trends Yeah, you know, I'm looking for those trends. There was something something weird just a side note I was trying to And I haven't done this in a while Because our retention's gotten better and I'm not going wood while I say that but There's there was this thing where I was trying to figure out in my cleaning company When were people quitting? Like for some reason it all like it And I don't know why but it always seemed as if We were getting we had an understaffed issue around this a particular time each month And I was like, why do I feel this way? Why do I feel like every time the 12 to the 15th comes We're just understaffed around this time like I don't get it, you know So I was trying to figure out those trends and you know, it could have been a scheduling thing Um, it could have it could have been a couple different scenarios, but either or you know, I look for trends in everything Yeah, I love trends Yeah, so and I really like that you're using the data to to mark the trends This is something that came out of tom your last made central event. I know a lot of people loved that They found out where they were actually using losing people So they had it in their head that I can't get people to you know, past a week I can't get people past a month. They can't get people whatever but when they actually looked at the data, they're like, what? I could have sworn It was this other thing and so they're attacking the wrong problem over and over and over again, right? So a lot of people had that experience. So I do like that idea of using the data and solving problems not based on your feelings because what are you going to do with that your feelings? They're so subjective And and what are we doing? Um, you know, what are we doing to really track when when people are leaving right? Are we are we doing those exit interviews? You know, and that doesn't necessarily mean we've got to sit down and talk to them You know, send them a google form and just get some of that data on why some of these people are leaving your company because I can argue and I'll I'll stand on it that The retention portion is actually more important than the recruiting You can figure that out then You know, you're always gonna have to recruit though because you want to be growing so Every people right? So retention's always got to be there and to be clear when you say recruit, you know, don you mentioned earlier? it's like marketing it is marketing and You always want to be marketing your business to consumers Even when you've got a lot of customers You never want to turn off your your marketing machine and same on labor side. Don't you know Don't confuse recruiting with hiring It means that you're hiring people every day, but every day you still want to be recruiting Yeah, you still want to do those interviews and you know, you still want to go through those processes of accepting applications Chick-fil-A does a really cool thing where Every I think they do open interviews once or twice a week I think it's Tuesdays in here in my area It's Tuesdays and Thursdays and they do open interviews and it's every single week. Everybody knows it's open interviews That's part of their process. They're always in recruiting mode And that's the reason why when you pull up to a chick-fil-a They have tons of people to help you. Yeah All right, and one more thing It's not a I hate the conversation of which one should I be working on should I be working on retention or should I be Working on recruiting. Yes both These are not that's kind of like saying which one should I focus on should I focus on eating or should I focus on sleeping? Because Every day every day you have to do both and they're not they're not They're not connected to each other. Don't don't connect them They they both have to be done and they're not even done by the same part of your company The people that are working on Recruiting are not the same people that are working on retention. Yes. If you have good recruiting It'll be easier for the people that are working on retention, right? But It's still that's a different job over there retention is a different job all together. But you would never say, huh Should I work on scheduling or should I work on firing? Yeah Have you ever hired someone and you're like Oh my god, this person's going to be so amazing and you bring them in you hire them and then Someone comes to you out of your teammate. They're like, yeah that person quit You're like what what and you and you got to go back and figure out like what happened It's because it's not the same like everything. I told them Something broke in that chain, you know when they actually got out into the field or whatever that might do In the data that that that you collect do you I mean There's a percentage of that turnover that I believe falls into the uncontrollable thing You know there's they have they have a life changing event It might be their transportation is no longer available or their you know daycare is no longer available or Something happened and they're having to leave the state like today type situation and You know, I don't know maybe with a better interview process You can identify the potential and risk for for those types of things more up front. You know, I don't know but What are your thoughts on that? Yeah, so I would I would say that you know Some of those things you're just not going to be able to control You know as we know it sometimes when people come to us are like, I got to move Tomorrow, I'm like, what you got to go tomorrow. I'm like, yeah, I got to move. I'm moving states tomorrow. I'm like, okay um In those some of those things you're just not going to uncover no matter how many questions and things that you ask But like key things that I look for in the interview process is how many um Sorry, I think my people are running the credit cards. Um I hear money How many people I think when we're when we're when we're interviewing basically How many of those candidates have their life together? You know, like I obviously, you know, when they come to my company I want to be able to you know, level them up in some way I want to be able when they're coming into my organization Hopefully they're going to get paid a little bit more or they got a better shift or There's got to be something that is a is you know, attaching them to my company But I'm not looking for those people that are that are a mess You know, because I can't I can't I can't fix that You know, it's it's hard. It's hard to really fix that and those are usually some of those people that are Next day, they're moving to florida or I got to do this. I can't work You know, you mean the the first thing the first time something goes wrong The first thing you think to do is quit your job. Oh no, I move Yeah, you know, so I'm looking for that more than you know, whether they're going to be a good cleaner You know, that's irrelevant to me really in the interview It's it's more about the job skills and being able to you know being reliable and having More life skills than job skills at that point. I think Right, can you manage their life? Yeah At first, first, can you manage your life? Can you You know what you're going to do about daycare and do you have a vehicle and you do you know how to get up in the morning? On time, do you even know how to get anywhere on time? So there are so many things like that. Do you know what What you need to look like if you're going to a job or do you just show up all You know, Harry's scary. Yeah, you're scarier than Harry I've told you the stories. Liz you've heard them dumb. You probably haven't that back in the late 90s Castlekeepers was a contractor under the welfare to work program and that was a program to help people who I never really had long-term employment and help You know get them to to engage in the workforce and it was all funded through Grant monies to the department of labor and we had case managers that were paid for through the grant their job was to Teach people how to set an alarm clock and how to comb your hair in the morning You know, this is the checkbook how to pay your bills because you know if your power gets cut off You know once so I mean there's a lot to that it is it's it's it's it's what do they call it adulting? it's How about how to function as an adult and Certainly that's not everybody. I mean there's a lot. I mean there's a there's a a wide array of people out there at the job market there's a lot of people through that a long time ago, but We get we get applications from from people That are looking to work for us and some of them need that type of training though. I It's true. Yep, and I'm not saying and because I want to be clear I'm not saying that you know, you can't find really great applicants You know with that right that that may need some of that But they definitely have to be open to learning some of those skills and you know being open to the coaching and Things like that, but we can't change people's complete life. They can't be a mess when we when they start Can't be a complete mess All right, so I'm going to tell you one of my favorite questions. This is a new question that Came up with that. I really love Where do you sit around and think of these things that list? Just while i'm sleeping All right, so I love this question uh, the question is Um, tell me about somebody in your life that always has a lot of drama going on and so The reason why I ask that question is people That have drama filled lives Don't recognize that it's them. What they see is everybody in their life has a lot of drama going on They don't recognize that they're the center spoke right in that wheel So the people that have a lot of drama in their lives The answer to that question is oh my gosh. I know so many people check Oh, that's a that's a really great. Let me it's a great question If they're like, huh Because really if you ask me tell me about the people Tell me about somebody that has a lot of drama in their life. I'm gonna struggle I'm I'm it's gonna be hard for me to actually find someone That is in my circle. I I have one friend That's gonna pop in my mind, but it's just the one friend All right So But I'm not gonna have a really good question of how big your circle how how big you wanted to find your circle It could be What what we've been finding we have been doing it for a long Full disclosure here, but we're what we are finding is the people that are saying they know a lot of people They don't oh, they have so many good examples for us. They're so happy to be able to have a good answer Yep, and it's not a good thing. They're the ones with they're they're the ones with the drama. Yeah Hey, honestly, you know because like if I think about like my circle I don't really communicate with people that have a lot of drama. I I keep it very far away You know, you can't walk without a negative. We have a we have a question um Not not to that extent, but it's um It's what is that? It's very oh like when they're talking about their previous previous employer And you're like, well, you know, why did you leave here? And when they start like Pretty much blaming it all on the other employer. That's very similar like uh, you were the drama there, you know So so yeah, that's good. I love that question. Yeah Everyone's well You you will find somebody they're leaving You know, they are leaving other jobs because the employer is not good But it's their last three jobs the employer was The problem here. Yeah, it's a big red flag So tell us Dom. So we're talked about a lot of kind of theory around recruiting, right? and We keep talking about this theory. I think we've all talked a lot about okay It needs to be you need to treat it like marketing and you are going to have to have to spend money You are going to have to write the ad so it's the right way But there's gotta be some little tricks Right some little or or the hot the hot things that you have to do that are for example One of the new things that we're hearing nowadays is You need to or newer is you need to be putting your ads in all of the smaller cities around where you are instead of just hitting the big cities and And so like that's a new new thing that's going on Do you have any any hot new tips for us if we're struggling in the recruiting game? Yeah, so I'll give I'll give a couple that I just kind of jotted down while you're asking that question So the first thing I would do is in time you kind of already said it is in your job ad only focus on What benefits the applicant right don't focus on any requirements none of that none of that mumbo jumbo needs to be in the Ad right none of that you're saying none of it needs to be in the ad I don't care because Liz The reality is whatever system you're using whether that's ADPs applicant tracking system or whatever even indeed if you're just using indeed You can ask that question in the application. So that's that system should do the work for you You don't have to put that in there. It's irrelevant So I would I would focus on maybe the top five benefits Of why people should work for your company. That's what you focus on in your ad, right? Hey, we're a cleaning company with clean houses. Yeah, that's what we do But hey, we're going to give you a free car. We're going to pay for the gas free lunch and breakfast No work no weekends ever No weekends ever right. Yeah, and you can wear leggings and shorts to work. That's what we talk about Okay, right. So I would that's what I would focus on that's one But wait, did I hear that you get free breakfast and lunch? Yes. Is that every day every day Man, I need to come work there. I'm hungry Oh, it's cheap. It's cheap Liz. Yeah. All right. How do you how do you do that? Tell me how tell me how you do that Well, so so the way that we do it is when they get there in them So our the way our motto is they a lot of our people do come to our offices every day So the way that we do it is our fridge and our kitchen because we have a full kitchen in both of our offices They've got All the breakfast items that you can think of pop stars French toast All that stuff's in there Right and then same thing for lunch So we have everything that you can imagine that you would need to pack and get ready for your lunch for the day And we supply all of these things the lunch bags the the baggies all that stuff is there within our office And we want a designated person that is required to make sure that thing is stopped every single week Okay. All right. So it's not so much that you're so I was thinking along the new the lines of they're not coming to your office every day And so you were sending them breakfast and lunch but you're saying if Have it at your office. They want to come there and they want to pick up their breakfast and their lunch Welcome to it. Come on in So all of our people do come to our office. So that's the reason why we can do it that way But you know, I would stress to say even if you just have your people going directly to job site There's still a way that you can make that happen, you know I mean even if you even if a person was because like sometimes what we'll do is we'll give our teams Some of our company cards and we'll say hey go anywhere you want today for lunch and you know it's on us, right? But if you think about that how much is that like if we were to go to Taco Bell every single day What are we talking seven or ten dollars? I don't know where 12 bucks a person at least minimum Where are you at? Liz? Olympia Okay, yeah Probably so like when I go to other places and and they don't have like a A dollar menu at mcdonald's. I always get concerned. Yeah So yeah, well I'm not even to open if they're not if they don't have staff I Do what either or you'd have to figure out like some of the like really cool things that stand out I get your point. I I do like I love that you have figured out a way to do that because you're right It stands out in the ad Right. I have a free breakfast and lunch every day. That's gonna stand out in an ad and nobody else Not nobody but very few other companies even want to do that. Yeah, they're like I don't want to do that So I love it. I love anything like that where other companies are like, I don't even want to do that I don't want to think about it. Yeah, that's a win. Yeah, you don't have to compete with those people Mm-hmm. So another thing that that I think that you have to what was the question again because you said like that We're like, what are some like, uh, Hacks That we all know that we could use that are are recruiting Okay, so you got to be uh, texting your applications your applicants That's something that you that you have to be doing. It's a non-negotiable You have to do that. Um So if you're not doing that get you get you something that that's gonna make the number one thing to do start there Gotcha Um, another hack that we've recently started is we're interviewing everyone and we're doing that by utilizing digital interviews So we're sending them a one-way interview to all of our applicants and they're able to Complete that interview without us ever being there and then that interview comes back in and we can review that on our own time Oh, cool All right. Well, so that's a that's another uh, little tip that you can yeah, that's awesome You know And is that because of your your company does that dom? Should we put the link in here so everybody can Can yeah, we'll we'll put we'll put the link and it's it's called get higher who.com. That's a very Yeah, that that one works to come but get get higher who.com. I just put it in there Um, but um, so yeah, we offer that lis we offer the digital interviews. It's a newer feature for us Yeah, but there's other companies out there that offer that it's not it's not the newest concept But it works. Look if you have something for that Um, it's a really really good Um option for people. Okay um The other thing that I would say that's a that's another uh tip is you got to have an amazing referral system So I have saw so many so much content over the past couple months about people having these amazing Referral systems like I've seen some businesses saying that they're paying people Literally $200 a month as long as they stay with the company and the person they refer stays with the company Oh So they get 200 bucks every month that the uh new employee stays. Okay. Yeah, that's that's you know I've seen something that do 150 or whatever But even if you think about that, you know If if you referred me someone that was really good And you stayed and that other person stayed I might pay you $100 a month to keep both of you guys Yeah, and not and not have a retention issue with with those two employees Well, not us but somebody who was actually But but no you you get what I'm saying and like they they're they're even doing a thing where They're saying hey, we'll even allow you to to bring multiple people You know, hey if if you bring three and those three are staying and they're good valuable employees Hey, we'll pay you down $300 a month $100 each person, right for a certain amount of time And now that's extra income for that employee, right? Okay, I love it. This is this is a new little hack. I like it now Let me see what else here I got on my list five minutes at some mass digital interviews referral Liz, I don't know if I got any anymore immediate actions that are going to be that quick and easy to implement Actually, I feel like those are that's good. You gave us four right there. So I feel like that is um Good stuff to get people started a lot of times we give people too many things too, you know, you give a list of 20 and they're like Are I don't know what to do and they just you know, click out and they're done So I like these I think that you gave us some Some that can actually work and they're not the same ones that we keep hearing over and over and over again Right. So that's great one thing that you said that was interesting is about the emojis in the titles, right? So, you know, the emojis in the titles is was so hot for so long That's like little fires or little hearts or whatever But I think what I heard from you is maybe maybe pull back from the emojis a little bit Okay, so It depends on which platform Okay, because if you look on my facebook, you're going to see emojis in my job app It's a social media platform. Yeah sense, right? But on indeed i'm not sure that's the best approach Okay Because when they're searching for the jobs is that getting in the way Of your job ranking higher than some of the other places, right? um And then the other thing is I do use emojis in the texting follow-up Okay, because again, we're we're now in the tech that's on brain with texting So So i'm just saying don't go don't get excessive with it to where now your ad look gimmicky Okay, let's keep in mind. Here's the thing the number one thing that is a struggle between my local cleaning company in amazon Is reputation? Is am I going to pay you? You know like that's a whole thing. Am I going to pay you on time week after week after week? So you can't give any type of you know Impression that you're not a legit company and that you're you're you're a serious business Right, so and I can see what you mean I'm picturing an ad in my head right now That is just like completely full and it's an indeed ad completely full of emojis And you're right my impression of this company is that it is owner operated Which is not not necessarily a bad thing, right, but owner operated smaller Um, maybe working out of their house. I'm not going to yeah, I'm not going to get benefits there I'm you know, it's it's a smaller company. Maybe I get a paycheck on friday. Maybe that Do it Yeah And that probably is probably gonna be more old school. I'm probably i'm gonna get a paycheck I'm probably not going to get direct deposit Yeah You know You're right. There is nothing wrong with that. That's how most of us started right when I did interviews It was in Panera bread and starbucks at first, but again Those were hurdles that you had to eventually overcome So all I'm saying is don't let the emojis and stuff turn into actual hurdles rather than you know Benefiting you. Yeah Some hurdles some hurdles are just there and you've got to deal with them Don't create hurdles for yourself that don't have to do Don't ruin your own There's another thing that I'll add to something that you can immediately implement as well is um follow-up Okay, so pre-covid Tom I would probably never ask someone twice to schedule their own interview I would I ask you one time. You don't want to do you don't want to schedule that interview I'm gone. You're rejected. You're just follow-up. They basically De-selected them. So oh, oh, yeah, we're we're sending people We're sending people follow-up messages three four five times. Hey, don't leave me hanging. Don't forget about me, right? We're doing those things now because we're getting a little bit more creative and and if you think about if you put yourself in the Uh applicants shoes There's so many options out there right now. You got to stand out. Yeah You know, so if if you're texting that person On the moment they fill out the application and then you know two days later You're like, hey, I see you didn't fill out that that uh, you didn't complete that interview or set up that interview Make sure you get that into me if you really want to talk talk about our opportunity here, right? I'm just doing that follow-up. So That's something huge that we're we're testing out and trying out for our clean Uh One uh, we've got about five minutes left. Um Certainly recruiting is a big part of it. Um, once we have candidates being able to take those candidates and Turn the appropriate ones the right ones into successful Employees I guess as part of what we're talking about here as well. Isn't that uh kind of where hire who steps in Yeah, so what we do At hire who is we we practically help people get their hiring system on point That's really what it is. We can help you streamline Organize your hiring system and really, you know, put your system on a Visual so like if you are truly trying to grow and scale your company Um, you know, you can you can put that on paper per se, right? It's on a computer but on paper and you can make sure that that system being followed every single time One of the things I like to tell people Hire who's not for the people that have it's a two to three man operation. That's not what it is We're really built for those people that need to build a system because they're recruiting all of the time Right and you're trying to scale your company and you're trying to plug your operations manager in there Or you're trying to plug your your hiring manager in there to really be able to filter those people out That's what we're built for Um, and that's what we do so Um, I hear I have heard this and I think I heard this from Megan likes. I'm not sure I know she loves you to bits and so she's always singing your phrases. Um, but Ah, and actually it might not have been her somebody said that hire who is not the same as The name another recruiting company any other recruiting company Because they do something after the recruiting process That is a little bit different. They take it further. They take it they don't just they're they're not like you guys are not about writing the ads and and Just the recruiting part part. You're also you take it further into the actual hiring. Is that correct or how like Where's the off hoodie higher for what? No for sure. You're right. So some of our I mean some some calling competitors, but you know, we're in the same space. We're all doing a lot of different things But you know a lot of those places will focus on you know getting your job ad right and really getting the leads in per se Getting those applicants in we're more built for okay. Hey when someone actually applies What are you going to do with them? Okay Yeah, and that's the most important part I said, you know, like it really is like, you know, there's there's people that are getting hundreds of applications But they're not even reaching out to them. We're they're paying tons of money for those applicants And if they want to throw money tom if they want to throw money just give it to me. I love the money Yeah, you don't have to spend nearly as much on the recruiting if you've got a good tool that can take the candidates and turn them into to You know gainfully employed technicians. Yep Yep All right, so where does hire who stopped working? as once the person is hired or So we now have a integration with zap zap here and You know, you can now connect your applicant tracking system hire who with whichever, you know HR tool that you're using so You can't do gusto gusto hasn't opened up or whatever late. Let's say bamboo HR. That's a popular one You can now connect that so now when you move someone to the hired stage you want to bring them on You can now implement some things where now it sends them their onboarding documents and whatnot So we stop when when you want to hire that person that's really when hire who should stop at that point Okay, gotcha. So as soon as you hire them now, it's clicked over to somebody else But you got you've you've picked the candidate hire who helps you Get all of those applicants turned into someone you want to hire Yep And it really lives to just just so I end it with this Yeah, the reason why we we did the uh the zap integration is because we want people to be able to like really Trips this thing out. I mean there's people doing some amazing stuff like like some crazy things that I'm not even thinking of like Man, I can't believe you thought of that So, you know, we want them to you know, put it with different applications and just make it as powerful as possible for their business because the truth is Everyone's hiring system does not look the same, you know, like, you know, tom How many you all multiple businesses lives you all multiple businesses So you guys are probably not in your hiring process every single day But some businesses are so everyone's hiring process looks completely different for for the business that they have, you know, right but the point is Especially in 2022 with the labor market the way it is and you're recruiting Dollars that you have to invest you really need a applicant tracking system some type of system that can take your leads and turn them into employees You do you do and they can't afford to just Just wait for it to happen. It's not going to happen people are not just going to start walking in I mean, it's true 10 years ago, right people just walked into your office and asked for a job That's not happening anymore It's not it's not Well, we are at the top of the hour. Where do the hour go? I don't know It happens when it's like a topic that's really timely like this And everybody's concerned about this issue right now. We're all working on it. Hopefully Yeah Tom, thank you for joining us. Yeah, I appreciate it Thank you Don. We really appreciate it too Appreciate the tips too for everybody that didn't get them Hit go back watch that video. You're gonna see all the hot hacks Are you gonna be joining us in may fun? You coming to june june, right or july july? Okay, here's all of that. Awesome. Yeah, I kept I kept like delaying and then I'm like, oh I want to do it and then it was sold out for may so then I did then that's when you post with july I'm not let me just do it All right, everybody that doesn't know what he's talking about. He is talking about the main central user Event you call the experience still come or I don't know what we're calling it. That'll be an experience I call it the experience main central user experience. I like that and it is uh experience so In july, what are the dates tom the 25th and 26th? I guess 26 it's um 26 and 27 Yeah, 26 and 27. Okay. Oh, that's right because my event is the 28 29th and 30th So the employee life cycle event All right, we will be back next uh, wednesday five o'clock easter. We'll be doing it again Well, Liz are you doing anything between now and then? I'm going to lake shalean and I'll be working between now and then Okay